1. My excuse, for this fickle turning away
Makes my passion waver with blame and dismay

2. Suppose this censure were advice from you
I'd accept it if my heart were in my command

3. How gently the moist branch in its prime inclines
Offering its cheek, as polished blades incline

4. And smiles, clearer than pearl, the slender one
Quenched with water purer and cooler than dew

5. Sated with the chill of life without relying
On souls made desolate, and livers fried

6. Always harsh, never breaking from disdain
Unlike my love and affection for him

7. He said, ask about me, after he was exposed
To my shy glances 'tween me and my reserve

8. Watering the abodes' curves with a torrent
From the peak of reason, near, its streams heard

9. Adorned with lights from the raiment of decay
And the luck exchanged from the adverse to blessed

10. Yearned for dwellings where the heartsick recover
And regain what they missed and reckoned as dead

11. By my father and excellence owed to its people
The generous one fell short of Mohammed's gift

12. A man, if you say that those lines of piety
Rise above the stars or ascend the stars' height

13. He who hopes the rain in the barren hills one day
Will relieve his hopes, once awakened, provide

14. When you go to him seeking, you find pouring forth
The carriages of wealth following the rain

15. The genealogists never darkened a page
With lineage whiter than his stock and creed

16. Tracing his lines to Ali and the best
Of all messengers, Mohammed, of glorious deed

17. By my life, he volunteered kindness sincerely
Nothing like gifts from his ever-renewed hands

18. I'm overwhelmed, thanking his patronage
Repeating my praise to my patron without end

19. Far different is one who rarely will grant
Or gives sparingly than one newly awake

20. When custom lapses its taste is more sweet
To its seeker, its watering place more bright

21. Have you not seen the sun more beloved of men
Because it does not shine on them without end?

22. Just so, if rain did not cease, the earth would complain
To God of the deeds of that spoiler, that fiend

23. No wind's blow is binding upon the wind's course
By its driving wind where it's driven, impeded

24. More barren when its torrent is dammed and pent
More turbid when loosed from its raging descent

25. Defiling when passing the meadows, unclean
Save to bow on knees bent down in worship

26. Greedy, as if the earth, though sated by him
Still says when filled up by his watering, "Give!"

27. With greater downpour on days of free giving
When others damped down each hearth, doused each pyre

28. Their hands make the flames like sparks from feet spurned
In hot sand where the lost in bewildered throngs erred

29. Severed by them, all dear unions regret
As souls wander grieving, seek ransom and plead

30. Gazelles, like reed-pipes, wandering herds once played
Lost in the wilderness, vanishing without trace

31. Antelopes nourished as if by wine aged
In leather of youth, pressed from grapes harvested

32. For them, when the family broke its bridle's reins
The ostrich's lashes sped wandering far

33. Pillars for God's house, with youths whose fair features
Were heavy with godliness, worship and creed

34. I grieve that a father with his like be found
Open-handed, of noble and purified seed

35. A youth who surpassed the elders, though beardless
Outdoing the graybeards in wisdom and wit

36. If not Mohammed, none is as Ali
Search as you may, none his equal, none near

37. None I call but him, though I cannot reward
Him with the fairest praise made eternal in verse

38. Eulogies beyond a poet's imagination
Ormouths reciting the like have been heard

39. I am the guiding star, the banner with which
The perplexed find direction and know they are led

40. When I call the disobedient, he comes obedient
If another calls the obedient, he stays instead