1. The days have brought no strange surprises—
I see my degradation and decline.

2. Thus fate debases the highborn soul
And makes a plaything of the base and vile.

3. My gifts it now postpones and sets aside
For men who spurn life’s nobler goals.

4. And in my callow youth I've borne enough
To shatter the strongest, proudest heart,

5. Yet still my soul could rest content and know
The world for me was but a simple child.

6. My soul has learned true meekness till
No pittance of neglect can move its calm.

7. I have no wish for favors from mankind—
In God, the Lord of men, my needs are met.

8. My soul has learned true meekness till
No pittance of neglect can move its calm.

9. I have no wish for favors from mankind—
In God, the Lord of men, my needs are met.

10. How can you bear that your dear self be seen
As pouring precious water in the dust?

11. A noble soul is never shamed by want—
Pride still is yours, of grandfathers and uncles.

12. You there, who ask about me, wait awhile!
I am a scion of the righteous king

13. Al-Kámil,1 supreme in East and West,
Whose wise decrees made all men glad and safe.

14. He was my grandsire—boast of him I can,
My uncles were Hashimite2 chiefs, bright stars.

15. Who now can match my Kámil? Who has been
Found among men the equal of my clan?

16. From a proud stock God gave to be the arm
And sword of the Prophet in spreading Islam.

17. Lords of the wastes they were, young and mature,
The Prophet's succor, fierce with swords drawn in his cause.

18. They took their faith from their exalted fathers
And stained their lawful lives with nothing unlawful.

19. God rid them all of inwardvileness till
They were made pure of any secret sin.

20. They are the lords whom all men must obey,
The matchless knights, the stalwarts of the fray.

21. Besought for aid, those cousins were at once
Protecting lions snarling in the fray.

22. Their faith they took unsullied from their sires,
No taint of wrong their lawful profit stained.

23. If love distracts me, for them alone
I suffer this madness of desire.

24. So peace be theirs till moons shall wax and wane
And full moons crescent moons replace again!

25. My biting satires make the critics smart
As if my arrows sought their very hearts.

26. To be the Prophet's kin is pride enough—
If he’s obscure, he still can light my way.

27. Blame not my love of Ali, for indeed,
Who blames me for this love must bear the blame.

28. By your life! In love of him I find delight
And build on it the mansions of my faith.

29. Now speak!—who can compare with my two lords,
When foes in multitudes their doom await?

30. Like the full moon when darkness first divides
They shine on hosts of foemen come to fight.

31. In the fierce battle steadfast, smiting skulls,
With every army's forces his to smite.

32. Supreme in glory o’er the lands—to him
The Lord of Glory and of Bounty gave.

33. No praise have I enough for God, who has guided
Us after the best of men in Islam.

34. From them He lifted all defilement till
They cleansed their secret souls of inward sins,

35. And they are guides obeyed, and valiant chiefs,
The matchless knights, the dashing cavaliers.

36. Besought, those lords brought quick and valiant aid,
Lions unleashed 'mid crashing hosts they raged.

37. From their true sires they took the faith unstained,
No lust for gain could make their profit vain.

38. If love holds snares, for them alone it is
I suffer love's sweet pain and longing eyes.

39. So greetings theirs till months and years go by,
Remaining while the circling months revolve!

40. Alas, the choking grief caught in my throat,
The wound between my ribs that will not mend

41. For him, who by the vilest treachery
Was crushed, the prop and pillar of Islam.