1. Beyond all burning I have endured,
And wounds of love that know no balm,

2. If you glance my way, you’re piercing as a grain of sand,
And if aloof, a piercing bramble thorn.

3. My sadness has exceeded all recall
While your composure exceeds all forgetting.

4. My tears flow while your tears stay frozen,
My heart grows tender while your heart stays harsh.

5. Have I obeyed the blamer? Never!
Have I regarded the detractor? Not a jot!

6. I never told the gentle breeze, “Do not blow,”
Or stayed the hand that lifts the wineglass.

7. O dawn, unveil my darling’s tent—
A milk-white dome above the palace.

8. Reveal the rose gardens all dyed
In every valley and secluded hollow.

9. A land—when I grow lonesome and then seek it—
Swarms around me, with gazelles aplenty.

10. Today gray hairs have turned me toward abstinence
And I obey the critic after wilfulness.

11. I raise my eyes to people of virtue
And turn away from wanton ways.

12. I accept the miser’s meager gift, his stinginess,
Hoping, vainly, acceptance may refine the graceless.

13. However much I may forget, still I recall
The kindness you showed me in days of yore.

14. Give to Abul Hasan, who wore the cloak
Of dew, my best regards—an excellent garment!

15. Though I stay far away from you, yet my soul
Is ever bound to you by countless sighs.

16. If you clothe yourself in the garment of my praise,
It is from the radiance your righteous deeds emit.

17. You are the Abbasid noble prince
Exalted in spirit among the Abbasids.

18. If people were to gain good traits,
Their traits would differ as their lineages differ.

19. If all people shunned noble deeds,
You would still shun frivolity and don the cloak of virtue.

20. Your father aspired to the greatest
Generosity, though few men aspire thus.

21. When oblivious men build on bygone deeds,
You build on sand and foundation stones.

22. And if the Destroyer takes him, it is after
He penetrated the lions’ lairs and terrified them.

23. I have told those who wish you well, “Exalt his glory!”
And told your worthless, debased detractors:

24. “Go back to rat holes and hang your heads,
Leave that lofty, firm mountain be!”

25. For there is a nobler man than Hashim,
Capacious of hospitality, thronged with gatherings.

26. His talents are so abundant
They need no coaxing gifts held out by poles.

27. None shuns discourse when speech is seemly,
Nor any shy and sensitive soul avoids it.

28. Where the sunny dispositions are, there smiles blossom,
While the sullen dispositions engender gloom.

29. No perfidy has made him gather wealth
To squander freely or console the stricken.

30. Not equal is the giver of inherited wealth
And the giver who shares the wealth of men.