1. Possessor of awe that terrifies like a sword,
Whether with the clanging of its blade or its hissing,

2. None have seen one with more awe than he,
Whose hissing is like the roar of a lion.

3. So when he writes the document, he shows us
An ocean of favor, its waves from its lines,

4. And when they bring it out, he extracts
Precious pearls from his boundless sea.

5. My eyelids looked at him as if
I'm gazing at a unique, splendid flower,

6. Then I honored my hearing with complete and solitary
Pearls of it scattered about.

7. Don't prolong his excellence, for no one
Rose to pride except one destined for destruction.

8. Mentioning him is delightful for the ears, so enjoy
Hearing him from the tongue of all who speak.

9. Then in meaning and composition—he is, in both states,
Filling eyes and filling chests completely.

10. I visited his doors, which God made fortunate,
For every visitor and visited.

11. All who visit them return as they came
With abundant grace from them and ample reward.

12. It sufficed me to exert effort toward them, so I would be guided
By them rightly in all matters.

13. Indeed, he who runs the kingdoms does not fail
To have excellent judgment in my affairs.

14. My livelihood was from his father and grandfather—
What an easy, abundant livelihood!

15. And if that is so for the heir,
I am a servant of the Ever-Thankful Lord.

16. The horseman, the scholar, the worker, the master writer,
The protector, the strong, the elite, the pure.

17. He has not stopped being in knowledge and piety
Between a crown of authority and the throne.

18. He looks always with truth upon the kingdom
And upon its prosperous treasury.

19. So the army and the commoners and the property
Became good through his efforts.

20. He made the smallest number of soldiers
Adequately provision the enemy's lands.

21. Say to the one whose goal was thwarted among all people,
From commander and commanded:

22. Head to the companion whose opening of strongholds is hoped for
And closing of breaches.

23. Matters far away are to him like those near,
And the difficult like the easy.

24. Oh! From my absence from him and my being attributed
To negligence, few are my excuses there.

25. Many bear witness that I am dead,
And that my being far from him, I have little justification.

26. Who will help a man, elderly and ill, with dependents,
That weighed down his back without a supporter?

27. They weighed him down and tasked him with traveling,
While it's impossible for an old man to journey.

28. So he remains bound by them, resisting
Efforts for his and his family's livelihood like a captive.

29. And their mother turned against me and plunged
Into enmity from my pride and aloofness.

30. She left them there weeping for something
In herself and in obstinacy.

31. She thought my illness would pass, so she said,
"O you who makes light of all and threatens!"

32. "Every disease has a cure, so make haste
In curing an afflicted limb."

33. I said, "Wait! I won't cure it with mastic or
Flesh of lizards."

34. The power of the sick one that once
Was increased by camphor has fallen.

35. And the order of my poetry, which had dragged
Its skirts over the poetry of others, weakened.

36. Some rulers looked down on me, though my poetry
Had been their household bread.

37. I washed away what poetry I gathered with a flood
Washing it like pebbles.

38. The severity of the calamity barred me
From traveling to them, when traveling was arduous.

39. I abandoned the generous ones until
Every lover estranged from them blamed me.

40. They follow after me like the mewling of cats,
Orphans of both sexes I'm responsible for.

41. They attack like wolves in their extreme hunger,
Swooping down like eagles.

42. There is a girl prepared with no trousseau
Who was proposed to for marriage after months.

43. Necessity drove me to beg from those
Whose homes contain nothing but mats.

44. This was the chapter that made me sit
Far from you, its verses imprisoning the wretched.

45. It made me dwell in a village and rendered me
To poverty and ingratitude.

46. Each day embittered with food
Or friends embittering me with their evil.

47. My lifelong comrades in service are to me
In deprivation like donkeys.

48. Whenever I seek their company, they recoil
In alienation between them and me like a fence.

49. They refuse to help me with
The livelihood of my family, stinting like camels.

50. Yet God will enrich me beyond need of them
With the goodness of the best Lord and best Supporter.

51. A companion who the hopeful reaches
All he hopes without intermediary.

52. From people who prevailed in religion and life—none
In the world are their equals.

53. They delighted those who saw them, described
In beauty like full moons.

54. They inherited the land as God decreed
In the Scripture after the Psalms.

55. They establish justice in the first era and the last,
They are the faithful, the inheritors of Paradise in exegesis.

56. They worshipped God sincerely with faith
In what was in their hearts of light.

57. And they loved the House of the Prophet, so they were
With them in absence and presence alike,

58. In a standing of righteousness and safety,
And a standing of bounty and plenty.

59. The purified people of the House, needing no
Purification, wealthy without riches.

60. Veiled from us by furnishings, and modesty,
Hiding their beauty behind curtains.

61. Wearing humility in their hearts, their sincerity
Made them needless of false garments.

62. We saw the most devout people in corners—
They relinquished high mansions to the mansion-dwellers.

63. All came with healthy hearts,
While others came in clean clothes.

64. Their offspring are like innocents
From pure, chaste wombs.

65. They feed food with no expectation
Of reward or gratitude.

66. God knows of them what we do not,
And their gratitude to the Knowing, Expert suffices.