1. Lower yourself even if you are haughty in contemplation
For you have certainly wronged the most wronged of men

2. You made me despair of pleasing you, so you maltreated me
If only the ungenerous would pretend to be generous

3. What do you want with someone whose requests are denied?
Excuses abound when desires go unsatisfied

4. Why did I complain to you of the fires within me
If you would only ignite them instead of extinguishing them

5. Leave me be with my robes as I let down their trains
And keep the two silks safe from decay

6. Though my hands are yellow, I guard my face
Many are deluded though not made up

7. We are a people the passing days have worn down
Our faces glisten without water or kohl

8. The miser left hoarding his surplus wealth
And bartering the honor of the noble, too stingy to give

9. Far off is the outstretched hand from what he owns
Unless holding a carving knife, it will not draw near

10. This is what I know of time, so leave me be
O you who blame me, for even the generous are tested

11. If I complained, I would only complain peevishly
And if I were patient, I would only pretend patience

12. If I sought, I would only seek great things
To defy enemies and disobey the censorious

13. These are the ornaments of refinement I was granted
Which led me away from wealth into destitution

14. May the nights henceforth obscure my every glory
Since the wise man's utmost is obscurity

15. With Yemeni ibexes the color of sandalwood
And noble steeds as white as Indian swords

16. Their manners are tying blades to lances
Or piercing flanks with spears in battle

17. They care not for empty words save those which
Eloquent Al-Akhṭal would answer

18. They eschewed hypocrisy for sincerity and now
Follow whatever they desire, however far-fetched

19. They marched on though the path was strewn with thorns
And climbed high, higher than high ridges

20. Their abode has pillars of spears for columns
And fair hands weave a shady canopy

21. Every nimble-handed one vies in horsemanship
Eagerly till the day of clamor arrives

22. He fancies the red leather shields a garden
And deems the dark mail coats to be kissed

23. When his right hand draws the sword against the nape
He glances at the head then dismounts

24. He scorns turning down a challenge due to his honor
And refuses to bear the oppression of fate

25. A people whom, when war is kindled, squadrons bear off
That the vultures alight upon in battlefields

26. Bridling steeds and gazing upon them whenever
A star rises at dusk or a crescent at dawn

27. Their coats are dyed from the sheer time they've spent
Scraping them in war - some trailing, some hemmed

28. As if dawn flowed down their foreheads in streams
With feet like granite boulders rounded by flood

29. Each lovable flirt they tease with their hands
And threaten slyly to sneak up from the sides

30. The youth does as he pleases - if he desires, he lifts
His stature; if he wants, he casts it down

31. His unkempt hair conceals half his face from the other
Made perfect in length and width when combed

32. So that when you stand behind him he seems hunched
And when you face him he appears supine

33. Swaying his luxuriant locks like a bough in the breeze
Circling his ear like a ring of twisted wire

34. So a deer forgets to fear when it draws near
And a frightened oryx is snatched when it brays

35. He lets his gaze pass by haughtily lifted
And comes pacing slowly ahead of his shadow

36. Rising or descending, his figure calls to mind
An arrow launched high or a plunging stone

37. Another has an unruly forelock, dyed red, that makes him
Look bound for battle, destined for spears

38. One is blond, yellow like the changed leaf
That refuses to be shod, too proud for shoes

39. Behind him at the racetrack are steeds near enough
That you imagine them coupled together

40. One is piebald - when he appears, eyes are dazzled
By this guest wandering at night, blanketed in fur

41. Another is black - the two halves of his night and day
Are sundered and split then joined again for him

42. Like an ugly slave girl who polished her cracked skin
And an old maid who revealed her gap-toothed smile

43. The black he wears over white parts from us
As he tightens the top and loosens the bottom

44. One is yellow like sulfur that disdains
To imitate its color or agree to be shod

45. Another is gray - he describes the shooting star
Crossing the horizon in the depths of night

46. A quaking, crumbling ruin when war shakes its ground
Eluding the eyes of those who look upon it

47. Still another is dusky - he coupled the steeds with a forelock
Whose sheen struck a radiant face when it tossed

48. You'd think him a raging storm heavy with lightning
Or a night studded with approaching stars

49. The racers' hooves dyed him their color
Like polished coats - this one magnificent, that trailing

50. He wore black over white and parted from us
Diminishing one half, letting down the other

51. Like a kohl-eyed doe who bared her shiny pearls
And a sharp-tongued wife who revealed her gap-toothed smile

52. Or one whose complexion is sallow - cracks run
Through his flanks like lightning in dark clouds

53. The two threads of his night and day intertwined
Are torn apart and sown together for him

54. So that you see the horizon's red glow on him
While his hands are the blowing wind, his hooves granite stones

55. With the likes of them and their equals I seek glory
And with the racers' gallop and warriors' blows

56. How long will this stance persist in lifelessness
While fate brings the seeker all that he hopes for?

57. Leave the darling to her plotting and say to her:
"Adorn my mare's forelock, not my own!"

58. Isfahan grew accustomed to hosting me and so
Pitched its tents without me needing to wander

59. I cannot sneak away from its lands
As if my words were trapped inside your mouth

60. For it is he who gives speech its free rein
And perfects rhetoric like none other

61. O pride of the writers of this age, hear the prayer
Of one whose misfortunes have shackled him

62. Long have I been absent, now I come to you burdened
Though perhaps the companion wearies and wears

63. I, who whether blamed or unblamed
Rely on none but you in times of need

64. Gaze upon days whose magnanimity is a shining sun
That makes all other stars fade for mankind

65. And listen to my musings, though to you
They may seem too inconsequential to consider

66. Do not let your abundant gifts preclude
My meager offering from being accepted

67. Glory is not content with your merit alone
Until you are the noble giver to the noble gift

68. Forgive my feeble efforts, for it is in my nature
When weaving praises to sometimes falter

69. I have suffered much injustice from time
That lost all favor for the generous patron

70. To them, my poetry is like an ugly mirror
And so I restrain my heart from seeking to polish it