1. I protected my soul from what defiles it,
And rose above the rot of every rabble.

2. And I stood firm when vacillation shook me,
Seeking from it my misery and defeat.

3. I acquired such elegance in living
That time diminished it, meanly cheating.

4. And remote is what’s between one gorged on plenty
And one who barely drinks a taste or sip.

5. And it seems time has come to favor
The lowest wretches over all the rest.

6. My buying Iraq was a swindler’s trick
After I’d sold Syria in a wretched deal.

7. Don’t try me further with more tests now, after
These tribulations that disprove my name.

8. Long have I shown a richness in my veins,
Noble lines that shame all earthly scenes.

9. And Ibn ‘Ammi had stolen close to me
After such softness and intimacy.

10. Yet if I’m spurned, then I deserve to see
No dawn where I had once seen sunset’s gleam.

11. My traveling party worries thronged around me,
Pointing my camel litters toward Anbar.

12. To find in some Sasanian palace there
Solace from fate and solitude from care.

13. Those back-to-back catastrophes remind me,
Though disasters bring forgetfulness, they say.

14. Men who in a noble’s shade decline,
Bringing down their eyes, and making foreheads crease.

15. His gate is locked toward Jabal Qaf, until
You reach two slopes of sand and barren hills.

16. Encampments, not like Su’da’s ruins, spaced
On dusty flats no tents had ever faced.

17. Distresses even my indulgence could not
Bear, sent from a people of great wrath and rage.

18. Time has moved their epoch from sobriety
To make them models of vulgarity.

19. So that Jurmaz now, with his lack of grace,
Seems in his character distinct from all his race.

20. You’d know, to see him, how the nights have made
Of him a cemetery since his wedding feast.

21. He tells you wonders of a folk whose ways
Pure eloquence could never rightly praise.

22. And whenever you see, in Antaki’s painting,
Romans mixed with Persians in their quaint array,

23. Seeing death’s arena where the ranks are brought
Beneath the lances in that frenzied fight,

24. In greenest garb against a yellow background,
Gaily parading in a cheerful site,

25. Men in struggle before him you will find,
Blinking, in their slyness, spear points to the blind.

26. Some lean lancer charging with his spear’s point at the neck
Of some sweet lad with charming curls bedecked.

27. Your eyes describe them as a living throng
Signaling each other silence from their tongue.

28. Then my doubts so overwhelm me that I touch
Them with my hands to verify as such.

29. He gave me to drink, but did not announce
Over both hosts the vinegar of “Here’s to!”—

30. A wine you’d think a star the night made gleam
Or morning radiance from a cloudless stream.

31. But when it sparkles, moved with joy and luck for the imbiber,
It pours into the glass from every loving liver.

32. So it is loved by every soul and heart and nature.
I fancied Chosroes here carousing, lost in leisure,

33. A haunted look, or look of bliss, bewilders reason.
Does deepest gloom or perfect trust reflect his face?

34. The hall, in its carved wonders and amazement,
Seemed like a Sasanian arch of audience.

35. It makes you feel, with such gloom overwhelming it,
Like one arriving there at dusk or one who’s leaving.

36. Disturbed by parting from familiar company,
Or wearied with dismissing noble visitors.

37. Fate turned on him, and buyer has become
The star of ill-omen, the baneful and accursed.

38. So he affects composure, but still breaks out
In sores that are the canker-blains of fate.

39. He was not vexed to be stripped of the dais’ carpets,
To dismount from curtained litters he had kept.

40. High-necked, with diadems on heads
Raised in joy and holiness.

41. Wearing pure white, so that only
The fringes of their robes could be perceived.

42. You cannot tell if jinn or humans made
This work, each race assisting each race here.

43. Yet I bear witness, with kings he has not equaled,
Nor will his like persist in generations on.

44. I seem to see the ranks and multitudes
As I approach the limit of my will.

45. And delegations crying in their woe
Behind the crowds, too shy to dare draw near.

46. The singers, in the palace, seem to guide back
The odes they sing between love and delight.

47. Our meeting was the first event of evening,
Our separation but the eve before last night.

48. Whoever seeks to follow them, desiring
Their troop, will join them at next morning’s light.

49. Long honored with joy, it now has turned
Into their consolation and their plight.

50. Right that I weep for it with flooding tears
Pausing throughout the youthful years.

51. That's my view, though not my house, nor are
The people of that lineage my own line.

52. But kindness to its people, in my family's eyes,
Was a most virtuous graft of sapling they supplied.

53. They lent our kingdom strength, and fortified its force
With sturdy pillars under every frowning door.

54. They helped against the packs of ravening clients
By stabbing with their lances, trampling with their steeds.

55. And so I find myself, as I proceed,
Borne high above each tribe and kin and breed.