1. If the tumult of war narrows for my steps,
And destruction terrifies and skulls fall upon skulls,

2. Ask death about me, for it attests
That I am steadfast in plunging into battle.

3. Protector of the faith, how many gifts have I
Girded around my neck, like necklaces of doves,

4. Devotion has willingly worshipped me,
For there is tenderness in devotion for the noble.

5. So my ancestry has become affiliated with your affection
While I am a glory-bound knight.

6. Don’t you know that my affiliation with you
Has made all who wish me evil targets for my arrows?

7. Were it not for you, my sharp sword
Would not have excused the unsheathing of swords.

8. But I feared for you the fire of enemies
So I was the extinguisher of burning coals.

9. The merit is yours, above all creation, and the glories,
So who is like Hatim? He did not attain such pride as Hatim!

10. You have arrived, so you have made people needless of life,
And you have reached, so your swords have frightened the brave.

11. You have found the Epoch’s stinginess in giving, where can its
Generous clouds that pour forth profusely be found?

12. You have pledged to protect Islam, you who forbid
And demolish what ignorance permits and destroys.

13. So you came to shepherd its flock with steadfast resolve
Whose limits the resolute could not reach.

14. And you supported it with justice, generosity and piety,
With rebuilding the ruins - and good deeds are its pillars.

15. It is justice that eliminates all injustice, and its generosity
Is generosity that completes whatever the signets protect.

16. You have cast the enemies into the heat of battle,
Driving destruction, which is bent on driving them.

17.
Like the torrential flood, the vastness was too narrow for it,

18. And for the enemies, its watering places were too narrow.
From it, burning coals of pitch carry the like of it

19. Of death to the wicked, hostile, accursed enemy.
Armies like the waves of a dark, tumultuous sea

20. With stars sinking and setting into it.
Flocks of birds fly above its armies

21. Having feasts from its enemies every day.
When the horsemen lower themselves to stab in the fray,

22. Their spears plunge upon them like destructive fate.
Above Ghazza, a cloud of death looms over them,

23. With blood and skulls accumulating above it.
For flesh-rending there are clouds, and the swords lightning,

24. And for blood, pools, and vegetation, skulls.

25. From it come coals of deliverance, not rain hoped for,
Evils that do not water the epoch but make it thirsty.

26. So there is no refuge for one who hopes except your pardon,
Nor protection for a disobeyer unless he turns to you in repentance.

27. You have renounced the wealth of those you fight
So the divisions were confused between the armies.

28. Rather, your plunder is souls carried by the morning clouds
And the summit of power and the countries are spoils.

29. So there is no pasture unless it is watered by blood,
No meadows but they are divided among the victors.

30. Your sword is an adversary to the stubborn enemy
And your justice a judge for complaints and tyranny.

31. You have mixed power with justice until the black nights
And marauding owls have become friendly.

32. The father of military raids launches raids of his generosity
Upon his wealth - and he is the obedient Muslim.

33. And he sends them out disheveled, as if they were
The wolves of desolation preying, despite the watchmen.

34. They blaze upon the polytheists’ land as if they are
Hunting dogs unleashed upon the deer and antelope.

35. So woe to the enemy from their evil! They only crept
To them while they were unaware, degrading and destroying them.

36. They are islands for the plunder and the plunder bloodstained,
Captives led away while the landmarks are erased.

37. You have raided them in their land and country
While their regiments are crowded together in this land.

38. You have destroyed them, killing and capturing them entirely,
So their survivors are surrendering or have submitted.

39. When your swords annihilated them and injustice
And tyranny disappeared from the land,

40. You raided them at sea, until it was as if
There were no fleets in it, with the waves clashing.

41. With horsemen of the sea, above the ships, as if they were
Birds fixed over the water that have no heels.

42. Its knights maneuver them with tall poles
That drove them where no complaints could reach.

43. Whenever they repelled them, it was as if the knights
Of a raid galloped upon steeds that have no legs.

44. They lead the Frankish fleets to them
As if they are pigeons and birds for the Franks to prey upon.

45. Their blood in the sea is red torrents,
And their livers on land are pallid, defenses severed.

46. So no fugitive escaped into a crevice of the earth,
Nor did a swimmer survive in a sea depth.

47. The captives returned one behind the other while their ships
Were led like camel litters that the camel driver ties together.

48. The two sovereigns in Allah have girded themselves
To seek His pleasure with resolve no tribulations could weaken.

49. With serious effort - the sword alone is the blade -
To decide the enmity of enemies and unbelief.

50. And they stood for the victory of the faith while Allah is standing
To grant them victory as long as the sword remains standing.

51. Nothing but resolute determination will destroy the Franks and open
The land - unless the resolute purpose accomplishes it.

52. O king, may Allah praise his effort
And intention, and Allah knows the secret.

53. Softly praise yourself, as praise whose diffusion has encompassed the land
Is the perfume, not what the containers have hoarded.

54. Praise which the talented praise and the transmitters recite poetry to,
And the doves in the branches sing along to.

55. It goes along with travelers wherever they head,
As if charging in the living one’s valley.

56. O leader of armies, hear the words of a sorrowful one
Expressing thanks to you, like one who suppresses it.

57. By your grace he has truthfully confessed that his mind
To one disobedient to you is unable to compose like one who composes.

58. It is as if the marvels of his poetry’s composition and eloquence
Are letters of illumination while sorrows are embers.

59. It is as if he is deaf in endurance and hardness
As time wounds in his heart yet he suppresses it.

60. So he does not know complaint or feel weak before
Misfortunes, nor do the greatest weaken his strength.

61. Had he been an easily discouraged Suhban, his tongue
Would have expressed differently - but such are resolves confirmed by Allah.

62. It is sorcery, not what has endured from Babylon’s land,
It is pearls, not what the composers have strung together.

63. The epoch’s unique one, for whom hearts vie
And in hearing which there is crowding.

64. If recited in an assembly, a listener would say:
“Are these magical spells or amulets and talismans?”

65. Were it not for hoping for the righteous sovereign, who
The fickle epoch endures with his state,

66. And that I wish myself the pleasure of kissing his cheeks,
Which none before me who rose to the clouds attained,

67. For in that are perishing blows for the enemies,
And in it seas of gifts more tumultuous than seas.

68. Take my gratitude’s camel to his door,
Where hopes of wealth are tied, and it rules them.

69. And people will wonder at me until one who sees me says:
“Adam has returned to the gardens.”

70. I have spent my distant exile in regret,
And it is no surprise if one who dies of anxiety is regretful.

71. The daughter of deep thought, sorrow, has come to you,
And she travels like the moon while the night is dark.

72. With marvelous praise of a sovereign worthy of praise
Who merits the boiling of the soma offered in sacrifice.

73. She marks the beautiful opinion, not wealth, for he
Is generous to it in what virtues have decreed.

74. Its blossoming meadow contains praise of your glorious
Sublimity, and the pages of the book are like minarets.