1. A lover's soliloquy in sleepless longing for his beloved
The phantom that inspired his love will not depart,

2. And were the tribe to return to their abode of yore
He would abhor it, so enthralled is he.

3. You are his desire, for love has mastered him,
Not pardon, nor has composure restrained him.

4. He chose you, finest of all he surveyed,
Of those drawn near or kept apart by love.

5. Once miserly of tears, your eyes insisted
Until they moistened eyes holding them back.

6. From a shackled heart you sought the pain of passion
And shone when fulfilling the promise you came to make.

7. Behold, two rulers dispute over me,
I judge yet am judged in faith’s domain.

8. We lived between two flashes, days
Renewing, memories persisting still.

9. Not life, when left, inspires remembrance
And yearning – absence keeps life unforgot.

10. Had I granted experience its due
In what was shown me I might hope and fear both.

11. To forbid is more worthwhile than to grant
That which you give. So restrain

12. Your sorrow for suspicions,
Each cloud has showers, and each lightning quenches thirst.

13. For Abu al-‘Ala I claim no special merit
Unless foes concede it, to their shame.

14. A man whose secret the palm tree tells
Is not like one whose secret and palm are seen.

15. Ambitious eyes looked up but were abased
By the nobility God built up where He willed.

16. How they were brought to shame by his making,
Their faces darkened by his works exposed!

17. To the base his virtues seem vices; fools decry
The obvious excellence of one they hate.

18. Backed by a troop with whom he charged the foe,
And met their charge with his troop at his side.

19. Their banners dyed by his country’s dust
And their lance-shafts tinged by his blood.

20. He bent the course of father-of-wisdom’s stream;
None but he could bend father-of-wisdom’s course.

21. A lion, when his hands pounced aggressively
To seize glory, his cubs emulated him.

22. When asked of me: describe his bosom friends,
I say: I border Majhij, abode of the honored dead.

23. I ask no more, when I see my sons ascend,
Seeking and attaining the glorious heights.

24. Those I pleased for truth’s sake I shielded with it,
And fewer are shielded by what they are pleased by.

25. No excuse for a tree whose roots thrived
Yet whose fruit failed to thrive.

26. They said: Abu ‘Isa exaggerated his metaphors,
I said: may his speech rise yet further!

27. His lineage aimed him for the heights, intending
His summit be completed, his distinction assured.

28. Men obtain all they desire, until desiring
To behold their most noble principles.

29. It matters not if an act begins or ends it,
Like the sea – the furthest and nearest are one.

30. Modesty restrained him from vices
More than fear God sees where He prohibited.

31. Meekness cancels lowliness when the devout
Gladly overhear and obey its call.

32. I refuse the noble his worldly success unless
His conduct beautifies his success.

33. Long bereft of a peer, though I see
He who always contends shall meet his match.

34. To them supremacy is not uniqueness –
Rivals and carbon-copies abound!

35. No glance returns in less than the expanse
Of a vast desert horizon stretching endlessly wide.

36. My poetic expertise gives luck capriciously –
Sometimes generosity, then status pays heed.

37. Like rain relentlessly watering the land –
Rivals succeeding but my supremacy confirmed.