1. I am amazed at my contentment and idleness,
Exertion has overcome the lofty persevering ones.

2. If you blamed the ill omens of my laziness,
Then indeed my good fortune has been prolonged.

3. Fate did not fulfill its promise to me
Except to fulfill its threat.

4. If the splendor of my fortune faded, wait,
Perhaps the blossoming of my fortune will return.

5. The years did not pass by without
My steps stumbling or my pillars leaning.

6. My resolve has faded though I am not one
In whom resolve has entirely vanished.

7. And despair refused that my tomorrow
Would be clothed in a garment of new youth.

8. My love of praise was the greatest cause
Of my playfulness fading and my vigor waning.

9. And my passion for the pleasure of generosity still
Remains until my means are exhausted.

10. And my habit of luxury and my fancying
The daughter of the vine clusters.

11. I swear by fate - between the union with a beloved
In the shade of youth and a loving intimacy -

12. Giving my neck to tame lions
Trampling with my feet the necks of wolves.

13. The cauldron continues to tug at the rein of my determination
To lead my pot toward those armies.

14. While I enjoy myself in the heart of a diwan,
Accompanied by flutes and lutes.

15. And my rising at dawn to lightly-clad beauties
And my visiting slave girls at evening.

16. By my life, I saw the face of my felicity shine
When I saw the face of the Rightly-Guided Caliph.

17. The elite of the two nobles of the Abbasids
And the rope of continuing generosity.

18. The guide of dew can only be attained through him
Since the dew has no guide.

19. The orator of the refined Hashimites
Witnessed in every assembly.

20. The council returns and he alone comes
With his eloquence among the delegations.

21. And you see the ears inclined
To a discourse whose text or verse he recites.

22. And the eyes are awed to fill up with him
For he has what the eyes desire from him.

23. As if the heads above them in stillness
To the most charming chanter.

24. The fullness of the chest, the eye, the throat,
And heart despite the nose of the envious.

25. An ocean of knowledge on the morrow of an opponent's argument,
A towering forbearance like the crescent of Eid.

26. If he competed with Suhban in eloquence
Suhban would end up faltering.

27. Or he conversed with Abdul Hameed,
Marwan would be astounded by Abdul Hameed's eloquence.

28. O son of the mawla of Abu Nasr al-Sindi
The pillar of the enduring caliphate.

29. Combiner of the sword for the caliph
And the pen - glorify the master and extend help.

30. The dawn of Ar-Rashid witnessed upon your face
The blessed, auspicious birth.

31. A resemblance to him in you was like
An inheritance to Solomon from David.

32. The glances of his eyes for benefit and harm
And his gestures for ferocity and kindness.

33. And a tongue that gently draws out discretion
But if stirred says to the earth, "Be still."

34. You have assumed your grandfather Abdullah's position among us
So honor his grandfather with lasting generosity.

35. If we asked you about the limits of Allah's Book
You clarified the ambiguities of the legal edicts.

36. Or if we heard Hadith from you, your chain of transmission
Is neither uncertain nor repudiated.

37. Or we sought leadership and glory through you,
You supported us with honor and eternity.

38. You do not consider my unemployment and the preoccupation of people
Busy with taxes or mail.

39. And if rivalry were proper for us
And the contest extended into the valley,

40. We would take the quality of precedence below them
While they would come as if bound in shackles.

41. My inkstand complains of emptiness and my pen
Thirsts for meadows and flowers.

42. In lines lent by my grandfather al-Sindi
From the essence of himself engraved on coins.

43. Every Nun is like the curve of a cheek following
An Alif like the stature of an outstretched palm tree.

44. And meanings like the crescent in white ink
In ink black like the darkest nights.

45. Be my intercessor, for you are my intercessors
In this life and the eternal abode.

46. I have ceased composing, so even if you sought
More verses beyond what I composed, you would find no excess.