1. Turn your mount toward it, O caravan,
And know that I am madly in love with it.

2. It is passion, no secret to you all—
Can company be folded up or kept quiet?

3. No more can your abode be home after your leave-taking,
Except for meadows dressed by the clouds' rain.

4. The bright stars of the chariot were confused by it,
And it made the north wind and heart go astray.

5. A dark one shunning its approach,
Though I saw him, before and after he drew near.

6. What care I if he feign grace—
Only the motley show of my sin appears.

7. I thought his estrangement was unmeaning,
And fancied his aloofness was reproach.

8. I am content with those whom I accompany,
And for each companion, seemly is enough.

9. Humiliation and prosperity are with you,
While glory is for the nomads and the bare plain.

10. But in the land of steads is a warrior
Whose final stratagem is war.

11. He desires the stars though they are lofty,
And attains them though they are difficult.

12. Misfortunes refuse everything but his wish,
While against the goblets his hand strikes a blow.

13. Armor was bared but no spear transgressed it,
Deaf, biting, angry.

14. A coversafe warrior tightened it,
In its weaving David left no weakness.

15. Against him every fiery calamity was revealed
Appalling—its violence tears out playfulness.

16. If it missed his towering stature it smashed
The axe blade—its steps a bound.

17. And his guidance and nights adorn
A lineage contending for glory with tombs.

18. It casts looks with a hostile eye,
A she-leopard whose lids know no drowsiness.

19. With it the sleek one intends his victims,
Awake—his eye has no eyelid.

20. They sought his essence but he confounded them,
Bittersweet—limpid, tasty.

21. Pride does not spurn it, nor vainglory disdain,
Remote from their glances yet so the shooting stars see it.

22. O you in whom we hope for our relief—
Rest from siege, for it is hardship.

23. Have you not heard how Sa'ima is guarded,
Water and herbage warded from it?

24. Carrion lures its starvelings,
So they are prey for every little fledgling.

25. They were reduced to misery in their life
Until even the baby in the cradle crawls.

26. Happy are they, if you were their neighbor!
How can your neighbor know of your plight?

27. If you wished, you could say to them, and they took refuge—
Who has a heart will understand your gestures.

28. Hindrances prevented your dwelling among them
The like of which books have not comprised.

29. So—Damghan and the land of Saraya
Where dust is stirred over its horizons.

30. And next to me Gurgan the lofty,
Where mange has scratched their necks.

31. They sprinkled on their heads fragrant powder
From Indian aloes—do not notice!

32. He ruled the subjects—a father, humpbacked—
In his hands awe and dread.

33. They gave him their obedience and were not wronged,
Freely—and forced obedience is the worst.

34. If drinking water choked them,
He would forbid it, though it is cold and fresh.

35. So he seemed to them like a nurse
Who dandles an infant as though it were a heart.

36. She draws him to her pearl but prevents him,
Loving him—the loving does no harm.

37. They recalled their rancors but did not unite
Save against you—non-Arabs and Arabs.

38. And I see hearts that are not healthy
Sick, while you are the one to cure their sickness.

39. They are wary of you when you left their land
Like the sick person's wariness of returning health.

40. They did not hide you from our eyes—
As if gloom could veil your light!

41. You became for the world and its people
Like the sun—from it come east and west.

42. Take precaution with your help before a crisis
Whose livers' cores are intertwisted.

43. The land is the glory of the two states,
A sphere revolving with your opinion its axis.

44. And the people under you two, though they pretend,
Unequal are the nurtured and the nurturer.

45. Like birds of prey in their actions,
In them sight and heart prevail.

46. Make haste with your victory before violence
Whose innards are twisted like rope.