1. With your lofty ambition, you have endured time alone,
So I see your outreach to people is far-reaching.

2. And you have attained, with some of your efforts, a rank
That would overwhelm one who did not strive tirelessly.

3. So let the ignoble despair of attaining the nobility
You have been granted, one who cannot match your praiseworthy stature.

4. For glory disdains to give its easiest portion
To one who is not stalwart when steel meets steel.

5. And he who loads the days with more than they can bear
Wears out life, returning disappointed and subdued.

6. How can one attain the stars of Gemini, who
Cannot ascend the ground's ascent?

7. Your glory has spread, so it is more famous in the world
Than for you to wish for, other than it, denial.

8. So if I sought, in what I say, testimony,
I would find all mankind to bear witness.

9. The springs of nobility have dried up due to one
Who rivals clouds in generosity's downpour.

10. His tempests drive clouds of wishes for good fortune,
White, while for misfortunes, black.

11. His victorious palm leaves nothing without and nothing denied,
So the people of Syria have taken refuge from fear of harm

12. And lack of plenty, in security and abundance,
With the most noble traits, following them, not usurping superiority arbitrarily.

13. But you establish what you build with resolve
That ever spurns the watering place of the seekers.

14. Your munificence still precedes its time,
Bounteously, and your sword precedes your threats.

15. Until you revealed your determination, which did not cease
To destroy the tyrannous enemy and stubborn foe.

16. And time has bent to you and ceased its tyranny,
Submitting, becoming obedient to what you desire.

17. O sword whose rebellion and loyalty
Have made men in the world wretched and prosperous!

18. Leave the enemy—their soldiers have become,
Not rallying to al-Muhallab, stripped.

19. Your feats have filled hearts with fear,
Leaving no room for rancor.

20. And you have raised a fire which, whenever kindled,
Increases the enemy’s fire, extinguishing it.

21. It is the fire of Abraham for the defiant enemy,
But for the defiant it is fueled.

22. They fled, and if you penetrated deeply seeking them,
The king of the Romans would not protect a fugitive from you.

23. And if in the past you followed their tracks,
You would follow a path that destroys all life.

24. With steeds you race them down every rugged terrain,
Racing racers and mounts swift as lightning.

25. Shedding coat on coat of mail from them and donning
Coat above coat of mail over hides over hides.

26. In a brave platoon—even if not lead to battle—
Your prowess alone suffices as equipment and manpower.

27. Bearing polished iron blades and armored
With thick-woven coats of mail.

28. So let them remain where their abode has settled
As long as iron remains iron.

29. And let them beware of the resolve that barred them
From establishing pillars in Syria.

30. It has severed their ropes—cords that never ceased
To snare kings as though game.

31. How often have you raided them at dawn
In a raid that made them cry “woe is me!”

32. You left no Bakr virgin for the Lord of Hunaydah
Nor virgins of Bani `Atwah untouched.

33. They thought it was the neighing of steeds and the thunder's rumbling
When clouds gathered and lightning struck.

34. And whenever you unsheathe a spear, you do not return it
Without piercing the side of every fortress and artery.

35. And whenever you loose an arrow, it has no hesitation
To plunge at the meeting into breasts.

36. Or which day of calamity have you witnessed and it was not
A day most gut-wrenching and witnessed?

37. By my life, they found your wing with their loyalty
Barren, so when they took refuge, refuge destroyed them.

38. And you were more truthful than them in time of peril
As foe and more hurtful to the enemy as a threat.

39. And I see the state of Mubayyinah as astray from its reason
When it did not hurl stones at that wing.

40. It attained through your proximity honor and eminence
And aspired with your dividing sword, cutting and parrying.

41. You bestowed on it gifts that make free men
Slaves, so Abu Samawah’s reign endured,

42. Fulfilling for his father the restoration promised him.
And one who rejected the favor, his deeds made him

43. Flee in fear of you through the land, an outcast.
And long has the inauspiciousness of stars singled out

44. A people, while for others granting good fortune.
One who came exulting to power has now departed,

45. Expelled from that seat, driven away.
And the flints of those whose views were distorted

46. Until your long shadow tilted.
How many tyrannies has your resolute determination made cower

47. In fear, dread, and awe of something awesome and formidable!
How many a king has it made turn back, repelled,

48. Who, were it not for you, would not have been pushed back!
So I wish you well throughout days for a nation

49. That attains through your proximity every day a celebration.
And for a state of which you have become the chosen one,

50. Growing in might and soldiers.
And I wish joy upon one whose birth has elevated an abode

51. To whose vale the full moon of the sky is envious,
Since the best of created kind has particularly blessed him

52. With a gift he loved not for a grown man nor newborn.
And he has given him a name from your traits heralding

53. Thereby a matter that will not cease being praiseworthy.
Fortunate is he for whom the leader of the age hopes

54. His circumstances will be prosperous.
Good tidings—may God gladden you with their newness,

55. For you have worn, through them, new splendor.
And may He show you praiseworthy, attaining an utmost extent

56. In kingdom that a praiseworthy one despaired of attaining.
His merits will be recounted, and his basin will give drink

57. To the thirsty, whoever desires drink.
And in his presence, you will see for me a son, a poet

58. Like myself, excellent in praise, excellent.
O Chosen One of the kingdom, which was an obstinate determination

59. Then returned to assault his descendants!
You have guided me by the course of your nobility along a path

60. Whose distance tries the eloquent ones’ eloquence.
So if I fall short, my excuse is clear:

61. I am not most eloquent in praising the heavens.
And if I speak, the easiest thing I see

62. Of your achievements makes even the taciturn speak.
I have found them to be scattered jewels

63. And it is for rhymes to string them into necklaces.
So to you belongs the unmatched, and you have found its harmony,

64. While to me belongs praise, and I have found the unmatched.
The world has thanked me for this praise and my method in it,

65. So I was the praiser and the praised.
I have been rewarded for my gratitude with equal gratitude,

66. Increasing what you bestow on me.