1. His heart refused to be devoid of the agony of love,
So reproach not him whom reproach cannot restrain,

2. Ask me not for serenity forever,
For my heart cannot be serene, nor can it attain tranquility.

3. I became thin that if I were on the tip of a hair,
I would be carried and it would bend, not breaking the load.

4. As if the nights sought me out, to be near you,
With yearning - then when you built, the yearning was gone.

5. O my friend, the encampment is never devoid, yet I have no heart,
Devoid of becoming detached as it becomes detached.

6. What is wrong with me when the flashing
Of the Najdi banners makes confusion enter me.

7. If ignorance is what is in my heart, not longing,
Who can I get a heart from that ignorance does not accompany?

8. And who can I have a union with from Ummah, after
Despair has severed from it - that the union is forbidden?

9. Oh heart! How often you do not awaken from passion!
And how much your love never becomes devoid as it becomes devoid!

10. You yearn for bounties and beauties - both
Have neither granted bounties nor made beauties.

11. I swear - if not for you, passion would not have been created,
And if not for the father of Alwan, excellence would not have been created.

12. A young man who tired the cutting swords in high spirit,
And in it tried what passes easily and what is most pleasing.

13. So think not that glories are cheap,
Nor that reaching heights is easy or simple.

14. Not everyone who aspires for glory attains it,
Nor everyone who desires height - his soul ascends.

15. Above the throne of the Kings from the family of Saalih,
A young man whose cares do not distract him from the heights.

16. Wise, if you weighed his mind against good judgement,
Good judgement would tilt on the scale and the mind proved weighty.

17. He has a sword blade that cuts ambitions - its edge acute,
And sharper than it is the bearer of the blade - not the blade.

18. If you asked him, he asked decisiveness before it,
So one does not know which of the two strikers did the action.

19. A young man whose nature is like the cloud's - with him
For the seeker is either affliction or bountiful rain.

20. O Abu Saalih you have burdened me with every favour,
So be gentle with what you give me, for the load has become heavy.

21. I have composed pearls for you the like of which does not exist,
Yet you are the one among kings who has no like.

22. You have tested rhymes with one whom if you had tested,
Without rhymes he would have rejoiced in what you test.

23. And when I chose praise or dispraise
Both stuck in my mouth like the sweetness of dates that sticks.

24. And the rhymes of poetry when I called them to you,
Almost arrived before the messengers arrived.

25. The merit is yours not the rain's - for you are eternal
And no shower lasted for rain, nor pouring.

26. You have granted your dear praiser all your wealth,
As if what he overstates does not become too much for you.

27. You are the one without whom grace would not be known
You are the one without whom justice would not appear.