1. For what state is the flowing of your tears submissive?
And this is neither a blessing nor that a blessing

2. Every place for the miserly is a house
And every burden for the miserly is a groan

3. Unless you have secretly resolved a counselor's opinion
So by their traces when they appeared was made clear

4. May God water the plains with my tears as Nu'man's
And I said though the tears be a deluge

5. Abodes wherein for the wild cows a thicket, and for the gazelles
Brooks of rivers, and for the bare ground fawns

6. When their she-camels Big with Young repose I said a pregnant one
And when their lions crouch I said a lioness

7. I had delight therein what time the life was green and blooming
And the boughs of youth to the garments' skirts fluttering

8. So no chanter unto law of love chanted a ditty
Nor the league united enfeebled any weakness

9. Lo! towers on the boughs were nodding
Yet neither planets they nor are those boughs

10. You have attained the dove's honour though she be wide-spread
And you raided the wolf's eye though he be furious

11. Nor friend but the zephyr of him breathes
Which stirs my tenderness as if I were a tender sprig

12. To it the slender sprouts of youth like Palm-spathe lean
And to it the loving sigh like one bereft of sense

13. I marvelled with longing free in its bondage
While for me whenever the deniers blame infraction

14. So when I was the house I gave its stead greetings
While to the eye refusal and to the heart recognition

15. And I said unto it my heart from your people has fared far
So you are a ruin and I a crumbling body

16. Where then are the blooms of the curved vine that here
Hath brought to birds' warbling the sweet melody?

17. Nights flaunting in goblets with stars a-brim
Handing round the brilliant sun in passing cup

18. That life is spoiled for me whenever by recollection
I ignite for it between the ribs consuming fires

19. But an you be of the Peninsula's water a relator
Then I for the sweet fresh water I'm athirst

20. And I traverse the waste and the moon is a horseman
For him the night a fillet and stars necklaces

21. With one loosed in danger and Ali amongst valiant warriors
An eagle or else an elevation then 'tis a garden

22. And a pleasaunce wherein for the river to run
And for the blossoms to be fed by abundant rains,

23. To which the coursers' illustrious highbred steeds repaired
So for the light he made them collars and ear-rings

24. Gliding across the flower-gathering ether as though
O'er those hillocks were trailing trains of clouds

25. He reddened them a bevy some day of onslaught and battling
Wherein for the seeking of peace is provaunt and for war is piercing

26. Of men what alter palaces to their homes
Foundation save altering spikenard and pillars?

27. Whenas their swords' white flash they bared naught was theirs
Save heads of slaughtered game lids to preserve

28. Thirsting for fray from hearts of their haters
A heart is theirs and stout-hearted are they

29. They pastured those that befriended them and regarded their foes
So their folk were honoured while their adversaries were scorned

30. He undertook them for glory the best undertaker
And nourished them on very cream of culture's milk,

31. A natural purity in them, all-embracing munificence
A graceful form and honour naught marring and minds

32. When silent they concealed their speech and when they spoke they guided
And when they camped adorned and when mounted protected

33. They gave refuge and no refuge took, they promised and plighted naught
They gave and gave not, kept troth and kept not, they protected and protected not

34. And oh how oft the foeman's bitter draught they made
Their keen swords drink while lapping eagerly!

35. Swords that harvested the lances' growth and hurled them
High and wide and not all tilting-places pleasing!

36. A perfect perfection whose merit otherwise, save that it was
Nobler and ne'er degraded and faithfuller e'er betraying

37. Yet you never see in Revelation's pages a chapter
That takes station of "The Praises "though all be Koran

38. They have a nobility waxing glory in its fame
They are the summit and it is but a man

39. It possesses a pen as sharp as an Indian blade but its spittle
To the wine of boon appears honey and to the spear milk

40. When one day it slithers the fingers swimming
And opening the inkpot overflowing its inkstand

41. So his abounding knowledge singled him out amid his folk
And they mid living tribes an individual

42. He is clement and he hides his clemency broadcasting it
Eulogy though from perfumes wafts no secrecy

43. I loved the Sublime and to the utmost loved her
And of things beloved waiting and eluding

44. He flourished with the fair attribution so for the Lofty ones
Is collected a union from which is no parting

45. Thus for the sublime Sun and shining Moon that brightened
And for the strenuous arm of generosity flowing,

46. And from wondrous that apportioned largesse amongst them
Nor sound apportioning from it is any diminishings

47. High Heaven exalted them and the Emir Mohammed
A round-faced moon riding a liberty steed,

48. Free and easy his nature proved his origin honourable
And at dawn radiant over dawn a sign

49. May the days glad and happy and due to your worth
Embellished with grandeur joy every year

50. When you are feast for us throughout all periods
Past hath Muharram and expired Sha'aban

51. Your lavishness stayed mine so sufficed me
My hopes' barque and for parsimony a deluge

52. My tongue a diver and my thought its sea
My verse a pearl extracted and coral

53. Should its wearers throng it crowning
Yet some dresses serve but for shrouds

54. To number your favours the eyelids' sons would fail
And depicting my condition Hissan's strain