1. Say to the prince—may Allah make your bounty last,
And may He increase your grandfather’s joy and prolong your life—

2. The clouds water, yet you resemble them,
Though none resembles you in watering.

3. You sprinkled water one day, and you have breathed
Throughout the whole year nothing but water from your palm.

4. You did not intend, by holding back the dew, to keep
Your wealth for yourself, but only to restrain your sorrow.

5. You held back the sorrow of your hands which had become
Heavy on the shoulders until they hurt.

6. So that they might rest, and by their rest, increase
The surplus of bearing what your right hand gives away.

7. You never grew weary of gifts, so took repose
By holding them back. No! They grew weary of your gifts.

8. You did not prevent them from the pasture, though its seal
Was but the Shepherd’s mark of your pasture.

9. People pondered what you had arranged for them and found
It was for them, not for wealth, that you made provision.

10. You held back your sword, vexing their cravings,
And you were neither miserly nor grudging in withholding.

11. Yet I think well of you, and my heart tells me
That you have excelled in bounty and in plenty given.

12. And if you sported awhile with sprinkling water,
I do not see it turned you from kindness.

13. Rather, you kept the custom of play at its feast,
And never once turned aside from doing good.

14. No business diverts you from the business of dew eternally
Except a like one, part of your pious duties.

15. I used to err, congratulating you
Upon festival and New Year.

16. More fitting than that were congratulations
To them, from me, if we had met, on you!

17. For time in which you live to reach it, O son of nobles,
Is blessed, through your life, and highly favored.

18. So now my congratulations go to New Year
And Festival, should they chance to visit you,

19. Thanking you that undiscouraged by impiety
You magnified their status beyond all compare.

20. You did not do this for their sake out of your religion,
But for your life’s sake, from a worldly cause.

21. They almost equaled the two Feasts, since they were marked
By the brand of two days of your pleasures.

22. They are no festival prayers, but they are holidays
For whoever is honored by your neighborhood.

23. At their dawn, when seriousness mixed with play
Comes to you, you see it as your familiar companion,

24. Giving the craved gifts playfully, jesting,
While you enliven, amidst the jokes, your dissolution.

25. So your festival and New Year have become
Alike, in pious men’s eyes, and your Feasts.

26. For in both every kindness you are its doer
On your day of Fastbreaking or your day of Sacrifice.