1. The blossoms of adoration have sprouted with their roses,
So its emerald has adorned the cheek's carnelian.

2. And the crescent has appeared to us resplendent with its crown,
While the Pleiades marched past us with their chill.

3. The languid eyelid unfolded its glance or else what do you see
In the clarity of its cheek, a vision of its charm?

4. Its bracelets crept over its wrists, so they dug
Into its waist, some of them, and others into its breast.

5. Its smile parted, so we yearned for the flash
Of carnelian to ruby and to myrtle.

6. My soul is a ransom for the archer whose quiver
Is forever shaded by the feathers of his arrows.

7. A gazelle who gilded his blades with the plunder
Of honor, when they trace their lineage to his glory.

8. The bloom of his cheek has won the garden of charm,
So its anemones bent the stems of his basil.

9. The branches of his lances arbitrated the war of spears
And were victorious through the might of his worth.

10. A moon more fierce in battle than his glance,
More noble in valor and sharper than his sword.

11. So the comets set in the glory of his generosity,
And the dawn rises in the calm of his sheath.

12. Souls crave his sword as if it were
A flash of lightning from the smiles of its clouds.

13. And hearts love his arrows as though they were fashioned
From the buds of his generosity and not its thorns.

14. He charges so the fish acknowledge his saddlecloth
And the full moon through the scattering of its pearls.

15. To whom can one aspire for the pleasures of his company?
An eternity in hell for the misery of his absence!

16. And when can one hope for rest from loving him?
A lifetime that burdens him with the anguish of passion!

17. Camphor of the dawn of his brow that splits
The darkness with the scent of his curled hair.

18. A reluctant killer, he drew his glance armed
So his necklaces were guarded by his Indian blade.

19. I met him at dusk as the west
Cast the embers of sunset on his rosy cheek,

20. And the night drew the excess of its veil
Spreading its ringlets and its black tresses.

21. When I entered his tent stealthily, he embraced
An idol, so I was seduced by his myrtle.

22. I saw a face whose sight was as lovely as its myrtle
And I witnessed a mouth whose stream was as sweet as its wine.

23. The gazelle sprang up to me, surrendering
In panic, and the crescent garlanded me with its forelock.

24. He came offering me a cup of wine
That leads the forbearing one to the heresy of his rectitude.

25. A fire that water increases its flames
When blended with its coolness.

26. Shamta who saw the friend and addressed
Moses and spoke to the Messiah in his cradle.

27. A spirit that, were it to penetrate the darkness of night,
Would dawn with the light of day.

28. So I lingered awhile in the disgrace of his jest
And at times in his earnestness, gathering its pearls.

29. Until the dusk spread its redness and ignited
In my gaze the flames of his torch.

30. Would that I live a life whose shadow shrinks!
Alas! Time will not favor disregarding it.

31. He has abandoned the doves of Yamamah,
So the clouds stripped him of his crown’s jewels,

32. And the serpents of time caused him grief, his essence lost,
And the whip forgot the covenant of its handle.

33. Caring for her old companionship, she gave generously
Like the palm of Ibn Mansour’s son with her overflow.

34. Her blessings—does the summit cease to exist through her presence,
Bringing joy, and does the time mourn her loss?

35. A sea which gushed with freshness, so it drowned
The beasts of oceans in the flood of its tide.

36. A lion escorted by eagles when he attacks,
Until we were certain they were of his troops.

37. If the two-horned one sought some of his righteousness,
Gog and Magog would never traverse his barrier.

38. Or if the Select attained his strength,
He would not have summoned Harun in his prime.

39. A king who shows you the blessed dew of his paternal uncle
And the chastity of his father and zeal of his grandfather.

40. Were it not for him, intimacy would not have been known
Nor would the people of inquiry have been guided to his principles.

41. The Merciful has granted us glorious triumphs through him,
And the crescent desires the rising of the glory of his renown.

42. He has ennobled and enriched us with valor and munificence,
So our death and life are from him.

43. Sustenance is hoped for from the clouds of his storm,
And death feared from the lightning bolts of his thunder.

44. May he reward one who composes poetry in his honor with kindness,
So he gives him his fill from his flood.

45. The enmity of the foe benefits him.
And musk is improved by the corruption of its opposite.

46. Afflictions have assaulted the nations, but they could not
Depart as the prisoner does with his shackles.

47. So doom descends above the uplifted sword,
While victory serves beneath the sheath of his waist-belt.

48. His hounds hunted down the recalcitrant, and his
Lions felled the giants of oppression.

49. He never ceased giving pearls until the
Comets feared the requests of his delegation.

50. And he marched on toward glory until he,
Coveting its greatness, thought it a river desiring his reckoning.

51. Is there any prey of his pride but his talons
Have clung to its shoulders in blood-letting?

52. The system of the organizer of his merit disclosed the necklaces,
And the scattering of his munificent hand adorned the freshness.

53. They both marched to the battlefield of the enemy, competing
In slaughter—his brown one and the white of his grandfather.

54. A moon for which I composed poetry, so its
Horizons were adorned during its days of praise.

55. Through it my state has been beautified, so my companion
Is the perfume of generosity, while the blindness of drowsiness has vanished.

56. For he is the one whose munificence has humbled my envious rivals
And melted their vitals with the embers of their malice.

57. O pillar, sanctified by the peninsula through the intention of your approach,
And O glorious hero who sought the summit, climbing above the plateau of your grandfather,

58. Sovereignty is a necklace whose gem you are,
And glory a heavenly body whose essence you are.

59. You were congratulated on the Feast of Fasting and its celebration,
Forevermore, as the crescent greeted you with its fortune.

60. The feast is but a day in time, while you are, for Islam,
A feast that has not ceased to exist since it began.

61. If the world judged you fairly, offering itself for sacrifice,
Adam would ransom you with the remainder of his children.

62. Destiny would remain facilitative of your intents
And time would allow you its eternity.