1. A specter I hunted, in the tangled night,
Of shooting stars or of plaited hair.

2. Between the curls she walks in her snares,
Either a lovely gazelle or evil company.

3. I wonder at the blamer unveiling the moon,
The sun from it stains the walls.

4. Veiled, unseen by passionate lovers,
Nor listening though they plead and untie.

5. Would they but look and listen to me
And free me from my lids and disentangle!

6. I weep while my weary critic wants me.
I jest so he takes me in his laughter.

7. How jest, when love of the full moon I accepted
To suffer, while it revels in delight?

8. If the Turks but knew I compared it
To the full moon, they would leave naught remaining.

9. Prince Hasan, as we said, prince of piety,
In Syria, while its stars are under his dominion.

10. Sword of kings, suffice them when they are wronged
On days of grace and days of rage if they attack.

11. At losing him we perish, O sea of dew,
As though we fish within you were obliterated.

12. They said "Praise him" and I said "The blind have excuse."
They said "Take from his ornaments a path you thread!"

13. His praises are from his gifts or merits -
As though his praises from aloes were molded.

14. The generous, the valiant, so he gives life
To the living in his land, or kills the hostile horde.

15. Who fled in fear of his awe
Thinks the stars above mesh him in the gloom.

16. By day he sees horses doubling
As though their shadows behind them were rippling.

17. Syria is like the inviolate sanctuary
Wherein is security, righteousness and devotion.

18. Bounty! And in Aleppo its springs overflow
With the harvest of Khwarazm like highland pools,

19. While rain spares no place, no dry valley bed,
And security embraces, no fear, no perdition.

20. When he is generous, hands in the prosperous spill over,
Or when he campaigns, blood in the hostile runs over.

21. The state of the Victorious Sultan blossoms,
And the Saudis upon its realms have blessing.

22. The tyrants were like snakes, so they reconciled,
Some others were like fleas, so they scattered.

23. When his gun discriminates among oppressors
His head by the dust of doom is riddled.

24. Chosroes of the august kingdom is frustrated,
Stumbling, and Caesar by his failing confounded.

25. So safety inhabits it beyond their exhaustion,
And terror deters it beyond their violence.

26. You are son of kings in service to him
Who ahead of you gave their souls in subjection.

27. You are the first Bedouins who grew up
Sharing with the Huns in the thickets.

28. Their steeds in battle a charge of whites,
And in the cheeks of the villages like vipers bite.

29. Bay-colored, thousands they gave in largesse
As though for blood of slain they had poured out.

30. O you who by the cord of his governorship
Or gifts of munificence succeeded and held fast!

31. Forced is the ode - had it not been for you
No verse would have threaded this pearling.

32. How many such have I composed in the garden of youth,
And how many others, so the flowers blossomed!

33. My stringing of verse is brief - yet it is cream,
While others prolong - mere sobbing and crying.

34. The subtleties of genius have not been fulfilled
By those who said: "His phrases are so sweet they enticed!"

35. Let one overwhelmed by dependents be excused now,
Silence, not movement, befits their glory.

36. In the letters of words his spirit circles,
But no letter revolves for them evenly.

37. I die of sorrow when I regard their state;
By God, death is not but this unlinking!

38. I saved their provisions from their enemies' tricks
And was absent from them - no, by God, they left nothing!

39. I have opponents, but do not complain of them now -
Tomorrow they will know where they erred!

40. Still your fortune flows in world and afterlife,
While people's fortunes are convulsed.

41. With your good influence every tradition runs
As though it were a star, and tradition a sphere.