1. Sorrow besieged me from every side,
The innocence of virgins amid the darkness of demands,

2. And I thought forty would drive it away,
Yet no testimony of a reckoner was accepted therein,

3. I sought youth after it yet it was as if
I clung to the tails of the disappearing stars,

4. And it did not sadden me the loss of youth but rather
I wept over half a lifetime gone,

5. Nor did the graying of my temples concern me after it
For I had worries before the creation of gray temples,

6. Yet it came and the youth did not unleash me
Nor did adolescence fulfill my wishes,

7. And I was not one of its companions except that
It was true to me when every friend betrayed,

8. People cried over the ruins of homes, if only
I found a home for the pouring tears,

9. And they said Ziyad left dejected and determined
And who will care for my heart with unremitting worries,

10. O loved ones, do you hear over the remains
A greeting of intimacy or complaint of reproach

11. And if the north wind carried to you
Greetings we would seek its like in the south winds,

12. I remembered you after twenty pilgrimages
Time has erased your secrets among the nomads,

13. And I do not claim I yearn for you
As enemies surround me from every side,

14. Nor am I longing if I say between us
Are high plateaus or long twisting paths,

15. For lovers’ hearts have no advantage
When their thoughts look to the consequences,

16. And longing is only in breasts accustomed
To meeting enemies at the meeting of loved ones,

17. May God reward the staff well, for it has often
Parted me from tribulations with its help,

18. It relieved us of heavy worries until it was as if
We cast it above the atoms and the clouds,

19. If death spoke true about al-Nasir
It is but from the hands of fate,

20. A young man whose determination bewildered fate
Though it is known for wonders,

21. He grasped the outcomes of affairs with his mind
As if he had an eye upon every absent one,

22. He has a lineage shining like the sun, its light
Across the length of fleeting days,

23. When calculations grow dark, his stars shine
As the latecomers among the early stars,

24. Your steeds on the day of victory reminded its people
Of what you wrought, I wished for them in reprisals,

25. One group watered the flanks of the east with
Blood rain while the other was generous in the west,

26. They left a land no knowledgeable one can discern
And plunged into a sea no drinker can stand,

27. And they had heard its news from others
Yet were not content without some trials,

28. When the mind of a man is the basest of his traits
Then it is but a loophole for disasters,

29. And how the singer's beauty has captured his singing
And the falconer's fists imprisoned the claws,

30. You came upon them and the swords were as if
Fragments from what was broken in calamities,

31. Remains of the worn and old traces
And remnants of the days of protection and disasters,

32. Their scattered remnants tell of those deaths
And their chronicles are written in books,

33. Archers except that in their fingers
They almost guide the arrow before the archers,

34. You defended with them the flock of the caliphate after
The hands of the impetuous slaves had tossed it around,

35. And you kept away from its administration all who crave
Fresh wishes, for it is talk of suitability,

36. When you set forth your view regarding the enemies
You stabbed them before the reaching spears,

37. And a young man may discern the view though helpless
While many a sword is drawn by another striker,

38. As if everything you sought to attain drew near
Until you attained it without seeking,

39. The enemy thinks I praised you for wealth
Yet poetry is not gain for me from generous profits,

40. I only wished his attributes be perfected
As pearls have meaning in the necks of wild cows,

41. It is as if when I recite a poem about you
I strewed upon them the risings of stars,

42. But it is the forgotten mention among you
That asks about your days every rider,

43. By God, honesty of praise is no merchandise
To you, nor good hope disappointed,

44. And though the people reported praise of you
From you they learned to give precious gifts,

45. Help me attain the stars on high
For you are the one who made them my pursuit,

46. And leave me, truthful speech about you may
Atone for those rhymes that lie,

47. Wondrous acts of refusal from me are many
Yet I am the first penitent of them,

48. I would not when the sea surged abundantly
Turn my gaze to the clouds of mist,

49. I came to you though the misers were twisted as if
I walked to the morning sun through the darkest gloom,

50. The path of generosity on earth was one
So people knew not differing creeds,

51. My seeking you ennobled me, and yet
The intention for the house shows the warrior’s merit,

52. Whoever desires gifts through praise
Then my praise of you is some of the gifts,