1. Reason with me, as the eggs of my hopes
Have perished, and darkness is not fleeting

2. If you both forget the love of some people
Then make me one of those you remember

3. Many a night is like the morning in appearance
Though clad in blackest garb

4. We raced in it to frivolity when
The stars paused bewildered

5. How we wished to praise that time in verse
But we were preoccupied with censuring this time

6. So it is as if I said nothing, while the moon is a child
And the darkness of night is in its prime

7. This night of mine is a bride of splendor
Adorned with necklaces of pearls

8. Sleep has fled my eyelids in it
And tranquility has fled the heart of the coward

9. The crescent seems to plunge into the Pleiades
As they embrace for farewell

10. My companions said, in two dens of figs and acacia trees
When the Pleiades appeared:

11. "We are drowning, so how can stars rescue us
Drowning in the abyss of darkness?"

12. Suhail is like the tenderness of love in color
And the lover's heart in its throbbing

13. Tyrannical, as if he were the accomplished horseman
No other horsemen dare to rival

14. It quickens crimson like the kindling of anger
In the twinkle of an eye

15. The swords of enemies bloodied it
So the Pleiades wept with mercy for it

16. Its forelegs and hindlegs while it is kneeling
Like one with no feet or legs

17. Then the darkness paled and it feared the dawn
So it covered its greying with saffron

18. Its dawn rose on its fallen head
As if a sword made it think of flight

19. By lands where the path of destiny made me alight
Between the twisting road and the straight road

20. The eyes of riders peering for an eye
Around which is a swollen, lidless orbit

21. The world bears witness with the blood of the two martyrs
Ali and his son

22. For they are, at the ends of night, two dawns
And in its early hours, two twilights

23. Steadfast in his shirt, so hosts will come
Prepared to face the Merciful

24. The beauty of the epoch is after ancestors
Each ancestor the beauty of his time

25. O son of the one who paraded ranks with a full moon
And destroyed the hordes of Ghaṭfān

26. The peerless one of the five whose goals
Are evident in every eloquent speech and meaning

27. And the brilliant lights created as rays
Before the creation of Mars and Libra

28. Before the heavens were created or their spheres
Were set in motion by decree

29. If Taurus aimed its thrust at them, the royal throne
Would tumble off its head

30. Or the Fish wanted to stab them, it would return
Like a retracted spear before piercing

31. Or the bow of stars aimed at them, the Giant would lose strength
And the Bright One betray them

32. Or the celestial whale disobeyed them, a hunter
From Canopus would be its demise

33. You are like the sun in brilliance, and though you transcended
The celestial sphere in high station

34. The name Ahmad's son matched the name of God’s Messenger
When the two intents aligned

35. Muhammad's traits have foiled the gentle expressions
Of thoughts and minds in description

36. And his six children flowed among people
Like spirits flowing in bodies

37. For they are the seven planets, the greatest
Of them in rank being Mercury

38. With them the King favored the Children of Eve
Until they surpassed beasts

39. They were ennobled with nobility, and the dark-skinned
Are an ornament when adorned with shells

40. And if the earth, when dusty, became
A rose from their spears’ blood

41. They came bearing the registers amid the throngs
Accustomed to betrayal

42. Striking equal blows that turn auspiciousness
Into inauspiciousness by the decree of Fate

43. They purified the turbid chaos with faces
Made beautiful, for they are the essence of benevolence

44. We have answered the noble one’s words with words
And proven pebbles superior to coral

45. His diction has delighted us like the delight
Of lovers listening to melodies

46. So we have plucked his shining whiteness like polished silver
And his blushing redness like crimson

47. If only we were allotted a drink of it to fullness
Our eyes would delight in every hazel and bay

48. And we would spurn drinking from cups in disdain
And delight in pure wine

49. O pearl, you were cast from an untrodden sea
With no pathway for currents

50. I am no Imru' al-Qais when he is paired with me in poetry
No, I have fallen silent from the wager

51. So be content with my meter and rhyme
For my concerns are heavy in weight

52. From fateful turns that seized my mind and speech
For they shackle the heart and tongue

53. O Abu Ibrahim, poetry falls short of you
When you are described in the Qur’an

54. The world drinks love of you innately
For it is obligatory in all religions

55. What you believe has become clear to Muslims
And from it they attained guidance and clarity

56. The limits of faith derive from you
And the faithful seek them out

57. Your life to the one who worships this transient world
And your frowning at the youths

58. The Magians' god is your sword, if only
They would desist from worshiping fires

59. You argued with the rider of the she-camel, and if
You had refused, she would have inclined to Harran

60. She prayed at midday at the embers of Al-Hijr
Then spent the night writhing in childbirth

61. My two she-camels knelt in yearning, so the riders thought
I had hobbled them

62. Live forever for the sake of your moonlike face
For in his prime it is still young