1. The one who rivals you in excellence has achieved nobility,
And the Imam in his kingdom has recorded it.

2. You summon good fortunes, and thus they respond likewise,
No fortune you did not summon came to you uninvited.

3. Each day you continue to give the lie
To whoever said that the limit of perfection is to perfect.

4. And today ornaments of pride have come to you,
With this glory as their craftsman and with ingots as their material.

5. Wonders about your attributes render a listener speechless,
Indescribable, and show what stupefies.

6. Were it not for the insights that illuminate our inner eyes,
Dazzled by their radiance, we would have imagined them illusory.

7. And when we resume praising you amongst ourselves,
What we had diminished returns multiplied.

8. Did a flock of planets swoop down upon you
That you may don their light?

9. Or does the gazelle have a lodging in the doe
When she is accustomed not to travel?

10. Or have you clad yourself in their rays? Therefore eyes
Cannot bear contemplating you.

11. Or has the Light of lights that migrated
Through your forefathers garbed you?

12. Wearing silk after iron weighs down,
But he took it on with vitality despite its weight.

13. War brings you no harm unless
It reaps your enemies like dried stalks.

14. And the son of a lightning bolt came to you compensating
For what you had lost of ravaging strokes.

15. And were ingots not delighted by the gems' nobility
Crowning them, they would still have sublime essence.

16. And if all people recognized their value,
Their intrinsic gemstone essence would suffice them without esteem.

17. A resplendent star eclipsed the luminaries with its light
And set those present aflame with its blazing.

18. We have not seen an aura like it before
That contains a fleeting incident.

19. So glory in it openly since none but the Imam
Has possessed its like after having worn it.

20. When gems and ornaments vied with each other in it,
They came to you with its body detailed.

21. Made of unripened pearls and of shooting stars that do not set,
And I reckon it a crown, but it did not find

22. Above your great stature any place to lodge.
Thoroughbreds that surpassed beauty — if Kisra's page

23. Walked among them he would imagine himself.
Woven of every sweetly scented place, if it were not

24. For some mountains it would fell what it carries.
It transports it like the mass a swimming camel carries,

25. Then when it passes by its legs become crippled.
It cast off cloaks and regalia when

26. It donned the ornaments and was adorned.
Did it come to you as prize garments or to meet a battalion?

27. And soaring in the air you would think it
A cloud, having mistaken the galaxy for a watering place,

28. Veiled over the rainbow's arch moving from one side to the other,
Of a necklace that no difficulties can tie

29. Truly, and it is not a knotter of what it unties.
It strings along minarets of domes whose pinnacles

30. Dazzle beauty with their adornment.
He gave them to you in total — so how many say

31. "Did he send the pyramids along with what he sent?"
You have no need for a standard with a frame

32. That rose high so that you eclipse the faded old flag.
The lofty summits suffice you, that you not be seen

33. At the lowlands taking shelter in its shade.
Glory seizes you, as does bestowal, nor have you ceased

34. Elevating kings, ennobling and being ennobled.
You are the one who, if the world submitted to him

35. What you gathered, would be more sublime than what submitted.
With the messenger, gifts of supreme value came to you,

