1. Return the greeting, O Maha of fruitful bosom
And join to your rope one who is not cut off

2. And show favor to Mutayyam, whom
The fire of youth has kindled, though frail of ribs

3. The heart flutters, love almost bears it away
Yearning for you, amid glancing lightning

4. It finds no rest or solace and sees
No right for its passion, if you do not respond

5. Its wings enfold a message for you
Whose title on the cheek is the red of tears

6. So when can it reveal what its conscience has hidden
If you remain heedless, not hearing?

7. After you I dwell in the tents of loneliness
The dawn has no morning to its night

8. No guide can find his way in it
Except by the sighs of my anguished heart

9. I watch the stars in the sky as though I had
Among the stars a hostage not yet freed

10. A flower shining in space as though
It were a love fluttering by a meadow's brink

11. As though about the galaxy doves
Hovered, white, upon the edges of their nest

12. And you see the Pleiades in the sky like
Rings of pearls with precious gems adorned

13. Dazzling white like the eggs of an ostrich
In the belly of a sandgrouse on dappled ground

14. As though they were lamps lit
By electricity in a workshop's ceiling

15. And night, dread and gloomy, stands
Draped in its darkness like a hooded monk

16. Clad in nebulae like an armored knight
Of Ham's progeny fully caparisoned

17. It deemed the stars delayed its command
So it signaled to them with its crescent finger

18. Still I watched for its dawn until unveiled
Like the tall spearwood tree's flowering crown

19. And above the couches a dove sang plaintively
Describing passionate love with the crazed utterance of one obsessed

20. Calling to the absent one though unseen—that is
Not the wont of doves, a thing unheard of

21. Roaming the roads wherever it came upon
What it desired of herbage or meadow

22. When aloft it rested in the shade of a tamarisk
When swooping down it settled by a spring

23. It prompted me to a poem which I made
A true friend's gift, no pretender he

24. It is of the doves' warblings, and yet
I used it to praise the most splendid soul

25. He is that hero whose fame has reached
The furthest range of hearing

26. A lamp in the dark and mind of the confused
Speaker of gatherings and knight of the forum

27. The truth of his words made Jorol's name ring out
And matched Jarir in the most eloquent verse

28. He took no model from Badr the Masked
Rather his conception came through Joshua's miracle

29. He brought to life the worn-out art of poetry
And restored to the days the Age of Al-A'sha

30. Words with the sweetest sound to the ear
And in the mind's sanctum the fairest cadence

31. As if the dew had touched a blossom and its
Breath was scented with lingering fragrance

32. The fiercest foe yields to them and the mind
Of the ablest orator feeds on their honey

33. They are the feast of literature—he who tastes it
Will cast his anchors in a fecund valley

34. They captivated my soul, enlivened my thoughts
Quenched the echo of my heart, and delighted my hearing

35. Submit, Shakib! Abide in bounty
Inclining over you, branchy and burgeoning

36. For you are most deserving of praise for a kindness
You have shown, and duty kept is best

37. You sharpened my wit unblunted still
And observed my covenant, unbroken

38. And channeled from your sea's abundance a stream for me
Its rushing torrent overwhelmed the oceans

39. Sweet are its springs—if the rainclouds had cast
Their water skins into them they would not have left

40. And its surging billows became the prime
Adornment for every crowned and turbaned head

41. That is the poetry which the masters of eloquence
Bore witness was most excellently created

42. Through it I saw Akh of Iyad declaiming
And heard Antarah the knight make his boast

43. And dreamed I was in the gardens of Paradise
Wondrous dreamer, never having slept!

44. A merit you raised the banner of greatness
Eyes turned from other banners, yours to follow

45. So when can I give thanks for your favor to me
Though the stars are closer to my reach?

46. Excuse me if praise falls short. I made
The attempt but found no means.

47. May you continue to enjoy the joy of happiness
And the comfort of well-being and abundant life.