1. Poetry in every age has a rough mount
That the weak rider cannot control

2. The tyrant is tempted by it and rides it
But restraining it from him is not to be trusted

3. Men swarmed to its verses out of greed
Yet most of them got only a little from it

4. We count them in thousands without merit
Until one of merit is found

5. Beauty is rare and hard to obtain
Of all that the eye and ear desire

6. You will not see even one ruby
Until you see a thousand worthless rocks

7. This is the farthest goal that fell short
Of the steeds and the mules fell short of it

8. In every other art but this
Little variation when they are paired

9. I know best what foolishness is in the people
Who is sick is known by being tested with sickness

10. God knows that silence is more beautiful for me
If not for rights which make the heart indebted

11. What I cannot repay with the work of hands
I can repay with what tongues make

12. Eulogies are an obligation I cannot avoid
To me, less than them are supererogations and traditions

13. I lead them to a door whose state is erected
By the rule of Iraq and its glory erected by Yemen

14. Strange wherever they settle, and if they alight
In his abode, there are the family and homeland