1. Tell the best of people in self and father,
And kin and ancestors an utterance of one specialized,

2. Muhammad the hoped for and exemplar,
The Commander Abu al-Abbas of merit not deficit.

3. And one who gathered manners after their separation,
And gained knowledge of them through research and investigation,

4. The subtle commentator of mentalities refined in nature,
And purified through proximity however much cleansing.

5. Far from accepting the enviousness of an ignoble companion,
Who lagged behind the distinguished ones in defiance and advantage-taking.

6. If my eating and drinking are pleasant for me, then I
Am like one suffering from absence from you.

7. I used to have fortune and intimacy with you,
But what I feared occurred suddenly however much cutting off.

8. With negating what had mended and falsely joined together,
And he quickly accomplished it, however much cutting.

9. From the dogs of Khwarizm, a despised, feeble gang,
Insignificant, obscure in figure, in the form of monkeys.

10. And a fabricator kindled the embers with blowing,
A liar, with the tails of lies like a magician.

11. The bent-nosed people of bent ways came with crookedness,
Those of cunning minds and bleary eyes.

12. Owners of bellies full of falsehood and lies,
While their truthfulness retreats to the deepest interiors.

13. They did not prop up a saying to one of solidity,
Nor construct the vanity of speech upon a basis.

14. And in the palace people, if they saw us eminent
And leveled their necks at us like an old camel's.

15. Their eyelids met in inciting against us
And the words scattered with provocation and plunging.

16. They did not accept the advice of the proposer in what
He saw, and they buttressed their slander, however much consolidation.

17. Absence from their clouds rained on him,
And they measured out for him a measure of carping and cutting off.

18. And there blew for you, in your absence, a desiccating wind
Of grief that diminished your patience from you, rather cut it off.

19. So he was anguished by a draught of parting from you, restless,
Writhing, bitterer than aloes.

20. If accomplishment one day allows a sitting
With you, speech will come to you with explanation and summarization.

21. So you granted audience to the appearance of truth when
Its face turned toward you until proximity directed precise speech.

22. The suspicion of time has bent me with your absence,
The bending of one gambling with metaphor in cutting off.

23. Toward you my hopes stretched in resolve
For the companionship of kin, holding firm, pining.

24. And anguished whom the family's cup made drink
A draught, so it wasted him in nearing ecstasy and trembling.

25. To the son of him who revived the wilderness, his justice,
So he was compared with al-Faruq among them, Abu Hafs.

26. And I had a promise to you with a ring
Studded, pleasing to behold in appearance and person.

27. Noble, when they would sign it for a lord
Whose nobility and elevation through it increased.

28. So I have not glimpsed the Commander with mention
Of it by insinuation in speech nor directly.

29. Favor with him did not avail me in that
To remind of fulfillment, and I am not greedy.

30. I do not exaggerate praise except for one
Who exaggerates in giving, and I am no deficient.

31. Not with an insignificant heart, nor with a little branch
Where a fresh twig sways upon the thickets.

32. The firm resolve of her heart is like rock,
Though it hides in a contemptible body.

33. Nor with absorption in the pleasure of taste of a finch
Whose compatibility is in the age of shrikes and cages.

34. If the like of chickpeas were hoped for in Homs
The men would lead my camels to Homs.

35. I lean toward drinking deep of the noble ones in my anguish,
And am not a remedy for the wretched ones' ulcers.

36. So say to whoever compared the Commander to other than him,
"You have made an effort, but measured out grain is not like crushed."

37. You went blindly into vanity in speech and falsehood
By a gap that surmounted the rocks in vertigo.

38. The beauties of this creation began with you
And one of meagre means drags them like a thief.

39. Thus glory cannot be gathered by wealth,
And by abodes the structures were built of bricks and plaster.

40. You have not ceased to be for the eternal realm its ruler,
Obeyed by it in what you desire, and it does not disobey.

41. You attained the furthest limit of lifetimes
Beyond the reach of enumeration, before which the enumerator's hand falls short.