1. أَيا ماجِداً مُذ يَمَّمِ المَجدَ ما نَكَص

    وَبَدرَ تَمامِ مُذ تَكامل ما نَقَص

    O noble one, who never retreated after setting your course toward glory,

    and full moon, who never waned after attaining fullness:

  2. سَتَخلُصُ مِن هذا السَرارِ وَأَيُّما

    هِلالٌ تَوارى بِالسِرارِ فَما خَلَص

    you will emerge from this moonless darkness—and what

    crescent ever hid in the moon's darkness and did not emerge?

  3. بِرَأفَةِ تاجِ المِلَّةِ الملكِ الَّذي

    لِسُؤدُدُهِ في خُطَّةِ المُشتَري خِصَص

    Through the compassion of Taj al-Milla, the king whose

    glory has its allotted shares in Jupiter's domain.

  4. تَقَنَّصتَ بِالأَلطافِ شُكرى وَلَم أَكُن

    عَلِمتُ بِأَنَّ الحُرَّ بِالبِرِّ يُقتَنَص

    You snared my gratitude with gentle favors, and I had not

    known that a freeborn man is snared by kindness.

  5. وَصادَفتُ أَدنى فُرصَةً فَاِنتَهَزتُها

    بِلُقياكَ إِذ بِالحزم تنتَهز الفُرَص

    I found the slightest opportunity and seized it

    to meet you, for opportunities are seized with resolve.

  6. أَتَتني القَوافي الباهِراتِ تَحمِلُ ال

    بَدائَعَ مِن مُستَحسِنِ الجِدِّ وَالرُخَص

    The dazzling rhymes came to me, bearing the

    marvels of pleasing earnestness and poetic license.

  7. فَقابَلَت زَهرَ الرَوضِ مِنها وَلَم أَرِع

    وَأَحرَزتُ دُرَّ البَحرِ مِنها وَلَم أَغُص

    So I encountered in them the garden's blossoms without grazing,

    and gained from them the sea's pearls without diving.

  8. فَإِن كُنتُ بِالبَبَّغاءِ قِدماً مُلَقَّباً

    فَكَم لَقَبٍ بِالجورِ لا العَدلِ مُختَرِص

    So if I have long been nicknamed al-Babbagha, 'the Parrot,'

    how many a nickname is fabricated unjustly, not justly!

  9. وَبَعدُ فَما أَخشى تَقَنُّصَ جارِحٍ

    وَقَلبَكَ لي وَكرٌ وَرَأيُكَ لي قَفَص

    And now I fear no capture by a bird of prey,

    while your heart is my nest and your counsel my cage.