1. The blush of cheeks and under it the thorns of spears,
So who would dare to pluck it?

2. Stretch not your hands toward it, for oft
They have waged wars because we stretched our eyes.

3. A rose chose to hide itself in the veil's leaves
Casting off its garb in the dark, wearing it back at dawn.

4. Oft accord and discord were creeds of passion, my friend,
And whichever she wished became our faith.

5. Say to her who did wrong and was tempting,
"If you were just, you'd be more tempting."

6. When I asked her lips for a pearl,
She said, "Aren't your eyelids treasure enough?"

7. Is your modesty meant erringly with the veil?
Yet nakedness for your beauty I see more modest.

8. Like the sun - impossible to unveil her face,
Unless with a thin cloud she dresses.

9. She grew stingy in the sanctuary of her greed.
Ask the guards of the tribe - what turned her away from us?

10. Still the specters of her imagination refused us.
How long will lances of horsemen point our way?

11. Can the living tribes of Al-Amiriyya
Do more than what she did to us?

12. They are no greater menace than if they fought
Than the blow of the dark-moled one when she refused us.

13. If my murder is their aim, then let them raise
The crowns and leave her and I alone.

14. What shielded us from the departure of the lovely ones
Were it not for the watching eyes that checked us?

15. My friend, fill up with travellers heading their land,
For their long absence now shares our sorrow.

16. Urge the steed recklessly on the dwellings
That it may heal a heart or perhaps heal us.

17. Aid your brother when he calls you for a scheme,
And when you seek aid, call on us.

18. Two ignorant men in the world -
So beware, my brother, lest both continue unenlightened.

19. One who says, "I need no people nor they me,"
Speaks in ignorance of them or they of him.

20. How often I pastured your defiant or visiting tribe
When passion loosed its bond on me.

21. A life I spent as youth dictated,
Squinting and being squinted at by all the lovely-eyed.

22. I recall in the nights a night
When familiarity called on me and nestled close.

23. Imagination dispatched and followed after
A visitor - have you seen a guest follow a guest?

24. The phantom travels while settling briefly
In an abode where fancy is turned to certainty.

25. Today I allow the fiction of a visiting fiction
Who travels to seek the favor of the blended tribe.

26. I ransom his steps if he walks his accustomed path,
That he may become a habitual visitor.

27. No sooner had I spurned the specter
Than on a night the tribe camped at the lofty dunes.

28. As my heart filled and I was busy praising
The mighty religion of God, humbling my thoughts,

29. On a night when the lamps of darkness envied
My words, and she - my adornment - envied them too,

30. My pen, she and I - the three of us - kept night vigil
And praise of you was our task.

31. Till we conquered the soldiers of darkness
When our tongues broadcast against them,

32. My lamp vanquished them, and I the darkness
Stayed up all night and at dawn we were happiest.

33. To the mighty one I hoped to visit, a pilgrim,
But I shrank from knocking at his precious door.

34. So he came in the morn, fulfilling the measure
Of our complaint, for what had befallen us.

35. A generous king - when war calls,
You find him alone equal to armies.

36. Gentle of fingers in caring
Like a mountain embracing the resting clouds.

37. His enemies trust not his harm, for
He knows only goodness or better.

38. When he saw his loyal counsel,
His face became illuminated with good fortune.

39. The next day, the sign of his rule was in his right hand,
Annihilating the misery of the compliant and noncompliant.

40. So when rebels sprout in the realms,
He need only signal to his pen, and it uproots them.

41. The fair hand scattered his words,
And the defiant were leashed and brought to heel.

42. O you whose loosed steed, once turned homeward,
Success is its second nature when it turns back.

43. You return with the drawn swords, pardoning
Whatever land you travelled vexing it.

44. When the news caught your hearing of a crying victim,
Pity wiped the tears from your eyes.

45. You followed up your noble raid with argument -
Fulfilling its duty, ever the proper thing to do.

46. You dragged the train of battalions deep
Into the land, behind the backs of villains thickly sown.

47. Till those wastelands of theirs became
Like the gushing springs of Mina.

48. The swords irrigated their land after
The lances had churned its surface.

49. You showed them the wonders of the day at Hafizah
Where the true strikes left no doubt.

50. It sowed doubt in them, and in an hour
Their resolve and determination bore bitter harvest.

51. There Ahmad's might made a believer
Of one who was not counted a believer in Ahmad.

52. Do the polytheists know that they have not found
Safety from the edge of your sword?

53. But the armies turned back, routed,
Since their campaign against you was lighter.

54. Like a wounded soldier a horse cast off
While the arrow dealt him what it dealt.

55. He hopes to live, but no wounded man lives,
The spears have lodged in his heart and made it their home.

56. If you turn back from them, they should expect
Only hastened demise and extinction.

57. The clouds, after crossing, the land below
Sees in their wake a clear track of floods.

58. So Islam should celebrate that its pillar
Since it stood true has not bent or veered.

59. The war clouds dissolved the enemies of guidance
Since you sailed the heavens of noble deeds.

60. You are like the shining sun - it rose
Over the far and near horizons of the land.

61. Some earth, lit by your light, flourished
While other earth, fired by you, declined to rest.

62. To God belongs the arrival of the glorious one who
Became, for us, a shelter against fate's blows.

63. A gentle return - Ahmad returned as his name
So he came prosperously, multiplying the good tidings.

64. Rebellious mischief's spark had caught fire
And spread maliciously, or auspiciously.

65. Say to those who split into factions thinking
Your rule opposed their own flimsy aims:

66. None contends with the torrent in spate
Save one who has wearied of life and soured.

67. One who builds his mansion midst the lion's den
Feeling the wind of the lion wrecked what he built.

68. In every forest where he strayed from his cubs
Seeking pasture - but no repose whenever he turned.

69. A guardian of each matter will fatigue
An intruder, whether he rule justly or excellently.

70. O haven, you appoint people to wondrous tasks
That became by the rising stars more wondrous.

71. No sooner had your repute and kingdom called you
Than you answered, bettering and fortifying.

72. All whom you entrusted prospered lavishly
While you yourself prospered contentedly.

73. I have shunned praising other kings of my time as taboo
And shunned not praising the like of you as more taboo.

74. You reached the farthest extent and ruled us
And grasped the heights' peaks and encompassed fate's ends.

75. Ever unbroken you remained in trials, whenever
Time toyed with its people and fluctuated.

76. Hope itself had wandered
Until, arriving at your abode, it settled.

77. It surrendered its reins to your father's son through you
Thus you tend him with utmost care.

78. You are hope for all who walk the earth,
To you points he who through you was satisfied.

79. You have lofty ambitions exceeding
The age, and you lived to spread them, harvest them.

80. As if it and time were a narrow road
You tread with a vast army.

81. The book of your era - since its sons arose
And God made it your ascent and titled it so,

82. They read, to this day, a title for it,
While our hearts anticipate what it contains.

83. O glorious one, the age is fragrant with your memory
And memory in the days is a precious possession.

84. The finer we describe you
The finer you make what we attribute to you.

85. I consider praising the kings of my time a defect,
And consider not praising the like of you a greater defect.

86. You reached the farthest extent and ruled us,
Reached the farthest high and encompassed fate's twist.

87. You remained, without cease, travelling the past,
Without change, empowered over the future.