1. My slightest torment afflicts my warriors,
My advice is wasted on the slanderers,

2. My fire rages unlike my sighs,
My state calms unlike my confused thoughts.

3. My tears flow whenever lightning flashes,
And my features tremble at the bitter wind.

4. How can the doves make me yearn when they coo
Near the bend of the fresh water?

5. Beauties complaining softly at night
Gentle creatures who know no but flirts.

6. They cry over the days of serenity that have passed
While I cry over the days of my fleeting youth.

7. How can a youth who still mourns meeting her
With copious tears flowing down his cheeks mourn?

8. I yearn for the days of union and its people,
I grieve over the separation from the one who shares my abode.

9. But this love has clung unto my soul,
And passion has watered the streams of my desires.

10. I am distinguished with a natural disposition for love,
And a heart ruling with the spirit of youth.

11. The whispering of the short females excites me,
And the gait of she-camels in the sand attracts me.

12. I adore the glances of languid eyes,
And I admire slender-waisted women.

13. I flirt in the folly of passion heedlessly,
And frolic in the prime of youth without asking.

14. How can the love of beauty flow in my soul
And the love of maidens run in my veins!

15. O gazelle of the sand dunes, your beauty allures me,
O she-leopard of the thicket, your love kills me.

16. O you with the supple body, your spear pierces me,
O you with the glances, your magic confuses me.

17. O reproacher, you gained nothing with reprimanding me,
You prolonged in vain, for you will not deter me.

18. For you I will deprive my eyes of sleep
And stay up weeping between the resting places.

19. And I will run recklessly in the racetrack of love
Dragging along the excess of my train.

20. To love passionately without an equal,
And indulge without having a likeness,

21. And to pawn this heart to joy and distraction,
And make reason the bride price for the beauties.

22. For love is but the nature of the refined,
And ecstasy is but the state of the swaying branches.

23. And beauty is exclusive to its lair,
And union is only in the realm of possibilities.

24. So every fading glance is fading at its counterpart,
And every intimate torso is intimate with its counterpart.

25. The steeds tour every plain,
And my she-camels go to them every day.

26. The Indian swords protect every warrior
After I had hung my banners on them for so long.

27. I visit the tents of the countryside with no malice
And enter the quarters of the neighborhood without fighting.

28. I am among the people, when keen on achieving,
They surpass theSpinning Wheel of endless possibilities.

29. Did you not see them yesterday decisive and strong?
Their actions precede treaties.

30. They do not await a future time other than the present,
Nor refuse the present other than for the future.

31. They have disappointed the hopes of every opponent
And shook the foundations of every towering building.

32. With the neighing of the steeds and the humming of the weapons,
As well as the white originality and the yellow lies.

33. One morning they confronted the far ends of the world
With their armies spreading like swarms of locusts.

34. They pulverized its mountains and leveled plains
With the dust of the battles.

35. They irrigated the soil of the lands, plains and hills,
With blood not rivulets.

36. They made the hearts of the arrogant fly and shook
Their horses from every valiant knight and professional horseman.

37. And they crushed the heads of their enemies
And brought them down from the summits of their fortresses.

38. Thus, every operator among them kept operating
And every operator among them kept being employed

39. Until they turned with the swords to the farthest parts of their lands,
Leaving no room for any refugees.

40. They are the best of those on earth who have unsheathed swords
And led the thoroughbred horses despite the fleeting days.

41. They are the best of those who combined audacity with intelligence,
And the finest to distinguish between right and wrong.

42. They spread true knowledge across the world
As wars brewed furiously like heated cauldrons.

43. And they preached with truth upon platforms of honor
Speeches from the core of authenticity.

44. They removed the nations’ foolishness
And reciprocated their vulgarity with noble deeds.

45. And they built upon those ethics a civilization
Established on the foundations of piety and virtue.

46. Thus every prosperous among them prospered
And every barren place became populated at their hands.

47. The vegetation and palms flourished in their lands
And the fine arts thrived in their cities.

48. They are my ancestors, so present to me their likes,
Else, they are the best of tribes on earth.

49. Men whose gathered merits are prominent:
Chastity, dignity, resoluteness and attainment.

50. Eras that have faded into the horizons of time,
I grieve for those faded eras.

51. They established an age then time flowed over them,
The pitfalls of time and endless nights betrayed them.

52. An age they spent in grandeur, and their nights
Were not devoid of the few radiant nights.

53. That’s how our ancestors were,
If only we build like the predecessors built!

54. And revive traditions they left for our benefit,
Of which every lingering one has now collapsed.

55. As for us, who have gained wealth through our minds,
And have been generous to the world with virtues,

56. Among us has been every seasoned expert
Endowed with the light of wisdom and shining lamps of discernment.

57. And every ambitious one saturated with prudence,
An inspired guide, evidence for the confused.

58. And every leader like Ghazali, and whoever is at
His level leaves no room for objection when he speaks.

59. And every sage like the President whose flow
Left Aristotle trailing behind him by miles.

60. And every perceptive one like Ibn Rushd and whoever
Is guided by him, and like Razes defying peers.

61. In the East, among us are those like Al-Rashid and his ilk,
And in the West are those who entered after him.

62. Do not forget (the rule of) Salah Al-Din in the Euphrates River and Jilq,
And the impact of Saladin and the just one in Egypt.

63. Nor the masters among them, Muhammad who rendered
The two lands in his grip without resistance.

64. By my life, when we comprehend matters, triumphing
Is but between the bullet and the cannonball.

65. And lasting glory is over the summits
While attaining wishes is beneath wishes and connections.

66. How good is the call of war in every nation
That has settled upon it for ages with shackles,

67. To spread out from its coffins every dead one
And awaken every heedless one from his stupor!

68. This is something that remains renewed
That we witness, so every inattentive one should remember.

69. When prose is too narrow, the sea of poetry is vast,
With us, and rhymes are the tributaries of verses.