1. Our youthful days of the sand dunes are gone
And the innocence of that gentle rain.

2. Days of youth are followed
By the sins of old age's stains.

3. When she smiles, her cheeks shine
With beauty that takes the breath away.

4. When will the sunset return
The radiance of its heyday?

5. My critics insist on finding fault.
Yet for your love, I have done no wrong.

6. Those who know I'm innocent, while others
Suspect me, the public loud, the private sly.

7. In their love they spied a path
Leading to me, while the path leads to them.

8. No aloofness exceeds a prayer
For distance from home or absence of a loved one.

9. Tears' droplets pour forth copiously
From the droplets of tender hearts.

10. And the blows of fate in every eon
Add griefs to existing griefs.

11. To Ibn Abi Muhammad we incline,
As the Pleiades incline to their setting.

12. From the corners of the earth they come,
From distant and desolate places.

13. He assigns them mirage after mirage
And makes them gulp sorrow after sorrow.

14. To a king whose hands' freshness you imagine
And whose heart pours like a sea.

15. I was and you were, our states so various,
In rhymed prose or rhyming verse.

16. A stranger in nature and a stranger in land,
What solace can a stranger find in a stranger?

17. A distant tribe imposes burdens on us
While a near people deny us rights.

18. The clouds of his generosity water the spurned,
And their winds blow sincerely.

19. We were rained on by the north wind's expulsion,
When once the south wind watered us.

20. From his glory and his hands' freshness
We have gifts no swords can forbid.

21. We have tasted his two states and do not care
Whether he strikes with Zulfiqar or is struck.

22. His lineage ascends to a house of glory,
Of rare peers and unknown ancestry.

23. Through his fiery origin he draws lineage
To pure maternal lines of highborn ladies.

24. The elite of mankind and jinn have given
Allegiance to his most noble ancestry.

25. For him the non-Arabs speak well when named,
And the tribes recognize him for his generosity.

26. Never far from glory, your share one day
Will be higher than mine.

27. When I compose poetry in meter and rhyme
I turn from the barren to the fertile theme.