1. Do you see the ardent lover remaining faithful to his vow
Or have the days changed him after me?

2. Does the procrastinator of my debt, acquainted with passion
Know what I have poured into his love of passion?

3. When the shining eyes of the beloved are slow to appear
It is best that debts should be discharged from afar

4. Oh, would that I knew! Did you spend a night
While I am not consoled by the absence of the beloved as promised?

5. Is there a way when hopes are disabled
To the trysting-place in the sands whose period with me was long?

6. Are there nights of my youth whose companionship
I drag the train of unemployment and refusal?

7. Days of union - all of them bringers of loving companionship
And my past time - all of it the season of devotion

8. I allowed my tears to wander the dwellings
Questioning the vestiges of passion, if questioning could avail

9. I was miserly lest its knots should be loosed
Upon a dwelling, were it not for the lady of the knot

10. I did not weep over a Hind's ruins, drawing near,
By her side; but I wept over Hind

11. So to you whose eye's setting brings about
A setting upon a cheek from the tears of down

12. Upon the heart does every eye reap with its glance
While my eye reaped upon my heart and my cheek

13. Gently, then, with a solitary eye in the hand of passion
With its sorrows, O doe of the unique banner

14. My promise to the entrails roasted by passion awaits
A yearning for what is in your cool hollows

15. It tasks the healer of Iraq with his cure
And he knows that well-being lies in my Najd

16. The specter of a daydream has come to cheer my bed
With the roseate forearms and rosy cheek

17. It pained, then healed my heart from the anguish of love
And captivated me from my passion and fervor

18. It went round about my saddlecloth returning to and visiting me
So it exceeded in the false union more than the estrangement

19. I swayed my shoulder to it in yearning and impulse
As the Caliph swayed his shoulder to praise

20. So many a hand to the specter - no, to Ahmad - not
The Imam Abu al-Abbas - is obligated to me

21. O brother of justice - the community has become in him alone
And I, in my praising him, am a community alone

22. His pardon is mine, from his kindness and gifts
And no wonder if I exhaust my utmost in praising him

23. An Imam fearing God secretly and openly
And harboring the fear of God in [times of] peace and conflict

24. From his grandfather the Mansur his grandsire derives
So cease from a fortunate lineage and grandsire!

25. He distinguishes between what is between skulls and foreheads
And conjoins sympathizer and lion foe

26. The fringes of the lofty places know his tribulation
Terrifying and the bare tops of al-Muṭahhamah

27. He prepares for subjugating the foe every sharp soft-hided one
[Straight and] proportionate in stature, steady of hand

28. With a frontal gleam like water flowing is his burnishing
And smooth-rubbed blades like solid rock

29. With these he takes flight before the encounter
In awe, and how wondrous that the sword cuts while sheathed!

30. To him belongs the seal-ring of Ahmad the Chosen seal
Of prophethood, inherited along with sword and chill night

31. The bird of the caliphate did not cease hovering over him
As the thirsty dove hovers over the myrtle

32. So the matter inclined unto his command, while determination
Shrank without exhaustion or toil

33. He rose to fend off grave affairs with his mighty
Arm, vigorous in repelling matters of great import

34. He upholds God's ordinances without watchman
With a drawn, well-honed, Indian blade

35. With them are wild cows' forearms like gardens
Their tall ones like spear-points fixed in the ground

36. Winds from his wrath rain upon the enemy
Showers of arrows from seasoned bows twisted back

37. Say to the kings of earth: obey his command
And waver not, straying from the goal

38. Conceal not disobedience of your Imam's decree
Opposing him, for disobedience destroys

39. Obey him whether freeman or slave, for he
Is the deputy of an envoy to freeman and slave

40. Trust not in his pardon to strike you
With a terrible blow - water and fire in his power

41. Unto the victorious son of the luminous morning our she-camels bore us
Not grazing at pasture, nor contending with other mounts at the water-spring

42. She-camels that were not roped for guests yet did not
Crave gifts from other than the Caliph for their provender

43. So they arrived at the abode of security and plenty, pasturing
In the meadows of munificence and bounty from the theater of glory

44. Not a pregnant she-camel whose sack swells, promising
Fertility, truthful of promise

45. Driving the sand-grouse before her visage
To one glowering, frowning of face, dust-covered,

46. When the breeze inclines them, swaying,
You see the smile of lightning in the roar of thunder

47. They flow upon the ridge of the hill, hastening down
To the hollow until the sandgrouse overtakes the ostrich

48. Attaining more abundant than the Caliph's palm
When his favors are abundant with delegations

49. So hear, Commander of the Faithful, my free-born she-camels
When they claim lineage, excelling in ancestry

50. Chosen by a servant for praising you, conceded
Extemporizing, disposed to sport and earnestness

51. Who comes and goes, scheming his loyalty
Having no fatigue save praising you

52. He makes your foes drink a draught that he seasons for them
With words of praise for you sweeter than honey

53. You see them sticks among the spittle when they hear it
And it seethes up in foam

54. So glance at them and they will appear nooses
Upon them the marks of good fortune and purpose

55. No arrow of fortune missed one at whom you glanced
Drawing near, with the auspicious planet in ascendance

56. Still you cast a shade upon the earth, ample
Far-reaching, and of age coextensive with time