1. She traveled, so the veil of her beauty was lifted,
And she woke up, so the predawn breeze stirred her,

2. And the sun of noon rose behind the darkness of her hair,
So the day erased the night of her bluish-black hair.

3. She smiled behind her veil, so I imagined
A cloud pierced by the gleam of lightning.

4. She moaned, so she provoked hearts with her captivity,
The lion of death roared in the eyes of a gazelle.

5. I did not know before the blackness of her eyes
That eyelids are the abode of death.

6. A virgin, whose cheeks under her red dress
Display the flow of beauty like molten jewelry.

7. A soft and delicate being to whom youth gave its skin
The gentleness of breeze and the delicacy of pliable silver.

8. Her pillows were sweet, so her mouth became
Like cherries over a pool of clear water.

9. On her cheek life journeyed, so it resembled
A rose blossoming in the breath of the north wind.

10. Her devoted lover offered her his heart,
So she used it in place of a mole.

11. My heart hopes to attain union with her,
So it is tempted by a mirage of wishes.

12. She was intoxicated by the wine of acceptance, so her disposition
Was never sober from the intoxication of weariness.

13. She is my death, and through her my wishes are fulfilled,
The light of my eye, though she is the eye of one who has lost his way.

14. I approach her, though death lies between us,
So I see my death, while life is before me.

15. She disappears, so emaciation hides me and the darkness gathers me in,
So my shadows rise up in the dead of night.

16. My soul clings to her, but privation has stripped it
From her body, though it aspires to her image.

17. If I were to visit her without sleeping,
She would imagine I visited her in a dream.

18. Of me, her love has left nothing but
A longing that torments me and draws me to the present moment.

19. Whoever has not reached the stage of annihilation in love,
His existence is nothingness, and his claim is impossible.

20. My mind pictures her, and sees nothing but her,
My eye, and the image of her beauty is in my imagination.

21. Above me, before me, and opposite them I see
Her ideal image, my right side, and my left side.

22. She appeared, so the bulbuls of appearance never trilled
Except to reveal my own bulbul after her.

23. I am in the pools of anguish with my love,
While with her in the shade of going astray in Nejd.

24. Greet eternally the living one, greetings eternal,
In the valley of protection, guarded by the whiteness of gazelles and the brownness of wild cows.

25.
Greetings, he who combines opposites - his night

26. Is met by day, the blades of swords.
The sun kisses each of his two cheeks,

27. Embracing the full moon of perfection.
His tents gather gloom and joy,

28. Like a herd of gazelles and a forest of cunning foxes.
He quenched a bitter time in the prime of youth,

29. And nights that passed with the eyes of legends.
Nights of pleasures as if their darkness

30. Were a beauty mark on the cheek of time.
Strung like pearls, they resembled

31. The crescents of new moons - and they were the white nights.
The best nights are those of early youth,

32. What a difference between one who has enjoyed them and one who awaits them!
O my time, how many wounds from an assailant's blade you have inflicted in me,

33. And arrows and tribulations!
You have made me a target - if the living were to water my burial ground,

34. My earth would be saturated with their tears.
My ardour has grown accustomed to your afflictions,

35. So my soul is determined to face terrors.
My ambition has risen above praising

36. Any but the noble kinsman, Abu al-Husayn the Sublime.
I have severed all connections with people

37. And joined ties only with him and his sons.
A free man, born pure from the pure,

38. Who came with every means of purification and grace.
He is a brilliant light; how many moons and planets

39. Separated from him have come from his loins!
From every clear-browed, auspicious, glorious one, it is as if

40. The palm of destiny had touched him.
Forms over us resembling the stars have converged

41. In their traces and shapes.
They are ten, like fingers outstretched to the sublime,

42. Created for striking coats of mail and bestowing bounty.
The ten nights know that in their cycles

43. Lie the faces of those weighty ten.
So refrain from swearing any oaths about them, and swear only by those men,

44. For their grace has been transformed into men.
In the highest sphere are set minds

45. And they are their counterparts on earth.
Equal to them in number, equal to the nights in sublimity,

46. The difference cannot be devoid of problems.
They are then the forms of good fortune and misfortune,

47. And those men are the results of those forms.
A group - in reality they are one,

48. Like waves divided in their continuous surge.
Some - if asked, they are seas, and if

49. The veils were lifted, they are towering mountains.
They rode steeds, so I said they were a hill of light, upon which

50. Were eagles, or beneath which were roaring lions.
They unsheathed swords, so I said they were a squadron of angels

51. Whose hands shook the hilts of blades.
They turned away from vain talk, judged with

52. The white of gifts upon the necks of property.
For their love of blades and spears, they are lions -

53. They cut with the thought that notches are the night of union.
Before maturity, they met foes and donned

54. The gown, long of trains.
They suckled the milk of eloquence and high morals,

55. So they spoke decisively before separation.
Begotten from the loins of the lightning in those clouds

56. Upon that sublime, majestic horizon.
So they took on his character and donned

57. The blood of lions and the souls of heroes.
They followed his traces and so tried

58. To ascend beyond the stars to realms of hopes.
He continues to send them clouds of mercy

59. From time to time, lightning bolts of redemption.
In brief, every virtue resides in him,

60. And they are the detailed exposition of that brief totality.
The mysteries of God's subtle kindness have appeared through them,

61. And they are the manifestations of mysteries in deeds.
They entered the Verse of Purification; and had

62. They come before, He would have included them among the Household.
And their father (Ali bin Abi Talib) is my master -

63. None but him do I befriend and follow.
My heart, all my organs, and my joints

64. Praise him, along with what my cloak contains.
I am astute - when praising him I feel

65. I place gems in the hands of a connoisseur of gems.
Noble, by him my blind poet's soul found relief,

66. So it flowed, and the epoch was set aright through him.
Citing his verses, he taught me poetry, so I listened

67. And came up with embellished words.
I spoke by him, though the epoch was barren,

68. So by his moods I made it fertile.
I uttered some of the gems of his words,

69. Making them the centerpiece of my discourse.
I recite his eulogies, so their fragrance spreads,

70. As do the sublime rhymes, my trilling.
O beauty of the world - and I do not exaggerate -

71. And noblest of its people - and I do not exaggerate!
You have been graced with joys, O lion of combat,

72. By the wedding of a grandson, most noble of youths.
A grandson through whom honor came to his father and grandfather,

73. And the nobility of his uncles and in-laws.
What strength and generosity reside in his father the Sayyid,

74. Since he first displayed them, no snakes have given birth but to slithering creatures.
In the cradle he was granted perfection, though

75. The habits of children predominated over him.
A light came from two brilliant sources, both of whom

76. Drew from you any light of majesty.
They were brought together and coupled, so they became three

77. With the forehead of which blessed youth!
Childhood flows through his twigs, so you would think him

78. A sapling in which the water of polishing flows.
The light of glory gleams while he is in his cradle,

79. So you would reckon it the rays of lightning.
May you after him circumcise his sons

80. In the best times and deeds.
And may the Merciful grant my prayer for you,

81. And answer regarding you and your sons my request!