1. The lover's promise of intimacy with the beloved
Almost rivals the night star in distance

2. I have not seen separation without mercy for the sufferer
Nor has union been without envy for the giver

3. If you persist in blame, I am drowned in obstinacy
And if you multiply disdain, I multiply raging passion

4. And to one clarifying the path of righteousness, I said
Righteousness is wholesome, though some misguidance comes from love

5. I desire wealth, and how much wealth I gained
That bred enmity in my clan and children

6. To the point I would not recognize those I once knew
Among intimates, and felt estranged from my own land

7. How constrained was I, yet how little I feared hardship
Nor extended a hand, save to a true friend

8. Will the days show me again
Abu Muslim Al-Kajji or Asad?

9. Both seized glory in their grasp
And sought the success of tomorrow after today's triumph

10. God bless you two, the best of the age
You brought its glories to fruition

11. I found succor readily at hand with you
At a time when none could aid another

12. I sought a third with you both during the nights
But it neither happened nor came to be

13. God will never distance a need from me
While you two are my sole recourse and reliance

14. If you lend, it is repayment without delay
And if you grant, it is acceptance of gift and dowry

15. And if I compose rhymes and arrange
The verses - they grow heavy in meter or plentiful in number

16. In them is reward for what the messenger brings
Of present, flowing verse, or distant, agonizing ode