1. On the likes of her, of pure descent and noble play,
The stars of heaven cast down their veils in homage.

2. To a lover consumed with yearning's smart I say -
No healing comes to one whose love's derangement

3. Still swells his heart beneath a cloak of melancholy.
Help me divide my tears! Their unity I see

4. No more. Disunion's now their fate. Distraught, disconsolate am I.
No enemy is yours this day. Your ignorance

5. Has turned against me and become my closest intimate.
In me no guidance did you seek. You only thought

6. To tutor one who rode the winds and walked the seas.
Leave me to my passion and the mysteries of love,

7. To burn in tears rushing like floods, torrents from my eyes.
Is this how you reward your lover's constancy,

8. Becoming thus the giddy world of maid and youth?
New brides assailed me, scattering my love abroad,

9. Like fleeing deer before the baying hounds unleashed.
They ride their steeds and none can stop their wanton power.

10. No hand can seize their reins, no cry their heedless course impede.
Swifter than mirage-bolts they raced into the gloom

11. And like mirage their forms melted in the murk and haze.
The tresses of the dawn he takes at whim and sweeps

12. Them back, as evening shadows throng from east to west.
He sees the morning star at nightfall in the Pleiades

13. And then at dawn the ruddy glow within the Hyades.
As though he bore the burdens of all men, but wished

14. For more, still burdened by the world's immensity.
Whenever the Virgins rose to meet Abu Dhulf, then all

15. Between us was cut off. Gone happiness and peace!
For there men's generosity was pledged and glory's train

16. Unrolled its banners outspread in the winds at large.
His gifts could drive one mad, did not the hand restrain,

17. Curb their wild frenzy with the poet's gentle touch.
Ambition shook him and his gifts put on new guises,

18. Exchanging their old names for empty, windy boasts.
His songs poured from his throat till they could barely breathe,

19. Gasping with love and yearning for each listener's heart.
If he set out one morn, his wealth's bright fountainhead,

20. His bounty flowed - though brides made far more modest claims.
To him the ugliest thing seemed like the morn's first light,

21. Which disappointment's hand had clothed in radiant hues.
Fairer than fairest light, bounty's whiteness shone

22. Against the gloom, a darkness cleft by suppliants' cries.
When War's black standards rose and sovereigns of strongholds,

23. Nobles and dames from curtained litters stared aghast,
Then doom and death and steel were kinsmen. Not in name

24. Alone they were related. In their terrible, fearsome might,
No creature did they spare of overweening pride

25. Or enemy that shunned and sought no war with them.
Their hands stretched forth destroying swords to rend and crush,

26. Brandished by warriors, thirsty blades that drink their fill of blood.
Their horses roamed through battle's realm and hacked apart

27. The foe till spear and sword dripped red with flowing gore.
Once Tameem proudly vaunted their superior bows

28. And all the glory binding fame about their name,
Your swords at Dhi Qar struck down those noble lords

29. Who made their eyebrows' bow the bowmen's guarantee.
When you compare your glorious deeds with actions of men

30. Whose repute is stained, yours shine out pure and free of blame.
Your virtues soar to the sublime, as though they strove

31. To rival planets in their orbits through the heavens high.
The keeper of the cloak knows well - and he alone secures

32. The raiment of the throne from every grasping hand -
That when perils pressed round you and trials came in force,

33. You faced them with strong hearts, disdainful of misfortune's blows.
With wisdom then you counselled him till wisdom filled his eyes,

34. Blinding them to all but what the wise diviner sees.
Brilliant, when clouds of doom burst over them, you drew

35. Your sword and spear, twin meteors blazing through the dark.
In war's upheaval you were like the subtlest spells,

36. Beyond all trickery, victors in the game of war.
Thus he recalls you in his heart of hearts and you

37. Remain his closest confidant, the best that may aspire
To fame and fortune's utmost; none shall reach so high.

38. And if he forgets or malice whispers, let it die.
To him you're there though absent, gone, yet still in view.

39. Both, neither, seen yet hidden from his searching eye.
To you we sent the poet, wanderer in verse, once he

40. Had loitered long amid the gardens of sublime conceits,
Where marvels met like old companions. At your court

41. They lost their strangeness, put aside their odd, exotic traits.
If verse could die your palace fount alone gave birth

42. To springs whose flow nourished the ages as they passed.
But verse is reason's branch; from it clouds massed on high

43. Drip down in welcome rain when drought has parched the earth.
I say to my companions: "He's the solution, he untied

44. The knot of differences where creeds diverged in doubt."
And I hope your gifts reward my own poor eclogues, made

45. A sea of generosity to answer my scant drops of praise.