1. I lost wealth when fortune turned fickle,
And a neck that was erect became bent.

2. My hoary hair is but a guiding light
When it gleams in the black night of youth.

3. My forties did not turn me from pleasures
When the Najdi took to them though mature.

4. I flirt with the gazelles of chastity,
Stirred by the specter of gone passion.

5. When ignorance shook the reins of my patience,
Deceiving me, I turned a blind eye.

6. Unlike the obsessed, I vie for wishes,
Unlike the armed, for beauty and grace.

7. I'm the sword with water and fire in it,
Kindling amid the scabbard's barrenness.

8. How often, alone, I crossed the dark night,
Yearning for the crescent moon to shine.

9. My sorcery always gathering and dispersing,
Shortening his path though he is far away.

10. So I never lacked a bounteous garden,
Reaping the fruits of its blooms exquisite.

11. O son of the lofty, they left no ladder
For the son of Saʿd to climb the sublime.

12. He who shook the world with his father's might,
No wonder water can shine bright.

13. I'm most noble when I pardon, most fierce when angry,
Stingiest in giving, farthest from greed.

14. As the sunshade flickers over the delegation,
No needy ever returned from me dispossessed.

15. My words fill me with longing, and every man of pride
Continues craving the likes of them.

16. My anklets were never bereft of a lover,
Nor amongst men was a camel lad left unloved.

17. Why then do they seek consent, stooping
To the mouth of a smooth cheek when they visit?

18. Should a suitor be generous in his proposal,
He will find the doors of my cheer flung wide.

19. Chastity reins them in and returns them
To their burrows ― pure, virtuous ladies.

20. None deserves them but a sovereign or a noble
Set free...

21. Secluded in places he decreed,
Though the sun sets on the lands, she makes dawn rise.

22. In times of peace, they are flocks of wild cows,
In raging war, charging brigades.

23. How much glory their branches shake,
Lighting up the darkest nights.

24. Because if she tastes it she is inclined
To shun his morals and rebel.

25. Is this a sin I deliberately committed
That my hands were bound to such misdeed?

26. Why did he not follow the vizier's example?
For I have taken it as witness 'gainst fickle time.

27. Whenever in deep trouble, I came to him
Seeking refuge, shelter, and detachment.

28. How I complained of blights when he sent an emissary,
And explained when he darkened a meaning!

29. Who can steal the radiant morn of its light?
Who can dam the sea to stop its flow?

30. Like musk, his mention exudes his palms,
And it is the wont of light to radiate.

31. Many generous men have not stood up for my praise
Though soaring high on the peaks of grandeur.

32. Between you two, there will always be differences
If you marry your bounty off to an ex-husband.

33. And if you bestow on them the means of Allah,
You deserve to repeat it and go beyond.

34. My days have in store what sets spears dancing
And makes me greet the morning in tears.

35. With tears of sadness I could set water alight,
And it suffices sadness to make water burn.

36. But the raiment of youth is a restraint,
And the snakes of my mind do not bow to grief.

37. Eyes lower their gaze
When a faint shimmer of grey hairs radiates from his temples.

38. Give me hopes that reach not the doors of humiliation
I have knocked on, nor walls I have scaled or trenched.

39. My fame has traversed land and sea travelling,
And my likeness constantly soaring to the heavens.

40. If the darkness of night tried to veil its forehead,
It would shatter the doors of gloom and tear them apart.

41. Why then does time try to erase me,
Renewing my ancestor's deed, but differently?

42. Making me taste its wine after joy,
Though I was included in its favors unconditionally.

43. Maybe you are comforting me for stumbling
With a spirit from your bliss in a body of sorrows.

44. Maybe you are the rise of moons of bounty
That had set while you were a horizon for me.

45. You have bestowed her pastures without consent,
Though you were never wrathful towards it, forever prosperous.

46. If time attempted to take something by force,
Humiliating a servant or empowering the freed...

47. You have conveyed me to hopes without doors of humiliation
I knocked on, or walls I scaled or trenched.

48. So my fame traversed land and sea traveling,
And my likeness constantly soaring through the heavens.