1. They promised loyalty, but when they showed their true colors,
We despaired that their pledge would prove true.

2. They made treachery their way with every love,
Why then did you wonder when they betrayed?

3. We sought from them favor and grace,
But the fair-minded excel in graciousness.

4. It would not harm those loved ones to support
Their admirer and frequent his dwellings.

5. We mentioned the pleiades and they broke ranks, but when
We tried our luck with the appearance of the full moon, it appeared.

6. They indeed gained the advantage and left us nothing,
Does the coward leave anything when he gains advantage?

7. We loved them and so disgraced ourselves before them,
Since the beginning of love, disgrace has existed along with it,

8. May God watch over those loved ones and see
What they do and how they were.

9. When they descended to the flowery meadows, we said:
"You have been watered, O meadows!"

10. And your thick rain poured down,
As if lightning flashed in its edges.

11. The clouds uncovered his brilliance,
As the perfume uncovered the teeth of the grinning beauty.

12. And the air returned, its horizons dyed,
As saffron dyes garments.

13. He stands, and the wings of night hover around him,
An orator whose eloquence has no clarity.

14. He moans, and the setting stars grow dim,
As the flowers folded their petals.

15. Whenever its water was disturbed and roiled,
The ponds were adorned in the gardens.

16. It was as if animation had left it, so it grew gray
At parting from the light of the oil lamps.

17. And whenever the valleys wept,
The slender branch smiles in its groves.

18. You see the run-off dripping what it was watered with,
As its hidden stores dripped.

19. Whenever the ostriches swung on its vegetation,
The dunes and hillocks flourished.

20. The eras remain devoted to it
When the wolves howl to them.

21. Along with the voice of every wilderness
Flies what the sand grouse had gained.

22. And a sight wherein eyes would deny
Yet what the gardens relate is true.

23. The formations bivouac wrapped around it,
As if their insides were silk.

24. Whenever the zebras mount its pulpits,
As the humpbacked camels rode the tree-lined roads.

25. I passed through it and its stomach held
Fine pearls and chrysolite stones.

26. With a branch forever disgraced
Until supported by one never disgraced.

27. Kings in every land are indebted to it
Yet it refuses debt so it is not indebted.

28. Its hand held the reins so it nearly complained,
And it gives life from the dew of its hand to the bridle.

29. The enemies are torn apart in its battles,
And the cowards are torn apart by its nobleness.

30. So blood surges for it, seething in rage
As blood surges for it, turning to smoke.

31. We see it and hear of it through others
So we have no need for eyewitness accounts.

32. Heavy is its forbearance bearing every weight—
We marvel at how the steed carries it.

33. An eye would nearly complain to it
Of what burdened it, if a tongue would obey it.

34. Whenever censure wounds it with its arrows,
The censurer’s quivers are red with blood.

35. Such that you see the spears fixed
As if their reins were made of red coral.

36. Whenever the armed warrior stabs his enemy,
He stabs one whose soul knows no rancor.

37. It's as if when the spear is unleashed from it
A slithering snake is unleashed.

38. You made us forget Chosroes, and forget
The tale of his reign, with yours, O Time!

39. Whenever your person lodges at an abode,
The place glitters from your glittering presence.

40. And when your status rose into the heights,
The poets and poetry itself gained prestige.

41. If they are raising up, they have benefited, but had it not been
For threading the pearls, the necklace would not be strung.

42. When they crafted a poem in praise of you
They excelled, but if they inclined in praise away from you, they inclined away.

43. You softened for me the nights' firewood
So the nights' bending made me weep.

44. And your help sufficed me instead of open spaces,
So my face was spared from having to ask.

45. Whenever your worth shone radiant, my worth shone radiant,
And were it not for palms, branches would not rise high.

46. Those who convey my words will convey them back to you
As the translator conveys speech.

47. And even if I thanked you with all thankfulness,
I would not exhaust what the heavens implicate.

48. And if you loaded me with the two corners of the litter,
Your bounty, not the litter, would weigh heaviest on me.

49. There, O distinguishing aspect of all feasts, is the feast,
By which and by its prosperous fate, time is measured.

50. And you have lived free from affliction,
So for me, you are safety from afflictions.

51. Fine became the days with you existing in them,
Without you, days would not be fine.