1. You estranged me, or parted from me
I cannot bear remoteness or longing

2. Had you burdened my heart
With all you burdened, however heavy or light, it could not bear

3. You filled my being with the fires of separation
I feared for you in my heart’s burning

4. The carnelian disintegrated, an omen
That turned me from meeting you, and hindered

5. When you alighted on the cheek, it dimpled
You learned betrayal and conflict

6. You love tears, so I wished
To turn each part of me into water

7. When I lost hope of meeting
I prevented my eyelids from meeting

8. The soul I am parted from, though I know
I cannot bear parting from it

9. I reproach it secretly, though longing
And glimpse it secretly, though stealing

10. My breaths flare when we meet
Their heat prevents embraces

11. A letter like the letter Noon urged
Toward food, so it feasted gluttonously

12. As if I’m riding its lightning
To my needs, a flash or Buraq

13. Passion made it seem
Thighs, from which legs extend

14. So style left it no paths
Nor did elegance leave it any trace

15. To a king, lofty in every merit
Until he folded the seven heavens

16. My lord Alwan, who widens all provision
If provision with others is straitened

17. A youth he met in peace and war
The noblest youth to meet or be met

18. His call possessed me, and I was free
So I never wish to break from him

19. He fettered me, so I fettered rhymes
He mastered me, and mastered their bonds

20. I have visited kings, lacking awe
Or ignorance of kings and pretensions

21. I have not seen the like of him among people
In nature or manners, if I search for it

22. He humbled horses seeking glory
And wasted the crimson and fine silk

23. The generous strove toward his horizon
But could not reach him, though they raced to catch up

24. You see him unlike any between East and West
Except by chance or fleetingly

25. He surpasses kings in protection and merit
So ask him when he wakes and when he nods off

26. As if a full moon were on his pillow
While the cat never knew such luxury

27. The sun wishes it were made his footstool
And meteors to be made his belt

28. Praise is inadequate in every land
You made it for him hypocrisy

29. When you surpassed the wilds in glory
My poetry surpassed all poetry

30. How many brides have I escorted to you
Your palm was her dowry

31. Do not seek chastity for them, for I
Guaranteed them freedom, not divorce

32. A woman like the swell of the sea, whom
Darkness stretched with its traveling carpet

33. The undulation of the desert, obscure, desolate
I hit the infidels with it like a catapult stone

34. When we are lost, it guides us, your brow
Illuminating, when it beams and lights up

35. The feast is there, O generous king
Exalted above mankind, most distinguished

36. So your armies remain victorious
Over enemies, in Syria or Iraq

37. A rebel attacked you, so you punished him
For you the world, thus he tasted as he made taste

38. So live for your noble deeds always
Accustomed mornings and nights to munificence

39. Your destiny every day has only climbed higher
Your generosity every day has only excelled