1. Speak little in my presence, and restrain your reason.
The young man is created only as a sword,

2. and steels are created only to be polished.
The blood of youth is aroused only by separation -

3. I sought it in the high places of union.
I soared to her with a bouquet of youths

4. calling out to them while the wings of night withdrew.
I am lighter than the stars when they walk

5. astray in darkness or weariness.
My friend says farewell, tears flowing,

6. showing you the protected pearls have been humbled.
Give me a draft of the intoxication of your mouth

7. and stir it before I awake to beauty.
I hate to turn my eye in the morning

8. and see the mixed company has become common.
Promises - my memory of them is ever new,

9. to them, though they are old, and will not cease.
By my two standards - if they were to remain white

10. and brown cloaked in shade for her.
The white told briefly of a glance and smile,

11. while the brown softly and calmly.
They forbade my imagining you until indeed

12. they left me without even a shadow of my body.
Had sorrow occupied my eye at night

13. I would have made it, because of it, busy for it.
The water of grace still flows from it -

14. were it to lower a veil from it, it would flow.
Its blackness makes clear the vision within,

15. so wherever you look you think there is a mole.
It was armed against me one day with a wink,

16. and when it wished my destruction, it took aim.
With a glance that does not feel what it entices

17. and recites the sickness of its lover disguised.
It counts our distress as real,

18. while we count its health as composure.
Worries have weakened me,

19. even if they are more numerous than the sands.
If worries attack white hair,

20. our mounts were created to be swift.
How can we enjoy short lives

21. when we have been given long thoughts?
You complain to the drowning man of the troubles

22. that have come to me in my time of trial.
But no, by your father, I do not fear time -

23. rather I engage it in combat.
I show patience and fortitude

24. to the one who created misfortunes and men.
When the winds blow they increase our burning,

25. and the fires of anger grow brighter,
and are revived by the wetness that hides decay.

26. I turn my gaze to well-formed flesh
whose limbs dispel shade.

27. And I wrap myself in darkness with in my left hand the rein of a cloak that tells of the north,
of those who, when they are disturbed for an instant,

28. make you fear their dress will slip away.
Had they spent a month undressing in the east,

29. the crescent moon would have outsped us to the west.
When I strung them into a necklace

30. over all horizons, proudly,
I made pilgrimage with them to the meteors of religion -

31. so for my aspiring faith it was made complete.
And the nearness of the most fortunate of my hopes

32. made happy - we exalted and cast down our burdens,
by the light of the meteors of Allah’s religion.

33. Eyes that had adorned themselves with kohl rested,
The greatest meteor wandering the horizons

34. in traces and most noble deeds,
and highest in rank of glories

35. when they take pride, and greatest in gifts.
We hope it will last and remain

36. while the sun of its state is safe from declining,
guiding newcomers to it by name

37. so the young man does not fear going astray.
It became accustomed to generously hosting them from the start -

38. were they to ask, it would not know how to refuse.
It increases in humility over its loftiness

39. and shows who is higher than one exalted.
It is the brother of a pen to which pens are humbly obedient -

40. slaves while it is their master in majesty,
with a victorious hand of books in glory

41. so they come swaggering proudly.
When it depicted a bow and arrow

42. and struggled in the high places with them,
it told in the heart of its envious foe

43. the truth of what its example traced.
It has an opinion the Sultan insisted

44. that he rely upon completely.
If he ties relations with one he hopes for,

45. then one need not fear the knot will unravel.
When an enemy of religion revolts,

46. they experience its harshest steel.
And most eloquent in speech or discourse

47. when they witness a tyrant or debate.
Secure is its bond of dignity when

48. great waves make the mountains tremble.
Its sword blade is polished but

49. its edge penetrates within like an awl.
When a virtue is perfected and counted

50. for one of generosity, your virtues for us were made complete.
How often hopeful has quenched its thirst at your spring,

51. a suckling that does not lead to weaning!
How often has the cloud drawn its cheek until

52. it learned to drizzle from your fingers!
The sky has not attained where it would allow

53. your horses shoes among its people.
When the horse of the defiant wanted to gallop,

54. the pack retreated from it in columns.
If you compete with the sea's abyss in generosity,

55. it could not contain even an ant's sip.
It is enough glory for paper and pens

56. that they divided your right and left hand between them.
You were created beautifully for the wine vessels of eminence,

57. and the horses of zeal have spread out for you a place.
Whenever you extend to it a hand with ink,

58. it comes to a limb and stops a heated debate.
The time has blamed its course on its passion –

59. a brother of blames whose ropes you have tied.
How often has the envious one sought in vain

60. that your slipper meet the crown of its forehead!
You have intended for one of little wealth humiliation,

61. so your action refuted for him words.
And folded a joint of his until he became

62. one who sees murder but cannot see a fight.
Lastly, your right hand counted generosity

63. that it pulled its reins taut.
His sickness was not days, but

64. a Nabataean shower that heals the incurable.
I asked fate, “Is there any share for me in you?”

65. It answered neither with a yes nor no,
that I may know your opinion of me beforehand,

66. and follow if it treats me well or ill.
My name is none but your servant - how then

67. did my place to you become safekeeping or abasement?
Just as you call thirst or drink

68. whatever foreigners you meet.
But I have long-standing days of slavery,

69. so that points to you my guide.
One who does not know how to attract game with generosity

70. will not hunt the wild beast of praise.
It is forbidden that I see in my composition

71. diversion from the pact that preceded unraveling.
And how can followers diverge from a saying

72. when the followed has spoken?
So do not permit bonds of thought to loosen from me -

73. for in my pearl there is truth that must be valued.
Indulgence to all who have done a good deed,

74. and above indulgence is one who has done and allied.
When your gift is absent it becomes a burden,

75. and the best thing is the outcome its praiser hopes for.
I have a master - if I name him one day

76. his name for me will bring good fortune.
If I name him I will tell of me

77. what I will be when I see him.
So days of celebration continue for him each year

78. with the Three Meteors, and happiest is their completion.
So the letter that begins the title is enough

79. with the second name to find connection.
And to count the days of congratulations

80. by their number when the year passes.
Like that, eternally, the nations continue

81. to count for him connection and separation.