1. I swear by these harmonious verses,
Unattained by Suhban or Hasan.

2. And if al-A'mri al-Qais's meaning is measured
Against your meanings, he has no brilliance.

3. And Ibn Qays's nature was hard, and hard
Were his refusals, though eloquence bowed.

4. Al-Tai folded what verse he wore
Proudly, and his way was surrender.

5. And Abul Tayyib, refined, nothing
Pleased with his poems but meters.

6. To your ingenious expression they were both tears
And with your merit Hamadan swooned.

7. So is there anyone in the arena
Of culture who hopes to outrace you, riders?

8. O Salah al-Din, you have sent that
With which mouths and ears adorn themselves.

9. The daughter of the king of prose and verse
Whose system crowns her.

10. She appeared in necklaces and bracelets
Beyond which are ruby and coral.

11. And she shone dazzling eyes – where
Is the like of her but Bahram and Hurmuz?

12. Her meanings stirred the stillness of objects
And the scale of beauty swayed with her.

13. One whose favor upon us, apart from
Gratitude, excels all favor.

14. Her attributes garbed us, so that
The clothed was naked.

15. She called us to answer her
And answers to her were madness.

16. Her fortune was the loftiest gift
While lowliness and deprivation were mine.

17. Knowledge refined her for ages, and the best
Of her features was beneficence.

18. By her I was guided, as though I
Were a foreigner and her words interpreter.

19. And her thought's reverberations barred me
From poets' rhymes in this time.

20. Forever I cut across the wastes by night's
Severance, as though I were Suhayl.

21. As though gloom were darkness and my day
A frowning sky with tiny stars.

22. Each desolation thinks theWhite Hands water
Among it, for the thirsty mirage.

23. As though I thought in the skirts of deserts
Its phantom waters the blind see.

24. So time I pass professing obscurities
And my profession in her absence is trial.

25. As though the wilderness were a generous breast
And I the secret and clandestine way.

26. Alone, without companion or friend
– Patience and abstinence my two comrades.

27. She is my night talk and my daydream
My pillow is her absence and longings.

28. My friend amid terrors – in it
I swim stripped, a swift steed.

29. Usurping the crescent's shape in my hands
And from it the sky's star is my rein.

30. Lightning falls short of its extent, and
From incapacity masquerades flash.

31. My weapons are absence, separation,
Affliction, and the bending of spears.

32. My sword is Indian and my arrows
Are arrows that hands flex.

33. And if you find no helper, then
The instruments of death assist me.

34. Seeking the heights, longtime dues
Of rights the new refused me.

35. So is there any, after the nights have rolled me
In non-existence, who hopes for brilliance?

36. Yet I obeyed your command,
So unravel for us your charming poetry.

37. You never ceased to slip away,
The soul, and the plot a body.

38. Greetings – safe from the nights' caprice
And wondrous safety from time.

39. The nightingale never trilled more plaintively
And the gardens and boughs opened with its scent.