1. She came close and saw me complaining bitterly
So she folded the edges of her cloak lest they be snatched away

2. And she sent a timid glance along with desire
That it may grow stronger, so I sent a stronger one to weaken it

3. And eyes where tears had settled in them, so whenever
A specter grazed them suddenly, they brimmed over

4. My companion was cold then became content with his loneliness
With an act, so he cast coldness between his eyelids

5. To you, for I was once
Feeling a flame in the bushes that now died down

6. And desire became as delicate in beauty
As beauty itself, and every creek became a creek

7. And I forbade what youth had deemed lawful
And I spend what I owed from it what had been granted respite before

8. And I would have been, unless you ask the gentle breeze
Bearing to and from her, urging and composing

9. My words and deeds become as tender to her
As if when they give me a drink of araq, I become araq

10. And I race the racer without over-exertion
And I overlook lowliness when an ignoramus babbles

11. And I walk to the beautiful lady, preceding her promised time
So I spare her from saying "too late"

12. Yet the days left in me nothing of the talk of youth
Except sorrow and anguished sighing

13. And I look from the temples of old age to desire
Fearing that the turns of fate make them turn away

14. And I mount after death and gray hair
With them behind me and walk arrogantly

15. Until I divided war and gray hair between desire
And to nonexistence from the generosity of Ibn Baroukh what sufficed

16. He is glory protecting whoever touched his house
And preventing whoever came to him fearful

17. So do not deny that the examples have become complex
With the likes of them until they become clear and recognized

18. He came, by the coincidence of possession and beauty and his name,
To Egypt, so people thought Joseph was Joseph

19. A youth who seduced the days until I saw them
Turning over underneath the nights expectantly

20. And the new day rejoices at his nearness
Casting itself upon him eagerly

21. He grew between the pens of ministry
And between the swords of emirate sharpened

22. And he passed the builders in glory with dew
And when he saw them as he looked down, he looked down

23. And he did not limit himself to the likes of their deeds
So that you would think he had learned from the people and followed

24. And a day of fighting like Samhari in its length
Though not like Samhari in his education

25. They went forth to meet you, throwing behind your back their land
As if they were accustomed to advance and loyalty to you

26. And they drank the water of patience therein muddled
And from that muddying, purity is sought

27. When I recited poetry, I lightened its effort
So it flowed and the transmitters marked it as light

28. And if glories loaded it and weighed it down
It is more fitting that it cannot stand still

29. It moves like the star when it was like it
Lofty and influential and not light in it

30. He is the praiser, the praised, beautiful in himself
And I only described through him the glory of men to be described