1. Her beauty emerged, so I said, were it not for her braids, the full moon would envy her.
She turned, so I said, were it not for her supple form, the branch would envy her.

2. The women of the tribe envied her face, though little is the good in an envied blessing.
One evening she revealed the gardens of her beauty, so theglance was at a loss how to turn away.

3. Beyond her, blue eyes are but windows, which, when the eye beholds her, it shuts them out.
She arose with the steel of India sharpening her beauty, and was fettered with anklets of chiming bells.

4. She walked abroad from the interior of her tent, while the nearest dwellings of the tribe were remote from her.
With a complexion white but not like white pearls, and a hue reddish but not like rubies.

5. The glances never ceased to gather their booty from her, while the steel of India supplied her polish.
I wondered at her dark mole that she inlaid with blood, while the necklace's burden increased her languor.

6. She stalks the wild beasts of the desert, extending to the caravan her neck, a thing of terror when she turns to strike.
By Allah, what ferocity, though we pursue not her like.

7. I looked and the moons of the fair leaned towards her, while their stars attended on her curls as handmaidens.
I saw nothing like the glances of her eyes, or like her slender waist.

8. Howsoever the railer rails at Sa'dah, nevertheless among the deserted encampments
There is a reiterator who reiterates her name.

9. The lady of the tribe, when the warriors couched their spears,
Stood sheltering in her mantle the panic-stricken beast.

10. Though she restrained it with her spears, had she been able, she would have clad it with her mantle.
Whenever we unveiled her face to contemplate her beauty, her languor was revealed to us.

11. The ringdoves among us were yearning more than ever, though I did not know that aught could add to their yearning.
Clad in the blue of dawn is her shift, and strung with the pearls of night her necklace.

12. Would that when she turned from us, she had wings to bring her back, that I might owe to her a kindness to last forever.
Encompassed by two boons - her return, and the ornament that she left me.

13. Among the tale-tokens of my passion is an eye, that when it weeps, causes a tear that cannot be dried.
It rained not save by the will of Layla, nor was it watered save by my running tears.

14. I fulfilled not to youth its due, till its days were over, and it departed.
Then when the days of impetuousness passed, I spoke to my companion, "Is there any return for what is vanished, that we may recover it?"

15. And I changed from a black-eyed girl, craved in the encampments, to a white-templed decrepit, strange to my companions.
How long will my blackness remain black, when the days and nights change their whites and blacks?

16. A troop of horses, double-girded their saddle-girths, lightly equipped, their deserts and wilds seeming narrow to them.
They vie starwise by night with the planets, and rise starwise to the highest heaven.

17. We rode till we climbed mountains, filled with every demon, upon a rugged hill that defied him who would lead them.
Archers whose bows suffer no relaxation, and horsemen whose stirrups suffer no weariness.

18. Those are wild cows with them, while these crouch like lionesses.
They shall return, though their limbs be grey, their forelocks hoary.

19. The steeds departed, their girths closedrawn; yet no mountain-track makes the mountains grey, but only the days make their new-born child grey.
We departed from the foul folk, drawing away reproachfully, while their revilings were cast at us and their spites flung at us.

20. For me, if I loosed the restraining bonds, my steadfastness alone reins them back.
They who serve greed abjectly, we serve honor proudly, not as their servants.

21. Grief enough it is that I voided my soul of the wine of life which wets not my palate or gladdens my heart.
And their envier casts at me the glance of a one-eyed man, so increasing the weakness of his sight against me.

22. Souls from hatred fallen sick, evil thoughts making their wont.
Naught aroused the people against me, till my absence from a journey of theirs, of which they were witnesses.

23. When the envious saw my loyal devotion, high on the noblest seat, their rancors burst out.
They said: "Correct in judgement, you have chosen a friend!" I said to them: "The best of arrows is the most correct in its aim,

24. I have aimed it at objects, till I hit the mark, and till the once distant morn drew near me.
Its quality, bestowed on it by God, He bestowed not on any other of mankind, so that it remained unique.

25. It increases in raising up by exceeding humility, and such good works it builds up, work supporting work.
It knows the knowledge of truth, that no spark of fire is feared for its enduring,

26. It preserves the wealth of kingdoms guarding it, and lavishes other wealth to please the people.
The king of the world saw your concentration on those who melt the livers of a grudging people.

27. And the Prophet Joseph said to me: 'Entrust me with its treasuries, to keep count of them for you.'
The Sultan of mankind appointed you, nor did you fail to execute his command.

28. Such then is the most eminent of those the kings entrusted with authority, desiring the welfare of the deputed, not the deputy coveting it for himself.
O best of the gatekeepers, no dynasty has been joined to another, but its good fortune was linked to yours.

29. Its counsels protect the dome of the kingdom, and its policies keep the kingdom's pillars upright.
It has an untrodden plain, not sprinkled with the feathers of Twin Eagles day after day.

30. Its noble sign to the people is a prayer-niche, toward which their aspirations bow morning and evening.
Now to the spears of the champions is their bending, and now to the calamus of the clerks their prostration.

31. Your lineage ascended to the most eminent sharifs, the white Meccans of honored pedigree.
Kings whose grandfathers — no, their fathers too — were kings, even as their ancestors were.

32. They became lords of the world in their might, though the horizons all were their vassals.
Naught of wish or desire was gained, but their promise accomplished it, and their word made it true.

33. Every hand but for their munificence had remained shut to the people, grudging its bounty.
The brother of Bounty - his saying follows his doing, swift as the lightning that follows its thunder.

34. His tenderness moves to pity at the breath of dawn, when the tender north wind blows upon us.
As though upon us were a garden of his praise, whenever his acclaim casts a shadowy nimbus.

35. He is the sun, and the Pleiades are the moons in his horizon, giving and spending their light as he ordains.
Ahmad, of the auspicious conjunctions, shone as a prophet, when his horoscope was joined with that of Anushirwan.

36. The days of Anushirwan, compared with Ahmad's days, were but as their new moons matched with their full moons.
So take them as rhymed prose, whose beauty still wanders through the countrysides distract

37. Dear to the hearts of the noble is their recitation, and sweet to the mouths of narrators their chanting.
They came to you from a soul yearning to you, whose visit and ode have a claim on your honor.

38. Still may you remain in a world whose bliss endures, and still remain in joys with undiminishing increase!
In them preserve the fair mention of Ibn Khalid, for the mention of noble souls is their immortality."