1. The Easts of the earth, he enfolded in Wests,
And left its poles, to mix with each other.

2. He made the caves neighbor the meadows,
As if unaware where the lions prowled.

3. The horizons he narrowed, till they
Were closed tight as the fingers of an accountant.

4. He brought ancient foes close together,
As if he possessed the ball of the player.

5. He related the mottoes of India, dān and rawiya,
And told of the glories, not base greed and profit.

6. A banner of Islam its triumph made manifest,
Unfurling in every direction to East and to West.

7. A banner whose glory covered the realms of the earth,
Until it gleamed midst the stars in the sky.

8. If the train of the Sun let its tresses down loose,
They would be but a single one of its tresses.

9. Successors receive it, after the Prophet, one from the other,
Each of them eminent over each fading star.

10. By my life! If vacillation lasts until the Pleiades decline,
Or the star Aldebaran fails to rise,

11. When a faction stretched out its hands for ʿUthmān,
With no reverence for a Caliph like ʿAlī,

12. I saw the House of ʿUthmān with the victory of Muhammad,
They are the Azd, though they never accompanied him.

13. Sincerely devoted to the authority they wield,
Far from the misguided efforts of deceiving pretenders.

14. Truly they illuminated a night of grim darkness
With the shooting stars of lances piercing breasts.

15. From every kingdom they have plucked choice fruits,
Whose bloom has foiled every wooing suitor.

16. They gathered the goodness of land and sea through their raiders,
And better than this: gathered glory for themselves.

17. I have guarded honor for ʿUthmān, his partisan,
Hoping–if God permits–the garb of shame will slip.

18. You have done nobly, even fortified, what you desired,
Following your own sound intuitions and ways.

19. You have forged this iron for him and cease not
To ply it with ingots and rods.

20. Its rods for war, if summoned to it,
Its ingots for peace, if no war is provoked,

21. The fires of war subside only through reason,
While all states are pulled by the rope of fate.

22. They subside only to flare up again nearby,
Does the falcon rise without claws?

23. For each circumstance you have readied supplies–
So greetings in peace and when wrathful in war!

24. I have stayed up while mankind slept in repose,
With the heart of passionate love and the body of the emaciated.

25. For your love is my creed, my way, my doctrine,
And praising you: my duty, my bond, my obligation!