1. I can overcome the currents of fleeting life,
And the fire of their animosity is more igniting than fire itself.

2. Praise be to Halib bin Hamdan, whom you recognize,
And truth is evident, not met with denial.

3. A people, when guests descend upon their dwelling,
They rest in the shade of lush gardens and rivers.

4. When their swords are unsheathed,
They unleash the utmost extent of vengeance.

5. So all their days are like the day of dogs, if
Their events are recounted, or the day of Dhi Qar.

6. The blessings of God descend successively,
Upon Abu al-Barakat, the barrier, the neighbor.

7. Upon the teeming, deep sea in which
Its pearls and surging waves settled.

8. Upon the prince whose merits
Are like the stars, lighting the night for the watcher.

9. When I resolve to enumerate them they throng together
Multiplying my praise and extolment of him.

10. Can the expanse of the tumultuous sea be measured
With forearms too short to span it and fingers?

11. I profess gratitude for his deeds
While concealing the deepest affection for them.

12. Like the date palm revealing to eyes the radiance
Of blooming spadices, yet hiding the unripe fruit.

13. Who is the most generous of people unless you consider him a father,
Transcending generosity, forebears and traces?

14. I complain to you of the treachery of two allies
Who unsheathed the sword of discord upon the brocade of my poetry.

15. Two wolves, if they gained power over poetry in a sanctuary,
Would shred it with fangs and claws.

16. They attacked it with the swords of enmity, sharpened
In a squadron of atrocious injustice, tyrants.

17. And cheapened it, so say that scent plundered by them
Can be purchased without a perfumer.

18. The aromas of musk and camphor exude from it
And the choice of Indian and Thai aloes.

19. And all the eloquent words you would think
Are brocade with a rising and setting.

20. I stayed up late infusing my youthful water into its beauties
Until its flowing water rippled within.

21. As if the very soul of sweet basil mingling with it
Was poured in by the gentlest of winds.

22. They sold the brides of my poetry in Iraq so neither
Its captives are rescued nor their chastity preserved.

23. Unknown in merit, its anklets wrongfully distributed
Between fools and those sunk in darkness.

24. It does not harm them, though pearls are precarious,
If they adorn kings of high rank.

25. People never saw captives like their captives,
Its finest sold unjustly for a coin.

26. When the clothes of praise garb you one day
It is you who are the naked wearer.

27. By God, I never praised anyone living or eulogized
Anyone dead except with my poetry.

28. If they crowned you with a full moon, it is from my surges,
Or sealed you with a ruby, it is my stones.

29. I have a diction whose flashes I ignite
With eloquence of illumination and light.

30. Noble, not by any nobility, nor did its bride
Don a veil with a saleswoman.

31. It sprouts through the crevices of the heart if it desires,
The kernel amidst clay and grit.

32. No strength remains in me from the poetry that was my asset
Against adversities except the weight of my burdens.

33. I see its sanctity has been violated
While the rest of poetry is veiled in curtains.

34. It is as if it were a garden whose orchards
Were ravaged by the foolish, amid fire and tempest.

35. A disgrace clinging to famed lineage
Debased, amid humiliation and shame.

36. I do not expect the claimant of noble Azd ancestry
To vindicate me until my currents surge.

37. Wrathful, he hides his face from me with a hand
I wish were nailed to it with a nail.

38. My poetry has certainly been distorted by a group of deceivers
Among them are relatives and those who deserted home.

39. They claim superiority though my pedigree surpasses theirs,
To me, as carrion to the noble thoroughbred horse.

40. If my arrow ever surpassed the rider and sanctuary,
The loosening of their bowstrings would be prolonged against them.

41. Beware imbibing the lightning of passing clouds
Drenched in lethal poison dripping copiously.

42. Do not be fooled by the smile of a downpour
That unleashes thunderbolts amid the rain.

43. For the sword shows a smile when brandished
Though it has concealed deaths, whatever their number.

44. You have not seen a brave man before seeing him
Make peace with you while sipping elect nectar.

45. He sheds from you youths who have no sorrow
For their prime, and elders who are not righteous.

46. Whoever cannot withstand my easy verse when
The steeds of poetry race, how will he withstand my fervor?

47. When I ignite it, can one addicted to the flint
In his heart endure me, while his bosom is nude?

48. Had you been the perfumed rose this fire resembled,
And the juicy sweet apple, my fire would have kindled you.

49. But you are withered wood, set alight
By the blaze of the midday sun prior to my poetry.