1. May his face whose favor I hope for turn towards me,
And may the last grant the wish of the first.

2. I see time growing gentle after its violence,
And its difficult side become smooth.

3. It stopped deceiving people and wronging them,
No longer possessing any blameworthy traits.

4. The water gathered together after spreading out,
It settled down and the stopping place became home.

5. The night’s darkness overwhelms the tails of the Pleiades,
The black of the fates is darkest to it.

6. With eyes that do not ask when will dawn break
If the negligent one has fallen asleep.

7. It has an aroma the blood cannot smell
In which the preying wolves of hunger are sweetened.

8. Convey the news to our loved ones,
As a messenger, though no small thing is sent.

9. Greet them, for estrangement has negated
A matter whose time has come that cannot be delivered.

10. The judge of death has divided the soul in two,
Doing justice in every dark place.

11. And cast off your worry - does the noble one
Have litters that the active one will stir?

12. Rafts floating on the family, swimming
Driven by a storm that convulses.

13. And where is Babylon in relation to you,
Its tryst is the bier or the stretchers.

14. We stopped, and the bending of necks tired me
With the falling of twigs - a lean shade.

15. So no keeper of a pact who turned away from you
Cries, nor a speaker who asks.

16. You were given a drink, and the country's flames were quenched
By the water of each youth's tears that flowed.

17. The burdens never stopped being placed
Upon you from the packs - you bear them.

18. And among the riders are those whose curses
Guide only to their deadly arrow.

19. It tosses with the fickle ones among them, the bow,
And among them the thickets of salvation, the fleet.

20. Envious of gaze, easy of cheek,
Colored by kohl the same as its color.

21. With plunging necklaces, if it dives
Slowly upon treasures that descend.

22. Their clothes escape the weavers -
They have no loincloth that is lowered.

23. You blame me with separation while in my passion
I am helpless - does an archer shoot without arrows?

24. A beloved whose spears of hatred
Wound me if I do not visit him.

25. Your separation has saddened the one of two seas
Whose watcher would lament it.

26. She saw the ascents of the youths' stars fade
And that is what saddens her most.

27. She is not happy under that darkness
When its lamps are lit.

28. I counted out my years to her while gray hairs
Invalidate my claim in counting them.

29. And I came to invoke forty while still
My testimony to it is not accepted.

30. They said a cloak is beautiful on you
Though one more beautiful might be disliked.

31. Woe to a mother who made it an insignia if
It were dyed with anything but white hair.

32. Graying hair is not the first thing disliked
In a beloved while I have changed.

33. My side has been trained to bear the times
So I carry all its heaviest loads.

34. It held back my hand from gaining wishes
And stopped my palm from one who sells it.

35. Reason reined in my resolute thoughts
And the channel holds back the water.

36. Fate is not eloquent in discipline
Without it a foolish raw youth.

37. The rank contented the living man while his wealth
Makes him high or lowly.

38. And wealth may be granted to one whose hands
Are blind in generosity and miserliness.

39. People are burdened by what the poor man bears
While the rich man's load is heavier.

40. God has protected the soul that seeks glory without
Its safety - glory does not care.

41. It has kept alive in the darkness of steps
A face that is the full moon or more so.

42. It shakes off motes if they meet it,
Eyelids whose sight adorns them with kohl.

43. It meets sustenance before asking,
I cheered it when it was welcomed.

44. To the garden beneath the sky's will
Where ewes intercept or move on.

45. Stalks that drink the valley's streams
When an impeder cuts them off from the spring.

46. Its gazelles in the hollows of sand dunes
Climb down with bleating or descend.

47. Hope shouts at them: hey! If the neglectful driver
Forgets, where will the feet overtake them?

48. They are lost to the speeding dog - their brisk pacings
Make it think them krakens with no legs.

49. If you call upon his name in desolation
The shade disappears and the lamp shines bright.

50. So they descended while night's turban was wrapped in darkness
Its fringe being undone in beauty.

51. And the stars had got ahead of us to it
Like their settings descending.

52. As if the Pleiades were a tongue upon which
I recite along with it or a hand that gestures.

53. To the best of verdant meadows, most hospitable,
And the sweetest live waters drawn from the spring.

54. Who got ahead of the people are not resented
If they were delayed while he was the first.

55. The oaths of the people come to his aid
When the exhausted land calls.

56. The expansive house of helpers, and the sides of villages
When the kindling lights the firebrand.

57. He built his power over them,
The ancient before him and the greater behind.

58. They trod on time, young and grown
While they are the black hair with the blaze at its end.

59. They have treasures like the Persian
That shine though the cloak of darkness is lowered.

60. You see the fruits of the kingdom above them
Spread out while the people were heedless.

61. Those are your people, whom you ennoble
So the curve of their beaks is the lowest.

62. And I have a place with you the day of glory
Through the door of their glory an entrance.

63. The tribes boast of their bows
While I boast, but you are the greatest.

64. That is no equal footing between us
As the gaze is to the deer and the doe.

65. A day the eyes depend on you
While the turbans of its horsemen sway.

