1. Nights of yearning, you were but ephemeral,
And my soul delighted in your regularity.

2. Time extracted from you what was extracted,
And separation made turbid what was clear.

3. I used to fear estrangement from loved ones,
But when we lost them, I loved estrangement.

4. Who can prevent me from turning away
When their dwellings drew near to me?

5. The nights sent to me from yearning
Scents that made the hides of camels cheap, and cattle cheap.

6. Bygones did not remind me of their covenants;
They remind the forgetful of things.

7. And my body wasted away gently like water,
While I struggled with a heart harder than rock.

8. I am much inclined to complain ungratefully
Of any distress unless I was used to it.

9. When I gain relief from it with a glance, it says,
“It is enough sickness for you to see death as a remedy.”

10. And it is amazed that I wish for its reprimand,
Though death should suffice as wishes.

11. Strange that one called "my beloved" should become
A neighbor in evil-doing to enemies!

12. As the fearful cleft was called "an opportunity,"
And slaves were termed "freed men."

13. When we embraced for farewell, and the bonds
Of my companion's throat and watering-places were loosened,

14. The bonds of tears, that had been idle, were loosed,
And the bond of intimacy, that had been my habit, was undone.

15. How often I traveled in the tracks of the women departing,
Making my passion a guide, and recollection a driver!

16. A captive - and above me, below me, my direction,
Behind me, my right side and left side were passion.

17. So when I determined a direction in the land
And cast my glances upon people of the times,

18. The land seemed narrow to me, as if I
Were trying to find room in it for the son of an Urtuq.

19. A king whose bounty, when I liken it to rain,
I disparage the dripping of the rain, and praise the clouds.

20. His freshness makes white hair seem black in the dew,
And his brilliance makes black hair white at the temples.

21. He shows us softness in might and might in softness,
So he is gentle in anger and angry when pleased.

22. Like the smiles of antelopes that make the slain laugh,
And the dragging of serpents that makes the afflicted weep.

23. Why should I not strive with my property and talents
Toward one through whom I recovered my soul and property?

24. One whose might makes time subservient,
And who returns the course of events with justice humbled,

25. One, who when he appears, hides other kings,
As the sun hides the stars swarming in darkest night,

26. One who restrains fate and calamities;
His palm encompasses hopes and wishes.

27. With a face that has become a third to sun and moon,
And a heart that has become a second to the unmatched pearl.

28. With a resolve that removes misfortunes from their dwellings;
Through it we saw the seven spheres as eight.

29. With terrible might that leaves water frozen,
And gentle manners that make hard rock flow.

30. With a palm that makes the angry sword laugh when it draws it
And bend weeping when it returns it to its sheath.

31. He is the righteous sultan and king who
His bounty encompasses the farthest and nearest regions.

32. A generous man who destroyed wealth except to preserve it,
Fearing that his spending might leave him bankrupt.

33. He has a pen - if it falls prostrate in writing,
Monarchs bow down on earth following it.

34. When he walked one day above heads giving commands
To a king who walked on feet,

35. When his palm informs him, you would think
That it gestures or unleashes meadows.

36. The people envied my expression and its merits,
Yet they congratulated me on his favors and my tongue.

37. The morning after we vied in racing, and it transgressed -
It composes lofty subjects, or I excel in meanings.

38. They said, “You created poetry in it.” I answered them,
“The flower shows where the rain came torrentially.”

39. O you who are generous only toward money alone -
In that there is a favor for one who is hopeful.

40. For they are a people - had I praised their actions
The world would think me equating the sublime and base.

41. I tended to the affairs of the Muslims with an resolve
Through which I saw the outcome of the matter concluded.

42. They were incapable of seeing for you in glory
An equal in the world or among the people.

43. A day you made the dawn like night when
You veiled lights when you delayed the wine-cups.

44. And you made them flow into the bellies of bosses
When they expanded under the skins of the water bags.

45. The repetition of collisions tears their skins
So they are clothed in the blood the swords stripped off.

46. With it you gave the enemies a cup of destruction
The morning after each became drunk with war.

47. You made destruction repose and your horses rest,
And the eggs of ostriches a cup and your resolve a butler.

48. How often you clothed glory on one who walked
Barefoot when he walked in the region of your sanctity!

49. You spread a wide expanse of good works
And erected lofty ambitions upon it.

50. Even if I parted from your plenty wrongfully,
I know that in that I was sinful.

51. So how about one estranged from pleasures he was used to
And spent his life among them and his youth?

52. I dwelt among them forty years residing
Among the kings of the land and the raging seas.

53. I summered and wintered among them, so it was as if
I alighted with the family of Muhalhil.

54. You lavished gifts on us, O most generous,
That make allies happy when enemies are wretched.

55. Were it not for you, kings would not delight in my speech
Or seek my praise of them and my orations.

56. Were it not for you, my name would not be recognized among them
Or become lofty in the realms.

57. Especially when they saw me inclined
To refrain from gain, not leaving any wealth remaining,

58. Shunning the clouds that send torrents
Even if I was seizing the flying creatures.

59. So I will excel in poetry about you and compose,
And turn to prose when metrics are exhausted.

60. I thank you as long as I live, and if I die
Without fulfilling it, I bequeath thankfulness to my family.