1. Your shadows give comfort and your spring is sweet
You are pleased that I spend my mornings, though with salt my drink may be

2. You are clouds of mercy, blowing as you list
Gentle dreams are lulled asleep by you

3. Rain down on us, look on us with your grace
That we may kindle lights that never fail or hide away

4. I've loved so long that I forget the pain it brings
Each torment in this love is sweet to me

5. I say to my body, the cloth of care you wear
I say to my heart, is love that you know

6. They said, “Your youth is past, the morn of old age gleams”
I said, with whiteness like the dawn, yet I hope on

7. I stole the loveliness of life on the night it bloomed
Though from my eyes, the veil was lifted up

8. I saw in it naught but the words it spoke
So to my eyes it was strange, but known unto my heart

9. A people, when with talk of eloquence they speak
The eloquent themselves fall short of their pace

10. If I assign the speech 'twixt Hajar and Nejd
The scholars of the East will say, “The West is best!”

11. By truth of lineage for the Caliphate made fit
Veiled in awe, enthroned in majesty

12. Like polished Indian steel the sheen our Caliph has
A glance can travel over it, no flaw in it seen

13. If not for one, obedience to desire she claimed
Goblets and wine for her around me would have spun

14. But old age warned, come not too close to love
If readily love's presence is not given

15. Demand no payment for a gift of bounty made
For at your side the plain is smooth, the dwelling wide

16. If you see me not equal to such high regard
And better marriage claims your purpose stayed

17. God grant the Chief Commander find a bride
Whose perfect words are strung with pearls still moist

18. She pours the wine as camphor mixes with pure cold
By Allah! If my day of meeting were not tomorrow

19. I'd face you with my case and make my plea
The Caliph's secretary Ahmad we claim a kin

20. And pride enough in ties to him for any man
Through him the best of literature is spread

21. Its ways increased in width and merit both
And wonder at its works is justified

22. If merit were not paid its due of praise
Then every land would say, “In dust, no worth.”

23. Through him you stand in lasting joy and bliss
To you, the noble one, my wish that I might come