1. Your undulations are alluring
With lightning and glinting stars a-glowing

2. And spangled glades in the morn breeze blowing
A lush, verdant garden there lies, mirth bringing.

3. In the languorous eye-glancing coyness showing
Are diverse charms; though to my eyes no joy is owing

4. Billows of events overwhelm, each route fraught
With murk; unsure which path I next ought

5. To tread. Sternly the days eye me in their passing
And their glance to me was ever bitter, lashing

6. What aspiring spirit risks all, seeking the crest
When the wing toward the heights cannot wrest!

7. A will that would gore the stars, and tradition
Wedded to baseness; thus its lot and mission.

8. How many heros bowed before advancing days
Who'd helplessly yielded up all earthly ways!

9. The merits of Maʿrūf and partner neglecting
Qudāma's varied rhythms they are perfecting,

10. While over the carpet they stridently tread,
Caparisoned steeds tossing their graceful head.

11. At daybreak, he of the revered white beard seems
Immobile there amidst them, trance serene.

12. We've shed from their hands the seal of awe, but not
Every ring in the end will emerge unblot.

13. With songstresses moving in rhythmic delight,
Their plaited forelocks softly sway left and right.

14. Dark beauties guide them, brightly pale of face,
Secured 'gainst all threats in your noble grace.

15. Greyhounds spurred by the huntsmen race apace,
Vying in speed with the falcon flying through space.

16. Tirelessly working their jaws all the while
They gnaw their leashes; though fierce, they are docile.

17. None can attain glory or high estate,
Whom covert suggestion cannot motivate.

18. Each day you spend has its own special quality,
Measured by verse--and more verse follows freely.

19. Rhymes that echo within you, for words never lacked
To voice the vocative case or words underscored.

20. Lavish praise and thanks and thoughts speculative,
Censure that stings and spurs to deeds effective.

21. For poetry is your openhanded munificence;
Should that diminish, so too would poetic licence.

22. Abundant be your fresh streaming charity;
I've gained naught from you but noble magnanimity.

23. It's bountiful seas that have brought oceans repute--
The more they pour forth, still more pours forth their briny loot.

24. O you who love kindness in an age when it
Has become despised! Say to the son of Grief, naught he owns,

25. No haven at all, save the shelter you provide.
Be not as folk who, when events them deride

26. And humble them, turn to aloofness, hiding
In their isolation, nursing wounds unabiding.

27. A broad assembly of mortals, yet one that is wanting:
Healthy words and deeds while their lives are rotting!

28. The least benefit deriving from existence
Is physical health when their spirits lie in sickness.