1. A dream of your mother's slave girl pictures you,
And without seeing you my thirst is unquenched and my tears flow.

2. O Sama, our riding together was as though plunging
Through the billows of the Euphrates in flood.

3. You brought back a joy that had gone,
And days bitter and long made me forget it.

4. Then you returned, and stayed not long away - as though
I had pledged myself hastily for your return.

5. So I determined to pay the blood-price though
I am in both cases his father and uncle.

6. Until we reached the bridge and canal where
The dear, noble people make their homes.

7. My eyes were opened, and it was clear to me there
That what I craved was unlawful to me.

8. Alas for her whose trick set my passion astir,
Though joys were forbidden me, hers were allowed!

9. She showed me the camp of my tribe, and near it
Were hills and dunes, heights and sandy wastes.

10. Each evil-natured son of villainy,
His form is shrunk by the Jinn of the waste who terrify him.

11. God watch over those camps! Though there crept
To us from them long caravans, winding trails,

12. I say to a band from 'Uqail whom I met
As their camels moved towards one or other coast,

13. "Greetings, men! your land is bountiful.
Though clouds come down to it dense, yet they unload no hail.

14. When you come to the land of Hasa and are faced
By tents against a background of long hills,

15. Then rest there from the noonday heat awhile
Though some tired and thirsty camels sprawl there."

16. Till you reach the road and mosque to which
Men living there and men dead there turn to pray.

17. There you will meet the kings, sons of Abü
About me, at that point, questions multiply.

18. Then say to them, "We left your brother
Where the seeker of glory meets his fate;"

19. With a king whose praises no tongue can sound,
Though encomiasts prolong their efforts to extol.

20. He shoulders alone duties that would make
On other shoulders weigh most heavily.

21. He preserves intact a name safe from all slurs
And wealth flows freely to freely-opening palms

22. He is the king whose court no false coin enters,
However long at law opposing pleaders brawl.

23. He turned away, and turned all good our way,
So that barren lands became fertile this year,

24. And he went to his subjects with drooping wing,
On his garments the awe and the majesty clear.

25. His bounty, had the ocean vied with it
Would show no sign of exhaustion as crossers ply,

26. Had the Indian scimitar his temper's edge
It would not quail though heads were hills on high.

27. Had the lion his heart, he would not blench
Though dust before him rose in human form.

28. He is the sun in splendour and height and mark
As his name denotes him, while kings are night stars.

29. By him Basrah the luminous turned to the fair breeze of fortune
Though channels for ill luck there used to abound,

30. He sought to discover its chronic complaints
And heal disorders however obstinate,

31. But for him still residing in her land
Would be abasement, humiliation and defeat.

32. He drove affliction away from her, hoping for reward,
Not as though disappearance of it was his aim,

33. And he exiled from her the despots in his zeal
To calm the terrified and make glad the weak

34. Never may his days pass, they resemble
Water's cool taste, and the wish of men for rain,

35. And I swear the nights bring none such as he -
How, when not all men are men of worth?

36. O you who seek his glory's pinnacle, awake!
You will find that course of yours is leading astray.

37. Spare yourself what you cannot attain, since you may see
The efforts of Shimsh al-Dawla will never repay.

38. When scholars in merit are told off some day
Then all are attendants on his superior merit.

39. To each one come honour and praiseworthy parts
But to him pertains accomplishment supreme;

40. In him you observe whatever of grace each owns
Together with fine traits none shares but he.

41. Modesty, daring, clemency, strength and firm resolve,
Bounty unstinting - into bounty none pries -

42. Knowledge and faith and justice and tenderness,
Piety, abstinence too, and comeliness;

43. He is pressed on by those seeking knowledge or gentle rain
From the cloud, each with his request free to propose.

44. To the student of law, solutions meticulously drawn,
To suitors of bounty, bounty he throws.

45. A ransom for you, diadem bright of all kings' brows,
Your stirring to action means laurels or loss

46. To Muslims, while for doing good, hands short is their span
But in things scandalous their arms are long.

47. Without you here is a necklace a wise youth's thought knotted -
Seeing all praise not addressed, Sir, to you mere gall.

48. Nor am I smoothing the path with my eulogies
To the mighty, what though my wealth decline.

49. But kindness stirred me, companionship too and love
And for noble hearts this is polish deserved.

50. Never has foeman snatched sudden advantage of you
Unawares, while ever you raid on his land.

51. Full meed you attained, Sir, hero undaunted, your bier is not
Followed, after mighty men die, by encamping allies.