1. Illuminating brighter than any lamp, a goblet of wine
Its morning poured into the evening’s cup

2. Its paths smoothed, its place exclusively reserved
As though it burst forth from the very soul

3. Bringing joy to bloom in the heart of the youth
And beauty to the cups and flagons alike

4. O Majestic One, you aimed true to its path
And were graced to obey wise counsel therein

5. O Majestic One, you never strayed from fortune’s shade
Nor missed the gate of success, not once

6. Though youth raced ahead into life, would that it
After dawn were bolstered with renewed spirits

7. Alas, without inclusion it drives away sorrows
And draws in joys in multitudes

8. So blend the song of blessings into its cup
With songs of the houris in Paradise rejoiced

9. It trembles with rapture when the breeze from green boughs
Stirs it with a gentle breath

10. Take it and lose not the sweetness of its taste
And zephyr, O Seeker of Profits

11. In the morn it restores to the old their youth
To find themselves amidst prime and tranquility

12. A beauty adorning the youth with her charms
Until his cheeks flush like the glowing lamp

13. With generosity she grants virtues to the youth
Placing him between valor and tolerance

14. She mocks the banquet mates with her coquetry
Until apple kisses apple with glee

15. By God, I know not for what strange cause
They call it “the wind” when at peace it is “the wind” at rest

16. Is it for the breeze within it or the spirit it contains
Or for the repose it grants the relaxed companion?

17. I saw in it a beautiful, graceful scene
Among a drove of white gazelles

18. It envied the lilies like wild deer and narcissi
Cast down upon images there, the glow of morn

19. So it slipped into its clarity with translucence
And donned its pearls with a diaphanous veil

20. Thus it appears envied and worshipped
Among the beauties, outstanding in praise

21. The analyzer and the granter disputed its drink
And the scholar has positions regarding the wine

22. If it is forbidden, it is for its free nature
Not like its sanctity, allowed to access

23. Or if it is permitted, it is for its diffusion
Dispelling the sicknesses of our hearts with vigor

24. Does the gentle not ban it, as it leaves
No disgrace before him, nothing indecent?

25. Or does the generous not permit it, as it
Guides the virtuous in nature to comfort?

26. Leave this be, and say of the House of Shaykh
They are the zenith of the hopes of the ambitious

27. Do not compare the House of Shaykh to any group
For they are the cure to the confusion of the distraught

28. Count them for misfortunes, for they are
Sufficient succor beyond all calamities

29. With them unbolt affairs, or by their strategy
For you are finished with need of any key

30. A people who see sincere counsel as fraudulent
Have become embittered towards all advisors

31. Visit them with confidence, unlike the tax collector
Who harvests wealth, so you need not draw swords

32. And know their friendship is ever free to you
While their wind never beyond your access

33. So if you hatch any wind of enmity toward them
The wind is yours, while the bond is severed

34. A people paired with praise before them
With generosity, and virtues aligned with glory

35. They did not deprive the complainers an ear for their time
Nor heard the dispraise of any critic

36. My how I wonder, when the likes of them are praised
What purpose lies behind such praises?

37. But they are as musk, pleasing when perceived
And which increases when churned in the mortar

38. They pardon freely whenever you seek their pardon
And their petitioner persists in importunity

39. Their gift surpasses all gifts, for they
Give the gains of efforts and spears

40. As though one who gave you the yield of his weapons
Gave you his spirit without any arms

41. It came to you in ease and leisure
While it came to him in toil and hardship

42. And when graced with his fortune mistakenly
It was but due to the overflowing favor of the grantor

43. So when they see the miserly against the generous souls
While they are without any miserliness toward spirits

44. With their might calamity befalls, and with their patience
Souls cling together amidst the specters

45. Like Indian swords, lethal in skirmishes
Yet gentle of scabbard in their sheathing

46. The people became lowly, they are its elevation
Far between the lowly and the lofty they stand

47. And with the Master of Princes, his efforts succeed
In all he sought of each prosperity

48. To God be praise, Ahmad Son of Shaykh
For he is refuge for the spurned and venue for the welcome

49. Time ruins what it can, while Ahmad
Pursues its ruin with rectification

50. He continues to strike the darkness with his flints
Until he sees the darkness like the dawn

51. As for dew, it is the murmur of a noble youth
And opinion, the wisdom of the wise and decisive

52. As though for oratory he is a drinker
And for the shining, brightly minded

53. A king who fulfils requests before and after
The onset of the bountiful, and the return of favor

54. Among the kings of ample talents, one has
The onset of bounty and the return of sweetness

55. Do not face one drunken from his draught
Lest you not be a hero among the swimmers

56. For virtue perishes in the strait of its limit
While the sea drowns those within its depths

57. I have warned - or brought glad tidings - that my words
Are a tryst with earnest in a threat of jest

58. It is assured, that if loyalty eventuates
To what hope neglected, it will have the advantage

59. Still it contends with clouds through its gift
And rivals the winds in assistance

60. It implanted men through its sword and overcame them
No sword of planter and conqueror turned

61. A sword filled in its elevation and abasement
With establishing the praiser and the dirge

62. It brings life and death in the hands of the Able
And fate named it the killer and reviver

63. The praiser of the active in his two abodes
Among the heedful throng and the enemy's laments

64. So when they seek refuge from his threat and might
The refuged there are in calamity

65. A known and unknown flood none were saved
Who sought protection from both with any amulet

66. When it smiles upon the enemy in death throes
You see the grip of the seizer of souls

67. And when you see its threat one day, its asceticism
You see the asceticism of the crocodile befriender

68. And when it signals or intends any strategy
You see the wisdom of the owner of tablets

69. And when you see its jest from its earnest
You find the sincerity of well-kept secrets

70. So your chastity may say, no fault upon them
The wing is raised, flutter no more O wing

71. You are a man sincerity has approaches within
The wing fell through them from the praiser

72. No ceaseless praiser of others challenging me
To turn from you to them in praises

73. In praising others, proving the wrong
While your praise, erasing the wrong

74. The early risers in praising you only
Rose early, unaware at daybreak

75. How many conferred a man upon me in your likeness
That I may lean from you to him in praise

76. His advice was returned to him and combatted
The secrets of his essence most fiercely

77. And I followed his companion back to him as though
I opposed him regarding exposure of secrets

78. I did not compare between you there, nor was I
To compare Muhammad with a fool

79. The people are blinded, while you among them are
An elevated and distinguished full moon

80. No watercourse of yours ran dry, it is
The resting place of camels upon camels

81. Indeed, he whose wing you are when calamity strikes
Is a bird taking flight with both its wings

82. Your smile encompassed those hopeful of you
For they inhaled your shining grins

83. And those granted your friendship saw it as
Settling in the valleys of a pouring raincloud