1. They left while they were still nestled between my ribs,
So my heart is an untied knot, unraveled.

2. They flirted with separation while it was flirting
With the veil of bashfulness drawn over it.

3. Their abodes rose only to set away from us
As if that rising were only a setting.

4. They did not unleash their beauty except that
Intellects clung to them, besotted.

5. So restrain your love for the youths, O morning cupbearer,
For shedding tears between them goes unchecked.

6. Trace the footsteps over the footsteps, for they
Are the vestiges of one whose vestiges are kisses.

7. A companion, you accompanied youth amidst which was prime,
While I am sick and the gentle breeze is sick.

8. The breeze toyed with it and passion wreaked havoc on me,
So it strode tilted between us and I strode tilted.

9. And for long she would play with a slender flexuous form
On both her sides, a left curve and a right curve.

10. When her air was dewy and the lawn of her buttocks
Blossomed and the sweet-scented shade was languid.

11. And the wind sported above it with roving feet
Panting while the feathers of its wings were soaked.

12. For every passerby and stumbler in her courtyard,
There was always a gentle, sweet stopover and rest.

13. Until she flaunted herself among the rivers of pleasure
Like turbidity while in the meadow of purity was decay.

14. And upon the litters they called her a sun -
Whatever they claimed, that was the proof.

15. And for that reason, wherever her Ursa settled,
The night was dawn and the breeze without coolness.

16. If the channel of my resolutions solidified,
The wind of passion would sway me and I would sway.

17. Thus the generous man is tractable in the rein of his will,
Obedient to his passion while being submissive.

18. And if the youth sheds his virginity and puts on
The coolness of youth, his excuse is accepted.

19. One who bestows his twenties and prime upon youth -
His heart is the excused one, not the condemned.

20. And you accompanied hunting, amidst which one hears
A merit in what I said and the details.

21. And you filled the kings’ hearing with wonders
That have circulated in proverbs while flowering.

22. While I am a man who, if it was said in scaling his ascent,
“My saying”, it would be as if it were revelation coming down.

23. The generous welcome my begging into their stores
And for them, my freeloading is most welcome.

24. It would be said about another, “Raising his status elevated him,”
And the drink and food was luxurious for him.”

25. If that had tranquilized my rising ambitions,
Egypt would have slept and the Nile hushed by my voice.

26. And after I handed over to the society of a group
Among whom there was no distinction of merit or superiority,

27. And I left in Fustat a sovereign whose face
Shone, and speech about him was beautiful.

28. His palm preceded songs of praise with intuitive talent,
So he began to scent his prayer nicely and lengthen it.

29. But I heard about the Righteous One and his action,
So I came to him to show him how I speak.

30. And I knew that if I watered his cloud,
Hope would grow and optimism bear fruit.

31. A palm whose fingers are refuge, in its shade,
Are plunging spears, thickets, and floods.

32. Time tested his high moral standards so everything about him
Is sorcery - its flowers have diffused their fragrance and are authentic.

33. So it is as if the days are a bay-colored eyelid
And as if they are pearls belonging to him and foals.

34. The course of sublime generosity flowed toward him alone
While a group says and the pouring rain is streaming down.

35. I have told the seekers in reaching him,
“Gently! You have no means to access him.”

36. Do not covet him. In your hearing
Is inadequacy, and in the paths to leadership is height.

37. He raced the winds in sublime generosity, so they told
About him, and where is the generous man stingy?

38. He who folds the polished compositions is as if they are
A cup racing around the racetrack of wild pigeons.

39. Laughing and crying over the flowers of wisdom
Whose meadow of eloquence is in full bloom.

40. And compositions like tablets, made for his perusal,
Ring in both conditions from the ringing.

41. From all past, the edge of his liberal hands’ sharpness
In pardoning is the severing scimitar made rounded.

42. And an eloquence that leaves al-Mubarrad cold
And declares openly, “What is al-Khalil a friend to?”

43. He tamed hopes while they are proud and lofty,
And built high places while they were towering.

44. Graces were infatuated with you, and these
Are their vestiges in you, subtle and carven.

45. So it is as if your distribution of largesse is a storehouse
And as if your view of beauty is beautiful.

46. You fulfilled the month of fasting in its right of fasting
And night vigil, and likewise that will not disappear.

47. And you clothed the feast of the breaking of the fast in the finery of lucidity
For its necklaces, in its beauty was the adornment.

48. The Qur’ān shone with the presentation of them
The Torah and Bible bore witness to them.

49. And submit! For the generous were many, and if not for you
O son of the most generous, they would be few!