1. What excellence do I conceal that does not shine?
How many rhymes do I compose as they throng!

2. How many nights do I court though they reproach me,
And how many days frown at me while I smile!

3. Misfortunes do not make me deaf by their arrows,
Shooting at me - yet they make me deaf, I do not resist.

4. My youth has turned hoary, though your colour is still fresh.
Youthfulness in other than the exalted is decrepitude.

5. To every day belongs a friend I do not abandon,
And a firm bond from a beloved whose home I covet.

6. O heart, why do you not forget love or sorrow?
Does absence and remoteness of passion not make you forget?

7. Once you wept and the people of the quarter were riven,
Why weep now when these people are united?

8. The sweetness of saliva still keeps me from tasting it
Though my cure were its pure drink.

9. She gestures with reddened fingers, and he who is infatuated by her
Thinks they are anemones - but on those fingers, the adornment is blood.

10. She has grudged me trysts though I asked not for them,
So I have been visited by dreams of her without appointment.

11. I spend the night complaining of the misery of passion, though my
Plaint profits me naught and sickness hides her form from me.

12. So I gained of her union what I had hoped for
After distance made its days sweet like a dream.

13. O you who seek generosity, complaining of the remoteness of his quest
While the delicate features of her visage complain!

14. Gallop with your excellent steed to visit her,
Blessed of countenance; in her fragrance find delight!

15. Supported of purpose, of the victorious house of Muẓaffar -
Maḥmūd, beloved of all creatures - oaths are kept with him.

16. Open of hand, long of arm, never troubled
If asked for succour, nor fatigued.

17. In every quarter are signs of his generosity,
In every land his munificence has set its mark.

18. The might of his arm makes craven enemies' hearts quail with fear
And they shiver when his name is pronounced.

19. No lofty fort nor Indian blade can turn back his resolve.
The proud neck of his foe submits, without objection or breach.

20. When the hearts of traitorous foes disobey him,
His sword severs their necks and vile souls.

21. The burden of religion's glory weighs down his spirit,
A load under which even the stoutest spirits would break.

22. Neither singing slave-girls nor strings distract his thoughts -
No garden, maiden's down, curve of a line her waist describes.

23. Spring has traced its light in her beauty,
And the fat of her hips weighs down their valley.

24. On her flanks, the dimples of her cheeks laugh,
While tears of sadness harmonize.

25. One day, in most fragrant company of his elect -
beautiful they, but more so when he smiles!

26. From his family pavilion flows the water of life,
And generosity pours from his embrace.

27. O sons of Raqīl! For every glory, you have a hand,
For every splendid honour, a foot advanced.

28. The bracelets of kingship are yours from Chosroes’ treasury,
Its seal, its crown, the sword and the pen.

29. I have pinned my hopes on you with confidence
Of success, when all mankind I tested.

30. But oh, how I was deluded by their boundlessness
When I tested generous and mean alike!

31. When for them I desired panegyric, the rhymes refused me,
Yet for you they march in order and arrange themselves.

32. Abu'l Futuh, don the spotless garment -
None like it has been opened for kings before!

33. It is no match for what your hand bestows -
For thoughts of its like are sterile.

34. How can praise reach its goal in you
When what I have aimed at is endless?

35. Or how can I thank the gifts you have bestowed
When acceptance of my thanks itself is a boon?

36. Why should I thirst when this sea lies before me,
Its billows surging and colliding?

37. Before it cavalry and steeds are driven back,
So that those who wish may drink and obtain bounty.

38. O you for whom no obstacle impedes munificence -
A rumbling cloud, pouring heavy rain!

39. Does no pregnant cloud grace a land that has become
Barren and desolate, with sweet wholesome rain?

40. Long have I herded wishes, and the fold -
As you know - requires herding, even if sour.

41. If I succeed, patience brings fair consequence;
If effort fails, I say: “Sustenance is apportioned."