1. The heart does not yearn after them, nor is it tempted by youthfulness or finery.
I have given up plotting and scheming, and associating with crooked and cunning men.

2. After their loss, companionship has become a grievous trial for an old man like me.
The singing girls were the blossoms of youth, and the singers were truly the flowers of joy.

3. So cease to mention them and lofty dwellings exposed to the winds.
We did not keep the pact of every treacherous and cruel woman, harsh but not uncompromising,

4. Whose known kindness was barred by miserliness and hardness covered by outward softness,
White in complexion but evil in character, whose blameworthy morals could not be rectified,

5. Concealing her face and the reality of her affairs, displaying specious charm and overt ugliness.
With coyness to entice her lover, yet constant rejection with disdain.

6. Of those who, gaining mastery over us, tear out our innermost hearts without mercy.
Judging over us unjustly, though feigning justice midway between estrangement and coldness.

7. How many tears have they shed in mockery, how much blood have they spilled in tyranny!
I have loved every gorgeous beauty only to find her pale and wan.

8. I have approached every singing girl only to turn from her in disgust.
The springtime of youth has gone and the days of knightly deeds. Now is the time for reflection.

9. It is unseemly that I, now high and mighty, from whom cries of passion no longer arise,
Should have no bosom friend but solitude or longing for my art,

10. Truthful is the conviction that none can determine the portion of sustenance except the Creator of embryos.
I have declared myself - though for my lack of wealth I have been blamed -

11. And sworn by this precarious living full of tatters.
The goal of the high-minded is to rival each other therein while the goal of asses is fodder,

12. Wickedness and squalor in life were never pleasing substitutes for glory and asceticism.
I have a chastity of lineage such that one who enjoys abundance must have folds of fatness about him,

13. As if the palms of my hands were holding the overflowing Tigris, watering the shoots of reeds.
Never did hardship make me grovel for glory, roaming every high place.

14. I made my wealth decrease, and if I wished, I could make it flow copiously and find myself amidst riches.
I pardon the evildoer - God knows him - if the evildoer is not pardoned.

15. I soar like an eagle towards lofty places and do not settle into carrion lazily.
My father built up impregnability for me after preparing the foundation.

16. He said, “You are for nobility”. And I spend my talent to the point of bare sufficiency when the guest fails to show hospitality.
I build constructions that will last for ages and overthrow the pinnacle of glory.

17. And I aspire for an enduring glory for myself like a towering cloud in the horizon.
I mean Abul-Saqr - he owns a position so high, it dazzles the eyes.

18. Of a tribe among whom are generosity, forbearance, and rattling armor.
May God seat him upon a pinnacle reached by no precursor through inherited honor!

19. O you journeying towards him to ask and request him! Incline towards him and avoid every path of deviation!
Do not begrudge sharing with him some of your own bounty, for the sea cannot be exhausted!

20. Convey my praise to him, for it is a cluster of musk whose perfume has not evaporated
From the words of the erudite, his abundant poetry overflowing with schools of old.

21. Say to Abul-Saqr—words of one firm of purpose whose paper missile hits the target:
‘O eminent one, whom every rival has acknowledged, every acknowledging one,

22. You have become so eminent every envious backbiter avoids you, every deviant turns away.
His favor, outstanding through merit, made him eloquent without impediment.

23. The truest praise is the praise of one filled with rancor and a grudge’.
You have made your subjects so prosperous that even the uncivil have complained!

24. Through you, organization has flourished in the regime, and solidarity amongst each allied group.
The oppressor of victims you have equitably treated. So the sparrow shares with the eagle barren tracts!

25. You have labored for glory like one striving — or for the abode of bliss and comfort.
Never do you cease pursuing each worthy endeavor, even shouldering the heaviest burdens.

26. You hasten towards every distant goal and intend every firmly resolved purpose.
O reviver of poetry and generosity, formerly both suppressed!

27. You have summoned writing to beauty and awakened it to admirable elegance.
O you who redeem the taxation which became diseased — nay, which was nearing extinction!

28. You have cured its maladies after enduring at times the vicissitudes of fate.
Weighing with the scales of the Abbasids, pace for pace, following the exemplars of predecessors.

29. Radiantly polished until its original brightness shone clear, along with the pure light of his piety.
When he saw your person and position, he grudged you that beauty and nobility.

30. So he excused every deed that debased them and held back his tyranny.
He forbade iniquity to be Godconscious and pious, and filth which the fastidious forbid.

31. His discernment was that of a youth, perfected in him alongside the shrewdness of elders.
He is not harsh or rough when plunged into calamities.

32. Stern towards the guilty but gentle of wing towards one who repents.
His awe-inspiring manner terrifies the arrogant but his justice brings safety to the humble.

33. The Prophet and al-Abbas would have said, had they seen his guidance, ‘May you be rewarded, O heir!
How truthful the speaker and how veracious the statements to one who fears hostility and does not waver!

34. Surely the station of the oppressed one with Abul 'Abbas has become a balancing point.
He has tucked up his garments for exertion though he possesses gold — an honor! And for currency though he possesses porcelain — a fragility!

35. Thus he has reformed corrupt men though committing no sin; there he has perpetrated an innovation.
He has unleashed traders who were constantly practicing fraud and deceit.

36. He detested abomination after sedition had cloaked itself in its murderous mischief like Abu Dulaf.
Would that he might ransom every desperate fugitive from betrayals—every desperate refugee!

37. Be delighted with him, O Minister! For you have granted him to us unsullied from the embryo.
May God adorn you with a pearl of his like—protected by none other than you within the oyster shell!

38. You have delegated leadership to him, so he carried it out perfectly without any spot or blemish.
And you chose the like of him just as whoever shows kindness to Muslims.

39. I swear by that with which religion and the kingdom of kings are governed — and the pledge
Never have you ill-treated the flock either by way of upheaval or injustice.

40. Rather, you possess the conduct of one who walks the straight path, swerving neither left nor right.
Such is the course of the generous one if never characterized by rage or disgust.

41. People disagree about you but cannot make up their minds in the least.
You who have united them totally! For you are above partiality and vain imaginings.

42. You have united what befits a minister so you are never without an envious rival.
A lord who almost kills his foes! And a close friend who joins hearts in harmony!

43. You have vanished with bounty and generosity while people chase after them both.
You are like the sea — none can equal it in depth or draw from its surface!

44. Your forbearing temper saves souls when they verge on a perilous incline.
You make us forget Hatem’s generosity, ‘Amr’s impregnability, and Luqman’s patience!

45. Had you unleashed it for wars, you would have contended with the intrepid lion baring its claws!
No, not the swift-striding horseman on the field of battle, but the charging warrior amidst the fray!

46. Take it as a eulogy — as if it were scintillating pearls when threaded on a necklace,
Sweeter upon the tongue than honey mixed with rainwater in spring,

47. Praising one who saw you as most deserving of it, finding no occasion to turn away from you,
While any praise said of you falls short of due, even if composed with utmost skill.

48. We present poetry to you then deem it paltry, even if tomorrow it will be counted amongst priceless gifts,
Because you lack any novel qualities or subtleties in the least!

49. Nor do we see it adding to your glory one atom, whether ingenious or well-crafted.
What can poetry raise or ennoble one like the full moon accompanied by the starry host!

50. He descends from his glory and blessed nature amidst old and new.