1. And by your right, Isabel, I am not returning
Nor after glory am I retiring

2. Yes, my grief was prolonged when I lost him
And I will lament him as long as I live

3. He was the master of prose, peerless
And the leader of the age, unmatched

4. But still, excellence I desire
If called to it, I quickly respond

5. And after glory, torches have not gone out for me
And I have many as guides in the darkness

6. Every keen-eyed person travels by their light
While the opposite and averse shy away

7. And still, Isabel, beauty is my creed
I plunge into the sea of love and ascend

8. The gaze of kohl and the posture of a swooning statue
Seem to raise up ambitions in me

9. If I recite poetry in praise of her excellent traits
I imagine the eighties man succumbing

10. And it does not hurt me that grey hair of old age has separated me
For still in my heart for love there are followers

11. So I love the essence of beauty in every form
The created is esteemed and the creator prides himself

12. And I love the most noble of morals, but no
Vile soul who deceives is loathed by my heart

13. Ask the one I cared for in my youth
If he hopes turns of fate will spare him

14. Ask the spring rain if musk perfume
Quenched you with sweet clear water continuously flowing

15. Ask all who belong to Syria
Isabel, what I am doing

16. For how many times clearly for high aims
With sincere eloquent words I called

17. I gave eloquence its due
And excelled in voice and articulate speech

18. I let flow improvised words and never
Stumbled, with hearts ablaze

19. Ask my pen, how much with my fingers
It flowed, neither exhausted, nor ascending

20. I turn it to every meaning I want
So wonders appear above ink

21. Poetry like a necklace of pearls, sparkling and luminous
And prose like a garden flower, that and more beautiful

22. Ask the virtuous of Damascus and the Nile about a youth
Whose fame to them is musk dispersed

23. They are my brothers, so bring me their like
When we meet in learned gatherings

24. Boasting is not my habit, except you grant it to him
And the graceful one's decree cannot be turned back