1. I find that if fate were fair to the one who blames it
It would have been shorter, but the loser is ignorant of it

2. He complains though separation did not shed his tears
Nor did its nights excite him with their confusions

3. Can he who is blamed in love be reasonable or listen?
He is preoccupied by separation that occupies him

4. A lover has the abode of his beloved who converses with him
Or a quarter that allures and questions him

5. When a white-cheeked gazelle aroused our
Passion and murmur of love that kills him

6. It is as if the twittering doves and the fresh foliage make him
Yearn, and the house is the love that joins him

7. My friend, why have I chosen in my ribs
A brother who cannot help his perversities

8. I pardon without repaying his ignorance with ignorance
Nor eat the meat that eats him

9. And he wakes up with hatred in his heart
So neither sermon deters him nor censure blames him

10. By your life, man has no stratagem against man
When man’s chest starts boiling with its embers

11. He will grow more enraged each time his hatred spreads
So he falls short of what I attain

12. The light of dawn shone in the darkness of night
Yet its lights did not disperse nor its clouds

13. My utterance, unleash yourself, for only
The sword bearer makes the swords for striking

14. My deepest thoughts, dive for pearls, for I see
The sea does not hoard pearls nor keep them from its shores

15. Appreciate the son of the pride of kings with gratitude, for I see
Gratitude does not reward the one who does it

16. A knight who has pardon and largesse for the beggar
So either his pardon or his voluntary gift

17. No guilty one sought him but he forgave
No beggar sought him but he enriched the seeker

18. He is the full moon whose light you cannot miss
He is the rain whose rivers you cannot overlook

19. We left the valleys and settled in his hills
So his fingers sufficed instead of pouring clouds

20. His gifts make necks submissive as if
His making is shackling and chaining

21. No hands can reach, even if given lavishly,
The lower nobility that is his accession

22. The shining stars aspire to him vainly
And which man after the stars equals him?

23. Do not think the clouds can evade him
Or the mountains equate with him

24. Since Eve gave birth to sons from Adam’s loins
And all females received every pregnant one’s babies,

25. No young man like Abu Alwan was created
Whose right hand glistens, his cheek glistens and his sides glisten,

26. None like him in hardship or comfort, who spends,
Only to grow more stubborn the more his blamer blames him

27. When adversity struck, his money enriched the needy
So he disdains people begging from beggars

28. His parties illuminated and his country was secured
His enemies were disgraced and his forts were fortified

29. Neither his call was fruitless nor his neighbor abandoned
Neither his hopeful one was lost nor his dreamer disappointed

30. He relieved the plight of Islam while polytheism wheedled
With a flood whose surging ranks dammed the two horizons

31. A stalwart whose attack dams the horizon with wounds
And whose tremors make the mountains’ pegs shudder

32. When he marched, he lit the fire in the darknesses of night
From the rock until its lights could not be seen

33. The sparks of his iron flow as if it were
The Euphrates whose eddies and streams flowed

34. So the religion of God was established, its pillar erected
And its purpose accomplished and its incliner inclined

35. What arrogant one did his spears not build?
What frontier did his swords not guard?

36. No wonder the water flows freely
In his palace from the rock that is his dwelling

37. That his throne foams musk and his pearls
Are precious rubies and finest necklaces

38. By you the garden’s blossoming was beautified and its rain poured down
So its bushes bloomed with my tattooing and songs

39. As if you are Heaven’s contentment and your palace a Heaven
Winner of God’s contentment, whoever enters it

40. Blessed is its builder and blessed is its era
Blessed the palace and blessed are its inhabitants

41. None of its domes were raised but for felicity
None of its assemblies gathered but for the best company

42. God made time and its people eloquent about your merit
Until time’s superiorities cannot be counted

43. Through you, sustenance flowed until it was as though
All creatures, you alone are the provider for them

44. And exertion yields only the finest of its essence to you
While its most splendid remainder is for people

45. Time sees my words about you as delightful
So time will write what I say about you

46. Praise like the spreading of moist textiles its spreading
And eulogy like the most glorious garden’s beauty

47. The traveling party’s robes therefrom emit fragrance as though
Their camels were scented with pure musk

48. Poetry is but a steed I mount, its back
And driving force, its shoulder, and its carrier

49. I urge it to the farthest goals time and again
And time and again I spur it and transport it

50. I attained through it my ultimate wish of wealth
From you, and grasped what I hoped for

51. Why care I what the envious, whose hearts boil against me, say
When this sea’s expanse is the destination for my attainments

52. If they are truthful then let them attain the ranks of rebellious
Demons who know not where their lurking places are

53. My friend, which bird's dress is lovelier
Its cranes, its owls, or its partridges?

54. Whenever Suhban stands to speak eloquently
His reasonable silence on stillness becomes his responder

55. I asked you to honor me by listening closely
To reveal the truth of a matter and its falseness

56. And judge the speech you are hearing
By your beauty and open-handedness you are known for

57. For the days do not fail what you defend
Nor do the days assist what you abandon

58. You were felicitated for the holiday which is your beauty
Just as the beauty of the languid doe is made by her caretaker

59. When a year passes, you dress in its prosperity
And its auspiciousness and felicity come to greet you

60. The quivering flags’ battalions never receded
Nor did the pilgrims’ caravans leave their stations