1. The names have wandered the regions of glory
Unsteadily, though the necks perceived them not

2. A drunken beauty sways in her cloak and so
The singer learned coquetry from her attire

3. The morning breeze bends her shape as it would
Bend a swinging branch, a passing storm

4. She visited a loved one’s tomb, marked with pebbles,
Her abode being far in Tayma’s land

5. In a night when she unveiled her tresses therein
Did the darkness redouble round her person

6. And her phantom hides in the gloom as though
Ashamed before the black slave’s cheek

7. Imagination would regale me with her presence
Till slumber shunned the corner of mine eye

8. The ornaments chilled so my shoulder shunned them
As dawn awakened while winter slept

9. When she departed, she left the cooking-stones so the doe
Among the riders bore her swarthy affliction

10. The hours of her charm died, and morning,
My tears, my misery and longing for her

11. So let the breezes capture with mine anguish
Moments of her, the plains and the winds

12. The rain stars rose out of the grim horizon
Sustenance being falling stars, and darkness the sky

13. Above a red standard the horsemen shout
And the firmament is dressed in layered armor

14. From out the dust there emerged a she-camel, burdened, and turned
The greens to gray because of what she carried

15. Leave the roe of Waeesa be, and heed
This one, for every land has had its roe

16. With it they severed the hands of riders in vengeance
Fired as it was by heat of noonday

17. Will a breeze convey unto the warriors greeting?
A wind blows gentle with the night sojourner

18. It drags its skirt upon the meadow as though
The meadow were a robe and itatype of cloak

19. Does Abu Abdelmelik find solace in you or you
Find solace in his ascension and renown?

20. O star effacing other stars in radiance
Erasing the gloom of celestial bodies with its light

21. You have a towering ambition, a generous nature
And a charming submissiveness, gentle and sweet

22. You have attained in glory a station you furnished
With your supremacy, which people had left bare

23. You have donned the sleeves of eloquence, warning ‘gainst
A wisdom no sage before you was granted

24. And perhaps your resolve foams or rage
Roils o’er a sea enemies have frequented

25. Still does eloquence gush from him like a whetted
Sword, with determination and illumination

26. His talent was honed and refined in manner
That I cannot tell if it were iron or water

27. Sagacity flows in the fingers of his right hand
As if it, swarthy, were a Abyssinian slave-girl

28. And the summit of his vision surpasses the stars, as though
It were a heaven above the celestial sphere

29. When his speech pours forth tongues are struck
Dumb by his spellbinding eloquence

30. If he were to sleep, none could take his place
In his alerts save the precious ruby

31. By him mankind takes resort in the Almighty
Whose like among the mighty is unmatched

32. When they singled him out with gratitude, it was
As bounty blanketed them all

33. If their tongues denied his benefaction
Their limbs would speak of it openly

34. Numerous are his generous hands, so number
Itself is overwhelmed enumerating his breaths

35. By his laudations the world is sweetened like sweet scent And dawn and dusk are perfumed
Son of the most generous scion bred

36. Among Abdulaziz’s generous company
Those who kindle fires for latecomers

37. When the travelers turn in for the night
Those who fill bowls when hardship strikes them

38. As catastrophes befall the tribes
A people whose glory is the eternity of their souls

39. And underground with the decayed they live
Were clouds to fail the rain they would rejoice

40. Or darkest events of time illuminate their way
O son of him whose merit Ma’add learned

41. And Ma’add among them being of same repute
And son of him who in his rule

42. Made the frail equal to the able
With imperfect rhymes and clumsy style

43. Comes this poem to you from my abode
So without the aid of noble intermediaries

44. Catch with might what the noble miss
It hopes for favor from your grace, though unlike

45. What unimportant souls aspire to gain
So indulge, Abu Abdelmelik, and reunite it, for you

46. Are the equal, and this the beautiful one
And praise of your like is praise of the praiser

47. And sometimes those whom the poets praise