1. As for time, its reins are in your hands,
O honored king, exalted is his glory!

2. You have subdued its unruly ways, so now it is as you see,
Its tyranny is no longer feared, nor its transgression.

3. And you have shown it the praiseworthy ways, holding it back
From its opposite, so its essence has changed.

4. If it dispraises all others who behold it, it nevertheless
Praises you unceasingly and its tongue does not tire.

5. Let not this barren reign deceive you, for it is a sea,
While the delights of this world are but its billows.

6. Seek them, for you are the source of honor, reports of which
Are wonders - so imagine beholding it!

7. You have attained in the horizon of the exalted a station
That no ambitious mind can claim to grasp.

8. So surrender to a kingdom whose resolve is your bastion
And against whose swords no fortress can grow.

9. And a populace you have comforted since alighting among them
An era ago, while their youth turn gray in its terror.

10. So their place of rest is not in the Meadow of Adha without
Its freshness, its shade being delightful and its springs pure.

11. And a clan who thought opposing you an opportunity
That desire obeyed, so Satan led them astray.

12. While the cure for them is what they have witnessed, and their disease
Is denying an obligatory recognition.

13. So one who loves his life has obeyed you
And is saved, while defiance destroys the traitor.

14. And if only they had yielded to the power of their king,
His authority would still defeat any who rebelled.

15. He would overlook their sins and unite their ranks
After divisions - such is his affection and tenderness!

16. Let no ambitious man hope for your gracious pardon
Until his secret matches his proclamation.

17. And let the one stained with sin not feel secure
Until his spirit separates from his body.

18. And let whoever is not deceitful resolutely follow your approval -
For those under your protection have hope and safety.

19. For you are one who abhors hypocrisy, so none can live
Under its shade but those whose grudges have not died.

20. And bereft is one from whom you have turned away -
Like a spear whose tip is bent, gone its sharpness.

21. So let them keep with you desire or awe,
For the steed is long vexed by its bridle.

22. Had another aspired to rule them, his supporters would crumble
And his pillars collapse.

23. For they are stalwarts who, when the pass was dangerous,
Were its knights, never shrinking from the fray.

24. Heroes of Sa'sa'ah, defenders of Rabee'ah,
Where the coward is disgraced even if with companions.

25. From every battlefield tested and proven -
He whom they protect is kept safe by their blows and stabs.

26. Those who straighten when others slouch, with posture erect,
While mounts sway not having that nature.

27. Lions amidst the dense groves, their lair within,
Artful warriors, while deceit their tool.

28. They have never raided a barren wasteland
But that their assault makes it desolate.

29. They were deluded in defying you and exceeded bounds,
Yet defying the likes of you strains the possible.

30. So firm resolutions came whose impact, if contiguous,
Would shatter its plateaus and terrify its shepherds.

31. For the champion of resolute daring with the view
That no Amr came to, nor hosts have reached.

32. And the advocate of the house whose glory is long,
With its edifice lofty, its structure ascending.

33. Its tent poles are the oryx's white thighs, its pillars
Some spears, their shafts its columns.

34. From a folk whose honored abode's hearth flame was never
Extinguished but that their good name remains its lintel.

35. When an era passes, they are its essence,
When good comes, they are its aid.

36. When they come to a barren land, its greenery flourishes
And its valleys narrow in their midst.

37. Had the riffraff not prevailed over them, the seeker
Of favor would not know where to find it.

38. Foes do not deny their evident glory -
How can there be denial when proof leads the way?

39. He was endowed with honor that the stars' blossoms supposed
Was their own, so encircled him as neighbors.

40. Guarded are his circumstances, emulated his words,
Successive his beneficence.

41. If he leaves scholarship or contains affluence,
His clarity and munificence overflow.

42. No aspirer to him has ever been frustrated,
Nor one who sought refuge met with flames.

43. O aide of one whose days have betrayed him
And supporter of one for whom homelands yearn!

44. You have spared the bitterness of asking and its sweetness
With dew that exceeds the elixir of life in its exhilaration.

45. It is like a torrent that does not refuse when resolve alights,
Not like a cloud whose moments of rain are scattered.

46. Why not exaggerate my praise of you prolixly
When poetry is an impulse and my mind its arena?

47. I praise you for the wealth your hand conferred on me liberally
Of treasures making me needless of hoarding or aid.

48. So forgive the patron I have breached the duty of
By broadcasting widely views that his wisdom concealed.