1. Youth was created, but not my naughtiness,
And I shot arrows at the target of time.

2. The arrows fall behind it as though
It were the track of ants that couldn't be reached.

3. And I see my strength diminished by laziness,
Then when I exert it, it is flabby at the elbow joint.

4. And I went out early with marked, known weapons
Of noisy, clanking chains, already prepared.

5. A free man whose palm we made skillful
At woman's work, and gaining booty from the coward.

6. It removes grit with two dear pupils
Of the eyelids of Salim, not pierced.

7. It cast off its burdens and made a cloak
That had been tailored by a careful artisan.

8. So it is as though armored in brocade
From an uncompressed mattress, not patched.

9. And if you witness it in battle, flight
Leaves it, while it remains valiantly truthful.

10. You see the lance avoid the nostril of its guide
Who urges on the active, black horses.

11. Their necks darken and their zeal shortens
At a cultivated, eloquent poet's satires,

12. Until we raised our worth through their shame
So the flesh lies between being bound and ripped open.

13. By this Commander of the Faithful I was revived
While my soul lies between choking and being strangled.

14. So hurl your mount next to a caliph
Who surpassed goals that none had surpassed before.

15. My soul be your ransom on a day of noble deed—
If not for the restraint of his patience, I would not be freed.

16. You forbade yourself my flesh though lawful to you
And gathered together from diverse places the scattered.

17. We are charging from Sali towards you, intensely
The noble souls and carrion of the sheep mounts.

18. They follow the course of sodden fur as though
The eyes of a short-necked ewe were focused on it.

19. Khanssa tends a small spark with dried wood
And by it for him a blaze like burnt patches.

20. Until when she found him, she did not see with him
Anything but the worn edge of his tattered cloak.

21. Unser refuses the caliphate to Harun
With pure, rooted establishment in the bloody incisors.

22. A king whose nature and constitution are pleasant,
Sweet to the taste in the mouth of the taster.

23. He takes on every matter while occupied
Between rituals and the successful enemy.

24. It protects you from what you hide in doing
The smiles of a face that does not make you doubt when shining.

25. Until when its purpose is resolved, it takes
Both the hearing of its enemy and logic.

26. I swear to you by the effort of the loftiest
Oath, by all who fall short and all who ascend.

27. You have revered God as is due His reverence
And strived, yourself, beyond the effort of the reverent.

28. You frightened the idolaters until indeed
The liquid drops fear you that are not yet created.

29. And the merchandise of poets, if you spend it
It is spent; and if you make it worthless, it has no value.