1. Who asks the excuser for his faults
Or greets the evader for his sin?

2. For Hasan ibn Wahb I was burdened with bounty—
It was hard on that lofty eulogy and its loftiness.

3. And I promised him I would give thanks,
But I carried from him only delinquency, and did not rise to it.

4. Unless I was tasked by him with withering weakness—
Then I was tried by his corpulence or dust.

5. Nothing weakens a man but resolve
In his nobility or strength in his heart.

6. Who does not give thanks for his friend's grace
When will he give thanks for his Lord's grace?

7. The son of Wahb gave me his bounty and exceeded—
He fulfilled the East and West of praise.

8. A frontrunner of peaks when he seeks the distance
With his steed—his rival is of his own party.

9. And if the grave of ‘Amr is divided among the sons of al-Dayyan
Its choicest soil goes to him.

10. If you wish to leave deeds to their people
Then present the glory of his happy endeavors or gifts.

11. Those are the special things—and if you generalize
With his Rabī‘ah and Hārith and Ka‘b.

12. Game for a hunter—you do not see a coal
Among the people that was not a drop from his lineage.

13. He knew the consequences and so gained virtues—
Time passes but their mention remains in his footsteps.

14. And the generous one was satisfied for those virtues
To be traditions in his peace or his war.

15. And if Abū ‘Alī heralds the dew,
The heralding clouds come with their pouring.

16. And if his well-honed speech gleams in amicability
You find his tongue cleansed of wrath.

17. And if he knots up some tolerance in his forbearance
One day you see flashes in its highlands.

18. And if his pens darken then shine
The lamps of nighttime shine in his books.

19. Through eloquence, his understanding seems near
While reaching him is far, in his nearness.

20. Wise sayings—their rover roams through his essence
Flowing copiously and their sentiments in his heart.

21. As if the garden, harmonized by the redness of its light
And the whiteness of its blossoms and greenness of its grass,

22. Or like the brocades, chosen for one bedecked
With his maternal uncles, cousins, or clan.

23. As if, while hearing them, vision is tied to them—
The beloved appeared to the eyes of his lover.

24. I contended with him so nobleness in his view
Transcends the envoy from the edges of his companions.

25. And I found in myself dejected imaginings
That I was one day of his drinking companions.

26. So I dyed my character in the luster of his manners
Until I corrected their discordance through his sweetness.

27. My people—your ransom—through you
Every eclipse of brilliant origin was illuminated.

28. In the night of a day of blessing unlike any other
Favor follows those who went out in their absence.

29. How many a commander refused to be generous, and blamer
Who blamed that you were generous—his eye turned in displeasure.