1. عشت تعلو طود المعالي وترقى

    يا جواد بذ الأجاود سبقا

    May you live, ascending the mountain of high honors and rising.

    O generous one, who outstripped the most generous in the race.

  2. يا فتى أعربت عطاياه حتى

    أغنت الطالبين غربا وشرقا

    O young man, whose gifts spoke eloquently, until

    they enriched the seekers, west and east.

  3. يا أجل الأنام قدرا لقد

    جل مديح نظمت فيك ودقا

    O greatest of mankind in worth, indeed

    the praise I wove for you grew grand and slight.

  4. أنت لولاك طلّق الشّعر من لم

    ير في الأرض غير وجهك طلقا

    You—without you, poetry would be divorced by one who

    has seen no cheerful face on earth but yours.

  5. أنت أغليت من صداق القوافي

    حين حبرت من مديحك صدقا

    You made the bridal dowry of rhymes more costly

    when I finely composed truthful praise of you.

  6. أنت صيرت كل حرّبا حسا

    نك عبدا لا يطلب الدهر عتقا

    You turned every free man, through your kindness,

    into a slave who never seeks emancipation.

  7. أنت غيث يعشو إلى ناره ال

    وفد وليث يغشى الأسنة ذلقا

    You are rain, toward whose fire is drawn the

    delegation, and a lion who braves keen spearheads.

  8. أنت من فرق اللهى ورأى الجم

    ع لشكر الرجال لا المال أبقى

    You are he who scattered gifts and deemed the amassing

    of men's gratitude, not wealth, more lasting.

  9. أنت بيضت وجه حظي وكثر

    ت بنعماك من أعادي زرقا

    You brightened the face of my fortune and multiplied

    through your favors the blue-eyed among my enemies.

  10. أنت من دبر الممالك بالحز

    م ورمّ الأمور رتقا وفتقا

    You are he who governed kingdoms with firm

    resolve, and mended affairs by stitching and unstitching.

  11. بأبي منك يا أبا الفضل مولى

    خارقا للعقول بالجود خرقا

    My father be ransom for the lord in you, O Abu al-Fadl,

    who rends minds utterly with his generosity.

  12. ما رأينا طريف علياه مسلو

    كا ولا مورد لمرجيه طرقا

    We have never seen his rare heights trodden,

    nor his watering place muddied for those who hope in him.

  13. يا أمدّ الكرام راحة إحسا

    ن وبذل وأحسن الخَلق خُلقا

    O you whose palm extends farthest among the noble in kindness

    and giving, and finest of mankind in character.

  14. يا جوادا لما قربت إليه

    قلت بعد للنائبات وسحقا

    O generous one, when I drew near to him,

    I said to calamities, 'Away, and utterly banished!'

  15. قد خبرت الأنام طرا وقد صر

    ت بأحوالهم سطيحا وشقّا

    I have tested all mankind, and have become

    a Satih and a Shiqq in knowing their conditions.

  16. فوضى عمني بطولك ما أب

    صر عرضا من لون عرضك أنقى

    [Opening word unclear]—envelop me in your bounty; I see no

    honor purer in hue than your honor.

  17. كم وغى خضتها مثير سحاب

    من عجاج يريك بالبيض برقا

    How many a battle you plunged into, raising clouds

    of dust that show you lightning in white blades!

  18. رد فيها النقع السّار جياد ال

    خيل دهما وكن شقرا وبلغا

    There the sweeping dust turned the noble

    horses black, though they were chestnut and piebald.

  19. كان ما تكتب الظبي ثم من كف

    فك في أسطر الكتائب شقا

    What the sword-edges wrote there from your palm

    in the battalions' lines was a cleaving.

  20. قسما بالمطي يقطعن فجا

    طالبي مكتدى ويخرقن خرقا

    I swear by the riding camels cutting through a pass,

    seeking a source of bounty, and piercing a vast wasteland,

  21. عاشات عوم السفا ئن يحسب

    ن ضحاء في لجد الآل غرقى

    swimming like ships, they seem

    at forenoon drowned in the depths of the mirage.

  22. كل حرف تمد في عنق السي

    ر لصوت الحداة ليتا وعنقا

    Each lean she-camel, at a rapid pace, stretches

    her neck's side and her neck toward the camel-drivers' voice.

  23. إن أشقى الأنام أحمر عاد

    ومعادي غرس الخلاقة أَشقى

    Truly, the most wretched of mankind was Ahmar of ‘Ad,

    and Ghars al-Khalaqa's adversary is more wretched still.

  24. يا فتى الصاحب العريق فخارا

    طبت أصلا زال وسنخا وعرقا

    O young man of the Sahib, deeply rooted in glory,

    you are pure in origin, [unclear word], stock, and roots.

  25. ما رأينا يا ذا الندى بين كفي

    ك ولا بين فرق السحب فرقا

    We have never seen, O lord of bounty, between your palms

    and the cloud-banks, any difference.

  26. فتهن الشهر الأصم فقد أس

    معنا أن ملكك الدهر يبقى

    So enjoy the Deaf Month, for it has made us hear

    that your dominion will endure for all time.

  27. وتلق النعيم رطب الحواشي

    وأرق من هامة المجرة فَرقا

    And receive bliss, moist at its fringes,

    and raise your head's parting above the crown of the Milky Way.

  28. وابق غمر العطاء ثبتا مطاعا

    سالما من أذى الخطوب موقّى

    And live on, lavish in giving, steadfast and obeyed,

    safe and protected from the harm of calamities,

  29. مستماح المعروف ما غنت الور

    ق على مورق يجاوبن ورقّا

    sought out for favors as long as the gray doves sing

    on a leafy tree, answering gray doves.