1. Is it a torrent of tears or surging floods,
Or a burning chest or blazing embers inflamed?

2. Enough tears shed, for after one sigh
My aching heart is either sick or crazed.

3. I drank deep from the cup of days,
Unaware that joy with sorrow is interlaced.

4. I was not lured by beauty’s smile,
Nor captivated by a graceful doe-eyed gaze.

5. But madness from a foolish time,
And an ignorant fate, muddled my ways.

6. I found solace, but solace barely obeyed me,
If only time wasn’t so cruel and twisted in its ways.

7. When sorrow afflicts a young man,
You see passion flee his heart apace.

8. The lines of magnanimity have faded,
As days leave the noble destitute without a trace.

9. If not for the Sufis, the eminent Mufaddal
Would have nowhere to go, no thresholds to grace.

10. For their master hoped for is magnanimity,
With which they feed and endow the impoverished race.

11. Indeed, the vile have conquered the noble souls,
The smooth-tongued knave, the showy and loud disgrace.

12. We pitched out tent in the shade of his generosity,
The best of all men, if you compare or contrast.

13. The oasis of goodness, and goodness is fallow,
The mantle of merit remade, and merit displaced.

14. Cooler and brighter than the morning dew,
More radiant than the glowing full moon’s face.

15. With his munificence, he fulfilled my hopes,
As though impelled to expend beyond his place.

16. Whenever time troubled us even once,
For time has moods, both foul and fair to the taste.

17. We would call upon his exalted generosity,
As if calling clouds, heavy laden to unlace.

18. A youth whose hopes the slightest comfort sate,
And who drowns in his bounty those who never debase.

19. A youth who was always the crown of glory,
When the glorious with pride are laced.

20. The rain of his palms has sufficed me,
Behind assemblies where words and deeds displace.

21. I turned to their munificence, no longer craving
A miser’s fare overcooked till the morn’s first rays.

22. I swear you have granted me such a boon,
That gratitude is tempted and praises race.

23. Better than you, was the benefactor before,
From whom glory will never efface.

24. Your father who continues to welcome with open arms,
Until the times feel straitened in their space.

25. He built you a lofty house on pillars raised,
That the stars themselves climb and pace.

26. Its shade doesn’t stint the seeker of shade,
Nor does its door bar the seeker of grace.

27. Despite the foe, it came to be yours by right,
A truth from which none deviate or displace.

28. Though difficult it was, your back remained unbowed,
For you rise above such things with poise and grace.

29. You continue to scale the shoulder of resolve victorious,
Curbing with wisdom fine, and spurring the race.

30. You surpass the times in glory and brilliance,
Like the dawn gleaming through the gloom’s dark glaze.

31. You are ennobled while these days are ignoble,
You are sincere while the people are worthless and base.

32. The resolves of the lofty one are envied,
As if they were racers swift, enflamed in their pace.

33. Temperaments that conquer tribulations,
As if they gored with the blood of needy disgrace.

34. They came to you with the musk of praise,
As though its fragrance was lifted by your renown’s grace.

35. With strands of pearls, unparalleled in their worth,
Their value beyond what is threaded or laced.

36. Veiled, until you came, no eyes could discern
Victory in them, as beauty hides her face.

37. Any praise besides yours, its worth however high,
If it adorns people, is mere wish and disgrace.

38. In you I see the promise of hopes,
Which are naught but fantasies soon displaced.

39. May God water the beauty of good thoughts of you,
For it is the path to fortune and its embrace.

40. Of your munificence, the miserly is stingy,
And the best deed seems flawed in its place.