1. Our master, the harbinger, brought us news of you
And gave us good tidings that brought us joy

2. Our hearts were comforted and expanded
With this felicity and delight of spirit

3. You have taken on the judiciary, though many a pact
Is adorned by quibbles and fraud

4. The sword is most trenchant
When wielded by the valiant hero

5. The bright Basra shines with light
Through Ahmad while he is its light

6. When you oppose a miscreant
Terror strikes even the hardened criminal

7. And if guests descend on your abode
Misfortune befalls those dens of tyranny

8. If you come upon them one day, you will find
Guests marching towards your field

9. I say to the inhabitants of Basra, I am
For you, from it, a thankful slave

10. To aid the religion of God in this world
Is the mission of the helper judge

11. Does the chief know that Shauqi’s
Yearning for him exceeds that for his family?

12. And can the scribe discern in his brother
What the lines have conveyed?

13. They are two moons in the firmament of glory
When the shining moon sets out of sight

14. If my heart had wings to fly
It would soar up to your lofty heights

15. But no news can swiftly reach you
Nor anyone travel to you with ease

16. I shed copious tears that melt
My captive heart with their heat

17. Who can make the Banu Zuhayr
My loved ones or intimate to me?

18. When the breeze blows I say
These are his gentle fragrance and incense

19. He assumed judgeship among you but has appointed
In his wake injustice and tyranny

20. Your enemy, the yellow judges, recite
And the worst of the yellow ones is the last

21. If he inclines to truth one day
Urges divert him when he tyrannizes

22. And how many a great old man
Upon whom descends the great curse

23. The living among us loathe his life
And the tombs and graves abhor him

24. Little of his shameful traits
And part of his depraved morals

25. I have folded the letter, and then a folding
Whose musk and fragrance diffuse