1. Tune your strings to sing of the charms of the lovely doe,
And accomplish your desires in her vacant lineaments.

2. And make every torrent gush forth in her meadow,
Its turbulent flow replaces any torrent.

3. How many abodes of a loved one have I visited,
Dragging along the skirts of one lost in error after error.

4. Ruins of a living man we once knew intimately,
To whom pertained fine legacies and ruins.

5. As though their party one day at eventide were ships
Sailing in a surging sea with billowing waves.

6. Among the sand dunes are gazelles, lively, elegant,
That slay hearts with a mere glance of their slaying eyes.

7. My imagination is bare of inventiveness, vacant of intimation,
Would that the one I met were of imagination and intimation!

8. What ails my soul that it longs to roam aimlessly,
Except that it is inclined towards roaming?

9. I seek guidance from love for her always,
Now eastwards, now straining my ears among censors.

10. If she forgets me and forgets our ancient covenant,
Then in that I shall not forget or neglect.

11. A slender gazelle quivering in the cold of youth,
As quivers the bough of the sandalwood in the hand of one who extracts its perfume.

12. As though her spittle in her smiling mouth
Were clear white pearls with a chain of pearly teeth.

13. She passes the night singing to the full moon rising
Over a branch of ban wood above the thickets bent sideways.

14. Never have I despaired of union with her
But that I hoped for favor and gentleness from her.

15. She heals hearts whenever she wishes and speaks to them
From wherever she wishes with sweet and bitter words.

16. Why does time show me of its marvels
Such amazing things I cannot describe in words?

17. I was content with its judgment after knowing it
And accompanying it in the guise of ignorance.

18. Whoever wears time, though his safety be prolonged,
Must perish while the worn remains unscathed.

19. How pleasant a life for him who settles in the world,
Were it not for the fluctuation from state to state!

20. I have come to know time until I almost know
What runs its course before it fulfills in deeds.

21. I have contemplated the rulings of fate - beginning
With prior knowledge of the subsequent ruling.

22. I roamed in thought's tumult probing
With a mind roaming through what is secret and unseen.

23. O people, who is there for me to befriend
As brothers, each striving for the other?

24. I have tested my time without omitting a test
Except I included it in one of my examples.

25. How many events has fate decreed for me
Like a she-wolf suddenly attacking lambs!

26. Yet from the creation of man from fermented clay
I continued till old age capped the newborns.

27. Do not determine, O passerby, all my hopes -
If God has ordained my request and hopes.

28. The youth rises in his glories by his resolve
And effort - not through another's effort and maternal uncle.

29. I have a firm resolve by which swords are unsheathed and I have a spirit
Unblemished by any futile pastime.

30. Had it not been for Ibn Hafiz,
None would have inherited the forms of fine horsemanship.

31. Nor would I have attained the rank
I have attained - eminent, sublime and high.

32. He raised me to the most eminent station among worshippers
And lowered me to degrees none had lowered me before.

33. Glorified - His dominion encompasses him
With a pavilion of pride and majesty.

34. The army of enemies breaks against him without armor
With every polished sword and long-necked steed.

35. O best of those carried one day by her mount -
To whom every safe bare hill flowed easily!

36. And whom time has always boasted of
With praise in prose and verse.

37. This is your brother Abu Duhaman, the best brother,
Called upon by a brother shouldering burdens.

38. His desire rising to glory and the heights - his inclination
Is to the edge of glory, not to the edge of wealth.

39. A speaker, a doer of what he says with good intention -
So praise him for being among men both speaker and doer.

40. You are you and he is he, as though both of you
Were Moses and Aaron in effort and hope.

41. You have become - due to your majesty - confused
Among people like confusing dal and dhal.

42. May you have joy on the feast day of al adha
For longing for you has clad it in fine garb.

43. And every science has always accompanied time
With time coming in good fortune and prosperity.

44. And enjoy a state of honor you have encompassed
Wherein you have attained leadership and auspicious omen.

45. And forgive me the sin of falling short in praising you
For one whose thoughts are not diverted from the heights by chores!

46. So neither are my words nor is the one described attributed -
Your glories are too lofty for saying and speaking.

47. Your repute has surpassed the limits of the heights and risen
Beyond praise - so what can the words of Ibn Shawwal avail?