66. That day one champion challenges another
So one strong fortified castle clashes with another.

67. You entered it boldly plunging in its pool
However its heroes desired.

68. You see its shame as indelibly dyed
Blood alone will not wash it off or cleanse it.

69. You built an enclosure of resolve in which
The long spears are deployed.

70. You promised to divide its spoils
Either distributed in generosity or transferred.

71. Under you lies a plain where the ostrich forgets
Prudence - will a joint remain sound?

72. As if vessels circulated around it
Or the udders of the ostrich emptied it.

73. The singing of the gazelles in the dales has thrilled it
From rapture, whenever it brays.

74. When it is said that in horse is nature
It will suffice when its constitution is described.

75. The trained steeds raced and did not mix
With your pool, neither guardian nor swimming.

76. When your striving missed the tempo of the winds
Then from where will feet overtake you?

77. The critic prattles critically, but if
You speak the council will stone him for you.

78. People disagree until when you decide
Fate's decree which is predetermined prevails.

79. You have extended two hands - a hand that takes souls
With it, and a hand that gives.

80. With you is a thunderbolt that is feared
And your left a flashing lightning that pours.

81. You have set right the people in your comfort
Your brother the dew and your son the fine rain.

82. You have watered, extinguishing the country's flames
With the water of your chain-moving fingers.

83. No more copious rains were seen before them
Clouds - their names are "tenderest".

84. So the Heavens contain not what you contained
Nor does the Earth carry what you carry.

85. When the caliphs prepare and the kings
Your enemy - the noblest they appointed.

86. The greatest of them rose to arrange
The policy of his rule you guaranteed.

87. You gave back the turbans when you were appointed minister,
Speaking to their crowns from over them.

88. It hardly suits the ministry to have married you
After it had suffered long being bereft.

89. Other than a channel whose outer side
Faces time, revealing and bare.

90. It is frightened by tribulations of events
And is cautious of you but cannot act.

91. So are you the one saving me from the shame
Of a time that wounds me but does not bandage?

92. And a life whose years -
However plentiful the people - are barren to me?

93. Its expanse contends with its fertility
And its theatre's visitors are few.

94. Save me by your generosity from being humiliated
And aid my prayer so I am not abandoned.

95. Guard by you my face from all others
The like of my face is not to be disgraced.

96. So how many like you has launched one like me
Though none can equal you in action?

97. Had cowardice been forbidden by the sword, the smith
Would be most deserving of beating and forging.

98. By extending to me a torrent valley, my mouth
Eloquence cannot make me bite my tongue.

99. I have led it skillfully so none but my hand
Can cleave its cheeks that proclaim.

100. Forbidden to the saddle except you, honored by
You, whom you prefer from among people.

101. As if slaves wiped it down
And a foal's hand stroked its sides.

102. If you have granted long life to Zuhayr
Then be as one who rewards bountifully.

103. So poetry made him among what you have heard
Of examples carried in his name.

104. And Hassaan attained heights of ascent
From the family of Jafnah, descending on them.

105. He imposed on them a market frequented
By young camels bearing what they carry.

106. He knew the scent of their gifts
When the messenger brought them.

107. He saw their landmarks vacant,
The abodes of their loved ones locked up.

108. Al-Hutay’ah held fast to the kin of Lay
With a smooth, firmly-twisted bond.

109. They called him between the houses of Ibn Badr
But they spurned him and felt him wearisome.

110. They barred him while seizing praise
So there remained for them more than they hoped for.

111. And Yazeed rose by his side
Defending what Al-Akhtal disliked.

112. Kings who passed away with what they hastened
And what they deferred was good for them.

113. None of them gathered what you gathered
When you collected or they collected.

114. If fate was slow, the festival
To its fate is wakeful, stirring.

115. It has come to you today in gifts -
Though its like is rare to be said.

116. It appeared through acceptance God graced it with
And through the aspect of your state that turns favorably.

117. Step after step of long-standing beauty
And this year its view is most beautiful.

118. A right hand for what comes after this stance
Deaf, mute - not more glorious or refined!

119. The insolent tongue stumbles over you
And its blade yields, surrendering.

120. The flatterers have ridden difficulties
But I am the well-versed knight.

121. They were not tasked with counting the stars' grazing
Nor weighing what mountains weigh.

122. You made hearts subtleties beneath breasts
While I am the heart-turner, the transformer.

123. The poets threw their reins to me
So their saddle-bindings are intricate to me.

124. They were pleased they work
By their claim while I work.

125. If cowardice were forbidden by the sword
The smooth polished steel would be most deserving of striking.

126. You extended to me a torrent valley, so my mouth
Is eloquent and my twisted tongue fluent.

127. I have led it skillfully so none but my hand
Can split its cheeks that speak clearly.

128. Forbidden to the saddle but you, ennobled by
You, over whom you prefer among people.

129. As if servants wiped it down
And a foal's palm stroked its flank.

130. If you have granted long life to Zuhayr
Then reward as one who grants abundantly.