1. The favors you have shown are beyond all count,
And your glorious influence is beyond all measure.

2. The ambitious have fallen short whilst you have reached far,
And none prospers save those who strive their utmost.

3. If you wish a description to portray your limit―
Stop where the link was severed, we will set a bound.

4. Else no blame falls on any speaker
Whose efforts fall short of the truth as he makes them known.

5. You were not alone in seeking perfection―
But alone you were in possessing it absolutely.

6. The heavens rivaled you therein so whenever
A high deed raised you up they brought you down again.

7. If you reached the furthest heavens in sublimity
You were closest in benevolence and recent in time.

8. If you were without arms against calamity like the blind
You were firmer in piety and stronger in resolve.

9. And if in licentiousness you were more daring in your prime
You were fiercer in rage when roused to anger.

10. How could they aspire to praise while straying
When they were neither true to their threats nor promises?

11. Where are they compared to one who, if betrayed, is true
And if he withholds, gives; and if they jest, is serious?

12. You Hamdanids will remain as long as there remains
A rebel with glory revived and a rebel with rage to quell.

13. Before you were created the stars were not
Frightened nor did the planets› flowers bloom anew.

14. Your swords bloodied all disliked things
And your hands solved all problems and straits.

15. When the heavens concealed their rancor against one who sought refuge
It sufficed that you concealed your rage and did not dissemble it.

16. Accounts of your glory covered the whole world
Leaving no land, desert, hills or dales behind.

17. Before you none like you did time behold
So it perished beholding none like you hereafter.

18. None taught the noble steeds their arched course
Bearing smooth breastplates with necks outstretched.

19. Yours is the restraint if boasting of glories runs apace—
You would be found gentle if rivaling pride called for violence.

20. You disdain one who neglects his own virtues
And counts the recording of ancestry and nobility a burden.

21. You disparage one whose benevolence overwhelms hopes
If his valor does not overwhelm the lions.

22. If Tughril›s virtues were enumerated
Justice and bounty would distinguish him above the rest.

23. Through him a house is raised up and you are atop its pillar,
Many a star desires to have affection as he has had.

24. To the Buyid state he is a victorious champion
Through whom its power was fortified and its glory increased.

25. A sword protecting the far horizons while yet in its sheath―
How then when the plains are its sheath!

26. He sent them forth against the locusts wreaking havoc
Till the mountains of earth collapse from their striking.

27. A decisive sword―time partly held back
Its ravages, and safety came from some of its gentleness,

28. Judging by God›s Book oppresively he did naught
While his noble hands oppressed none.

29. No government has assumed this office
And made all its enemies into troops for it.

30. You feared only God in what you administered
Neither intentionally nor forgetfully doing wrong.

31. You acted with the purity of motive of a free man
Though being absolutely loyal to it as a slave.

32. Do aspirations recede from one for whom
This fresh-plucked rose denies them union?

33. They gave you allegiance out of fear
Else had they felt secure from you they would not have shown affection.

34. You attained such height of reason as frustrated the ambitious
In times past from reaching while the nimble strove in vain,

35. If Alexander had marched by such lights in his darkness
He would have whitened what thereby was blackened.

36. If Gog and Magog had sought you as guiding mentor
And were guided, their heat would have melted the barrier;

37. Had these resolves been divided among mankind Then would they equal what China produces and India.
How many fools were deceived to set their tricks for you

38. But they themselves perished failing to do what they plotted!
Your enemies concede your superiority by necessity

39. For superiority is naught but what enemies concede.
Damascus used to grow blame manifestly

40. While you made it grow praise manifestly.
You held harm back from her and gave her largesse—

41. She knew neither ebb nor flow before.
Within her you lived fifty years and fifty more, amid

42. Well being and blessings—now faring for one, now ransoming another.
If these hopes recount their phases

43. You deserve eternity for your impartiality.
You made happy the seasons of time in which was not contained

44. A time whose shade granted life of ease and plenty.
None before you has trodden this path,

45. Had it not been for your sons I would have said: ̃None will succeed you.›
The virtues of the younger two are brilliant qualities

46. By which the eldest attained glory.
If the elder assumed everywhere the zones of courage—

47. Then from a lineage turning back the lions savage.
And if the younger attained the utmost reach of eloquence—

48. Then never falling short of his father›s high endeavor;
How wondrous that the protector of your rhyme

49. Was your inner self while you are the guiding landmarks!
Natural disposition flows from you though unsought

50. And pursuit of praise strengthens without conscious intent.
Who among you has ever pursued blame since he breathed air

51. And who neglected benevolence since leaving the cradle!
Did the mount›s seat pall at any talk unless

52. It was cut off by praise addressed to you!
I loaded you with my needs but did not compromise,

53. With one denying truth or lacking discernment.
And time gave little then pretended forgetfulness

54. While I inclined to one giving much without pretending.
Gifts enfolded in immenseness and nobility

55. And I do not see people spreading them manifestly,
With praise which, spreading among the people, vanished—

56. For the dew is unfit to vie with sunrays;
Many precious things for me are knotted in you

57. Adorning each gem in these necklaces.
I ask God to perpetuate you eternally,

58. For of gifts He has given the quintessence and the most rightly guided.
Days pass not without charms pressing heavily

59. Upon the eyelids against their loss and passing;