1. The restrainer is too short with him, so he is restrained,
And the blamer has folded what he had spread.

2. Oppression has burdened him with its fetters,
So when it is said, be gentle with him, it insists.

3. A speaker says: Verily the omens of old age have appeared
In his youth, but omens do not avail.

4. Hair that has died at its parting,
Yet the life of a man is in the death of his hair.

5. And a youth that has dried up, save for trees
Swaying from it, and how long trees last!

6. O my friend, seek your lute and string it,
You will find it between a cup and strings.

7. The monastery glimpsed from afar allured me, and already
The side of beauty in it had rested and lit up early.

8. Passions have relaxed in its corners,
Or desires have relaxed, and no distress remains in it.

9. And cheeks that have bared their roses,
Or a spring that has bared the picking of roses.

10. A gathering where drinking goes round but not
The outspreading of those scrolls has been folded.

11. And as if the sun amongst it has scattered
Leaves from amongst the leaves of trees.

12. Amidst betrayal on which birds alight,
Yet you see meadows in the betrayal.

13. And land that bears witness to its fragrance,
As diffused perfume has sworn allegiance to its edges.

14. And clouds that have unfurled their flags,
Casting for them a shadow over us outstretched.

15. And a breeze that has scented the garden, so if
It blows in the morn, we don it as perfume.

16. We are in the shade of soft, luxuriant union,
Of smooth intimacy and tender maidens.

17. And when fate makes us drink its twistings,
Through Imam ibn Nasr shall we be victorious.

18. O prince, before whom fate is humbled,
So it does as he commands, ducking and rising.

19.
And when drought bares fangs he is alive,

20. When adversity strikes dark, he is the moon.
And when roused for a good cause he surges forth

21. Like the sharp, Indian sword when drawn from its sheath.
Sincere of visage, you see the dewʼs water

22. Climb or cascade down his face.
So in it is an inward consistency

23. Like the flow of water in the remembered riverbed.
I said, when he displayed precedence in the highs:

24. “Is there a short road to glory?”
“If you would overcome one day, and destiny’s

25. Page be adorned by a famed day,
“Then the clan of Harith amongst them is like a burden,

26. When no burden can save one from fate.
“Vain are the delusions of glory, if

27. Glory is apportioned in lots and delusions.”
A band, were it not for the tidings of dew

28. About them, people would not know revelry.
O father of vigilance, you have awakened the dew,

29. Filling wilderness and town with it.
And how many dissuaded you have made

30. Sincere of daring, protecting and watching!
And the morn is ruddy in plain view, so if

31. The oryx laughs in it, it is the reddest.
An arena − were it not for fire,

32. Its lofty platforms would not be embers.
Spear-thrusts are strung together against its heroes,

33. And imaginationʼs necklaces upon it are scattered.
And as if the sun in its bastion

34. Is a player who has let down her trainʼs hem.
By it you have sought the praise of the eminent,

35. As the register flows with your illustrious trace.
And you have wheeled the steeds away from it, wearing

36. The raiment of victory, studded with triumph.
The fast has passed, so return

37. To a love praised, or ease that delights.
You and the feast you have renewed

38. Are the delights of this secluded age.
Praise in you is sweet, so that I have made it