1. Are your glancing eyes or your father's swords slaying me,
Or cups of wine or pillows seducing me?

2. Smooth skins and lethal cheekbones,
You are not merciful, nor chaste.

3. O daughter of the long-bladed sword unsheathed,
Is this how judgment should be in your gathering?

4. Your apparition used to call me a night visitor,
Until your confidant called me with the arched eyebrows.

5. Are your eyes or your brows our trysting place, and in
Wadi Al-Kora we meet you or your valley?

6. They forbade you the wont of Al-Kora and proceeded. Had they
Stumbled on a visiting figure, they would have thought it was you,

7. And when your swaying hips made them suspicious
They called you drunk, though they did not make you drink.

8. They thought the kohl on your eyelids an ornament
By God, they did not line your eyes!

9. And they hid you from me when we were a sprouting branch
Until, when passion was aroused, they veiled you,

10. And when your kissing mouth was covered by the veil they did not know
That I had kissed it and your mouth I did kiss.

11. So remove the veil and kiss your cheek though it was stained
With the blood of the banners of Yahya shed.

12. O his horses, do not get angry at his resolves
If you get angry, he seldom placates you.

13. Away! Between the spearheads and the onagers,
The honorable angels follow you,

14. The prince’s hand has girded you with the coat of mail
For you to sway your figure and for the arrows to pierce you,

15. And has protected you with the darkness of waterholes. He
With the sword from the internal injury of enemies gives you to drink.

16. Turn in the wing of night, for the king who
Guides the stars to the Highest, is your guide,

17. The Lord of the lofty and high places has unfurled
A banner, but He has no partner,

18. He is the fierce growling lion, so escape from
The grip whose assault on the chest of lions is imminent,

19. Meet Him above His feet and draw near, do not
Meet Him above a litter and couch,

20. He refuses but noble deeds, a dashing horseman
Who refuses any path but that of glory.

21. An abode you have raised, and the planets a wing
Beneath buildings for Him and elevating you,

22. The jealous souls have lied in their suspicions
From a hater among them and from a confounded one,

23. The sky is beneath what you aspire to
And the star is closer to your trodden path,

24. You returned from the seat of the caliphate rising
So you rose a sun without having cords and buckets,

25. And the caliph saw in you the might of someone steadfast
With his hands rays of light captive,

26. And through you the world has become an emerald, outshining
The cheek of a pearl pointing her smile at you,

27. Your praiseworthy hand before your munificence, it is
The hand of an owner who fulfills the request of a slave

28. Your clasped hands have spoken truly, your days
Among them are like pearls strung on a necklace,

29. Poetry has never boasted to you its meters
Of every fine rhetorical device composed for you,

30. And valor is valor in the core of money, not
What they have told of the valor of al-Suluk,

31. And I see kings when I see you leading them
And I see your chastity leading them like slaves,

32. The rain their leader, and it does not fail,
And the sea among them, and it has no partner,

33. You have poured your bounty on the drinker of fresh water
And cast it in polished solid gold cups,

34. No squint-eyed person hates you, though
The customs of your victory have twisted the smooth necks of kings,

35. From those who swim therein, when you call them to mind,
Binding the hands and burning the interwoven shirts,

36. Binding the unjust prisoner telling of a laughing one
From the white armor the unjust one puts on you.

37. If the beauty takes her attributes from him
The deranged lover will not wander astray for long,

38. Or if his thin whiskers were in her hand
She would string her necklaces without a thread.

39. For you, if its prime preceded each day
The enemies could not talk idly about Al-Yarmouk,

40. And tales of victory among the enemies have told
Of the day of Badr before it and Tabuk.

41. Are you leaving your sharp sword for a period
In its sheath or is it not abandoned?

42. If the night could, it would transgress upon
Your secure place of rest under its deceptive cloak.

43. You have met each brigade and defeated every
Stronghold and subdued every mighty warrior.