1. Do I see your resolution or your sword cutting sharper,
And your visage more splendid or your conversation more heard?

2. Each has its own path to rule’s portion,
Noble and from the very emirate esteemed.

3. Good is what it gives you, and the arrow hits true,
It goes astray, and what opposes you, while the horse is pulled apart.

4. And nothing but the tongues’ edges speaks,
And nothing but the precepts is heard.

5. Nor is the night beautiful but for white beautiful things
You wore on your shoulders, slipping off.

6. Nor is the star lofty but for the peak of a fortress
Repelling harm from its sides, refusing and preventing.

7. It misses the hope of the hopeful, while the fortune
Of the prince approaches it, so he aspires.

8. You have surrounded it with repeated encompassing,
Shaking its pillars so they tremble.

9. And you have rained on it copious, deadly rain,
Assailing it while the arrows in multitude rush.

10. You fold the wing of the army around it with a fold
By which its ribs almost crack.

11. So how many a hollow blow, then a stroking one
This runs red and that one bleeds!

12. And no harm but from your swords removed,
And no fortune but by your spears deployed.

13. And are you not but God’s mercy holding back
Torment from the disobedient, so it is suppressed?

14. So how many a fortress of glory you have covered with a blow
That deafens the foe when it is heard!

15. And you have left it a refuge, while it is a death-trap
For those believing it a manufactory, and it is their grave.

16. So the promise of the sword was fulfilled by a conqueror in it
The side resisting submission seems slight to him.

17. And the aroma of praise captured it, so its renown spreads
Dispelling the mount of praise and casting it down.

18. When the summits of glory shake, you deem them
Turning a cup on high, trembling.

19. And your white, shining swords suffice against Abīyad,
Repeating, displaying glories, excelling.

20. And O Lord of an army to the foe as though it were
Throngs of a flood the darkness led, seething.

21. It showed him boldness, while you are its lion,
So he recoiled, startled like an ostrich, frightened.

22. And you met him with the wind of awe last night
So he fled the fleeing of a cloud dispersing.

23. And he turned his back, not turning to one retreating,
Fearing a stalwart approaching him, hastening.

24. And the tear of the Pleiades flowed in the darkness of night,
And the mane of the horses tossed in stamping tumult.

25. He has from the breasts of the crooked ones and Qana
An intercessor for attaining hopes, pleading.

26. And the left hand aided him when the horses met,
A thousand, while stout hearts filled his sides.

27. And Abīyad reciting Sūrat al-Fatḥ unsheathed,
And the noble squadrons bowed down kneeling.

28. And Munjarrid, huge, alone, peerless,
Flying beneath the cloud-like pinions four.

29. And Ḥaṣdā’ clad with spears, impregnable,
And a shameless face masked in iron.

30. They grazed in the judgment of generosity on its plains,
And meadows for the generous sons to graze.

31. And you roamed its wandering with the zeal of youth,
A lightning glimpsed late in the night, flashing.

32. I did not want the steeds’ trappings richly adorned
While the sea is a fountain for my father Isaac.

33. And its ridge hotter to the fearful side,
And its plain pleasanter for the seeker swifter.

34. So who is like Isaac, and the dawn whitest,
And who like Isaac, and the truth most plain?

35. A leader brought near in kindness, and a house led him
To glory, towering above the stars, most splendid.

36. It manifested, and from Mecca’s plain a warmth
To it, and the Sacred House it longs for.

37. You see for Quraysh in it the flash of an idea
Beaming, and a lineage for the caliphate contending.

38. Verily, by hands that spoke my praise of him
While the dove encircled me, moaning.

39. If a joyful event shakes Homs’ environs,
A tale with its encounter to it turns.

40. He has turned from us, and calamities persist,
His doom is nigh, and sorrows wound.

41. My patience at his parting’s memory left me,
And saying farewell, he bade me farewell before departure.

42. I was tear-ducts’ stones, ignorant of weeping,
Until the call of passion taught me how tears flow.

43. So in God I trust the commander, and a love
I bid farewell, and those yonder I bid farewell.

44. And it congratulated a home of rule, and was congratulated
By a king, as God gives and forbids.