1. Did he who deposited the secret of his heart in a rocky cavern
Endure like molten lead flowing in tears?

2. His eyes flowed copiously in the night
Pillows cast on their shores.

3. Why did the torrential heart rebuke the one whose
Heart was rent by the tattered garment?

4. And cast his advice to the hunt of passion
When he shepherded around the ropes of love.

5. Lovesickness is ardent lovesickness
And eyes on hearts crept up.

6. And when an ardent clinger held fast to fondness
He trotted to the Does’ pasture, wandering.

7. And for you among the girls of the land an absent one
Who, with the magic of dawn, blackened an eyelid.

8. Her waist-wrapper and face-veil are filled
With yellow, as if a girdle split a slender waist.

9. She returned sickly from the sickness of her eyelids.
She appeared to him like a startling vision.

10. The darkness shone radiantly through her splendor.
As if the dawn had drunk the unveiled.

11. She lowered her braids—oh, for blackness—
And breathed musk on legs that spilled saffron.

12. She walked with a limp like dripping blood while her gait
Put the partridges to shame in grace and beauty.

13. So I marveled at a branch the morning breeze contended with
A breast fruited and hips made tender.

14. A beloved who greeted with the rose of a cheek
And gave to drink from the goblet of a mouth a heady wine.

15. Do not wonder at my words. For my saying
Informed about the judgment of my stingy eye.

16. I am a man who gained all jest.
And the hunt, all the hunt in the interior of honor.

17. O Lord of extension and ebb, may His water
Be destruction to the sphere if it is severed.

18. The darkness blew when it saw him dead.
In place of the soul, it blew a whistling wind.

19. It leads to the Bewilderer of mankind in his solitude
Were it not for the mountain goats roaming the barren wadis.

20. Even the fox fears his fierceness in roaming,
And terror in him makes the spotted hyena recoil.

21. We sheathed his blade in the guts of a black woman
Like a broadsword that rent a dusty quiver.

22. She escapes the cup and the forearm of a refined woman.
As if he were a stallion mounting her noisily.

23. A sea that related the bounty of Ibn Yahya—its torrents
And the meteors of the palace among them diminished.

24. He provides kings a generous hand and the loftiest ethic,
And the most distinguished pedigree and noblest ancestry.

25. Do not consider worries to be one thing—
Great is the difference between Pleiades and motes.

26. The full moon of awe hides in the sleeves of his garments.
When a king sees a king he extols.

27. The star of the supreme from the loins of a reddish she-camel
Time polished its glories of a reddish she-camel through him.

28. His throne in the highest heaven is adorned
By a ruler who in the cradle was kept awake at night.

29. All mortals donned before his might
Humility and bewilderment in submission.

30. And as if in every saying of the eloquent
Fear that makes the admonished tremble was inserted.

31. And as if He chose him in this world
And picked his days for their beauty.

32. Smooth of cheek—no veil covers him when
The turtledove sings melodiously in the pass.

33. The crease in his head is the blow of a shining sword.
And his twist of heart is the stab of a brown spear.

34. And when the sword of the valiant is bared
For the fight, it kills courage with the flawless.

35. How many a fallen foe from the blow of his sword
He collared with the broken remains of a blade!

36. Vigilant, he filled time for his nation
With safety in which it slept and fear in which it woke.

37. The morning breeze blew to catch up with him
As if frozen and settled behind him when he sped off.

38. Love that precedence, as it is in the furthest reach
Of noble glory, not stirring up ashes.

39. He pours generosity from the fingers of Mufaddal
Enriching the times for one impoverished.

40. He revived benefaction among His servants through him.
A Lord whose conduct killed immorality.

41. And a troop whose chests their lances inscribed
For death pages in books of resolute men.

42. The war was filled with them—armor,
Shields, helmets, and coats of mail.

43. They came in throngs in the portico of clanging
Black coins—their mail coats shone brightly.

44. And ‘Ali appeared in the dark heavens of their darkness
A moon that dawned on the horsemen.

45. With the orator of death in battles making
His own neck for his sermon the pulpit.

46. A sea—when the centuries desired crossing it
They found no way to safety within it.

47. The viscera of tyrants became barren through him.
They saw Chosroes in time as well as Caesar.

48. Souls were harvested in its torrent, and if they floated
You would think them—before resurrection—mustered.

49. He came to the encampment, and his chest are roses
He then dismounted with them as red roses.

50. As if a fire perpetually burning
In it kindled a green meadow.

51. So the winds burst with his pride as if
We rolled unto him perfumes of ambergris.

52. Poetry raised through him the sanctities of his praise.
Dew shook in its hand and gushed forth.

53. And bounty came shedding and scattering gold
And praise came adorned and illuminated.

54. So it was as if the ships of the Tigris flourished
And as if the rumors of Abqar were published.

55. O you whom when a sighted one saw, it was as if he saw
In your two most generousmantles the rarest of mankind.

56. And it became clear to him that our tongues
Compose in the essence of kingdoms essence.

57. From the light of your blessedness the light shone
Which, with the frequency of your feasts, gave tidings.

58. And submit to your kingdom in neglect of glory
And manifest with your sword those who opposed and grew arrogant.