1. My heart is burdened with love for a beautiful gazelle
Whose description is that of a melodious garden

2. How often has she glanced with bright black eyes
Her beauty is apparent to the beholder

3. O you whose eyelids shed flowing tears
And whose ardour sets alight the ribs

4. My critics blamed me when I complained of passion
Though the sun does not veil itself from eyes

5. My body is empty and my heart faint
From the loss of a union now passed

6. Would that I could one day see her beauty wane
She whose beauty defeats all attempts at description

7. I could not bear estrangement from her protection
Until I hurried to her on foot

8. Had the cup of gifts not been generous to me
With one who fiercely embraces at meetings

9. A raincloud of dew in his munificence and a savior of the hopeful and needy
Dispelling gloom with his blazing light

10. The protector of his kingdom's kings, my lord Al-Hajjaj
He appears to eyes like the dawning morn

11. His charm like the flowers of gardens in their scent
The doves of my thoughts echoed his renown

12. My passion adorned him with necklaces and pendants
The champions of the faith - his elevation is a spearhead

13. Hawks of war on the day of battle a piercing blade
His right hand is open when seekers implore

14. A law of munificence that abrogation has not erased
This - but my heart is stricken by distance

15. Its only relief lament or passion
Will a day fulfill its promise of reunion

16. And immerse me in the rapture of joy or passion?
My heart shot an arrow into separation

17. And passion has taken hold over all of it
None can deliver it but the union

18. And none grant refuge but the Lord of mankind
He surpasses all others in sight or report

19. A master whose guidance delights the perceiving eye
His beauty shines like the dawning day

20. The stars around disappear at his appearance
He makes all past and future insignificant

21. Promises kept or broken, fulfilled or pending
He remains secured in attaining perfection

22. And from his overflowing grace rewards every benefactor
A master who contends with time and adversity

23. Becoming just, establishing equity among us
Bestowing clouds of gifts on those who seek them

24. Enveloping them in throngs of kindness
However you glance at me, in letter or speech

25. Your every look or word confers blessing and fortune
To gain the choicest portion in this life

26. O Joseph in beauty or in sovereignty!
My composition is a limpid, harmonious string

27. I remove by it the bitterness of misfortune
When you said “My servant, al-Husayn, you are my possession!”

28. I am your slave, O Imam of Justice
O Khazrajite in lineage and origin

29. O Gatherer of the dew into a whole
When none in this age are mine but you

30. My tear and passionate heart roam distraught
Suffused with passion like the waving banners

31. My eyelids and love are lasting and eternal
As the sword of Islam’s champion

32. My passion - how can counting grasp it?
How many outstretched hands have I extended to its furthest limit

33. I express it in sighs that surpass all counting
A meaning that passion wills, explicitly or allusively

34. A gazelle who accepts no contentment but what he dictates
No purpose but what pleases him

35. The sword of patience - whenever I unsheathe it
Passion fells whatever resolve wields it

36. Would that bygone days might return
And intimacy be restored to wholeness

37. I hoped - but does love acknowledge hope?
Or after it does sorrow avail or benefit?

38. This is my heart, youthful toward him, intent
Passion in me has reached its zenith

39. This is my ambition - if he should attain what he desires
Then my tears are copious and my ardour overflowing

40. She drew it deftly with fingers white as camomile
From the palm of the Imam of West and al-Andalus

41. Revealing the light of dawn to the illuminator
The lion of saddle-bags and the full moon of majlis

42. The guidance of his hand disperses the wings of night when it descends
His palm is hoped for protection and dreaded in war

43. It wearied Jarir and al-A’sha in description
So how can verse match it or approach it?

44. Take it as the meadow’s adab in its irrigation
He brought it life with rainclouds of munificence when he revived it

45. A composition that ennobled a servant through his Master
With excellent work that Allah gifted him

46. For him the caravan is challenged and the deserts traversed
The chronicles of his gifts are recited from his right hand

47. By the bounty of his hands every thirst is quenched
He utters his praise in secret or softly breathed

48. A master of consummate character and perfecter of bounty
Made clear by the complete man of dew

49. By it his servant attained hopes
Nobility profits from his glance and wealth

50. My Master who guides creation with guidance
One whose attributes all creation wearied in describing

51. When you attained the most exalted rank of perfection
Your servant attained what he hoped for in this life