1. The lightning flashed from the heights of Minā
Announcing victory and manifest triumph

2. Rise my boon companion, and serve me that coffee
Liberated for a while after a while in servitude

3. A daughter of generosity, like the sun’s heat from
The spring of Aleppo or from Aden

4. Pass the cups around and let’s greet the morn
Leave no wine, my friend, of Andarīn

5. Among lions in their dens, whom
Passion struck in the eyes of lovely, doe-eyed maidens

6. With supple spears, smooth
And beautifully shaped between pliant and soft

7. With visors that are like ostrich shells
Mounted when skillfully wrought in Shanghai

8. Lancers who pierced whoever
Took pride in Merdenich or Tashkent

9. And cheeks where apples of sweet
Pomegranates on branches are bashful and sad

10. And breasts like elephant tusks when
Filled with precious pearls

11. And loves who drew blood
How much blood did they spill from lovers

12. When they tighten their belts,
Then relax the self-restraint of ascetics

13. With eyes that did what they did
The day the swords of Muslims unsheathed at Hitteen

14. The Franks were idols, and how many
Hanifs struck with their right hands

15. And a girl the sun trails
On the train of her dress above the mound of jasmine

16. An idol, no, a statue in the temple
Of paganism, the Romans prostrate before her

17. The bishop holds his heart before her
Fearing it will betray him

18. I professed God’s oneness in my love for her
And she views love in the opinion of polytheists

19. And I shall take back the kingdom from her
Who did not glorify the glorious in worldly or religious affairs

20. I ask the Creator to possess her
Then to grant me her love, say "Amen"

21. For He is just, beneficent,
Generous, and equitable in His rule, steadfast

22. A king—no, an angel molded from the
Light of the Throne, not vile water

23. His poetry is deemed excellent, all of it,
While other poems are mostly rubbish and fat

24. So come, You who saw him as a man
In whom the whole world is united

25. His spear is sweet syrup in which is a gazelle
Who in battle goes berserk like a zealous lion

26. In his right hand is a sword bowing down
To enemies, felling them prostrate

27. He kills enemies and beasts with it
Among the plains and the dens of lions

28. And he is victorious over enemies
Wherever a companion and confidante turned

29. The wine froths when he drinks it
In wonder at his sound, steadfast mind

30. If people were like him in it
It would not be forbidden to the pious to drink

31. It would become in the world and in
Religion an offering in the hands of sinners

32. And we would drink it openly, fearing neither
Eighty nor forty lashes

33. He is a sultan—when one of dignity beholds him
He comes with clear sovereignty

34. A generous man whose palm has touched
No cup except that it softened

35. His flints are better than any flints, and have sparked
For the kings of earth fire altogether

36. If he struck water with pebbles
He would ignite fire from water that flows

37. The tide met the sea, so his striking
Came flaming every time

38. Wondrous that his pens were not
Illuminated, yet they are in his right hand

39. He receives his delegation with a smile
After the herd of camels crossed the sea waves in boats

40. O king, of whom the true praiser
Exhausts himself with certain truth in praise

41. The year has come to you in truth and in
Earnest rising above the dawn of clear Saturday