1. The watchmen stayed up all night long watching over you
A night sweeter to them than sleep

2. So when do I try to be heedless while they intend
To sell sleep for the pleasure of vigilance

3. And when does my blamer shorten his hopes
In the bitterness of your remembrance, always hopeful

4. I swear by the charm of your cheek that it
Is like ants in the eyes of the poets

5. And your eyelids that roam the world
And say “There is no blame on the weak”

6. I like the way my blamers combine
Names for me and you

7. And separations are sweet to me, knowing that
What I encounter from separations pleases you

8. And the melody of union excites me, so whenever
Agate is mentioned, I weep it with my blood

9. Days where I don’t desire to meet you as much as
You desire the intensity of my longing and meeting

10. Intertwined with embracing and loyalty
In love the water mixes with lightning

11. If days wanted to reconcile some of us
It wouldn’t know which of us is more passionate

12. A connection I stayed up late for you to enjoy
And stayed up after it in misery

13. O eyelids, I don’t see you know who my beloved is
So why do you complain of his bitter separation

14. They were nights of pleasure but diminished
At the hands of separation like snakes shrinking

15. And dwellings at the foothills whose shape was changed
By the tears of lovers and lamentations

16. There is nothing left for me but to inhale its breeze
Oh the agony of one content with just air

17. Like a hopeful wishing for the comfort of a generous one
Leaving the most generous of ministers

18. The honorable companion, lofty in renown and glory
Valued despite the envious wicked people

19. An early riser that appeared like the sun on the horizon
So the people of the highlands dispersed like dust

20. Of high status, his abode being where his star appeared
Lofty in ascent like the sky

21. The clouds are not more splendid, flashing lightning
Than his arms on the banner

22. No, by He who exalted and raised his glory
Until it surpassed the forehead of Aldebaran

23. No fault in his blessings except that they
Distract from homelands and kin

24. Tempting despite blamers and enemies
By scattering wealth and gaining praise

25. His hands do not settle on his money
As if he is swimming in water

26. His qualities combined praise just as
My eloquent father combined letters of condemnation

27. And he was uniquely generous even if the enemies said
“The clouds are equal to him”

28. And he preceded in every honorable assembly
Like beginning with “In the name of God” precedes names

29. Honor with good qualities known
On the day of hardship with bearing burdens

30. He withstands the words of blamers
Like a torrent twisting its course with twigs

31. And sublime ranks that upset the heavens in their loftiness
So it was nicknamed “itchy” out of spite

32. A wonder that he lets the bandits remain under it
While its attainment is like an extinguished wick

33. How many states did it build with its wealth
And without counting how many it was generous to

34. And how much its management excelled over a homeland
Filled with ruin—ask the courtyard of pre-dawn glow

35. If not for you in Aleppo, it would have lost
Its milk and the villages near it would toil

36. O you who sufficed worries and difficulties retreated
To the master of the most competent

37. You are the one who brought poetry back to life though it
Was often on the verge of fading away

38. Amongst people who refused a questioner’s request
When even rock responds with echoes

39. Woe to the poets who are in a state that provokes
The gloating of enemies

40. They dove into seas of poetry but they
Made faces leak from the water

41. Until when they resorted to you, you sufficed them
With passion and said the greatest humiliations

42. They thought asking was cunning while I was the one
Whose hands were deceived by the sights of scholars

43. Give them their wages and you gave enjoyments
Worlds apart between art and eternity

44. Thanks to your favor which is the livelihood of my life
And your call which answers the sound of my call

45. After time became inflamed with my mind
You held it back and restored my impairments to health

46. And you reached smoothly what calculation’s sea
Knew from its fingers' loyalty

47. So enjoy what your hands have built and stay
Praised through the bitterness of time

48. And frustrate the stars in eternity as you
Frustrated them in splendor and loftiness