1. Tell the best of people in self and forebears,
And tribe and ancestors an eloquent speech -

2. Muhammad the hoped for and the exemplar to be followed,
The Commander Abu al-Abbas, possessing outstanding merit and defectlessness.

3. And whoever gathered manners after their separation
And gained them through research and examination -

4. Refined in the margins of his mind, his nature polished,
Purified through proximity the best of purifications.

5. Far from accepting the envy of an associating envier
Who lags behind with slander and opportunism -

6. If my eating and drinking are pleasant then I am like one
Yearning from my absence from him in the east.

7. I used to have fortune and intimacy with him
Then that which I feared happened suddenly -

8. With the nullification of that which he patched up and falsely joined,
And he soon recounted it - the best recounting.

9. From the dogs of Khwarizm, an accursed weakling,
Insignificant, hidden in appearance, in the form of a plane tree.

10. And a kindler ignited the embers against him with blowing,
A deceiver tied with the tails of lies like a buttress.

11. The sons of the crooked roads came with crookedness -
Possessors of slender noses and bleary eyes.

12. Foremost with suspicions in falsehood and lies,
While their truth retreats to deceitful bellies.

13. They did not lean any coherent saying,
Nor build up the lies of speech on a foundation.

14. And in the palace some people, if we saw they were informed
And they lowered for us the high necks like ossified necks.

15. Their eyelids met with incitement against us
And the words separated with roundedness and chewing.

16. They did not accept the advice of the profferer in that
Which he saw, and they butted their calumny - the best butting.

17. Absence from their clouds deluged him,
And they measured out for him a sa`a of riffraff and Stories.

18. So a drinker came to you from sorrow over him
To distract you - or rather to fully distract you -

19. Who choked on a drink of parting from you,
contracted, bitterer than wormwood.

20. And if possibility one day actualizes a session
With you, the words will come to you in explanation and summation.

21. So you will restore the right of one who was toppled
To the lowliness of the people through lies and hunting.

22. Then I will happily live life in your proximity
And drag in its pleasures the train of a shirt.

23. By the right! The heart overflowed, the surplus of a draught
Of worries, until the matter came to me from unstitching.

24. And the person of truth raised his face to you
Until nearness leads the articulated inquiry.

25. Doubt of the times wrapped me in your absence,
The wrapping of one gambling openly in cutting.

26. To you hopes carried me, an resolve
To restore relations, binding and focused.

27. And sorrow which the family's cup intoxicated with its bitterness,
So it distracted him with ardor, trembling, and dancing.

28. To the son whom his justice revived the wilderness,
So he was compared in it to al-Faruq, their father Hafs.

29. I had a promise to you with a ring,
fastened with an amorous glance, excellent in person.

30. Noble, whenever they carry it to a master,
His nobility magnifies and rises through it.

31. So I have not glimpsed the Commander by mentioning it,
With indirect words in speech, nor directly.

32. Favoritism from him has not assisted me in that
To remind of fulfillment, and I am not covetous.

33. I exaggerate praise only for one
Who exaggerates in giving, and I am not deficient.

34. One inspired with yearning, his heart not with a vile
Which a pliant branch rubs, aromatic on dais.

35. Its crucible is the heart’s resolve, like rock his heart,
Though it is confined in a despised body.

36. Nor with inclusive delight of taste, a gourd,
Whose match is in a bottle and cage.

37. So if the like of it were hoped for in chickpeas,
The men would lead my mounts to chickpeas!

38. I incline to drink nobly with my darkness,
And I am not a sucker for the rabble's veins.

39. So say to whoever compared the Commander to other than him:
Be firm, for precise measure is not like guesswork.

40. You have arbitrarily aimed falsehood and invalidity
Beside a cleft that mastered the rocks with trembling.

41. The beauties of this creation began with you,
And a pretentious one pulls them like a sneak thief.

42. Thus glory is not gathered together through wealth
And with homes built with mudbricks and plaster.

43. You have remained for the eternal kingdom its possessor,
Obeyed by it in what you desire, not disobeyed.

44. You have taken from lifetimes the furthest extent
That calculation's hand misses in counting them.