1. You bid farewell, yet the abodes are not at peace
From the ravages of time, O land of India!

2. Nor has the lofty-stationed one ceased,
Inflicting your Lord with errors and wickedness,

3. With the awakening of soil and the dormant dust,
And the decline of life and the distressing years.

4. Yet whenever my eyes rain upon you,
It is a favor what the rain has watered you after me.

5. My heart inclines toward you and draws me,
And none but you makes my course go straight.

6. I fear the caravans will change you
With their treading, as if your soil were my cheek.

7. I see in you what I see, so I borrow
My joy and find in separation agony.

8. Would that you, when you granted the wasting of my body
Remained in that wasting as long as my pact endures!

9. And how could they bid you farewell when they left from you
With the first betrayal of fate according to me?

10. Ask the days what they did with my joy,
And a life of comfort and prosperity for me,

11. And in intimacies, about a beloved friend
Matching my complexion in attachment and friendship,

12. Who plays coy and then fulfills every debt,
Yet did not fulfill to "The Lord of Two Easts" my promise.

13. He smiled with radiance and poured forth rain,
So if ransom could avail, I would ransom him.

14. His sides and mouth I do not overvalue,
For what is in the clouds of lightning and hail.

15. Will one return with the whiteness of a day,
To my eyes between inclinations and steadfastness?

16. And eyes gazing long at al-Tawyla'
On their eyelids the shyness of Najd.

17. They looked but no gazelle of his with a glance,
And touched but did not thin his compactness with their wrists.

18. The foolishness of youth seeking my downfall,
If I humor it, jesting with my earnestness.

19. It counts my years and wonders at my dignity;
But the phases of life have not passed my tally.

20. So why has old age attacked me with galloping pace
And toppled me when I've not reached my prime?

21. It taunts me though it has not seen my mettle aroused.
Its fortune was alert to my listlessness.

22. It wished upon the coarseness of my attire,
The place of patches, some striped cloak.

23. No leaf of wealth flutters about me,
With a flash of swords of glory sheathed.

24. I carried burdens though no hero in my heart,
The burdens of the wide-chested camel hide.

25. Misfortunes tempt me, while I remain deceived,
So I repel them with resolved intention.

26. Fear departs the dwellings of my heart,
Feeble as water on my skin's surfaces.

27. Let the world overflow upon its people,
And bring harshness upon me alone!

28. And spare their wealth to grow and ripen,
For its treasures are no price for my praise.

29. Perhaps the circumstances of hopes are in them,
Will bring me from my father Saʿd good fortune.

30. A youth whose amulets Fortune bound kindly,
On a nature and loyalty of knot.

31. And his instincts for the traits of glory raised him,
The prompts of a lofty father and grandfather.

32. No ear went around to him seeking requests,
No lip was permitted to him any coldness.

33. When the shoots of a generous father grow green,
Their dye extends to the sons.

34. He reached for perfection but it did not elude him,
Despite the nearness of birth no place for distance.

35. He fulfilled and so gazes were fixed as a full moon,
For him no poetry was composed for his cheek.

36. His father and cousin saw him as a lion cub,
For the status of a gap-toothed one, while still a baby.

37. So he said to his enviers: "You are miserable through me,
And this is my son, through whom you'll be miserable after me."

38. His progeny flowed, so he passed away and they plotted,
As if the winds could be reached by scheming.

39. When they probed him about rugged places, he came down
Upon them and so escaped by the deceits of defiance.

40. They left the degrees of merits slippery,
For one whose past merits were binding.

41. The celestial stars envy not for merits,
Even if only pebbles dripped envy for my glory!

42. O father of Saʿd, even if they found a fault,
They exaggerated it whether in truth or aggression.

43. Shortcomings may be kept hidden in the flawless,
So what of them in truth or aggression?

44. But their wits failed so you escaped them,
The incorrectness of an opponent, harsh.

45. Victory made you master so you did not contend,
With little spirit for hostility or zeal.

46. A father who unites the noble for lengthy time,
And a maternal uncle flooding the valley of glory.

47. None rivals your father, O Arab,
A peer like your uncle in might.

48. I paid you for your loyalty to me with praise
Which my brother would wish in your place from me.

49. Were it not for love, my praise of you would be difficult,
And were it not for merit, my affection difficult.

50. O Banū ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, how lofty
My hand and gold were upon the ignorant!

51. If the people of Nishapur did wrong my people,
Then your grandfather is among my glories.

52. Truest is my praising a people when
The people's glory is my glory.

53. You vie with me so the nights destroy me,
And I remember you so you revive me with your pearls.

54. I thrust into you the setbacks of my fate
With the band of a victor and the sons of lions.

55. Therefore never did I love pure (worthy) things
Except the treasures of the best I loved and was gifted.

56. Rising spontaneously from veils of the hearts,
By them the utmost exertion’s goal appears.

57. You tour the land, traveling each day
Two years’ distance for the noble horseman.

58. They show and yet their beauty is not sated,
As if their lines were tattooed with hailstones.

59. When they water your men as mature ones,
They will show some of your boys as infants.

60. Were it not for you I'd not gain a match
Whose company gives joy or feet guidance.

61. But your freemen married them to me,
So I did not suffer her nobility's loss to a slave.

62. You have excelled by giving wealth and I words,
So each in his own domain without rival.

63. Through you sincerity was sealed and through me rhymes.
You remained uniquely you and I remained uniquely I.