1. Do you see a ship sailing the seas,
Crossing the tumultuous waves?

2. Or are they mirages in the heat haze of the desert,
Bearing lovesick gazelles and does?

3. We kept saying farewell as our tears poured out,
Revealing the inner secrets of our hearts.

4. Whenever that languid-eyed beauty gazed at me,
She dealt deadly blows to my heart.

5. Oh, her beauty on the day we parted,
With tears streaming down her cheek!

6. No sooner had we physically parted
Than we met in spirit and thoughts.

7. A sun that rivaled the radiance of dawn,
Her bracelets barely fitting, confining her wrists.

8. She wore a scarf on her garment,
Her bracelets barely fitting, confining her wrists.

9. Wondrous is she, a sword flashing in the night,
Glimpsed by eyes for a fading moment.

10. An enchanting glance of forbidden magic—
And yet in her beauty she is called a sorceress.

11. And perhaps she crept into my bed one night
After the revelers had dispersed.

12. I restrained myself, to preserve her honor,
Although I struggled as I gazed at her.

13. I restrained myself, to preserve her honor,
Although I yearned to unleash my passion.

14. I am a man who wears the cloak of chastity
Which has always been my protecting garb.

15. O people adrift in life, whose wares
Fall short of what they crave!

16. Seek what sustenance you need
To relieve the bitterness of want.

17. Do not sit in helpless poverty
Where they say the free have grown patient.

18. Leave your homes and wander—
Crooked roads make straight riders swerve.

19. Ships that swoop with their riders
Are believed to plummet and crush.

20. When you compose exotic verse,
Seek only the prosperous overlord.

21. Then you will come haloed by his sanctuary
And find him radiant like the full moon.

22. In a council filled with the greatest nobles,
Lofty in rank, the elite of the elite.

23. Bow down to his proud visage—
There you will find a prince commanding generosity.

24. Extol his glories in verse, bedecking his fame
With the jewelries of praise.

25. What blessing, for a poet to say
"So-and-so has become Ibn Shaddad’s poet"?

26. A steadfast king who spends the night contemplating
Sublimity, triumphs and glories while awake.

27. He inherited from Ibn Ahnaf
Dignity, munificence and abundant knowledge.

28. He never entered a fray
Without emerging its champion and defender.

29. Umair exults: his house of splendor
Has become most prosperous of the prosperous.

30. O you who ascended the ranks of ascendance
And donned a cloak that outshines eulogies!

31. What think you of barrenness ever striking
The likes of you—no, your mother bore no fruitless child!

32. Your virtues have encompassed all,
Both Bedouin and city dweller, present and absent,

33. Until people called you just and fair
And the public treasury called you open-handed.