1. Gray hairs have appeared in my head, revealing my blindness,
As the wind uncovered a hazy, drizzling cloud.

2. And surely when the bright dawn appears,
Its first lights must peel away the night's skin.

3. And the channel of my back has become curved in its body,
Though it had been straight, even if I live decrepit.

4. The diminishing of my strength has created a gap
Between my eyes, my hearing, and people and voices.

5. When I used to look ahead at someone, my glances
Would fold a plain of earth beneath him.

6. And the caller would call me in his kindness,
While my hearing would miss his call from afar.

7. So time's turns copy out my oldness,
And nothing was dictated before except to be copied.

8. And I have become venerable to the girl,
When in the days of youth I was her brother.

9. It is no wonder that this was so, for when
Afflictions made a man old, he was aged.

10. But it is a wonder that I was troubled, when I was not
One to be troubled if time's biting injured him.

11. Your consolation—remember it, and do not forget praise
Of Abu Al-Abbas, who relates the full moon's attributes.

12. He has a mark between the eyes of the blessed one,
When the terror of possessing terror alarmed him.

13. A cry—if you appealed to it against time
When it harmed you, O Son of Tahir—would cry out.

14. Of the Mus`ab, whose branches
Shot up lofty pillars of glory, arched.

15. Men, if you asked them, their fortune vied
With their days in generosity and valor, seething.

16. Whenever their endeavors' tracks were pursued,
They appeared as the outstanding steeds of the lead, hock-marked.

17. Through them enduring glory was exported,
And none but them was chronicled as human.

18. You have transgressed and been excessive in praising the Son of Tahir,
Yet I am not to be blamed for excess in praising him.

19. Abu Ahmad, the lion of the land and its rain—
If annihilators left no marrow in the bone—

20. A lad who always at the summit of heights beneath it
In vigil, dawn shone and nested.

21. When he walked about, you'd think him there
Soaked in pure musk.

22. Yearning riders halt his mount,
And if they did not halt it, it would kneel.

23. You remain, when you grasp the secrets of his palm,
Touching eyes watered from his bounty.

24. If he promised, the land quaked greenly for him,
And sprouted all that was withered.

25. But if he threatened, the mountains would shake,
And collapse into the earth, pounded down.

26. You will not meet a scholar more skillful than him
In swimming and firmer.

27. You have not seen a fire kindled like his fire
In battle, more scorching and cooking to the foe.

28. Enough time he has given the Emir and his family.
Through him and them, if vainglory aspired, it was humbled.

29. He is the winking one kings have crowned,
And of old wiped a cheek more twinkling.

30. When he leads the Mus`ab, they become
Slayers toppling the humped backs of armor.

31. So which house did he desire to storm
And which land did he desire to pound down?

32. Through him God supported the caliphate after
Its pillars tottered and split apart.

33. He is the pure son of two pure ones who have gone,
And did not wear a disgraced, contaminated garment.

34. And I am begging praise like my praising him, after
My loyalty to him has become firmly rooted.

35. So I said to him, turning my eye to you—I will not see
Passion for you in your ashes kindled by the likes of me.