1. Between the branches and the river bends
A lineage whose tongues are watchful eyes

2. Whether a roaring lion or a spear-wielding knight
Who made the waist quiver or the river bend to stab

3. The soft breeze bends the supple branches
More delicate than a rod or flute

4. Watered by the nectar of youth, if its branches
Were pulled by longing, it would bend affectionately

5. Have you seen one more eloquent than the languor of his eyelids
Describing illness while his waist complains of emaciation

6. I cried once and the hem of his garment dropped
Revealing a rose in winter and lilies

7. Curse whoever made swords to be unsheathed
And whoever made shields to be bought

8. Smell what is in your eyelids when they become the grounds
Of unsheathing cutting swords and piercing pupils

9. Terrify those deadly swords, for they have become
More dear in the eyes and better protected

10. Curing an incurable illness while changing
In a morn that equals bendable youth

11. How many plain garments spoke eloquently
In which I pitied it its inexpensive bracelets

12. I embraced the branch, a bending, roaring lion
And hunted the doe, watchful, keen-eyed

13. The golden cheek betrayed by the betrayer
How strange is a golden coin that brings wealth

14. Had my eyes not attended the wedding feast
I would not have dressed them in a colorful garb of tears

15. Does the ardent lover complain of his passion’s agony
If he did not suppress it, it would not have been proclaimed

16. I was where his tears described the eyes
I would have known that from tears come tongues

17. And I have often folded the page of his secret
Today tears translate and title it

18. As for an attainable hope, then fearing it
While the sea is fearful, even if it grants wealth

19. Loving the clement whose company lacks no grace
Its union is the point, one or together

20. Watering from afar like clouds, and nearby
Thank his generosity from here and from there

21. And I fear the heart of the eyes until it resembles
The quiver despaired of ever being full

22. I paid its height amidst the chests of his enemies
And his virtues walked on the cheek of lowliness

23. To it belong the glorious herd on the day of assembly
Adorned and built lofty, smooth, well-founded

24. Our sights were raised to a piercing star
Its light adorned the dawn and the pliant

25. Increasing guidance in the darkness of tribulations
Like its brother in the dark, towering high

26. My moon-like in beauty, starry in glory
Celesitial in determination, solar in brilliance

27. To take your place in eloquence and freshness
Is deemed by whoever an easy attainment

28. Alas! The distant is not easily attained
And seeking the distant may perhaps be attained

29. By God, your generosity did not lack praise
That would suffice, and your forbearance wronged none

30. Until it was as if blame had caught you red-handed
Or you were foremost among the ignorant

31. You were taught the swerves of fate after its youth
And you took from it a difficult side

32. You exited the ministry with slippery steps
While others’ moments lasted, you were firmly rooted

33. You did not lack, singular outstanding one
Until you chose praise and they chose nicknames

34. I console them, preoccupied with Nasrani* affairs
While the affairs of nobility are your concern

35. So if you hear talk of generosity
You authenticate it, and it echoes to you

36. And I accessed from the gardens of my reason
Whatever flowed in life, guarded and refined

37. I watered its growth with your love, so it produced
Flowers, but with the ears they are to be plucked

38. Everyone avoided the well-trodden path of the beloved
So it remained in mines, recorded

39. Its freshness guided the reddened drinker from inhibition
So it degraded the heights of words and protected them

40. And your enviers washed with tears before death
Shrouded in their garb before being entombed

41. I walked towards you while tribulations are witnesses
With the stars closing their eyes, dozing

42. Dawn in the scabbard of darkness as though
Fearing its piercing eyes would perceive us

43. With decaying lamps like the archer
The times have weakened and worn them out

44. Thirsty, I did not drink, and it is no wonder
From your fresh water, sorrowful and complaining

45. O camel rider, here is the honored palace
And Egypt, and this is Joseph, so enjoy

46. Your lands have become a Kaaba for hopes
Pilgrimed forever, and a mine of magnanimity

47. So your whole life is like the Feast of Sacrifice
With no dispersal, and its field is Mina

48. I forgot the echo there, tranquil,
While the sprouts of Sa’dan are fertile produce

49. As if the days of ‘Aqiq and Hajir
Have returned in the shade of seeing you bend

50. You have silenced with kindness every slanderer
From us and made the silent speak

51. None remained ignorantly ungrateful
Who dwelled under your knowledge as a faithful

52. You rebuilt the adversary of fate looting what it protected
Tightening what it weakened, demolishing what it built