1. Take the lessons of your eyes about my peers,
And protect me from what I have uncovered of pretense,

2. Lessen your crying, it has constricted my patience,
And my arms did not narrow with degradation,

3. How often does the weeping of parting recur,
It lingered so it called for gathering,

4. And the joy of intimacy is not but
For one paused at the sadness of farewell,

5. It hurts her that she saw my body thin,
As if glory is attained through wrestling,

6. The young man of misfortunes, where does he lodge when
Destiny plucked him to nature and fickleness,

7. He stirs clamor in every cheek,
Afflicted by the son of wretchedness,

8. He frequented the deserts with predators until
The predators felt pity for him over predators,

9. So mind reason if you attempt one day
To undertake other than the feasible,

10. You did not travel like the she-camel of the skilled,
And your worries were not ridden like the palms,

11. With Mahdi bin Asram my lute returned,
To its pouring and my hand stretched,

12. I stretched my hand over the days until
I repaid the turns of fate, measure for measure,

13. When the censors of poetry grew harsh, their gifts became
Meadows for them and they are pastures for it,

14. Gardens from which manners do not depart,
And which are not devoid of great ambitions,

15. He strove and drew honor by capability,
And without striving there would be no efforts,

16. O Mahdi, you would live on bestowal,
You have surely been blamed for one not alert,

17. You wanted what dignities cannot be disobeyed,
That bounty be disobeyed and you obeyed,

18. The champion of help, when the nights
Spread out and their cold pierces in knocking,

19. Often, the calamities provoke him
And his zeal is to the honored, preserved wares,

20. As if meeting the fright in the morning is
A tryst prescribed for him, the valiant described,

21. For dying with generosity and piety
Is more beloved to him than excellence in defense,

22. And the tune of one hoping for death is sweeter
To his ears than the tune of musical instruments,

23. You have made generosity the banners of efforts,
Can there be a sun without rays?

24. And nothing in the earth disobeys more stubbornly
Than bounty guiding to obedience,

25. And nothing preserves the yield of glory
Like wealth spent,

26. May God shepherd you to kindness, I see you
As one not shepherding his own wealth,

27. And no glorious nobility you preceded with it,
Nor nature you preceded with it,

28. Your resolve is like the resolve of torrents, its
Strength by the valley's sides and twisting,

29. And your view is like the view of the sword, the
Correctness of its edge at the trial,

30. So if you pictured yourself, you would not increase it
Beyond the nobility of nature in you.