1. Cut with your mind like the cutting of a sharp sword,
And walk with your opinion like the sun and moon's pace.

2. Stand as an orator with the sword of reason as your support,
For in reason is that which makes spears redundant.

3. The limit of prudence is the limit of the sword, if placed
In the palm of one ingenious in opinion, an initiator.

4. And the line, like the line worker, if its
Letters are inscribed by the hands of honourable Maʿaddites.

5. And how many books, if their covers were undone,
Would inspire awe in both nomad and settled folk.

6. O owner of the supreme pen, through which
Kings prospered and so were made free of entertainment.

7. You have made it the sword of our lord, the Eternal Rida,
Thus have I named it “the sharp eternal”.

8. It goes however it desires, beyond any reckoning,
And so takes men out of fear and caution.

9. I did not think excellence was in mankind
Until I saw you, O son of noble stars.

10. And I did not know the pen’s furthest limit
Was to cut hearts and sever the debauched limb.

11. Until I heard the scratching of the calamus
Casting reverence between hearing and sight.

12. It pours out pearls on the cheek of the parchment, nay,
Gems that exceed the mother of pearl and pearls in value.

13. In every atom a word-jewel you have scattered,
To fall between verse and prose.

14. As if it is a stream, from a sea of knowledge unleashing
Its pearls, and casting them onto the trace.

15. Your rising to the zenith of perfection has lengthened, so rise
Over your companion and know the joy of success.

16. I came to knowledge when it was destined for you,
As Moses came to his Lord at the appointed time.

17. When the sublime things see you, their sayer says:
“Blessed is God, this is not of mankind”.

18. O most fortunate of men, take from me a confusion
That touches like a cheek between ink and ink.

19. Short in praise, it has been lengthened by you and so
Become long in scope, beyond disgrace and inadequacy.

20. It says, if read one day by its lord:
“Cut with your mind like the cutting of a sharp sword”.