1. The breeze blew gently, so I said let us spread out a pleasure garden,
With early blossoms and trailing vines,

2. Or a Yemeni paradise garden,
Where they shed their robes in an all-enveloping night.

3. The souls of the riders were excited until I thought them
A draft that makes them stagger, the draft of Babylon,

4. So I marveled at the greening of a garden
For the intoxicated, with all its creeping vines,

5. When the fragrance of blossoms recalled a caliph
Who filled time with his justice and petitioners,

6. The remembrance of the shining imam and his praise
From a mounted traveller, with gifts and a caravan,

7. He revived the rights of religion, once forgotten
And extinguished the soul of falsehood,

8. And deemed the widespread justice too small for souls
Thirsting, so he followed with pouring generosity,

9. When the assemblies were like gardens in bloom, and their fragrance
Spread renown with each noble narrator,

10. If an envious slanderer approached them
The imam raised up for her a cloud of pouring rain,

11. You see the country joyous and verdant
Through his eminence, with virtues and fine qualities,

12. By him the scent of union was sweet for a lover
And by him the beauty of gardens flowed with splendor,

13. It was as if by him she had become a radiant bride
After she had been a mother indifferent and distracted,

14. Ink and sea, what breach in the plenty of his merit?
And billows of the outpouring of his springs from the shore?

15. Both the position and the learned man suit each other,
Busied with attainments and proofs,

16. Pure of intention, he does not cheat the commoners,
Neither by guile toward them nor by striking harshly,

17. Trusting in a wakeful guardian, they forgot
Their own concerns, while he is not neglectful,

18. A shadow who demeans his shirt in his peace
With the most glistening ample endowment,

19. But if he changes and dons his battle dress,
With bright polished sword blades that slash,

20. His resolve and his sword vie
In skill and in the knowledge of how to fight,

21. So you remained, O sun of the age and its life,
To guide the perplexed and enrich the destitute,

22. Shedding the garb of each departed feast
And renewing the next one in the coming seasons,

23. No night has gloomed and taken over with its shadows
A morn on which the blessings of the just imam were invoked.