1. The night decked itself out for me, and split
Into flashes like unsheathed knives gleaming.

2. When I glanced at its chains in the meadows,
I saw at its beginning a smoothness like chains.

3. I soothed my blazing passion, when it stirred,
Like the bending of branches in the bending of twigs.

4. As if the whiteness of dawn smiles
Was a lingering twilight in the thickets of the branches.

5. I obeyed my youthful folly and the love in it,
And disobeyed the censures and the censors.

6. As if their kerchiefs speak - so who do I have
With them, if the anklets are delayed in striking up?

7. You see it like a lance, if it shakes its flexibility,
And if it returns the glances, then it is fateful.

8. O mother, I see that love finds, inevitably,
In the heart of the passionate one - while you jest!

9. How many have said to me, when they saw me:
"May you have the grace of the insignificant and the feeble!"

10. It crept in, so the wealth was not impaired
By that which abundantly learned men dispraise.

11. Of no use is my hardness, if I am harsh,
Without gentle curving, while gentleness is given to the few.

12. And even if I pretend to be generous, my generosity
Is empty of the jewels of munificence, useless.

13. Rather, the one who brings generosity to life, revives him
With necklaces of dew, pure and copious.

14. He is the King who was yesterday evening's refuge,
And today's morning hope, sought by every seeker.

15. When at dawn he rides to his enemies,
Misfortunes have descended into their valley.

16. So excellent is the knight who charges his steed!
And miserable is the evening of the flawed pretender!

17. The asylum of the nearby days,
And the refuge of the orphans and widows.

18. A cloud in which for the wholesome there is freshness,
That flows, and in which for the unwholesome there are tremors.

19. He is inclined to the foe and wealth by compulsion,
And rules in the land with the judgement of the just.

20. The bravest in warring on the day of battle,
And the most eloquent in debating on the day of peace.

21. O crown of kings - and you are the rending of hardship,
While your promise is glorious and the fulfillment near.

22. Indeed! It is you who always appear as the morning sun dispels
The night of discord.

23. And you hoard for the enemy the reddened spear-blades
And the whiteness of Indian swords and deadly weapons.

24. And lions whose dens are filled with spears
Swoop down with horses like lofty pillars.

25. Support of the religion, you owner of loftiness,
When the generous were enumerated - no dispute!

26. You fulfilled every religious duty of generosity
That flows over - and returned to the supererogatory.

27. If speech is without action,
Then you are man before words - the doer!

28. In your abundant meadows, O spring of mankind,
The dew has lined up for the water-drawers.

29. Your mighty fortresses are places of sunset
That your dawn makes lawful, which fortresses forbid.

30. My Lords, in well-being and health - both together!
May your beauty last, O branch of fingers!

31. I have wished for eternal life, wished as a slave
Through attaining some of your world as my duty.

32. And live in bliss and lasting kingship,
And overarching might, all-encompassing!