1. Let him be, for the best opinion is not to reproach him harshly,
For even if blaming could cure his illness, he would have recovered.

2. Be gentle with him, O you who blame him, for he
Is sensitive and has suffered enough from blame.

3. Were it not for a passion he cannot control,
His dignity would have prevented him from being so humble.

4. But one who loves, though he be of high status,
Must show weakness and act with humility.

5. My two friends, arise and give me to drink
A delicious, bittersweet wine, in a large goblet.

6. May Jacob not have regretted losing Joseph
When he saw his beauty in the palm of a boon companion.

7. Had the full moon revealed itself to the new moon on its night of perfection
It would have shown jealousy and hid itself away.

8. With his eyes we frolic and his lips we savor,
And we never taste the wine cup without becoming drunk.

9. No harm if you sing to me, saying:
May God keep the tippler alive and familiar.

10. In the shade of gardens whose branches
Shelter the birds roosting in them.

11. A little garden, if the wandering camel rested in it an hour,
It would make him forget his sadness and elevation.

12. Your homelands are forgotten in the shade of a master
Who has dispelled the sorrow from my gloomy heart and uncovered it.

13. He invited me when I did not impose myself on him,
Seeking advantage, and brought me closer and honored me.

14. He doubled his generosity and loyalty to me openly,
So my soul is ransomed for him - how excellent and gentle he is!

15. It did not harm me, despite his closeness, that my home
And clan are on the barren plateau of as-Safa.

16. They say the generous ones have died, and the sea of generosity
Has become a barren plain, empty of good.

17. No honorable man remains in this wilderness,
Whose protection one may seek when fate is violent.

18. So I said to them: "You are wrong! Generosity
And giving have a sea that casts forth pearls in abundance."

19. As long as the Pride of the Faith, and his descendants, live,
Do not ask about those who have passed or lagged behind.

20. For time has claimed them like others,
So say farewell to this world and its sons.

21. And whoever meets the Pride of the Faith will meet a descendant of Tarah,
Noble, humane, and excellent in manners.

22. He is of pure morals, his religion is no pretense,
His glory no claim, and his generosity no affectation.

23. He is the scion of kings, among his ancestors
You will not find a wicked or upstart man.

24. He came after them while time had unsheathed its sword
Against the people and spread ruin and havoc.

25. But that did not make him sell or betray,
Or weaken his resolve - no, he followed his forefathers' ways.

26. By my life, he revived generosity after its death
And renewed a quarter for the noble that had been forgotten.

27. By his hands good became fresh, and the meadows of generosity
Became flooding from the outpouring of his palms.

28. To hopes he gave back a spirit by which they,
Though about to perish, were saved at the brink.

29. In him you see generosity and benevolence as innate,
A natural disposition by which he excelled all mankind without affectation.

30. That is only because wealth is trivial to him,
So he gives with a smile and makes little of it.

31. He pours onto his beggars from his abundance
When the clouds rain down and are prolific.

32. He is cheerful when the year frowns
Gloomily and every star withdraws and disappears.

33. Yet he is the one weeping in the darkness of night
Humbly, never deviating from the right path.

34. The righteous Imam tried him at times, as did others,
But did not find a purer soul or one nobler.

35. He appointed him to govern the Muslims, but he did not overstep
His limits out of piety, nor mind his worldly matters to excess.

36. He did not betray the public treasury, openly or in secret,
Nor deviate from the Imam's course, nor vacillate.

37. We found in the rightly-guided Imam an-Nasir
The most caring of Imams for his subjects and most merciful.

38. May Islam never lose the days
When he stayed the hands of the associators from it.

39. The everlasting ones lived in the shade of his glory
Sorting the pure from the impure and the friendly from the hostile.

40. For they are the adornment of Iraq and its people,
The masters of those who come to Minna and are honored.

41. The best of them are above Hatim and Ibn Mammah
And Aws when the winds blow dust.

42. So O you who neglects transmitting from them
And transmitting the histories of the ancients arbitrarily!

43. Their deeds you see as reality,
So relate them and leave aside embellished tales.

44. To each man of merit his clan has an attribute
By which they became leaders and chiefs.

45. Ka'b is generous, Zubaydi a horseman,
Qays forbearing, and Samaw'al true to his word.

46. These are virtues that came together in them,
And each man of them is distinguished by his own.

47. If I were to count their other virtues fully
I would compile in them volume after volume.

48. O you voyaging to the two seas, the ship's sail billowing
As if it had bellies full from eating crumbs of bread.

49. When you meet the noble kings, the clan of Abu Arribah
And Al-Ablakh the pretentious.

50. Convey greetings from me, of an affectionate one
Who cares for the son of an uncle, whether he accepts or spurns.

51. Tell them: Do not neglect gratitude to a master
Who has chosen your brother for honor and drawn him near.

52. Whoever among you does not fulfill the requirements
Of thankfulness for his due has not fulfilled them.

53. He has clothed the favors of Rabi'ah's lineage
As before him the favors of Khindif were clothed.

54. Does anyone deny gratitude except the son of an adulteress
With a heart that turns over between his sides, unenlightened?

55. I refuse ingratitude, for I am the son of Hurrah,
Noble, however I may steer my resolve.

56. And though I am he whose glory has the highest pillar,
I will praise him for what he did aforetime.

57. A house whose building competes with the Pleiades
Will not prevent me, towering and elevated though it be.

58. You have attained, O father of Ali, the farthest limit
And reached the extent hoped for, feared and aspired to.

59. You were granted eternal glories for your lofty sons
By them one attains all ends and aspires to all goals.

60. The caliphate did not cease to pass between them,
Calling to guidance, concord, and reform.

61. While the envious and jealous of their glory
Endured sorrows from which they saw no escape.