1. Is justice anything but what you display?
Or good anything but what you disseminate and harbor?

2. Fortune has ordained for you determination, ambition,
Generosity, daring, progeny and support.

3. And a view that sufficed to thwart adversities before
The days other than it could change.

4. You have reached with your lowliness the farthest extent
To which Chosroes aspired and Caesar's endeavor fell short.

5. And how can an exalted one seek to vie with you
When he aggrandizes what you consider petty?

6. He fears from daring what you do not fear,
And he falls asleep to warding off harm while you stay awake.

7. You surpassed the neighborly chief while the year is fertile,
And you were excessive in grants while the year is copious.

8. The days submitted to you so their darkness receded
As the darkness recedes and dawn becomes manifest.

9. You taught people that venerable old age
Is less dignified than the prime of youth.

10. Two boons singled you out and became commonplace,
Their fame everlasting until resurrection.

11. Your munificence while the world is in need of you,
And your charity while good is scarce among people.

12. With nobility, had it rivaled the clan of Barmuke,
Yahya, Fadl and Ja'far would have seemed greater.

13. Had the Pre-Islamic Era witnessed you no pauper lingered
Nor did a needy man join the assembly.

14. Your protection of those who seek it voided
The permissibility of sacrificing those who turn their backs.

15. When Ka'b resolved to possess Sowdood
Fate ordained what it cherished to ordain.

16. Did not its swords spare them any
Regulations to flout or rules to break?

17. When they met champions on an ominous day,
How many champions did they cause to despair of glory!

18. You adorn them with a crown and attire during peace,
And a coat of mail and forgiveness during tribulations.

19. You fulfilled a pledge and covenant to them
And made them steadfast when horses stumble.

20. Their horsemen drip with the blood of foes
While the champions of battle drip with gore.

21. As you treated the Romans when they plotted
A scheme that almost ruptured the sky of glory.

22. You marched against them in a noble advance
Whereby religion is protected and the Caliphate supported.

23. Your companion is an Indian albino
While your guide is a black of noble descent.

24. Prosperous winds enticed him
Until adversity winds, howling, came to him.

25. So he fled, and were it not for your gracious pardon, he would not have despaired,
Nor returned with the tidings of survival.

26. They witnessed a spark of piercing, ensuring
For your religion that Shizar would not bar the Romans.

27. Because of your power, the Muslim flock is protected
And was being threatened only by loose tongues.

28. When the Seljuq overstepped his limits
And harbored enmity contrary to what he was displaying,

29. You dispatched against him the neighboring
Stallions, black calamities from the striking of victory.

30. So they advanced, not out of fear,
And the terrified flees while the defeated is aided.

31. Thus he won an immediate loss, may God mend it,
And it was followed by a loss that cannot be mended.

32. And the fool coveted its like while fasting,
So he met what distressed him while he broke the fast.

33. Had night not rescued him on the fifth of five days,
None of those armies would have returned to inform.

34. The pursuers barred him from you with chaste white swords
With which the shining blades rule and imprison.

35. If the captivity of the chaste whites spares them,
Then after does and lynxes they are pardoned and overlooked.

36. He infiltrated protected by night in his coat of mail
And returned while another coat of armor is preserved.

37. The fate of his brother turned him away from you unharmed,
While he who does not inquire returns in utter humiliation.

38. You took control of fate at its unruly course,
So that its events no longer delay what you advance.

39. Nor do they repeal what you commanded of its misfortunes,
Nor do fates repeal what originates from you.

40. You were guided to lofty paths which they did not follow,
You were given victory in earning praise while they resented.

41. You penetrated those plateaus so you kept them
As if, were it not for you, they would not have been accessible.

42. If they try their old tricks or plot thereby,
You are more capable of rising above scheming.

43. If you are of two noble and mighty ancestors,
Each of whom makes the time proud and boast.

44. An ancestor through whom the generous steed ascends,
And an ancestor through whom the throne and pulpit rise.

45. Through the victory of the son of Mahmoud son of Nasr
Difficulties were facilitated that before him were trying.

46. With him the lifespans of generous deeds lengthen
While the lifespans of promises shorten.

47. Ferocious when the fierce leads to battle,
Vicious while the fires of strife flare up.

48. When the honesty of people is counted or chivalry mentioned,
No tongue or throat goes beyond that.

49. Calm your endeavors, understand the saying’s purpose,
For words cannot express these deeds.

50. What need is there to describe what you do
When reports of it are spread east and west?

51. But it increases in splendor through poetry
Like the beauty of a meadow increases when lit up.

52. Hopes died in every land,
Were it not for your light, gloom would not have cleared.

53. Would that my days in your shade do not end
And that my brief hours seem long months.

54. Wherein desires are attained, praise acquired,
And prayers fulfilled while sins are forgiven.

55. So your proximity, boons I have tested
Are plucked from ease rather than pressed from stinginess.

56. Vistas delighted though not spied from afar,
And not every nearby garden bears fruit.

57. When the hoped for is miserly with his stinginess
To hope he will be prevented from thanklessness is more excusable.

58. For what you have graced me with, I have praises
That pace the sun or faster, being led.

59. Wonders, if they appear, are pearls and gems,
Precious, and if they smell, musk and ambergris.

60. My eighties did not weaken my obligations,
As the oleander weakens when still a tender twig.

61. I see the news of the miser perishes disgracefully,
Then fades, while the news of the generous lives on.

62. Had this not been so, Hatem would not have died.
Nor would men who fell short of extreme generosity have died.

63. So to God belongs a master who in praised morns and eves,
So this rhymed eulogy does not count it enough.

64. Safe is he from any blemish, as though his absence
Would prevent his critics from gathering.

65. And acknowledging to petitioners what they claimed,
But after graces, refusing and rejecting.

66. Wealth seizes him swiftly at first,
And he reckons it did not enrich, so he amasses.

67. Like clouds that rain bounty on a land,
And it profits fully from its irrigation while he continues pouring.

68. You remain the lasting stay of the two noble sanctuaries,
Dwelling in their vicinity for as long as the eye harbors its pupil.

69. Just as holidays continue to arrive perpetually,
So your rule is protected and your wealth is green.