1. A glance from my beloved, lined with magic,
Is richer than the most eloquent words of love.

2. I was gladdened to approach with a heart aflame with yearning,
While he, shy, turned away a cheek adorned with modesty.

3. He walks as though a spring breeze were toying with a bough,
Swaying it now this way, now that.

4. He whose eyes are shaded as though with kohl
Wears the flush of shyness like a garment wrapped about him.

5. He is like the sun - though he's hidden he still shines,
And when he appears he dazzles like a child at play.

6. We fear the eyes of enemies grow used to him,
Almost set ablaze by the fiery coals of hatred.

7. When we exchange whispers of passion, some glance
Lights the spark of enmity that smolders inside.

8. Alas for an age that saddens us when recalled -
It is gone, while of its days Misfortune hurried ahead.

9. At a camp where the rain poured down its store,
Till a passing cloud emptied itself completely.

10. It brought health to revive our souls,
Though its breeze revealed our weakness, and sickness laid us low.

11. A place where the ostrich egg cracked because of the ostriches' neighing,
Their eyes rimmed with the kohl of compacted dust.

12. We visited it as high-blooded steeds in their prime
Wore coats of mail and bore Indian swords.

13. They swung their goblets of glance and smile,
Needing no wine - their mouths were springs of sweetness.

14. The gait of the swaying ostrich is slowed by luxury,
As if its leg were bent beneath the folds of its garment.

15. Ages have passed whose outskirts Fortuna revolved,
Not daring to approach their sublime majesty.

16. It was like the dew of adolescence regained
Its freshness, till its water ran pure.

17. An age like a white-cheeked rose transplanted -
The hand of Modesty has snatched away what lips would cull.

18. And a glory of forbidding height,
Safe from the whispering of the slanderous and base.

19. Justice flourishes, resolve is unified,
Life looks ahead, reason is mature.

20. It set upright the pillars of its realm an illustrious,
Vigilant lion, a bold hero.

21. With a tenderness untouched by violence,
A generosity untainted by meanness.

22. If only the ancestors of old when the sandals
Of the Yemenis began to slip because of Time

23. Had brought him forward - Quraysh would have presented him,
Then civil strife would not have soaked their blood.

24. He follows the Imams of his fathers, and in
All their perfections he sets a noble example.

25. When the eyebrows were roused to earnestness
Their glance was lightning, and they withheld nothing asked.

26. Theirs is the House the pilgrims circle,
The plain round Batha, and the mountain paths.

27. When the swords flash baring the earth, blood
Stains hillocks and hills where the blades have touched.

28. The bitter herb is quick to attack without pause,
While the cowardly hyena snarls but dares not approach.

29. He trains his thoughts, and reason keeps vigil,
And consequence dogs every one of his steps.

30. Until he sees his night bound in the morn,
And the helpless routed by his mighty decree.

31. O best of those whose feet were dyed with blood,
Till the camels came to rest before his gates.

32. In him the cisterns of bounty brim over
For all who come - the highborn and the low.

33. Good fortune sang when he came into the world
A Hashimite, Caliph of God and heir of the Messengers.

34. A brilliant youth for whom dawn breaks,
Prosperity smiles as his star rises.

35. The caliphate bends its sleeves to serve him,
He will always embellish its bending arms.

36. The horses curvet with joy in their rider,
The swords smile in their sheaths.

37. This new moon will be revealed a full moon,
Drawing to him the reins of obedience.

38. A scion grafted on the Abbasid line,
His roots joined to God's Messenger.

39. Your Lord has granted you in children what
Their ancestors attained, fulfilling hopes.