1. Whether grieved, after avoiding excess,
Or worried by cares, so I seek refuge;

2. He deserted the abodes for a while, until
His determination folded up Zeinab’s abodes.

3. He is verily the smooth-cheeked one, even if
Lent for a while, so he’d face an eastern horizon from the west.

4. Verily parting spared us not from departure
Of a white, radiant one from a frowning, slender one.

5. She lost hope of the old appointment and despaired
Of him, with the blackness of a date palm untouched by dye.

6. And I see the covenants of the singing girls as my youth
A course that passed, and a flashing gleam that blinked.

7. Why then this torrent of tears that pounds the cheeks?
And the torment of a heart tortured by beauty?

8. And the wakefulness of an eye that still pleases it
Horses of a flock, or gazes of a wavering mirage.

9. I blamed the miser and stumbled due to his refusal,
I pardoned and said “An arrow that hit not the target.”

10. And I excused my sword for the flash of its blade,
That I struck yet did not hit with the sword.

11. How many gifts of my eastern friend I transported
And made it my own equipment in the west!

12. And the horizons of lands most beloved to the gallant man
Are a land where he attains his wish and quest;

13. And in the company of the Beni Yazid, wherever I met them,
Generositymultiplied, like the pouring clouds’ rain.

14. When you meet them, they are a procession of stars
Blossoms, and Abdullah the full moon of the procession.

15. Cruel at heart over the relatives, as though
He attacks dividing wealth, a guilty aggressor;

16. He assumed the caliphate, aiding and planning
With the loyalty of one who strives and the wisdom of the experienced;

17. If they summoned him to battle, the banner would be handed
To the brave, tested warrior.

18. I ransom you from the dear friend’s rebuke,
Which is stronger than the enemy’s cunning traps.

19. I attained your generosity by hearsay while between us
Is the mirth’s preoccupation, from a wide plain.

20. And I saw your partnership, while behind it
Is the night disclosing uncertainties beyond uncertainties.

21. Your smiles for giving are like
Spring flowers in the midst of a verdant meadow.

22. Are you my messenger, the one I set out to
In short robe, red and gilded?

23. If the lantern were lit from it, its light
Would pardon, with its glow, the glow of planets.

24. Deludingly beautiful, its beauty deluding the darkness,
Or inclining, like one laughing in wonder.

25. Its sides drawn-together, its beauty fills
The glances of an eye in awe.

26. And the finest of your swords is that my contentment
Would be with one glittering white or grayish.

27. And if my poetry and your generosity come together, both facilitate
Attaining abundant flows, both riding the ship.