1. By your life, you know which of my affairs has amazed me.
They have both become obscure, the apparent and the hidden.

2. My madness for Layla, though Layla avoids me,
And my listening to Sa'd's advice, though Sa'd turns away.

3. When she is clothed, her clothes are the adornment of her beauty,
And she captures the heart of the admirer when she is stripped.

4. And I called her Zainab, fearing people,
And how many loves has Zainab concealed from people!

5. The greenness of worldly life varies in its arts
The punishment of a world that turns about.

6. And the paradise of eternity tortures us for it
And I have not stopped being tortured by paradises.

7. Oh, sometimes a cup whose first sip enchants me,
Smooth-cheeked, with a cleft lip, pure.

8. When its edges take from its jug,
You see faces in the wine vanishing.

9. As if he who brought it, carrying in his hands
Some of its goblets when they are filled.

10. Would hasten the mind that wanders astray to me
I see from nearby, not the astray one I blame.

11. In a garden the spring poured out its plants
With a face of tender youth, beginning and pouring.

12. When the gardener in its sides
Opens and shuts, coins are struck.

13. I find that time, its turns have become harsh
Loss, though we play with time.

14. And fifty returning the return of decaying
To white hair, he who turns from white hair flees.

15. Your palace, I wander, confused,
In my manners, or going where I go.

16. I looked, and the eye's head was shining from me
Its minarets the west, the Amawiyyah the east.

17. At the bridge of the barley, are the people of Manbij
With Manbij or without it, absent?

18. The enemies did not remain until they manifested themselves
In a black march, their whiteness burning.

19. When they spread out on earth, their insolence increased
On the eye until the eye, confused, swayed about.

20. Ibn Bisṭām's isolation from them sufficed me
When they came together in multitudes.

21. Brother, in the occurrence of events, but rather
Your brother who comes to be pleased when you are angry.

22. It is hoped in the softness of his clothes, and expected
For his height, and feared in arms, and frightened.

23. He did not refrain from piercing horses, an advance guard
Against fear in them, for he spent the night writing.

24. Swords that fulfilled their destiny return
To a daily pen, wherever it strikes.

25. The marshal of an army that subdued the land in its rebellion
And his determination from that army more rebellious.

26. When matters were difficult, to where was its course?
To what he intends from it or turns from.

27. We depend on, and excellence in it, aloofness
Upon a master who draws near despite aloofness.

28. Upon a king, stinginess does not veil his face
From us, and the trait of the stingy is veiling.

29. White, ascending when he rests in shade
Upon his face a hue of joy imbibed.

30. The manners of men are free for him
Busy with glory, helping and erecting.

31. For him a tremor from his plentiful generosity
Almost makes the barren earth green.

32. The mounts of those who aspire are lowered to a young man
Whose voluntary gifts are prey to the requiter.

33. To abundant wealth, the small rights
Seem paltry to it, and it is accustomed.

34. If we say, and it is acknowledged with complete
Understanding, the conforming companion is annihilated.

35. Gifts that exceed the limits of minds
We almost, were it not for seeing, deny.

36. Bounty, if we are deluded by it, is booty
And the booty in it becomes slight when distributed.

37. If only Ziyād met the like of its qualities
Then he would not have said, “Who is the most cultivated of men?”

38. I am amazed that he has not been tempted by himself
While we by him are vainglorious, arrogant and amazed.

39. May your life be sacrificed, Abu al-‘Abbas, from the strikes of calamity
Some people, doubt fails in them and lies.

40. I have twisted to you the benefactors, and I have not ceased
Twisting to you from them and turning away.

41. The poems have not turned from you, turning
Or left excellence to other than you to be reckoned.

42. We string from it pearls in its manner
And from wonder, the stringing of what cannot be strung.

43. If the folds shared in your bounties
Some people would suspect that I am biased.

44. When will the deluded by me ask about my decaying?
An attainer or frustrator will inform him about it.

45. My infatuation in a group delights and grieves them
And makes what I infatuate in them last and pour forth.

46. Time has not left other than fair words
That satisfy listeners and anger.