1. He turned away in seclusion, after being sociable,
And shortened in the path of time, so it shortened.

2. The night of his youth grew light with the color of dawn,
So he shone, clad in both his garments.

3. No longer is borrowed finery returned as customary,
And the prime of youth came first, and the old came last.

4. So nothing remained but joy between its cups,
Conversing, like a garden in bloom, then flowering.

5. Conversations - if the morning breeze were to pass through them,
It would be perfumed by their breaths and scented.

6. A cupbearer who sings beautifully in her singing,
And sometimes smiles beautifully in appearance.

7. I abandoned the remorseful when I tested their morals,
And regretted Chosroes in glass and Caesar in images.

8. I strip them both sometimes, and other times I see them
Dragging their polished litters, red.

9. If they were not two precious gems, both of them,
Exquisite, no sprinkling would trickle from the cup of essence.

10. And the yearning of Ibn Qayna’s son aroused from my bosom,
When fingers provoked it to growl.

11. Light, if housed in a gilded,
Engraved object, you would be pleased with its sight and tale.

12. The makers of heart and hand saw it whenever
Its ingenious meaning was hard to unravel.

13. And the silk wrapper gathered it, shedding its body
On its body - sweet, high-quality musk and ambergris.

14. It led the hearts to drink when it moaned languorously,
And pleased the eyes of the white, when it flowed gently.

15. I will send my praise invading with the cavalry of the master,
If praise invades it, it will return victorious.

16. It is as if my praise of its beauty is a pasture
On which the beauty of the striders smiled and gleamed.

17. Ancient over the days, if a group is counted,
The new glories with ‘Aad and Himyar.

18. Poetry came easily to me concerning Ahmad, willingly,
And if I had cast it towards another, it would have been difficult.

19. I prolonged, and did not hurry, describing its merits,
So I was happy, prolonging the praise, and shortening.

20. Ahmad! I am among a people who have
Renounced decency, until we considered it forbidden.

21. Whenever they came down, I saw an encampment for ignorance,
And if they departed, I saw an army for stinginess.

22. I say, and I have seen them, countless as pebbles,
I missed you, a generation, however small or great.

23. It is as if you among them are a lamp in the darkness,
When the ugly of color gloomed, yellow.

24. The wonderful rhymes came to you seeking something,
Your reward is to be rewarded and thanked.

25. Wonders! If they called in the abode to match,
It would answer, even if they invoked a boulder, it would gush.

26. I turned from the reprehensible censurers in their garb,
And dressed you in the commendable sword, causer of light.

27. So do not disappoint the favored poetry, returning it denied
By your refusal and the saffron garment.