1. When the gardens of immortality and melodies emerged
From the veils of time,

2. The transient existence became constricted,
And a world full of sorrows and sighs

3. That saddens hearts with wishes.
It had no glimpse of eternity that could be concealed,

4. And it seized the hearing and the sight.
It mingled with the morning breeze,

5. And rose on the rays of the moon,
Transparent, lofty tunes.

6. Its journey was not long until
The farthest of what you hope for in the bitterness of destiny drew near.

7. Is all the great and shining glory.
So it set out loose-reined,

8. Touring the kings and emperors.
Then it returned saying mockingly:

9. "Your greatest are myths or rare ones,
Immortality is only for the geniuses,

10. The titans of souls and minds."
The prophets have the highest status,

11. Surrounded by majesty and honor.
With them are the marvels of inspiration,

12. In them is guidance and light for mankind,
And the utmost perfection in faith.

13. After them in rank are the martyrs,
The people of ransom in tortured nations.

14. The martyr poured his blood and offered it.
He says: "I sacrifice my bleeding soul

15. To ward off injustice from the homelands."
Magic gathered with temptations

16. Between the lovely immortality and eyes,
Talents from a hidden essence

17. That shine with knowledge and arts,
And flood the world with benevolence.

18. Those are the suns and the full moons,
Ever shining, never setting.

19. Their orbits are untouched by the ages.
Love, beauty, and joy,

20. And goodness, wisdom in man.
I listened to my soul saying:

21. "I toured immortality in every direction,
But did not find anything like that sublime one,

22. Towering over existence, lofty,
Sturdy, solid pillars."

23. I saw an all-encompassing, shady shadow
Embracing a towering, majestic edifice.

24. My eyes turned away from them belittled
If they sought a representation,

25. For the Event of the Red Canyon is in Buwan.
I saw whites embracing browns,

26. There the stars shone like flowers
In the hand of every gallant knight

27. Seeking precious glory forcibly,
While glory will not be for cowards.

28. I saw a herd of the beauties of empty quarters,
Red gowns, strange adornments.

29. Created from beauty and temptation, so
Neither haughty nor heavily adorned,

30. And so let the songs be.
That one who stood beside them,

31. I left the kings of earth in his furs
Or people under his feet.

32. I was told: "Bow submissively before him."
For Al-Mutanabbi is the lord of the place.

33. If you are one who befriends the book
And composes sarcasm and lashing,

34. And abandons the boon companion and drink,
You have come to hurt immortal Khaled.

35. And you have transgressed hospitality and security.
I bowed my head and stumbled nearer,

36. So where is Kisra's awe and Caesar's?
Before him a lion with a shaggy mane

37. Bearing from a whip stroke a mark
That makes Ibn Ammar dispense with rhetoric.

38. And laughable is the split-hoofed
Black-lipped, with two incisors,

39. Whose custom is to be led by his two ears,
And whose worth is counted in coins

40. The day the goods of the castrated are hawked.
It was disgrace and shame for Egypt

41. The day the magnificent poet provoked him.
I do not know whether the satire was fire

42. Or a storm that stirred up or currents
Or that chest split open from a volcano.

43. And there was a beast whose foamy mouth overflowed,
On his neck a thick rope of plaited palm-leaf fibers.

44. I said, "Should I not ask what is this body?"
He said, "Yes, this is our envious enemy,

45. Confused in nature, possessed by a demon."
I saw him blinding his own blind eyes.

46. The blaze of his heart overwhelmed them.
I said, "And is this Khaled too, so what

47. A wonder that harm remains and they are safe,
And evil prospers with a second lifetime?"

48. The poet smiled then cast
At the beast a look as if it were destruction.

49. He said, "Even if he soured my life with enmity
To the point I called my son envied,

50. He is still immortalized in disgrace."
Come forward, O soul, and ask me

51. About the effect of the key on my forehead.
With his villainy he changed me

52. From the degradation of the neighbor's protection
To the protected sanctuary of the kings, the Hamdanids.

53. And the envious are tested with nothing but essence
That is perfected into light and refined nature.

54. Superiority inevitably appears.
The ages speak of it to the ages,

55. While for the envious there is the darkness of oblivion.
Return to your world, O world of the Arabs,

56. With an ardor that kindles the soul of literature
And floods the East with this flame.

57. Some books may regain truth,
And glory may be in the Diwan.