1. If calamities turn away from you,
My heart and soul are with you,

2. And my longing for your company is not out of desire,
Neither with love songs, nor with melodies.

3. We did not love the dwellings of home, but rather,
With meanings we sigh, not with melodies.

4. Who will aid the grieving lover at nighttime,
When he stays up suffering from worries?

5. And who will inform my loved ones that
My life after them did not bring me tranquility?

6. O breeze of the north, if you pass by Damascus,
Kiss for me the soil of the Sultan,

7. And convey my longing to King Nasser al-Din,
Then kiss his tomb with eyelids.

8. Long live the king who built grandeur
Though it was prone to destruction.

9. And the king who sees partnership
As an attribute of the Lord most high.

10. And the generous, forgiving one who joined
The two seas with his rest; they meet.

11. A king who frees slaves from bondage,
And honors the free with kindness.

12. With noble traits, he suckled the teat of glory,
And with praiseworthy traits, the teat of meaning.

13. So for the transgressor, death is red,
While for the obedient, his gift is white wishes.

14. Oh brother of generosity, none like you exist,
Even if manifest to the eye.

15. You are, among people, the epitome of consensus,
Upon which both near and far agree.

16. That station which the eagles and phoenixes fell short of reaching,
And the sword which, when unsheathed among the brave,

17. Struck among the white and the bodies.
It stood amidst raging battle, saying: All upon it will perish!

18. And the sheath which, when detached from the head,
Increases eloquence after the tongue is split.

19. Your slippers touched the dust only for it
To be envied by crowns.

20. A demeanor none but your brother the Sultan attained,
Who gathered goodness and benevolence, since you two were infants nursing milk.

21. And you raced together towards the field of glory,
So you reached it like two racing steeds.

22. Then you supported him, so you were to him
As Aaron was to the young man of Imran.

23. Celebrate the blissful feast, even if
From you are congratulations for all feasts.

24. And live your age fasting and breaking fast,
Forever in bliss and safety.

25. I have no pride in describing your glories,
They have revealed to us the most wondrous of meanings.

26. Whenever your traits manifest a meaning,
My thoughts are composed, and the pen writes.

27. Do not call me a poet thanking your generosity,
For I do not have hands to thank it.

28. Had I composed the stars into poetry, it would have sufficed
For only some of that kindness.