1. Had it not been for my ambitious imagination
I would not have sung my sleep during the long nights

2. Asked my eyes the taste of separation
Impossible question though it may be

3. And how to sleep when separated from the beloved
While sleep is conditional on nights of union

4. My eyelids, long as they are, still weary from the darkness
Yet the nights are even longer

5. As if the shorter parts of a palace
Seek the longer parts, unobtainable

6. But the rain in its stinginess
Allows me dreams, cost what they may

7. Passing me by, whether it or one resembling it
Or a mere illusion to my eyes

8. One night whose spirits perfumed
An apparition, I had not imagined

9. Whitened the darkness for me and my companions wandering
While stars bowed to it before the rise of dawn

10. Clearing the horizon sparkling and illuminated
At times full moon and others crescent

11. She came swaying between blossoms
Scented musk and pliant sand dunes

12. Not her eyes, nor hips nor coyness
Nor the roe's graceful tread

13. The morning breeze tilted the branch
But did not shake her

14. Until the night ended its course
Her heavy steps slowed at dawn

15. And she sought to make use of the darkness
Preceding the procession of revolving stars

16. I weep and so does she, but my sorrow
Is not the sorrow of one gone

17. A shadow of life we delighted in
Yet a shadow that disappeared at dawn

18. A season of indulgence I exaggerated
With youths having breasts like antelope

19. Each fair of face, serene of expression
Of pleasant conversation and qualities

20. Who shepherd you with their manners into a garden
Whose beauty the north wind's end trails along

21. Justly spending the wine in the meadow
Not weighed against their drinking cups

22. I bear witness to moments of their youth
Time called for rendezvous but was denied

23. And a virgin's need I procured
Whose access was difficult and height insurmountable

24. I persevered until I caught her
With experience in such exploits and cunning

25. Days guiding my youth but to no avail
Except leading myself into heated contention

26. Until I was distinguished by an appellation
That combined humiliation and glory

27. Eyes recoiled to make way for it
From me in cruelty should they meet me

28. A black mark whitened by its insistence
On my head and the blows of swords

29. Right stripped wrong from me
That is my state, and my state today

30. And the glory of fathers in office
Which ranks and status seek

31. More luminous than hot passion if
Their principles were shaken or polluted byacquisition

32. The traits of a ruler, its lights
Witnessed in word and deed

33. I tied him with affection and sheer passion
With resolute links and strong ropes

34. Out of love even if no affection
From him cooled my ardour or united us

35. I will abandon him, but not detached
Of separation, and turn away, but not of boredom

36. And envy the sail in its harbor
While my lips thirst without a drink

37. But it is my habit not to covet
A door that has not beckoned me near

38. Blessed is He who compiled His signs
To perfection until perfection was fulfilled

39. Studying the relics of past generations
Now gone, and accounts of earlier years

40. You will not find one like Him
Whom mothers of men stand up for

41. Fortune found in Him a youth
Who met its great events with his compassion

42. It came to him from inherited truth
And gains righteously obtained

43. He accompanied it with gratitude, to preserve it
And kindness and charity before asked

44. Since taking shelter in His shadow
In a homeland she has not wished to leave

45. While His blessings repel others
Looking away from Him on days of loss

46. His prosperity increased from his soul
What no close or distant relative had imagined

47. If fate darkens, his resolves
Are torches on its horizon erupting

48. Or opinions fade in confusion
His perspective is clarity in the night of misguidance

49. Harbingers of ascendance from his face
In Renewed youth and ripeness

50. A face whose bashfulness combined
The wonders of creation and beauty

51. The bloom and radiance of the world
Wandering freely in its expanse

52. In perfection, no perfection diminished
The nation was impregnated after despair

53. He guided its permit in his hands so
its channels flowed without obstruction

54. You faced its worries, and your opinions
in it are melting snow

55. How many pitfalls for the kingdom
You lifted it from, otherwise unspoken

56. And downfalls that nearly brought ruin
Prolonging the sickness which gripped it

57. You applied yourself to mend it
Thus healing an affliction beyond healing

58. You supported him alone while his partisans
Had surrendered to the adversary without debate

59. Pens dried in his books in despair
And swords failed him in battle

60. He was cowardly so you emboldened him
And came between him and distinction

61. You dispatched him erect to his honour
While people implored you against departure

62. Thus with God, and despite the enemy
Toward that which you yourself had intended

63. For this his reins of power
Run their course by your command

64. You ascended in truth on your two feet
While ambitions tumble like pillars into the ground

65. Inform, may years hear me hopeful
For assistance, to elevate my hands or prolong

66. How we have pulled each other over the likes of her
Did you tame me for asking?

67. You deemed me too base to gain wealth
From me, were mountain foundations thus shaken?

68. Had I submitted my back to hands, indeed
I would have been showered with great burdens

69. Or had I wished riches from my family
Wealth of kind ones whose hands are homes of money

70. Their hands in generosity like two right hands
No left weaker than any right

71. So praise be to Him who made wealth abundant
And with thanks status rarely increases

72. If generous and excessive liberality
Were shameful, the critic saw in Him cause

73. Blamed for freely giving, but should the withholder
Restrain when hands were created for bestowal?

74. The delegation crowds at his door
Crowding like pilgrims on the slopes of Al-Al

75. Blessed is he whose palms sting with greed
If his valley in generosity flowed

76. As if the land were not his
While it and those on it are his dependents

77. A lustrous pearl in time, translucent
Of noble origin and fine quality

78. He blends the wine in his palm
With his sweet nature and pure water

79. Father of loyalty, hear from me a charm
By which wayward souls are enticed

80. Love from it was cheapened, prevented
It became too dear, beyond the grasp of the coveter

81. Safeguarded, were it not for the intercession of passion for you
It would have declined to be abased

82. Your devotion enabled you to lead it
While its head was too lofty to incline

83. How many kings of earth were desirous suitors
Seeking it from me, generous provider

84. I turned him away in anger, yet he
Cared not that I denied him

85. But I chose you as match for it
For it, from you, in any case

86. And if we become estranged, between us
Are ties that cannot be severed

87. Bonds of kinship, and I and you
Of a tribe and family discard

88. So enjoy what immortalizes the glory of youth
Uplifts the house, though lofty

89. And informs me of affection untainted
For that is the sweetest of gains for me

90. If its festivities are severed or postponed
The feast is but temporary

91. She visited you the day singled out for me
When duties preoccupied me from you

92. Shawwal came to you with her crescent
So celebrate them coupled with the new moon

93. She did not exaggerate describing you despite her longevity
But poetry found material and thus said