1. أَبَت لَحظات عَزمِكَ أَن تَناما

    وَقَد حَمَّلتها المِنَن الجِساما

    The glances of your resolve refused to sleep,

    And you had laden them with mighty favors.

  2. فَأَصبحت الشآم عَلَيك وَقفاً

    وكنت بِكَفِّ قاطنها شماما

    Thus Syria became an endowment for you,

    And you were a fragrant melon in its inhabitant's palm.

  3. فَيا لِلَّهِ دَرّك من حُسام

    تقلَّد من عَزائمه حُساما

    So, God bless you—what a sword you are,

    That girded itself with a sword of its own resolves!

  4. مَتى جِئتَ الشآم وَكانَ شَرقاً

    رَكائِبُكَ الَّتي أَبَداً تراما

    When did you come to Syria, while in the East were

    Your riding camels, forever sought after?

  5. أَبا حسن فَإِنَّكَ مُنذُ سَبعٍ

    عهدتك أَو أَقول يَزِدنَ عاما

    O Abu Hasan, for seven years now—

    I have known you, or, let me say, a year more—

  6. بِأَرضِ القُدسِ وَالعُلماء فيها

    تَزال لَدى مَجالِسها إِماما

    In the land of Jerusalem, where the scholars are,

    You have remained an imam at its gatherings.

  7. وَكنتَ تَرى المَديح عَلَيكَ عاراً

    وَتأباه قَصائدك التِماما

    And you regarded praise of you as a disgrace,

    And your odes, all together, reject it,

  8. لِعِلمِكَ أَنَّهُ لَو كانَ شَخصاً

    كَلام الناس كنت لَهُ زِماما

    For you know that, were it a person—

    People's speech—you would be its bridle.