1. I complain to God of what my worry has become
And I shed tears like pouring rain

2. I spend the night with longing in my heart
Stirring up present passion for an absent love

3. And if I were excused for what has befallen me
It would still have some of my misfortunes

4. But I find the people gloating
While another is indifferent and another blames

5. Is there in people an equitable one but unjust?
Or among them a friend but not a scorner?

6. And if I complain of blameworthy ones
My complaint is not the complaint of a punished adversary

7. And complaining is no use with the unfair
Nor is evidence useful with the contentious

8. Will not the days awake from
My misery and deprivation of my dearest possession?

9. And my fate would not be harmed if it relieved me
And gave me joy one day in seeing my companion

10. My friend Samir's face in the daylight is a meadow
And Laila studying the pages of every liar

11. Oh what an odious morning is its dawn
And what a slow night are its stars!

12. As if I were in the midst of time, a wound from which
No land that did not care for me continued to injure me

13. As if on the expanse I were bearing
The burdens of these people above my shoulders

14. My heart grieves at what appears to my eyes
Of injustice and aggression from all sides

15. By God, I don't know if madness is within me
Or if people have been given scorpions' wiles

16. I see every individual exposing another's reputation
And each meets his match in blame

17. So I wonder which of them is truthful
And which son of a female is free of defects?

18. And who is he whom God has acquitted of
Imperfection so he is not censured for faults?

19. If the origin of people is from mud then what
Can be expected but dregs in the product of their drinking?

20. If you seek a companion without lapse
You will come to those with lapses who have no company

21. I was patient with the bitterness and sweetness of time
And its afflictions educated me in all respects

22. So I wasted all my efforts in it, lost
Except praise of Isma'il, Lord of Gifts

23. A king whose standing and honor are lofty so you see
No peer to him in merit and virtues

24. When he examines a plan to adopt
He has the resolute determination for it in undertakings

25. He is the sea but his pearls are not covered
He is the moon but his light does not set

26. And if he were not the moon his fame would not have spread
And circled the East then the West

27. Kings desired to see him and when
They saw his face they loved him with fitting loves

28. So he was a stranger among them in his generosity
And in his love of their families and kin

29. He returned to Egypt and it had pined for him
In his absence, so it rejoiced in hopes

30. And all who came to him praising then lauding
That was the custom, the custom of foreigners

31. And no wonder - today he is the spirit of its life
You would think it beautiful in rising like a cloud

32. And by God I esteem him highly when he shines alone
And in his love he is like the moon among the stars

33. And I have not seen a difference between two things like
What I see between two men when associated

34. Ismail resembles a group in age
But has no peer in his glory

35. If he does not rule distant lands
The hearts of their people are his conquering kingdom

36. And if he does not speak all their tongues
His favors among them are a greater discourse

37. If they recognize a person by speech, then listen
And say: praise extolling those virtues is speech

38. And whoever cannot praise him verbally
In his heart he recites it - an excellent companion

39. And if Ismail by slaughter was ransomed
This one ransoms with pure souls

40. The two masters purified the Arab nation
And endowed it with the highest positions

41. So here we are mighty in the shadow of the Mighty
And here we are at his banquets of favor

42. Praise is forbidden unless for him, for him
And who today is a more eloquent writer than

43. Ahmed Wahebi, with his eloquence and experience
His words have a wealth making other words superfluous

44. He gave me pleasure from his rhymes and I became drunk
From that in me is a tremor of one drinking

45. Seek my praise of him for events - a repeated
Thankfulness for it is duty and obligation

46. These two are known, I cannot find
Their equals in praising virtues

47. With what tongue can I praise today my praiser
And where is the singing from the wailers of elegy?

48. Wondrous in expression, he places the word in place
Cast in the mold of penetrating meanings

49. He who preceded in the meanings of the predecessors and was
Preceding every writer in clarifying meanings

50. It is hard for him to see between his word
And meaning precedence or lag of defects

51. He has an idea tied like a star and the extent of it
Has not been reached by one sporting with ideas

52. He is the one toward whom the possessors of resolve incline
And one who inclines to an eye or brow goes astray

53. And his saying: that eloquent one, if
The two sayings differ, is one of the wonders

54. Every obstinate submits to his judgment for him
And every adversary is content with his decision

55. Happy Egypt prides itself on him, for he is
An adornment of all its positions in its protectorate sky

56. Oh, if only I knew, though wishes are temptation,
If I could touch Egyptian soil consoling my anxiety

57. I enjoyed myself there between a polite sheikh
And maternal uncles, the most generous of manners

58. Yet my reward after building with them
Weariness and desolation on all sides

59. Greetings to it whenever the morning breeze was harsh
Loving and whenever my caravans leaned toward it