1. May he who holds the wind accept its return,
Lessening our breaths and increasing them.

2. When a gentle company of men approaches,
Their intimacy warms the secrets of affection.

3. I ask about a well at Uray'ir
Whose bucket and pulley have gone.

4. And about a Jawshan—how excellent is the land of Jawshan!
If only my ill-fortune would meet its good fortune.

5. The breeze there has sheltered the sighs of lovers,
And none who turned toward its clouds was disappointed.

6. O my friend, explain my longing with the wish
That longing will bring his distant abode nearer.

7. Do not feel safe from the heat of passion if you are aroused
By my sighs, which may kindle their fuel.

8. How often have I bid farewell at the station of parting
To a singing-girl with a neck free of necklaces!

9. Sweeter than attained union is the promise of her tryst,
More profitable than the union of singing-girls are their refusals.

10. She is luxuriant, and her eyelids water with tears,
While the water of youth did not moisten her tent-poles.

11. And there are youths like hawks and girls
Whose cradles are litters slung over the saddle-cloths.

12. I say to the horsemen of Iraq: enjoy yourselves,
And do not let war in which the son grows old afflict you!

13. Toward you from the land of Kirman there came a warrior
Whose restlessness laughs at the millstone.

14. A mounted warrior with coats of mail and shining white swords,
Led to the market of death with a halter.

15. Their interiors seethe and their lips are silent,
Boiling the interiors of oceans, their flowers still buds.

16. So there was left between Qarqūn and Barqa
No brother of the banner whose fibers were not grey.

17. Among the small insects and beasts of prey of the earth
Are morsels which, if the hyena could hunt them, it would.

18. Their weapons clash between Sukhayr and Wasit,
Contesting with the violence of gales with their poles.

19. Among them in the horizon of evening is a cloud
Whose lightnings are kindled and which rumbles.

20. Every sedentary man casts his conjectures toward it,
But those conjectures never catch up with its stillness.

21. Below the bend of anacathartic medicine is a cure
Which, at the edge of keen weapons, sets its limits.

22. The insight of a diver who pounds his sorrow
For some noble deed to which he aspires or which will benefit him.

23. So the morning did not dissolve before the spearheads
Of the enemy's cavalry lined up and kissed their cheeks.

24. A rewarding horseman boldly advanced his steeds,
Which, when the saddle-girths were tightened, did not shudder.

25. He returns their breasts to the point of the spear
And none attains his goal but he who repeats it.

26. You cast the foreheads of the Turks, when you met them,
With meteors of the worst battle, their fibers intertwined.

27. Whenever his exertion wore out a brave lad
Beneath the quivering heat, the horse would pity him.

28. The Prince al-Mansur refused that they rule,
So he might empower the freemen, their slaves.

29. You demanded compensation for their ease, and your judgment
Straightened the spearheads which led them.

30. Otherwise, drive it away to every town
Where the fetters of humiliation rub its joints raw.

31. Aim its two long bands at the commanders, and do not repel
With them any goal which all the slaves desire.

32. For the white frontier fortresses behind his smile
Are caches of livers that seethe with burning rage.

33. I saw you when the affliction was general and the march
Of troops arrived whom none could repel.

34. You prayed against them without the wicked, and their fire
Could be reached with the ladle of blood to soften it.

35. You took over the fringes of the Caliphate after
Its pillar had inclined and the beams of its columns weakened.

36. You were excused from managing it, binding thereby
The pacts which protect it on the day they are guarded.

37. He saw for glories and virtues a high ground
Whose ascent takes men's breath away.

38. A burning wind blows over it toward him who ascends it boldly,
But to him who seeks its shade, it is cool.

39. You clothed the doors of the cities with delight
While the envious were witnesses.

40. The Knight of Kingdoms saw when you put it on
Arrayed, stunning the eyes of armies.

41. He admired its stately sail and its wake
And chastised with glance the vile and frigid.

42. The stations of Chosroes did not attract him for himself
Rather, for the heirs of Chosroes he built them.

43. He is the king created from his imaginings,
Refined of all glories and their essence.

44. The kings of the House of Sasan claimed that
Its mysteries and pacts were kept safe for him.

45. He disciplined, ruled over it, and inherited its glory,
Was its master, if one is its lord.

46. You are from a people who carried the zeal of glory
With blows of the sword, while the horse runs red with its blood.

47. They pastured in the garden of fate the magnificent
And their spears startled the days while they were tranquil.

48. Their souls compete in love of praise
Since they know that praise is their eternity.

49. I did not know that its bowmen were the Qanā
And that the Oryx were its fathers and ancestors.

50. So do not make destinies like its swords.
Destinies may rinse off those who scheme against them.

51. I say this after the enemy was repelled in the evening
And sheathed its blades to draw them again.

52. Are those necks which lost their heads
Cast down, or are those swords that lost their sharp edges?