1. Your virtues are too high to be encompassed by description
With all humility I ask your pardon and clemency

2. With what tongue can I speak of glory after
Eras have passed, none before me uttered a letter

3. The splendor of glory's adornment has grown barren
And the ear of grandeur will not be molded to it

4. To my merit it is misguidance when the reins are handed
To other than him, and when the pages are read by him

5. Which hand is worthier of a thankful kiss
Than the hand whose reach is withdrawal and bestowal

6. The austerity of a criminal's face in his shame
And the prophecy of a heart that has no tenderness

7. I betrayed him with the same betrayal time betrayed its people
And denied a right that propriety obliges me to

8. For a matter that estranged me from all intimacy and pleasure
So no pleasure turns toward me, nor intimacy

9. My thoughts battled every harmonious ode I composed
Obedient, so my praise cannot withstand a single grace

10. And here I am, weeping not for a dwelling gone
Nor consoled by a blossoming branch or enclosed garden

11. Brides of thought I courted then rejected
So my love songs for them are not guides nor processions

12. Hardships have shackled me and shortened
My strides, so beneath their weights I stagger

13. As if before me no sinner was born
Pardoned by clemency, nor benefactor to plead

14. Greetings to excellence whose sun never sets
Beyond its seekers there is no veil or barrier

15. And those open arms extended toward the dew
So their kindness is connection, pausing at their delegation

16. If I write a letter describing him
I find legions of virtue, every line with a rank

17. As if his meanings were bold horsemen
Meeting his foe, and the letters their armor

18. His majesty and influence put them to flight
While his amiability and grace draw them near

19. A brother of words, radiating vitality and eloquence
And from his edges spill beauty and grace

20. In his presence hearts remove the veil of pretense
And from his awe eyes avert their gaze

21. In every dark night his lightning travels unseen
Too swift for grasping, vanished in an instant

22. He attains what the white and red banner cannot
And stumbles where the sight of the keenest-eyed falters

23. His eloquence reveals the facets of problems
Before them, and the face of dawn reveals its unveiling

24. O father of the Yemen, your rain has poured down
Drenching your lands while its lightning flashes and hides

25. On every barren plain its armies crawl slowly
Blanketed between us by their creeping pace

26. It sends down drizzling rain on the hilltops
Scattered by the gentle blowing winds

27. The sky's visage gains prominence from it
While the palm of the homeland shields from its flashes

28. Good tidings for the upright faith you crown
With a crown of honor, its qualities precise

29. Your standards of supremacy rose up and taught
The hearts of foes how they should tremble in awe

30. You defined them with the same boundaries as criminals
And for the guided no path ahead or behind

31. If someone in this world claimed your merit has an equal
I would say his words by sacred law are slanderous

32. I have seen none like you, with distance all-encompassing
Purity, and in distance, oh how few remain pure

33. Loved ones move on, dwelling changes
But my heart's will from loyalty to you does not change

34. Nothing estranged me except your grandeur and protection
That estranged a people from Nu'man and the she-camel's saddle

35. When the Kindean lion bares his den
No sleepy eye or timid heart settles

36. It gave me cups of love's wine, pure and unmixed
So it is vain to think I'll awaken while drunk on its wine

37. And it has taught me, like as-Samhari
So no critic of merit finds fault in my manners

38. I rose like the rising moon, its light my sun
And my sign is to never be eclipsed from it

39. I was granted pearls of speech from its sea of knowledge
None after me will harvest them from the oyster shells

40. It has transcribed Baghdad in pages
So no hoof bleeds longing toward it, nor footsteps

41. I have extracted from the sciences of Khalil and others
Treasures assumed lost but God has kept them preserved

42. So which leader can the chests of Khalil be stood before
Or with them compete working letters and calligraphy?

43. He has contained the reedbeds of precedence in every field
So every chest has become a chest filled next to it

44. Near to kindness, far from villainy
Safe from stumbling and protected from blemish

45. Exceeding in his expenditure and fulfilling in his knowledge
While others diminish the sea and yet crave more

46. He is visited, his pearls float up for the devoted
I have seen no other sea where pearls float

47. And how many kinds of favors he grants
When one genre of speech or category ends, others remain

48. You feared the days, hoped in some and despaired in others
No tyranny there to fear, no suffering to dread

49. Fate obeys you in all you seek
For you it has devotion and grace

50. It has shown me alone among the people
Though around me are throngs of their elite

51. Faces the victory clothed in the garb of its grace
Hearts that lack all generosity and grace

52. You are but the sun, hidden by clouds passing
Why does my shadow in your absence not cast?

53. I had excellent courtesy, cordiality
And excellent sincere affection with you and kindness

54. I brought my eyes water of your tidings whenever
Thirsty, and water in freshwood oozes out

55. Oh my sorrow, it dried up, as destinies decree
If not for destinies, you would not forget to water

56. So do not neglect memories, I will not neglect
One not so distant from your virtues

57. God has granted an era that has separated us with its trials
I did not know what separation and change were

58. I wish that fate which has come had come earlier
And if we do not meet, then early fate I wish