1. He unveiled, so the low moon shone
And threw off his cloak, so the tender branch bowed

2. And gave off the lightning of that smile which had been hidden
So how much hidden lightning gave love and made love desired

3. He drew a sword from his amorous glance
My heart is still his, or his eyelid, eyelid

4. He appeared and bent his cheek and stature
So I saw in him the sun, the slender branch and branch

5. He killed my patience, possessing my life
And keeps me sleepless in love, he of the curly lock

6. And how much patience he supposed in me, yet no truth
I granted to his supposition the truth and supposition

7. He bent, but his bending did not bend his heart
And he meant, loving the repulses - and meant not

8. And he likes to see my tear, if it flows
My heart his prisoner in his love, a pawn

9. We blamed, for the sake of the repulses, his settling of scores
And how much good he gained, we never praised his goodness

10. And his features in the full moon enchant me
And in the softness of his gait is meaning for me

11. So many sorrows I met in the sorrow of his home
Or sorrow appeared, provoking sorrow in me

12. And in that singer, need for tears
And how many a tear enriched the need of singers

13. A time passed, whose life was shortest
As if we were, for a quarter of intimacy, and were not

14. And how many a night of nights, whose remoteness wing
I passed in passion, and hung up fancy, and languor

15. I attained in it from us refuge and wishes
A loved one's visit, joining refuge and wishes

16. Years of generous giving, whose years the spinning wheel spun
So by Allah what ripened, and alas what it spun

17. The nights and years pass in separation from him
Small wonder I weep and beat upon the years

18. I yearn and sometimes moan youthfully
And were it not for love, neither youth nor elder would moan

19. And how much art he brought to the heart, or rather led
And the moon-like one sang out of heartache, art

20. He still sits with the lute in flowering branch
And my watcher became his companion, and we were friends

21. No garden melody stirred for a lover
Trouble, while the boughs of the thicket for me sang

22. In it torrents wept, so torrents of tears poured
And he sang a yearning, witty, eloquent melody

23. The wafting scent of musk breathed from it
Like mention of the noblest, noble, which pierced the cities

24. Magnanimity of my lord Abdurraheem and his power
Throughout time, how much he enriched and how much he impoverished

25. He is the brilliant celestial, and he is its guardian
So he made easy in it ease and good fortune, good fortune

26. When it bared the sword's blade
The state sufficed for attack and blows and stabbing

27. He protected the king from fearing a rebel or raid
And how many a raid below his rule we fended

28. When he sallied forth in his firmness, restraint said
Stand and watch what the busy bee does

29. And if one day an enemy came, his book
Bent back his army, slackening the rein, and bent

30. He is time, so its firmness the dawn whose folds
Whitened, and the starset darkness, when it withdrew

31. Did he make its line a line of Sammah, so we have not seen
A line but his to rout the centuries

32. In us is rapture at what his eloquence composes
Did he compose a jewel for the hearing or melody?

33. His rhyming became rhyming like doves, as though
His fingers were trembling, raging leaves

34. When people count, he is highest in rank
And if in counting he be not highest in rank

35. Most noble among all vile deeds while living
And firmest in every accident, pillar

36. As if the nights of fate were lines of scripture
And now its days meaning and text

37. When he appeared, hearing envied seeing
And if he spoke, my watcher envied hearing

38. And if archers aimed at his side
His knowledge inspired him, generosity clothed the aim

39. And if people hoarded amusement, eloquence filled amusements
With the scratching of the storm winds, refusing hoarding

40. And they did not declaim but to kill and bring to life
Through you the eternal glory and glory

41. With your company, days are fertile days
And enemies' promises are smooth, the rough broken

42. And rhyme defrauded of truth, its right is seized
So I paid it its due and secured it from fraud

43. A bride, steed of thought, my guardian her groom
I stayed wakeful for her and she found no wakefulness

44. And she unleashed herself from the prison of my understanding, but
Fearing the evil husband, I confined her to prison

45. She benefits hearts' love, and sometimes
She stirs up, provoking enemies and conflict

46. So when people bandy her house's wordplay
You see the eloquent of people seek help of puns

47. Drunk, though no wine-cup passed round them
By a singer, without vintage or tavern

48. And if she disputed with them rein to rein
Then every youth is Qays disputing with Layla

49. If all earth's people together named her excellence
She would be heaven, or weight in their eyes

50. And I refuse wrong from every companion
And dislike my heart to be cheek to them

51. If a land I never helped in, I rose
And made known the Jinnis' forts, the ruins

52. And what of my merit amongst my people sullen?
Its signs reached men and jinn alike

53. I am Indian aloeswood, pliant in its hollow
And its breaths perfumed plain and sorrow