1. When my heart complained of love's anguish
And she who rivals dawn in the horizon ignored me

2. With hair as dark as the blackest banners
Like the wing of a night ready for battle

3. She turned from people to aloofness
And ceased her visits to my dwellings

4. She would scarcely approach my home
Except like a phantom in a pleasant dream

5. And her heart was hardened by my poverty
An old man lifting up the curtains

6. Poverty and old age combined
Are, to the noble, a sin beyond pardon

7. With no excuse listened to or accepted
So the more I tried softly to make excuses

8. The more she inclined to blame me
And anger flared high in my heart

9. And my confusion overcame my patience
But fate's mysteries and fortune's decrees

10. Came a delegation of the noble festival
Making equal the night and day's allotment

11. So peace without objection was accomplished
Between two litigants of different nature

12. One oppression, the other light
And the people in insight judged

13. That the equality of night and day
Came after that harmful one

14. Cast the hand of the revolving heavens
Toward the sun in the scales like a golden dinar

15. So the glance of my consideration warned me
And taught me the trait of compromise

16. And is there a young man in time of need
Who, in his inadequacy, does not compromise

17. And return to the time of his choice?
So I rose like an enraged lion

18. And never ceased in frequent going round
And roaming in vales and lands

19. And traversing arid wildernesses
Searching for treasures of poems

20. And gifts to carry to the seas
Of God's deputies in the lands

21. Or the sultans of vast dominion
Or a lord of high station

22. From every expert of the world
Until I returned, rich in wealth

23. Full in right and left hand
How often I became balanced and vital

24. And how often I was made judge of great matters
And gained the union of the pure minded

25. And the separater of darkness from light
And the gold that clears thoughts

26. So praise to God, mighty and benevolent
Changer of scarcity into abundance

27. Then prayer ever continuing
From us upon His Chosen Prophet

28. Mohammed and his good progeny
This is the story of my cutting through wilds

29. And the flowing of my conditions on the streams
Until I shed poverty from my essence

30. And my prosperity folded away
So the crooked turns of fickle fate

31. And the varying tastes of a varied life
After barrenness back to fertility

32. Are a shadow of wealth that signals retreat
And today lost prosperity has returned

33. And I think not He who restored me from ruin
After hoping the blessings of the Creator

34. Will be but the noble, generous one
Exalter of the highest pinnacles of glory

35. His rain like a pouring cloud
His affair the aid of nobles

36. The like of Rashid al-Din among the great
Such words prompt my seeking of pardon

37. For none are his equal or match
In his virtue none contend

38. A towering pillar of dignity
Corrector of revenue and expenditures

39. His resolve like the sharp cutting blade
And his view the strong rope of success

40. When he intends praise of the generous
He strikes with two arrows the tenderest spots

41. His news greatly amplifies
And his goodness lessens reports

42. So his sea surges with currents
And his rain never ceases pouring down

43. He visited us, his presence a gift to visitors
Never did we read in books or hear from relators

44. Of a Kaaba that traveled to greet its visitors
Without their pulling it with ropes

45. O you whose protection preserves the silenced!
Remember my state, though it is well known

46. O you who needs no reminder
Through praise which I have rendered peerless

47. Among the wrists of the exalted, like a bracelet
Of concealed pearls or gleaming beads

48. Say to he who envies: Desist, you erring cat
Stop! The roses are not for your smelling

49. How I take cover, again and again I take cover
And seek purity from clouds of dust

50. Nearby evil, a bird of ill omen
And in a land growing evil men

51. My thanks to your heaving sea of generosity
Ever spilling over in waves

52. Paused over the absent and present
So make my stream flow, as it is your neighbor

53. As long as your good opinion remains my neighbor
Listen to the beauty of my excellent verse

54. The pearl is my price for your flowing
Profit in it over the buyer’s bargain

55. O you who rose to happy fortune over the lands
Like the rising of a pouring rain

56. Its showers extending over all lands
Seeking benefit, not harm

57. Spreading justice, enriching nations
Their eyes upon you in anticipation

58. Still you remain a star coursing high
Alone enough to enrich without helpers

59. The richness of a thousand armies of warriors
Rising early like the hissing vipers

60. No vengeance upon the absent ever lapsed
Except to return claws triumphant

61. You lived for steady, settled rule
Long life, long in capability

62. Short days in delight
Until you see your life among lives

63. Called long though brief
You remain adorning rule with relics

64. As gardens are adorned with flowers