1. He set out to meet his fate, so it met and dismissed him,
Like a fasting camel yearning for its evening drink.

2. Alas! The deer cannot catch him, for
His valor has aroused in them great fear.

3. As if from his bright eyes
An emerald shone above his chest.

4. That spirit disdained, though valor aided it,
To quench its thirst with lowliness.

5. And honor adorned it, keeping it
From thirsting in vileness for water.

6. So let time wonder that he is a child;
If time had a father, he would be his son!

7. I see the changing times delude me
That he knew not his error or his right way.

8. He who craved not praise or wealth
And renewed neither his raiment nor his home,

9. Gave his soul no rest but wakefulness
That wearied his body to comfort his soul.

10. The envious lessen no generosity,
However much its traces multiply their envy.

11. The sun is a sun, though the dim-sighted
Shun it out of blindness and bleary eyes.

12. How often wholesome food is revolting
To one whose stomach is corrupt!

13. Why do you offer gems to one
Who approves not of generosity nor beauty?

14. You forbid him to the yearning souls,
But would you give him to the ascetics?

15. If the noble silence his praise,
God has heard no praise from the praiser.

16. How often I said to the loud boaster:
"Your outstretched hands lengthen not your arm!"

17. Leave him and his cockleshells, in the early dawn
Blowing froth, casting foam.

18. He gives you to drink of his plenty and rain,
For the youth's generosity is from what he has found.

19. When the preferred one shone forth
From the canopy of theforearm, fulfilling its glories,

20. The fertile stream and the blossoming meadow which
The singing maidens beautify and the easy life -

21. How envied, when yesterday he glanced
At his beauty and extended his hand!

22. To what high place did he aspire and ascend
Raising to him its ladder though it elevated him not?

23. In war, like the yellow flash when it closely
Follows in the air its lightning and its roar,

24. He plunged into the depths of the lances and then
The swords made reappear whom they had concealed.

25. HeCharged on till the jackals howled at him
And charged till thelions roared over him.

26. In the battles novelty which kindled his
Quick wit he made blaze continually.

27. If rest had multiplied his tremors
It would have multiplied from his foe the thunderbolts.

28. A star shone high but then hastened to
Put out, through its light, the eyes of the deniers.

29. The sharp edge of his blade above his saddle
Runs with the water of the firn-land ever-flowing.

30. He who killed fate and led it by the nose
Made it a bridge for him over his destruction.

31. Ask of him whom its caprices deluded,
So he died of fear though it unsheathed him not.

32. Did not planets that took counsel
To destroy his deceitful magic stone him?

33. So make him climb the mountain of punishment for
In it, in his ignorance, he brought down his leap.

34. Finally the rule came to its protector
So God prolonged with him its duration,

35. And the Imam Saud became, through it,
Its strengthening pillar in a state strengthened.

36. And the countenance smiled through the preferred one
At what God had chosen for his seriousness and affection.

37. So he practiced justice in his culture
Until he strengthened and straightened its pegs.

38. And he faced the Feast as was his custom
With the great number, bearing its burdens.

39. The air is covered, its sides
With the barking of dogs, and the horsemen ready.

40. And the eggs are opened, their coverings
Removed, and the tied flags unfurled.

41. He tires eyes with his beauty
While they by his beauty are oppressed.

42. Until, when fair praise sprang up and ceased not
To reap new harvests in ears,

43. And found the goal of his grandeur
The height of his hopes, so he lost it not,

44. Men fell down before him prostrate even if
You numbered the stars in their prostrations.

45. Slaying of enviers attends his sacrifice even if
He flees from it and worships it.