1. The best of citizens where this most wondrous one abides,
And the highest speech is what I say as he hears.

2. I strove in praise but found naught I did
Could repay what he does, though I tried every approach.

3. I put my praises before him aside for others -
For praises elsewhere are but wasted.

4. He's praised sans what's in his nature
Like musk made captive by what makes it exude.

5. He's visited with praise that is outstripped
By his worth; he's higher than such praise, loftier.

6. Ruses we made to reach you - for the noble
Can by all things be tricked to draw near.

7. Something of his soul interceded for us,
Enriching the needy beyond any intercessors.

8. Gentle, yet harshly vigorous against the foe
Like a sword, soft to the touch yet cutting swift.

9. If he approves he harms, and such is his ilk,
A noble's son harming or benefiting as he desires.

10. Like a cloud laden with its scattering lightning,
Its thunderbolts and pouring rain contained within.

11. If he let forth the winds they would grow short
Of reaching his limit though they're four.

12. And he would drive them back, chagrined, at night
Till the slowest seemed the swiftest steed.

13. He girds on his blade and under it a heart
Sharper than the blade and more trenchant.

14. He sees caution with armor as baseness
While the coat of mail seems to him the brighter war gear.

15. He reined in the steeds as if loins of lances
Were between their bloodied withers.

16. The whites scatter the flesh of every armored one
Till the spears reassemble what they rend apart.

17. On each outspread expanse of desolation
He's like a torrent with its flashing swords.

18. The tribesman showed his prowess clad in full mail
As primal time showed its Treasures long buried.

19. The skulls and missiles all flew around him
Till the battle sites were strewn with scattered debris.

20. "Who will tell the Turks before them lies
A sea whose waves will drown any who dare cross?"

21. They then feared and fancied entering - this valiant hero
Beyond them made them realize the Syria and its people

22. Are the hottest core of those who draw the sword, invincible.
One whose cloak bears no disdain, as if within its folds

23. Lurked a lion or towering camel.
If he weighed his greatness against his forbearance

24. The forbearing would sink and the greatest ascend.
The path to munificence was difficult while his

25. Was easy to the son of Abu 'Ali Mabaya.
A king - we've heard of kings and their deeds,

26. Yet his actions belittle what we have heard.
I created new expressions on seeing him

27. Give generously, excelling whomsoever gives excellently.
And I complained of being unable, so he briskly

28. Made me draw near when his noble self embraced me.
To the point I prefer what he granted me

29. To the robe of honor he bestowed on me.
O son of kings, none can keep you

30. From the game though kings vie and are kept at bay.
Your hands, in what they attained, found a place

31. Wherein the stars before you have no place.
A nobility the steps of Caesar fall short of,

32. A munificence those in your wake strive to follow.
You graced us with the joyous feast - we only

33. Delight in your beautiful face, nothing else.
A headland left devoid of dwellers -

34. For us passions surged in knowing it was his.
My heart guaranteed affection for it and its people -

35. So for it and them the guarantee was fulfilled.
We mixed potions with it - its zephyr then blew,

36. Reminding me of its meadows and bait.
I feared the caravan's blame had I not

37. Curbed my tears from flooding forth.
A headland whose forenoons lacked a settled person,

38. Their riders leaning away from its sand dunes.
They sleep in the shade of the shrubs, does in a herd,

39. You'd think they fell from its boughs as they lean.
Around it the oryx of Wishaah turned,

40. From its lower to upper hills wandering every direction.
Gazelles of men fled it, instead it was thronged

41. With wild beasts, gazelles of its glens.
They ask after the lover's state - ask not of him

42. Or his condition; do not ask.
Passion overflowed the stream beds - openly it declared for you,

43. So the distance made it declare all the more intensely.
It hid its love in patience until it could find

44. No more patience or composure to conceal it.
You claimed I forgot my pledges - blame no person

45. For what he forgets, no blame on him for his lapses.
The Iraqi lightning flashed - it stirred in me for you

46. In Syria a tenderness from remembering its radiance.
It left the stone beds as if agate

47. Melted on the heads of its channels.
It appears to your eye in darkness as if

48. The slim musk willow, rustling with its tongue.
Richly laden, it tells the sleepless one from the glass vessel

49. The date syrup spilling over it in its sweetness.
It and night cloaked in shadowy gloom appear

50. Like the goats' fire over the back of the pens.
A king - when his banner flutters

51. Men's hearts flutter at its fluttering.
Fair of repute - his absence like his presence,

52. His talk like seeing him before you plainly.
It killed wild beasts who by morning were counted

53. Among those its guests kill before it.
So the beasts learned of abodes from its bramblings

54. And mankind learned of abodes from its smoke.
Do not feel safe from time and its caprice

55. If you do not cling to the cord of its security.
And a band confused the dark with matchsticks,

56. Not known in the waste lands from their gloom.
They dye the white serviettes crimson at banquets

57. From the elongated revelry of its red drink.
An evil gang whose villainy, once concealed, concealed them

58. Until a hand destroyed the riders in its twisting paths.
From each unsheathed swordbelt it made

59. The dust of its desert gut like an interior.
From beneath the buttoned shirt its sword -

60. Its edge keener than its tongue's edge.
It hopes for wealth from every unmatched one; it did not fear

61. To disappoint those who sought its aid after God.
It brings life to the legacy of the house of 'Amir

62. Where kings of earth lived in its benevolence.
Tempted by lack of funds, though it is a wealth

63. Where praise increases in its lessening.
Though many are its generous ones,

64. None more generous than Abu 'Ulwan.
A sea whose angers overflowed - only it is

65. A sea from whose depths we saw the sea.
Going gently, if fate grew harsh, leading,

66. Its foes unsafe from its hostility.
It disdained realms until they were

67. Subject to its blows and stabbings.
As the lion disdains to pound prey

68. Not come between its paw and grip.
Or a steed known for its quality

69. From souls spilt by its slashing.
Like the rivulet, obedient - only

70. It cannot be sheathed to curb its flow.
Or a blade bearing a fiery coal,

71. Its gleam showing between its teeth.
In the hands of one most wondrous - each time the war

72. Drew near and the frightened ones approached their likes.
Like the goat yet where can its equal be found

73. Save rarely among the kings of its time?
Formidable when fate was difficult to tame,

74. Its foes unsafe from its aggression.
When I weighed the two worlds I found them

75. Not outweighing it in its scale.
More devout, if breaking its fast, than the pious

76. Or, fasting for God, in Ramadan.
It surpassed the generous of old in munificence,

77. Preceding the aged palm on the day of its race.
O King who restored life to munificence among us

78. And justice to life in its lands!
Pride of rule founded what it built

79. While you built, surpassing its building.
You established the pillar of rule after disasters

80. That had overturned it, so it leaned from its pillars.
You sought your vengeance, thereby spurring fate

81. Against those who persisted in tyranny against you.
And you contained what was emptied - disdaining it

82. As a gift you found for your boy servants.
You ruled your inheritance with resolve

83. That led the reigns of rule after its defiance.
So enjoy your feast absent no happiness

84. In time, lasting through its eras.
For might has equipped you with its steed's back,

85. And kingship equipped you with the excess of its reins.