1. The morning dawned in pain, and the embers of my campfire had cooled,
When there appeared, igniting glances, one with burning embers.

2. Had any eye before this sight ever seen
Embers that scorched hands, yet did not diminish?

3. An apparition of him stole to me like his image in my mind,
And in my eyelids came a specter of him that arrived unbidden.

4. The phantom took shape before my eyes, so I asked it:
“Does my frequent visitor come to me in a dream or waking?”

5. I rose to touch the apparition, wiping it with my hand,
At times embracing its leg, at others its hand.

6. Caressing the gazelle of the wilderness that had come from him,
The gazelle of the wilderness that had been granted grace.

7. Its cloak was jealous of the slimness of its waist,
And the beads around its neck envied its necklace.

8. With a shining cheek that puts the full moon’s face to shame,
Name it “radiant cheek” if you wish to name the full moon.

9. When brought near, the rose-red of its cheeks
Would light a lamp in the darkness if lit from its cheeks.

10. I said, “O full moon, what is this sudden appearance to us,
When I see no path but that it has been watched?”

11. “How did you pass by them while the people were awake,
Yet not appear, while any star that rose would show itself?”

12. It replied, “I hid in the darkness of my cheeks by night,
So one who came down to the valley was like one who deserted.”

13. “The people made ready to travel at dawn tomorrow,
Each one preparing mounts for himself.

14. The camel-litter’s necks incline tomorrow at first light,
As if their leader urges them onward.”

15. “No enamored person stays up all night
Unless they are told the time of departure is tomorrow.”

16. It spoke these words and said, “Now show anguish at our imminent parting,
Or show fortitude.” Then like a breath exhaled in haste,

17. It returned while the people readied themselves for the journey,
Passing the night conversing with cares and keeping vigil.

18. It slipped away while its cheeks still held the pearls of its necklace,
As if their radiance in its cheek had frozen.

19. It left stumbling over its train, distressed and heartsick at parting,
Turning back like a breath sharply inhaled.

20. The dawn came, and its beloved ones had gone.
All night it conversed with sorrow and kept solitary vigil.

21. It wept red tears of sorrow, as if
Those tears had been squeezed from its innermost depths.

22. Slain were its eyes, or the eyes of one enamored,
So it knew not whose death it sought vengeance for.

23. I used to think that if my solace ever left me one day,
I would die of shame if I did not die completely.

24. So I inured myself until parting’s intoxication no longer disturbs me,
Now that it has departed and left me.

25. I do not fear stumbling on the path of a new love,
For I tread it anew every day.

26. I felt safe from the separation of intimacy once absence veiled it,
And from consolation I clothed my heart in armor.

27. What I own of fate - if its least of it
Were seen heaped up by the noble - they would wish it scattered.

28. It burdens me to distance it, while I lack
The ability to enumerate it in number.

29. If the burden of my heart were loaded onto a towering caravan,
Its routes would stretch from end to end of the earth.

30. A heart weighed down by cares from which no breath can rise,
As if suppressed and suffocated in its depths.

31. If not for fate's children, while it streamed forth
In a surge of afflictions, I'd never feel it at all.

32. They are slaves of voice and whip whose master is anger.
If greed gained human form, it would be worshipped by them.

33. O you whose sermon assembles the people until,
When danger draws near, you stand alone!

34. Face the days of fate undaunted by their tumult,
For the only gains are to those who witness.

35. How many times you've sworn allegiance to misery itself!
How much anguish you've endured, corrupting the liver!

36. Joy is but a hoped-for prize. One who says,
“My hopes have brought me joy” has found joy.

37. The shooting star's mirror is its sublime ascent,
Seen from afar like a mirror's reflected gleam.

38. A bulwark for the kingdom is his deliberation,
While his assets are a barrier than cannot be crossed.

39. The sagacity of his view is a banner raised aloft,
And the line of his prose a massed army on the field.

40. He is the lion of literature or the lion of the armed forces.
Seek as you will in his cold resolve, you'll find no slackening.

41. With their pens, the scribes’ fingers shed their claws in fear
As he straightens the quills of the state with justice.

42. He crowns books with excellence upon his ascent to heights,
The books made lofty by his crown once placed upon them.

43. His metaphor is both bow and arrow, and in the thick of battle,
It is reality shot from the concealed quiver of his envy.

44. His fingers trim the reeds into pens,
Straightening the channels of the state into right channels.

45. No wonder that, lodged in the grip of his right hand,
Is a lion the nights' thickets have not bundled like it!

46. He possesses a firmness nurtured in the heat of resolve
That bends the bodies of foes and splits heads with its sword.

47. A blossom - when they rode, they were stars guiding the way,
Yet when angered, they were shooting stars of destruction.

48. Steadfast on their horses in the fury of battle, their offspring
Seem born in the stirrups, so naturally did they ride.

49. O you whose heart dwells in your courtyard endlessly,
Whether my person draws near or remains far!

50. God knows that since I left your presence,
Loyalty to our covenant has not clothed my ears with rings

51. Or any word but news of you, arriving from your region.
The best outcome for one in life is to gain praise.

52. And why should I not wish an easy life for one by whom
I live an easy life? How often I say:

53. “My Lord, grant long life to the one for whom
You created spirit, making the world its body.”

54. “Grant us well-being through a ruler by whom we can live,
And grant him success through triumph and help.”

55. He who does not elevate my estate in my dwelling
Sees all I own as some of what he grants.

56. How often, when one greets me with congratulations
Upon my wearing some new garment, I say to him:

57. “He renews what the days of my life have ruined—
One who says ‘Wear out and renew’ did not say ‘Perish and fade.’”

58. So God gives life to religion and world eternally,
Or extends the life of all time.

59. He made obedient saints who are shields
Against evil and enemies made ransoms of them.

60. A people whose ambition is to benefit all people,
And those who rightly elevate when they rise high.

61. Leave Quran recital to people who judge therewith—
If you believe in judging by the Quran.

62. Recite! For God has guaranteed the Quran's survival,
And whoever fulfills what he promises is truest to his vow.

63. What benefits people remains eternal for them,
While what is superficial rises and passes like foam.

64. So take it here, smiling like a meadow,
With pearls arrayed as a necklace and spears fixed straight.

65. It matters not that you are no shooting star
If I liken you to shooting stars in my recital.

66. If you are no shooting star, you rise
By one whose ascension lifts those who do not rise.

67. A star of faith that fills those who watch it with joy—
If those gone astray kohl their eyes with its radiance.

68. A gleam and ablution - when you behold its rising,
It gives the world, from its first light, dew and guidance.

69. Whenever a pen flows praising it, it brings back
Goods of merit for them, renewed perpetually.

70. If they gain insights from its wisdom, they light
A torch of gratitude to God that lasts forever.

71. O you whose hand, when extended, does not cease
Perusing a book or imparting wisdom's radiance!

72. Dividing its benevolence between the two realms of its sight,
Never seen as blameworthy in its life.

73. Think not eternity beyond reach
For one who ties convention to gratitude ever striving.

74. He accompanies time with never-ending life
Who couples generosity with exertion.

75. No glory was tripled when the intellect relied
Upon the two pillars of thought and remembrance.

76. Thought on the past makes you feel
As if you lived in those bygone ages.

77. While remembrance, among surviving nations, puts you
As if not lost to them when gone from them.

78. Only in this way, my friend, acquire
Meaning in the words of men, "Live forever!"