36. Lighter than what is seen yet heaviest when laden.
A period that interprets your feats for mankind,

37. Though they were not hasty so as to be interpreted.
It fulfilled, though lacking a speaker — thanks

38. For your efforts that were not pretentious.
God, Majestic is His Majesty, has protected

39. The word of succession from being far-fetched talk.
How much virtue it contains, and how much of its content

40. The Imam invoked, making you eminent!
His succession and his state are secure — they will not

41. Be barred due to defiance or procrastinated.
The sword whose sharpness prophecy has not known

42. Since it was drawn, and the arm that will not weaken.
Glory in this day on which true guidance was given

43. To one who erected its pillar, not hoping it would fall.
Until people fancied their awakening a dream

44. Or that Egypt's kingdom had shifted to Damascus.
Rarely does a describer depict the virtues

45. Save that he lingers, picturing its beauty.
Wondrous is the zeal of one heavy-laden —

46. How did he endure carrying it to you?
You have eased the Imams with efforts not neglected

47. To aid a just Imam's uprightness.
If they sufficed with you in ordeals, you have not ceased

48. To be the foremost of eras in supporting them.
Or if they seated you in their stations, who

49. Has ambition elevated him to higher merit?
With God you seek victory —you are His sword,

50. And the truth, secure, protects that it not be forsaken.
And the minister of a sovereign —your traits

51. Have been beside the succession constantly unashamed.
The clouds were dispelled by the Perfect One's opinion,

52. Which would show us dawn in the dead of night.
Wakeful when Islam fears, securing it

53. From what it dreads may be said and done.
You have not ceased to be now manifest, now covert

54. Behind the enemy, at times drawing near.
You marshal armies until

55. The Nile prevented its waters from sweetening in their midst.
And a protective war not prone to a critic

56. Curbing it, for questioning you sufficed to be questioned.
Until shortly before returning you left an army

57. Helpless, its religion’s door locked.
You quelled its maladies and lopped off

58. Every outgrown tooth and straightened what was twisted.
And you dispelled sheer fear from our homelands

59. After having cast dread upon them.
And your authority permitted us the security that,

60. Were we to buy it with glances, would not be costly.
The stubborn in every land became tame

61. When your might bowed the tyrants.
And they came to you in surrender — you were not

62. Morally narrow with lives that narrowness squeezes.
They walked upon their mouths out of reverence,

63. Lest this dust be trodden under heels.
And the soil you dwell upon is worthier

64. Of dust to be kissed than trodden paths thirsty travelers kiss.
No tyrant survives an hour of your violence

65. Except to revert submissively, debased.
Your spears refuse to be seen erect

66. Until they rise from breasts and are wetted.
You drove them into the throats of enemies, thrusting,

67. Then returned rending them in your dread, unarmed.
So remain steadfast in this honor and forsake turmoil —

68. Stabbing hearts is harsher than stabbing flanks.
Will the stallions ever part from their saddles

69. Until they rouse a tumult beyond Ghazna's realm?
Time's caprice did not frustrate resolute aims

70. That extended over Islam a trailing mantle.
Their wounded do not heal, their prey does not escape,

71. And their dead cannot be avenged.
I said to one grasping for this sublime rank, "Ask it!

72. For what is forbidden to thought has been made accessible."
And ask Him what His hands contain — He will give you

73. Generosity, but His abundant glory is matchless.
For glory, when none but its possessor remains in it

74. Is like a vessel when filled to the brim.
The best of kings, when virtues are distinguished

75. By fortune, is the superior one.
Who in grimmest straits was more glittering than they

76. Palm to palm, and in hottest frays most seasoned wielding blades.
So when they judge however they desire,

77. Your rulings affirm the scripture sent down.
And when their guidance goes astray in reflection,

78. You elucidate what was unclear without pondering.
And when disputants feud before them

79. With you present a glance decides between them.
Were your rule contrary to God's rule, mankind

80. Would not submit themselves to it.
You are rightly guided and have not inclined

81. To an extent in describing your munificence that leads astray.
Until ascetics reproached you — has anyone seen

82. Ascetics reproved for generosity?
When you refused one journeying to you in need,

83. For questioning you sufficed to be questioned.
So the helpless are suffering, while your munificence

84. Vows hands will bear no more and legs will go no farther.
It guided me by your nearness to morsels that

85. I have not stopped chewing toward fortune.
And it dazzled me with gifts whose flow

86. Did not cease until I loved that it wait.
If it were rain, it would pour,

87. And if it were wind, it would be a hot gust.
Do not obligate me to detail gratitude —

88. The verses are overwhelmed in summary.
And when could my hopes in other than you wane?

89. When you have burdened me with weighty gifts,
Whose number my praise is jealous of,

90. And my sea within them has become a stream.
Jurisprudence does not sanction one who disregards

91. Obligation to volunteer.
And when have I proved steadfast in praise without saying,

92. “Be for me in evident favor my relief.”
Were it other than your seeking client, fear would not

93. Accompany my arrows along with your hitting the mark.