1. I deny not the glance of the virgins’ eyes,
Know you not the babbling of the drunkards?

2. And the eyes tempt you whom we never knew
A smitten heart enamoured of the lips.

3. And you fall in love with the bending branches. Is there then fault
In a passion preceding you for the torrid twigs?

4. And you spend the night fascinated,
When did her chains fascinate the captives?

5. Indeed, the eyelids have destroyed us until
They complained of frailty and folding.

6. Why do we care or mind
So they make wide our wounds and excuse?

7. We saw the cord of love in us
An intuition, so we took it as a motto.

8. And we understood it was beautiful, but comprehended not
The daughters of their breasts begetting separation.

9. So we pardoned the blamer when
We doffed concerning their temptation, all temptation.

10. Why are our eyes drowned in tears
As fire traverses their cheeks?

11. And we ask from their pillows a little water,
But the coolness of it shows the depths.

12. Their tresses make us sleepless,
And we see no end to their dark nights.

13. So know you their gamut, oh my friend;
To the sick, the dawns have straitened!

14. By your life! none but the roseate cheeks
Rob us of repose.

15. If for our misery long life continues,
Its channels will summarize it for us.

16. And if annihilation persists one day, then through it
He facilitates killing ourselves openly.

17. Their black hair warns us openly of death
And their eyes bring it to us secretly.

18. A neighbour who neighbours my soul are they
And never once to them has my heart been a neighbour.

19. Lamps ― when they travel by night
You deem the darkness wearing its day.

20. Straying nomads whose tents have suns
Carried in the dust and of eggs their colour.

21. Cloaked in attire that almost
Makes you think their eyes dripping kohl.

22. Forms as if Beauty itself were molten to pour
And look at them meltingly and hotly!

23. Words when the intoxicated absorbs them
His nature medicates and the wine subsides.

24. Teeth the rubies would ransom
With their greatest though they be small.

25. Magic roams in their eyes until
The stirring of kohl you fancy dust.

26. The dawn of youth gasped in longing
To meet them and tossed madly its embers.

27. When their tents ride on their fair mounts
You deem their homes the homes of the Christians.

28. The clouds’ eyes poured on them copious tears
To tattoo humility on their valley’s cheek.

29. Nor have the happy vales ever lacked them
Nor the years effaced any bracelet off them.

30. They lodged in the heart, not the tent,
And made its embers their dwelling place.

31. They stayed on after my patience left
So my soul became an empty ruin.

32. When they cross my mind, passion escapes me,
If a female messenger bore it, it would fly!

33. I wander while a soul burnt for them,
When you kindle it, it sparks flames.

34. Eyelids like showers ― clouds ― of Ali's lightning,
If you make them weep, fine rain they pour.

35. My father Ali ― boon of bounties,
Most high of men in rank and ability.

36. Proudest of souls among the noble kings
And their most valiant and impregnable in fights.

37. The most chivalrous and open-handed
And most proud and most virtuous in his modesty.

38. A brother of honour birthed of Ali
And of Ahmad’s daughter, so he excelled glamorously.

39. The sea of glory congregated in him
And in it, the Hāshimites gained a partner.

40. He is the Light, but for whom,
The Realms of Glory would meet in dark blindness.

41. His brilliance erased the blackness of night
And humbled its hue, crushing and scattering it.

42. Time came to him wrathfully
So at times he smiled, and incited discord.

43. And found the dew still, so he flooded over,
Else his springs would have perished for lack of rain.

44. He alighted with forbearance, so bounty pressed in,
And but for his forbearance towards us, we would have raged.

45. In his lofty cradle he sought heights,
And before his swaddling robe, wore dignity.

46. He gained piety, virtues and kindliness,
Providence, valour, and steadfastness.

47. He became to Highness a noble, magnanimous spouse,
So she delivered through him, glory and pride.

48. A cloud competing with dawn’s immaculate expanse,
Greening on its edges, filled with life!

49. The ground nearly sows him silk,
For he touches it living, not abject and barren.

50. Radiance is about to revert to ambergris
If only its clouds could gain that rain.

51. And a meadow of his presents we gleaned
Golden dinars of gifts ― not dry berries!

52. He portrayed the colourful Spring, pure of nature
Beyond rain clouds in the calm of its peace.

53. He clad the slain of his foes in brotherhood
And bandaged their living wounds with blossoms.

54. He shook off his spear-shafts winter’s fruits
And from their skulls dripped delicious produce.

55. His new era caused us joy
And growth on cheeks the red anemones.

56. Obeyed if he called the purest gold one day,
You would hear it even if it were deaf.

57. Open-handed at tournaments of giving,
None in the racecourse of eloquence rivals him.

58. Eloquent in both prose and verse,
His words studding large pearls!

59. Gladly would days take his ink as kohl
When he pens, to wake as excited gazelles.

60. So what lineages of thought through his hand,
Their veils woven for them curtains!

61. From their era a sagacity almost relating
The darkness of his ink sunrise’s redness!

62. His is the pen which in every line
You see a orbiting sphere in its script.

63. He surges over the morn of a line in the night
A cosmos sparkling in the heights, and luminous,

64. Radiating from it in most amenable of hands
A scintillating blade, its thrust smooth.

65. And whoever strives to scale the heights
Would ride the seas ― no surprise!

66. A pasturer whose spear-shaft startled the plains
And affixed their strappings with buttons.

67. You see his snake the stars hastening after
With their scorpion hearts fluttering cautiously.

68. He counters their Gemini blades refusing,
And in their Sagittarius, wounds sneeringly.

69. Supporter of Islam when its guides went astray
Without their minaret, or any guiding lamps.

70. Books ― their fjords none can traverse ―
When his squadrons charge, find no crossing place!

71. They portrayed the bloom of tender gardens beautifully
And musk diffusing fragrance and celebrity.

72. Beyond the eye of a soft breeze in clarity
And the eye of the sun in light and fame.

73. So their sections are deciding swords separating.
And guidance ― in being lost no comparison!

74. He dressed them in robes of brocade
And forged them branches of star rubies.

75. When thoughts on their trail hastened
To grasp their vengeance ― jumbled and lost!

76. So the light of their symbol is the essence of wisdom
And the best of their speech, broadcast jewels.

77. In eloquence’s subtleties he shone excelling
By summary, comprising ample wisdom.

78. A book ― every chapter from it a chapter ―
On ruling over nations in lands a house!

79. If Scripture’s mother bore a son,
We’d say she carried briefly in him.

80. When from it they receive a missive in war
They seek escape ― so hazardous his threat!

81. As though his epistle were a host who mounted
Their darkness steeds neighed and furious.

82. And when their coats of mail leave the plains
You fancy their iron turned to gold coins!

83. A rain-burst who aids the poor greatly,
And gave his enemies only cutting off.

84. Come! Oh coveted master
When Time betrays and wrongs us.

85. And rain-cloud when the clouds betray
The living, and lengthy grows the drought of life!

86. By your life! None equals your pre-eminence.
Your rain unmatched in generosity.

87. By your height all glory's defects are complete
So they lengthened, once short they were

88. If your white swords one day smile
Their blood you made to flow plentifully red!

89. To gladden you after your fast, days of feast
Expose your envious heart shredded.

90. The new crescent comes to you atop its hubris
When you face him, shy he hides.

91. With it he hints affection for you like a lover
By its eyebrow indicating ardour.

92. So every year you meet him returning to you
Renewing a pact and intimacy.

93. Highness was not once without being your abode
And Time gifted you rule eternally!