1. O you whom I envy for his intimacies,
And for whom I stay awake because of his worries,

2. Do you not envy my devotion to his companionship?
Do you not stay awake for fear over what might befall me?

3. A gazelle who sees the faces of our hunters from all sides,
And we drive it until it surrenders itself to them,

4. We outwit it until it escapes our snares,
While we get tangled up in its traps.

5. A fierce one who wards off harm from it, so he angers us,
The sword has no pardon for those it strikes.

6. No wonder a tear poured down from burning,
Water poured out by a fire from its boiler.

7. My tear flowed from the love of a gazelle, my blood
By the slain, who cried for the love of his killer!

8. The meaning has no gifts to match its virtues,
Just as the conveyor does not merit gifts equal to it.

9. When the vizier comes to visit tomorrow, head to him
And leave those who sever ties and their causes.

10. Aim Abu al-Saqr, for God has graced him,
And he surpasses all peers in his virtues.

11. In every long and extended line of his features,
And all generosity and open-handedness of his fingers,

12. When he dons the sword, he does not grasp its sheath,
He rises without needing to gird it round his waist.

13. A sword he unsheathes, unlike an unrefined sword,
As if the spear walks amongst its litter.

14. Nothing is closer at times than his opponent,
Or his thrusts or his assaults.

15. One who sees wealth only as a worry for its keeper,
And food only as a burden upon its consumer,

16. Of the wisdoms we have retained,
Only the palm of the giver owns wealth.

17. Everyone lacking in merit is poor in virtue,
While the chaste is wealthy in overflowing virtue.

18. A stingy one who is miserly with the smallest of his praise,
As he is miserly with the greatest of his treasures.

19. Protective when defending his noble deeds,
Like a lion defending its cubs.

20. You will find him, when competing with a peer,
Like a torrent driving back a torrent from its course.

21. Turning away from his enemies and wealth—
Both groups are discarded in his battles.

22. Fate exposes him in his disposition,
Like an Indian sword freed from its scabbard.

23. As if he is passed between conditions that take turns with him,
Like a full moon courted from all its stages.

24. God gave life through him to a people after their destruction,
And God destroyed a people through their own transgressions.

25. Like the sea, he quenched the people of the world, and drowned them—
They are given drink, while drowned in its coasts.

26. Kings have become guests, and we are the hosts who burden him
With the burdening of one whose shoulder strength is never feared.

27. Upon him are the heavy burdens of God's command that he carries,
While people say, "What a burden upon its carrier!"

28. It is as if he alone is an army, one with ferocious courage,
As if all of earth’s plains shook from his ferociousness.

29. So the shepherds have shares of his advice,
And the flock have shares of his voluntary good deeds.

30. You see the claims of people above their worth,
While his claims are only below his worth.

31. For the gentle is a gait in their joints,
While the lame has no gait in their joints.

32. The virtuous one in his time, not with the deficient,
But with the perfect, or rather the superior.

33. O star of time, step forth into its darkness,
O landmark of time, step forth into its ignorance.

34. You have reached the highest pinnacle of glory,
While the dwellings of people are diverse in its lowlands.

35. For they are like the tubes of a spear while you are its worker—
No, but the blade of a lance above its worker.

36. O unassailable refuge for whom dangers approached
From his shelters when disasters came to him from his shelters!

37. You are the one addressed—he does not meet a questioner’s plea improperly,
Nor listen to one who reproaches improperly.

38. Do you not see that fate has cast all its burdens
Upon a man among you, thrown all its burdens?

39. O family of his worries, O family of his firmness,
O family of his white hair, O family of his virtues!

40. Why am I forbidden the fortune and share of all the people,
When my sins are better than their methods?

41. I seek the justice of your rule, that my opponent not be found
In your presence, while my truth is defeated by his falsehood.

42. The field of glory is not deserving that you own it,
Parading his neighing horse in front of one who brays.

43. Ask poetry of me, I am bound up in its difficulties,
But if you refuse, then grant me some of its tools.

44. I seek refuge in your glory, that its lightning not strike
My audacity, while people prosper through its rain.