1. We asked, and they said, "This is the garden of roses."
When we entered it, it seemed like the garden of immortality.

2. We walked through it between rows of soldiers,
Some tulips blossoming, some tulips curled.

3. We toured it, perfume our guide,
When we reached the field of roses, ecstasy seized us—

4. Enough to distract the thirsty from the roses.
Beauty itself had alighted there,

5. And we obtained good fortune as a gift without promise.
The forms of those roses were a miracle of perfection,

6. Their hues manifold, beyond counting.
In each form, an innovation that steals reason away;

7. In each color, a sign for the rightly guided.
The glance of a charmer lodges there by night,

8. And the heart of the lovesick wakes at dawn aflame.
The taste of a tart apple turns our heads,

9. And the recitation of the Fatiha extols their beauty.
It evokes rapture after rapture in us—

10. Drunk, but not on wine; possessed, but by no jinn.
Yet the essence of beauty has its effect on the soul

11. That no eloquent words can circumscribe.
Only a handful have tasted it in this world,

12. While the pretensions of multitudes fail the test.
The buds of those roses sparked a passion

13. Through a secret that God has hemmed in good fortune.
A young man of wisdom, enlightenment, resolve and intelligence;

14. Loyal friend and righteous guardian, keeper of pacts.
He loves to act with goodness and bounty by nature,

15. Is possessed by the highest of principles and glory.
The people's praise of him is ample for his ambition—

16. He refuses rest until he attains the noblest ends.
An outstanding son to his parents, the best of those

17. Who rise above rancor and ignore enemies.
With his zeal he repels the unjust—

18. He rages like a bare sword drawn from its sheath.
I had wished him well from afar,

19. So how much more now that we are hand in hand!
You remain for us the best of sons, Mihna,

20. With your wedding which is the link in the pact.
I am no flattering eulogist, but simply

21. Catalog virtues, praising the praiseworthy.