1. The one who shares sorrows and whose cares are evident,
Whose soul speaks of grief, and whose eyelids express his state,

2. With my spirit I would ransom the loved one who began
To draw upon my cheek the line of his countenance.

3. Returning against the sleep of creation, plundering,
Heavy of eyelid and tooth.

4. He protects the garden of the meadow in his cheek
And veils its pools with his chin hair.

5. Alas for the cheek that told of a paradise
While its stubble betrayed hell in its blackness!

6. He has become a refuge from my playfulness, and still
His allurements wound my enamored heart.

7. O you who promised from afar to return,
Your separation is enough of promises!

8. My inner gardens bear fruit while he
Has plucked the fruit of seeing you.

9. Do not blame your eye that does not see him,
Nor your ear that does not hear his moan.

10. He is ignorant in his blame, so leave him
To freely loose his rebuke.

11.
Why conceal from the heart its clarity?

12. For its fires have been extinguished.
My heart, you have turned away, but hiding

13. Will not protect you from the fire.
If my sorrow flows from her pleasure,

14. Then so too do my heart′s joys flow from my sorrow.
And I have settled neighbors in my heart,

15. So it left and took its dwellers away.
The enamored one has lost his place among them

16. And his means of attaining it.
If the servant of passion calls for tears,

17. At once his tears flow as pearls.
So his heart lodges in Egypt,

18. While his body rests in the farthest parts of Syria.
The Nile chokes him with tears of grief,

19. And memories of him sweeten Aleppo.
Age has whitened the hair of his devotion,

20. As monastery and devotional practices made him old.
Where the Zephyr gallops its steeds,

21. And its horsemen hunt the Arabs.
From every dewy meadow I have longed for him

22. Before his homelands longed for him.
I have initiated his mention, so strange for one

23. Who begins his building with what comes last!
For the eloquence of one whose mention is beauty,

24. And whose favor is the loftiness of faith.
I am the prince of poetry in describing him

25. And praising him―his collected works are proof.
My hands have gained the dew of Beneficence

26. Grasping his oath and covenant.
Possessor of mystery and righteousness―excellent indeed

27. Are his secrets and his proclamations.
The most high climbs to the pinnacle, living by

28. His book at the summit like Mount Qaf.
His rank in the horizon outweighs others

29. Before the scales have even been set.
Glory for religion and worldly life―years

30. Whose titles express their contents.
Blessed are those singing his praises with dew,

31. And God′s favors and good pleasure are upon them.
Poetry for you is a kingdom you conquer,

32. While for others it remains their demon.
By his promise of generous mention,

33. Even if, when fulfilled, it is forgotten.
As if the sea is tranquil for him

34. While these rivers are its tumultuous waves.
As if his words are a garden,

35. And these collections are its singing birds.
The meadows of dominion have thrived since

36. The branches were shaken by his pens.
People were adorned by his favors,

37. And so their songs returned in praise.
Subtleties of the perfectly proportioned house

38. Whose pillars are the subtleties of hopes.
All who submitted to his patronage,

39. And all who are gifted panegyrists in his praise.
A group who in generosity are its clouds,

40. And in the darkness of crisis its meteors.
To the eloquent youth their superiority comes back,

41. The variety of excellence and its arts.

42. From a life of spiritual light and sublimity
To the family of demonstrative proof.

43. You who have the two lights―who is the former, and latter:
Are you Ali, or are you Uthman?

44. O you who laid the foundations of the beautiful, well-proportioned House
Upon piety!

45. O you alone in your eloquence, transcendent in it,
Aloft in either state, gliding.

46. O you whose sound opinion is piercing,
Made effective by auspicious authority!

47. O you with glorious mirage, flashing brightly,
While the depths of earth sink down!

48. The sweet, eloquent gatherings of Revival and Guidance―
His delightful sermon and exhortations.

49. In your white hand on the day of turmoil
The serpents of terrors coil themselves up.

50.
And in generosity, O Noah of the life of sublimity,

51. Its flood destroys all property.
Withered in body yet verdant in righteousness or prosperity―

52. Wherever he turns, flourishing.
When faced with him on the day of crisis, none

53. Donned his coat of mail―only their shrouds!
Had he not opened his eyes disdainfully,

54. They would not have closed before the sword.
Had he not freely spoken his eloquence,

55. The deaf would not have turned resolutely aside.
Had he not lent his essence to its transcription,

56. His diadems would not have bloomed with praise.
O you with awesome, boundless majesty,

57. Where hopes wander searching for you!
O you of kindness and gentleness―no

58. Breeze of bliss, no open space!
My master, the plea of one brought low

59. Whom time and enmity have seduced:
Loss in Damascus left him penniless after wealth,

60. And bore the wretchedness of separation.
He parted from children, family―but did not

61. Endure the lamentations of estrangement.
The poor man is far from his homelands,

62. While the rich man′s homelands are far from him.
None but you relieved his destitution,

63. And, God forbid, deprivation hurried him on.
For time has but one color to it,

64. Now ease, now the people′s pains.
May your cup overflow, O most generous one,

65. Hastening to answer the caller abased!
Before you lies the recompense you take

66. Quickly―your openhandedness rushes ahead.
This and the sea came with its pearls,