1. O Abu Hasan, if your gifts had answered
my request before my prayer,

2. your kindness would not have been lost
on a generous, gentle man when you repay with reward.

3. I will praise what you have devoted to me,
and listeners will praise my praise.

4. How could persistent kindness bring
a cure for my troubles?

5. Shall I be ungrateful for a favor begun and repeated,
if I then turned from the ways of loyalty?

6. You anticipated my wishful thinking,
and the palm of your hand was bountiful toward my hopes.

7. Your calling, whenever it went toward me,
was graceful with affection and sincerity.

8. So I don’t know whether to thank you for my aim
through your generosity and kindness, or for my brotherhood.

9. Your noble character refused destruction,
which souls love more than remaining.

10. Your being and clemency toward you are more delicious
than cool water to the thirsty.

11. Nothing but generosity, kindness, forbearance,
and exertion in magnanimity and liberality,

12. For I have laid gratitude as my foundation,
and after the foundation there is only the building.

13. So if your hands are generous, that is no wonder,
for who would deny rainfall from the sky?