1. Glory is bowing down before its might enemies,
And upholding kings with wisdom, enthroning some and dethroning others.

2. Wealth is what protects you from blame or builds upon you,
Or leaves for your people a legacy.

3. Generosity is relatives whose wombs are filled by it,
Or devoting yourself to some hope it has prepared for you.

4. Vileness is honoring the despicable, for he is
Like a wolf who sees none as an enemy but to pounce.

5. Resolve leaves iron dangling, horses yearning,
And the blades of swords intent and thirsting.

6. Nobility has you slay the enemy, traitor or loyal,
Attacker or defender indifferently.

7. Treachery brings glory while loyalty leads nowhere,
And ignorance silences one in his ignorance.

8. So if you gain an advantage over the enemy through trickery
Then pounce, for the pounce this day brings salvation tomorrow.

9. Patience in some situations is but humiliation
So overlook, take revenge, hurry and take your time.

10. Not all patience brings good, for often
The fool is tempted by patience to greater foolishness.

11. All glory lies in generosity; ne’er will you see
The stingy called master in a clan.

12. Among the vile acts is showering the enemy
With rain then pouncing on the weak like a roaring lion.

13. My friends, I see no friends but those
I befriended only to become my enemies.

14. Once you were my aides, and have now become
Aides against me; nothing has changed.

15. Do not praise embellished lies, though pleasing
To the listener; they herald misery and sting bitterly.

16. My love for you is not hidden, but I have no
Opinion that you would heed, so come nearer or go farther away.

17. I have said to those lending an ear to your lies: Awake!
How long this slumber, and whither does it lead?

18. You destroyed your people pleasing the slanderer;
How close is the slanderer to you, yet how far!

19. Outpace your people in struggling, and be not
A sword above them poised to strike dead.

20. Know that the guide for your course is none but
Who takes counsel since counselors began to give guidance.

21. Among misfortunes is my staying in a land
Cursed by God! How its enemy prospers!

22. If it were conquered by Kisra he would say, seeing it:
My soul be sacrificed for one who desires its destruction!

23. No good exists between a people who betray their neighbor
And hope for no guidance for their lost ones.

24. A black bondmaid is more esteemed among them
Than a learned scholar or revered old man.

25. Nay, by a reformer - no, by a thousand reformers -
They prefer not a man of despicable origin and destructive influence.

26. If told, be a Jew, to attain a most lofty position among them,
And a dirham were placed lower than you, you would become a Jew!

27. O blissful ignorance of the wise course! Be content
When you take the middle road on your journey.

28. Think not glory has marked you with a star
That is inauspicious and a subject of contention like your black star.

29. Five mongrels if captured by the daughters of wind
Would make better game than they.

30. If satiated they sleep; if starved they
Howl but shouting will not drive them away.

31. Glory is a piercing stab in the breasts that
A blow straightens - it brings the enemies flocking.

32. And open-handedness in a palm that does not
Count its gifts - for gifts if counted lose their charm.

33. You are not a summer cloud to soon disappear
After an hour - you shall flash with light or rumble with thunder!

34. So to a relative be gently kind, and to the enemy
Be rough and bristle.

35. Know the superiority of a protector over the protected that you may
Be rightly guided in some matters.

36. You will regret days that do not profit
When the cup of life is drained; song will not help the sobered heart.

37. Whenever an ignoble one attacks me wrongfully
I shall repay him in his weakness deliberately.

38. The forbearing are ignorant, and overlooking is disgrace;
Patience is bitter, and blameworthy is he who transgresses.

39. Think you I would be content with your refuse as a watering place?
Away with your refuse, ignorant fool! How icy your watering place!

40. More deluded than I is one whose self-conceit
Has duped him - how can one who is deluded counsel?

41. Were I to live yet acclaim your name, invoking it,
While death comes, man's fate, and decay is time's advance.

42. O noble in valor! Were you by merit to lead in glory and struggle
The like of the son of Abu 'Aziz, you would have no equal.

43. He whose standard no assembly since it rallied
Has ever lowered - handed from one bearer to another.

44. He who revived the lands when all before him
Lived in them like cinders quenched and worn out.

45. He who ruled the world as a child, and stood forth in his youth
A colossus who built towering edifices.

46. His forefathers from 'Abd Qays - the best stock,
Most generous, noblest in repute.

47. A people who ruled the lands and subjugated
The recalcitrant, elucidating the paths of guidance.

48. Their days in pagan times were all
White, putting opponents to shame for their blackened days.

49. The virtue of Islam was theirs when they rose in it
To Truth, taking the clearest, straightest road.

50. Who meets Ibrahim meets the most splendid of nobles,
The ascetic who devoted himself to God and detached from the world.

51. I give greetings to Aziz and his son and his grandson
And Abu Aziz: Abdallah and Muhammad.

52. O Father of Ali, none like you responds
To the most high call! Rise to which naught can aspire!

53. O sole one! Every father among them
Is called by the clan's consensus: "The unique one!"

54. Were it not for you, starvation would have been my lot
And I attained no glory; but you scaled the heights.

55. And I would have been forbidden the company of a people whose
Honor and wealth were squandered among them.

56. So my praise of them and all my coins
Are my treasure - empty their hands of their coldness!

57. Iblis is dead! So trust in the friendship of Majid
Who, if reconciled, reconciles, and if hostile is opposed.

58. He regards affection and kinship, not like those who,
If you stand, sleep, and if you ignore them, become angry.

59. You are pleased with his words, and were it not for his weakness
His thrusts would be hotter than the flames of Hell.

60. So strike your enemy with me and you will find me
Raging, not to be cowed, a slashing sword.

61. I have accepted you as father, brother, paternal uncle, cousin
And son of an uncle - for life you are my lord.

62. Take me as a son thus, and even as a slave,
Willingly to sacrifice himself for you against the bitter events of Fate.

63. I shall direct to your exaltedness poetry
That makes the long-winded poet forget his zeal and purpose.

64. About you speak the most precious pearls
That exhaust the eloquent and render the strongly worded speechless.

65. May your Lord guard you wherever you are for time
Immortal, for you remain as time itself remains.

66. And may I see in your son what you would wish, and may he live
Who envies you - as long as the wounded asp lives!

67. To you these words like pearls - though pearls
Put the Farazdaq to shame with their stringing and engraving.