1. The clouds gathered around that abode,
Drenching it with the rain of high heavens.

2. Youthfulness has returned to adorn it,
Its freshness enhanced by a forthcoming smile.

3. Spring has clothed its features in fluttering robes,
Green, donned by the winds of the north.

4. The winds blew through its branches
Like joints flowing in supple limbs.

5. Thus blooming youths would sometimes gather,
Rising like full moons that never set.

6. Their brisk, supple gaits newly found in youth
Until they reached the highest rank and glory,

7. While I remained abased in the lowest valley,
Yearning mournfully like a spurned lover.

8. By God, that band of friends I regretted
One day in the prime of my early youth,

9. When exuberant, verdant youth was upon me
Submerged in the passions of songstresses.

10. I stood at those abodes questioning
The days of youth, but woe to him who does not ask.

11. I recalled the days of my prime and wept for them,
Remembering a beloved the day he departed.

12. I went about reciting the vestiges of his dwelling,
My eyes drunk with pouring tears.

13. Greetings O abode of my youth and that house,
Quenched by the dripping clouds' showers.

14. The morning breeze wandered about your precincts,
Making the grounds of your house a place for meditation.

15. O dwelling fateful events and days have descended upon,
Subdued by the blows of a relentless time.

16. If your abode changes from a lovely damsel
To an old woman or a fickle youth,

17. I witnessed the beautiful ones gathered in you
Like shining full moons, plump and round.

18. The tender branches were clothed all around
In the mantle of draping youth.

19. Beauties watered by comeliness
Who became like flowers in a meadow tended by showers.

20. She said, having seen my pallid complexion,
"I urge the riders on to the heights with my wandering.

21. I halt my steed at the hilltops, grief-stricken,
Weeping over vestiges in an abandoned encampment.

22. I aspire to attain glory by striving
To compose poetry whether haphazardly or deliberately.

23. By God, you will not ascend to a lofty position
Until you frequent the circle of that grand assembly."

24. It is the esteemed, eminent presence of my Master,
The Judge of the Armies, supreme in nobility.

25. His view assists the guided and his gifts
Aid the aspiring and sustain the hopeful.

26. The days were clad in the splendor of his essence
Exultant like a bouncing, joyous colt.

27. The radiance of his smile filled him with awe,
As if it were a veil over his light.

28. The ample robe drags the train of piety
And religion with the most perfect lion.

29. Neither worldly ambitions nor
Longing for its superficial beauty distract him.

30. With his munificence, generosity pitched its tents
When it found rest in his boundless liberality.

31. I set my hopes on him as if
I had set my mount in the lasting home.

32. O you whose pen's branches
Are firmer than the branches of engraving styluses.

33. When the five senses pour forth from a sea
Of thoughts containing the pearls of speech.

34. The knights of eloquence submit to him
And in his presence lower the banners of their oration.

35. Until Abdel Hamid's words are seen to be excellent
By the excellence of the fluidity of his expression.

36. And the son of the pillar, pillar of diffuse eloquence
In which lies the pearl of orderly prose.

37. You possess the plateau of knowledge which brings forth
The aspirations and the unblemished firmament.

38. Had Aristotle endeavored to fathom its depths
He could not, nor the Chief Abu Ali.

39. My Master, O you whose palm's generosity
Surpasses the rain clouds' pouring generosity.

40. The seasons do not keep your abode desolate
It is the most impregnable fortress against the world's afflictions.

41. May he be disgraced whom a position of authority was conferred
Graciously as it was said to the first.

42. No position exists but your worth is above it
Thus by your exalted glory what comes after is debased.

43. To you has come a natural poetic gift which
Climbs by describing your praise to the greatest heights.

44. Though of Syrian origin, she is
Of the noblest Arab descent, no matter who is asked.

45. If she had proposed to a woer with her odes,
The assembly of Ukaz would shake with barrenness.

46. She approached your lofty abode hoping
That a glance of good fortune might shine upon her.

47. To return satiated, drawing from your overflowing
Spring the sweetest watering-place.

48. You remain protected in state, rising
With the splendor of its lasting magnificent glory.

49. And your abode is a destination for delegations
Where hopes of every aspirant alight.

50. No praise in your loftiness was pleasing
Nor did doves' leaves stir on the bending branches.

51. The breeze of your subtle kindness blew announcing
The fulfillment of my hopes without resistance.