1. Imagination does not disappear, seeking your union eagerly.
It fulfilled loyalty, never ceasing to be truly the cheek's dimple.

2. It departed after preventing the eyelids from closing in slumber,
A heart, remembering you, knows no rest or sleep.

3. Is our pact to the beloved's agony returning?
So union with her will again be intimate?

4. The days of your union in youth were unknown,
With ignorance the night-comer found no road.

5. I love the graceful, soft-cheeked youth,
And visit, lovingly, the fresh-faced tender one.

6. The clouds carried him gently away, his gown
Becoming, with the zephyr's gown, thin.

7. It was a trick of fate, betraying passion
After loyalty, clouded and dejected.

8. I do not notice the days for a moment, downcast,
Until our days return, long hoped-for.

9. Ships sailing from the darkness before dawn
As arrows shot from a tightly-drawn bow.

10. Dawn, its mantle polished, as though it were
A gown of red Yemenite leather, amply dyed.

11. Are those lightning-flashes in Syria a cloud
Or flashes of the prince's good tidings?

12. A king, whose right hand is generous with pardons,
Grief, and whose swords spread justice widely.

13. He meets dew with a bright, joyous face,
And when the two hosts meet they are reconciled.

14. Capacious his abode while he dwells, but if he travels
He leaves the desert constricted, narrow.

15. He never ceased to rise in the thickets, raiding the foe
At dawn, and to march by night with his dove-flocks.

16. When he set out for glory, he attained its radiant dawn,
While men attained only its dim afterglow.

17. And when the sea of calamities tested him,
He destroyed those who opposed him, drowned.

18. Gently, enemies of the faith! Your adversary
Has a nature disposing foes with compelling.

19. I warn you, defender of Truth! He sees only
The keen edges of swords exacting dues.

20. His resolves closed the mountain passes, and his
Judgments allied with success and right guidance.

21. He flung the lands of the Byzantines with a resolve
Still gleaming at dawn in the darkness.

22. The spheres of his power groaned in a glittering assault
Dazzling eyes with its flashing.

23. A host, when the enemy met its breasts,
Found no refuge for retreat.

24. Eclipsed for it was the sun, while the sun
Of iron shone on its flanks, rising.

25. He emptied their strongholds, seized their loot
By force, and scattered their horde dispersed.

26. That plain was clad in blood by him, while
Those valleys blazed in conflagration.

27. He bent his steeds, their flanks gashed,
And plied his swords, cleft and split.

28. Fate smiles, as though displaying by its gleaming
The pleasing dimples of a cheek.

29. A noble conquest, increasing guidance,
As error is increased by shameful disobedience.

30. Most High! How many choice favors you have granted!
You have been granted thereby a meaning in praise subtle.

31. You have raised by it for Hayyan Taghlib a nobility
High-soaring, aspiring to highest place.

32. So I have surrendered to a generosity busying
A heart with love of the generous utterly.

33. My praise turns aside, it being a bouquet
Whose fragrance the keen-sensed freely inhale.

34. I gleaned speech from it, then fashioned it into verse
As though gleaning sheer limpid honey from it.

35. Formerly it was neglect, till your generosity
Became by your munificence a towering sign.