1. May God forgive you, O people!
You have wronged me, though my heart bore love for you.

2. You stipulated loyalty, yet betrayed me.
Your affection was not what loyalty and covenant dictate.

3. You made the smitten heart a receptacle for your troubles -
Unburden yourselves of your worries upon it!

4. When you dwelt in the heart and home, the loved ones'
Distance and estrangement seemed wrong and separation, a sin.

5. His worries remained when passion remained with him,
Lingering, though patience on the verge of collapse.

6. A specter that veiled him with night's darkness
And almost burst open the bosom of night at dawn.

7. You ignored him, though passionate for your love,
As if being content with your lover were a sin!

8. I despaired the morning after despairing, when you left,
and that abandonment cast me out from among you.

9. You possessed, then denied, my longtime devotion -
As if no intimacy had ever existed between us!

10. My soul ransoms those who do not disparage my soul,
When it contends with them, though they insist on wronging me.

11. His smile hides the distraction of a tender kiss,
As if the author of such pearls were natural simplicity.

12. Before the might of his glances assailed me,
I knew not one so weak and frail could be so mighty.

13. Were earrings hanging from his ears for the sin of passion,
My heart would hang for that sin, not the earrings.

14. The waist that inspires pity by its delicate form
Bears a belt binding hearts, not clothes, around it.

15. For his lips and hair, he is envied
By the cheeks' freshness and the comb's order.

16. The light of wine radiates from his shining cheeks,
While joy plays on his mouth and white teeth gleam within.

17. The script of his beauty adorns his smooth cheeks,
And moles upon his cheeks serve as its diacritics.

18. My heart, O intimate friend, is an empty page; do not blame
A heart whose void the mole, the cheek, and the line fill!

19. In passion, clutching holds my heart constantly,
As the grasping of the victorious king's hand holds might.

20. A sovereign who governs barren rule with his grip,
Noble, though no wealth fills his hands or is grasped.

21. The lord of the royal court protected his person
As the pupil's center protects the human being's sight.

22. A sovereign whose star of success rose from the horizon of glory -
Fortune's bird nests only in his refuge in good times or in want.

23. When the hands of kings are kissed, then by his hands
The outstretching of eras pay him homage and kiss the palm.

24. The slumber of subjects and their tranquil dreams -
When they fall asleep dreaming of hopes - is veiled by his vigilance.

25. The palms of the era's greatest kings cannot compare,
For the palm of the victorious king is the sea, not a small pond!

26. His gifts are ready money, not promises - all of them -
He does not delay, promising later payment or installment.

27. The ugliest poverty by his spending is beautiful,
Just as the emptiest want has meaning through his generosity.

28. His hands pour without tiring, and his favor is a flood
With no ebb - it knows nolimits or shores.

29. He loves the clamor of those who thank, when they pray,
And desires the request of those confessing, when they petition.

30. The fragrance of chivalry and fairness emanates from him,
Not hypocrisy, pretense, or fraud.

31. When ignoramuses call him, he is slow to respond,
But when the noble call him, he does not delay.

32. They sucked the teat ofvileness in their cradles -
Glories, though the layers of their ignobility are thick.

33. They pour their arrows however they want,
Never missing the flattering sycophants they target.

34. When able, they forgive; when they make promises, they keep them;
When they give, they enrich; when asked, they give.

35. Those who seek their doors attain their aims;
While those with other intents go astray in their quests.

36. Happy the rule whose gates horses bear
The sons of hope every dawn, trotting without stop.

37. No garden rivals in beauty, as though
Its foliage were woven by its shimmering streams.

38. When one with brilliant cheeks leads me to the vivid narcissus,
Followed by a tender sprig of lilac plucked.

39. Next, a cheek blushing with coyness like a rose,
And the throat of eternity, forever flowing.

40. The trees line up as if verses in a book,
With the stream as its diacritics.

41. The leaves sing upon their branches,
As the tribes chant the Torah's melodies.

42. The falling dew like tears of a passionate lover,
And its droplets sparks of fiery anguish.

43. You see the sun's shame behind the veil of vapor;
No barrier as modest lowers around it.

44. More beautiful and intelligent than you - though in truth
My pride in you, not the garden, brings good fortune.

45. Yours are the vast chest and outstretched hand in eminence,
And that open cheek and thick sidelock in childhood.

46. For your admirer, the water of joy and dew -
While the envier gets the fire and smoke.

47. You effortlessly attained the flooding of Egypt and Tigris,
Iraq bent in obedience, and Arab and foreigner submitted.

48. The Nile has one channel reaching its estuary,
While your Nile floods those hopeful without coast or shore.

49. Your pardon is a meadow, and heaven its gardens;
Your white is a thorn in the hands of foes drawing their blood.

50. Your enemy is like a candle in the fire of his hatred -
Reforming his twisted neck is cutting it off.

51. Ransoming you, of endless generosity, is one concealed
Behind a veil of deprivation - your giving is his release.

52. Ransoming you, a people of generosity and bounty -
Their faces arrows, and their arrowheads well-honed.

53. The enemy's eye will shed blood, for there flowed
On earth from his veins his darkened gore.

54. You defended the sanctity of Islam for victory,
Giving on the morrow, while only the ravenous wolves gathered.

55. You reconciled and relieved many sorrows for us
With the arrows of misfortune in the noble drawing blood.

56. With your return the truth returned and guidance cleared,
The breeze of triumph blew, and tightness eased.

57. You rescued Syria from its ominous neighbor;
The infidels' horde did not stop until they betrayed loyalty.

58. You rescued when they attacked, drew near when they transgressed,
Forgave when they fell short, and gently spoke when they erred.

59. The Master is not troubled by those whose passion
Is misguidance, and those whose army is a rabble of fools.

60. Many you count, yet few true - their glory
Is silence, and without guidance, they are a flock of sheep.

61. You act without injustice, desire without excess,
Speak without bent, and give without holding back.

62. Distinguish the place of the sincere, for only
Some people have confused thoughts in their minds.

63. Draw near a loyal friend whose conscience is sound with you,
And do not trust the crocodile whose habit is deceit.

64. The ignorant ones' abode disgusted me; though their
Snakes sharpened fangs to bite me, I pardoned them.

65. They rejected my requests when hopeful and seeking;
Some arrogant, some greedy, some twisted inside.

66. Though many had cheerful faces from your goodness,
And some still showed you their evil inside.

67. I exposed my merits without excuse, though the chaste
Fled from a debaucher in whom even serpents are ashamed.

68. I came to you, throwing glory itself before you,
Casting for the ears necklaces of its pearls picked up.

69. Honor me generously and grant me success! I describe
Your beauty - let the envious plotter grieve!

70. Help me, for the eye of favor is bound
By the shackle of deprivation - only your activity releases it.

71. And ordain my prestige and appointment, for praising you
Is the recompense that seals our bargain.

72. How long will my time continue to unleash
Its fanged snakes from its bosom, whose venom is ruin?

73. My hopes' steeds stretched out to you,
So I could ride them to success by your side.

74. Remain victorious, O Father of Victories, over enemies -
An ally of acceptance whom failure cannot thwart!

75. You remain while nothing benefits without you,
Bringing fortune, though incapable of rising or descending.

76. Had you neighbored the poet al-Ma'arri, he would not have said:
"Let whoever has a neighbor ask the share"- they would not have needed to ask!