1. I'm a prisoner of passionate love, my heart consumed,
On my heart the embers of youth wildly ablaze.

2. I refused to be led once by the blamer,
To be deterred from love by blame and censure.

3. I say to those who blame me, stop your blaming and be gentle,
For I am deaf to the blame of censurers.

4. My hearing is attentive to her who allowed me her love,
Deaf to blame, though the old men blame persistently.

5. I became infatuated with her, and infatuation in passion
Is the key to the door of love after attachment.

6. A love whose livers melt in anguish,
As if the livers were deaf, unresponding boulders.

7. The fruits of error are cheeks whose stature
When they flex in a coquettish smile, is pliant.

8. How many nights stayed permitting us the harvest
While affection toward me leaned from her, and her neck.

9. Nights whose branches leafed out for me in youth,
My union with the white, effulgent full moons continual.

10. My sins are forgiven with the white moons if they incline
Toward my flourishing, warbled to me by the twittering birds.

11. The fresh water of youth flows as though
My tresses in braids were its meandering streams.

12. That was a state that has passed, nor will
Any freshness for me after all that return or be renewed.

13. Now my intimacy is considered a stumble and sin
Along with the white and effulgent; in that I am forbidden.

14. Behold, the world is but joy and tribulation,
And the one pursued in it is ever expelled.

15. No pilgrim to a meadow leaves it untroubled,
Of people, without being after driven away.

16. A young man's life is a flimsy rope, and he
Is stretched out in danger of the blows of fate.

17. God has ordained that the possession of earth belongs to the young man,
The intrepid Arab, son of the Sultan, power conferred on him.

18. A young man whose speech in judgment is precedent, his kingdom
For his nation, kindness, security, and good guidance.

19. His way in his kingdom is justice and piety,
His nation under him valorous and generous.

20. Bestower of torrents of bounty on embassies,
His blow on the brow of the ram is a deep cleft.

21. He will bequeath everlasting glory to the eloquent Arab,
And raise him to the towering heights of loftiness.

22. His right hand in benefaction is the house of the son of Malik,
And Nasr ibn Zuhran, succor and eternity.

23. So O you who seek a likeness, flee far,
For his likeness among all people is nonexistent.

24. To you, son of the Sultan, has come a gift
For your glory, a crown no cessation will erase.

25. You rejoiced in the new kingdom and in him
Who brought you increase, and increase is renewal.

26. No wonder you added a kingdom to the lofty ones
Bequeathed by the fathers, the kingdom prepared.

27. For Solomon son of David contained
Of the kingdom what David before him did not contain.

28. Live of spotless virtue, secure from envy,
For every person regrets the superior virtue of another.

29. He who can encompass the citadel of the kingdom of ibn Zaydah
And the fortress of his palace, is no doubt fortunate.