1. What care has the thirsty gazelle for his life
After gray hair has marred his youth

2. Passionate with love, though any doe may shy away
The dark nights weaned his fawn and dam

3. Whenever it was said he forgot about a girl
Love returned so he sought out a new darling

4. No blame to one who disobeyed advice in love
Had he disobeyed anyone else’s prohibitions against me

5. By my father whose glances have faded
The gazelle tried to compare himself but failed

6. The swordsman of beauty, if he sings and sways
Unsheathes his sword and shakes his spear

7. For the eyes of maidens, his cheeks are roses
Long has the night watchman punished their gardens

8. Cupbearer of respite, when he met him
We did not lack that meeting and his pouring

9. Give me my cup, though I may falter drunk
Do not blame me if I say “give it here”

10. I am a branch, if abandoned by irrigators
I fear my death will come

11. The loyalty of the sincere raised me up
And revived the memory of my ancestors, spreading my growth

12. Blessed is the imam of eloquence and merit
Who propagated remembrance through the land, his callers

13. A composer complains of al-Walid’s palaces
Where his transmitters recite his verses

14. Of people who, when valor was determined and passionate
Were its pillars and defenders

15. If praise was proclaimed they were its sons
If pride was proclaimed they were its daughters

16. They demolished and the unique, virtuous one perished
Whether fate extends or misfortunes repeat

17. We do not praise time except for its rotation
Or the heavenly spheres except for their circuit

18. The science of poetry traveled seeking a pilgrimage
So the door of its merit became its destination

19. Sometimes called from Hama, sometimes
He hastens praise to himself, his neighbors

20. O benefit of existence, pearls of a sea
Whose sweetness and freshness the taste discerns

21. May the servant reach through your poetry, secret
Of his loved ones, and avoid their harm

22. The wine is pure, though for the lover
Its bitterness has often been his spite

23. What fault in the concealer of his prosody
From you, and who can guide rocks to its summit?

24. Leave this and enjoy the gate of a just king
Whose fairness and gifts are widespread

25. If we sought his equal from time
We would be like the seeker of gifts

26. We married Hama, bounty of his hands
So we all came to love our mother-in-law