1. Help me seek the heights,
For I have exhausted my capacity for stratagems.

2. And guide me to distant sustenance,
Even if it's meager compared to begging.

3. For if mountains piled up on my sides
And settled lighter than the scale of men,

4. Or else strip me of the surplus of my merit
To what has passed me by of my share of fate,

5. And save me, lonely, with no power but my own,
Beauties and hardship therein belong to me not.

6. Oh man, do you fear disgrace from them
And disdain injustice among the impossible?

7. So judge fairly, not to be rewarded,
And rule justly, indifferent.

8. People confederate honoring the highborn
And scorn in their eyes the nobility of deeds.

9. Your idle brother is nobler than you
For you are unemployed while your brother works.

10. By glory, my worth never shone
And I drank bitterness in the sweet limpid water.

11. God has fattened the son of my uncle
Who shepherded my lineage and neglected my emaciation.

12. Yet he is nothing but my reach is short,
Its extent falls short of my towering ambitions.

13. If the roots of my glory accommodated a kinsman
But not the stranger, the surplus of my money,

14. Perhaps time will torment itself for reproaching me
And feel shame at my waiting and endurance,

15. And a bosom friend, if my money fails me,
And if I fear an impending doom,

16. Will protect my flanks and defend me from
Harm, like eyelids defend from spears,

17. And if I gift him a virgin of praise
She romances in the robes of beauty,

18. Excessive in honoring her acceptance
And paying high bridewealth to have her,

19. And she remains envied for him
When the ladies of the veils are married off,

20. A beloved instead of maidens bidden farewell
By their lovers when they are wedded.

21. But time changed him - what state
Is safe from the blows of events?

22. My standard there fell from his support
And my ascent slid, Lord of Moderation.

23. Like the sun its crescent moon grows
And from it wanes the crescent's lack.

24. But a coldness that forgot not a pact
And wearied not of flattery to boredom,

25. Ransomed were the clear words of the son of Layl
When I sought aid in a matter obscured from me,

26. And they crane their necks to him in awe,
While the Star House is like the high star.

27. Are you not the son of exalted ones who reigned as kings,
Like pearls threaded on a necklace, one after another?

28. When the father is gone, a noble son takes his place
Showing you the lineage of decency.

29. As if glory was not saddened by a past
Along with the remainder, nor mourned a state.

30. Theirs are exemplary acts of kindness that clothe
Their very bones in robes.

31. And vestiges of days white
Like vestiges of full moons on the nights.

32. And the pride of kingship tested from you anger,
Fearsome when roused, secure when calm,

33. He saw you most gracious among them in absence,
And boldest in argument among them in presence,

34. And measured men by you, so you built a surplus,
Even if censured among the makeup of men.

35. So he draped your shoulder in the garb of pride
Hinting at harmony in glory,

36. Smooth to the tribe with glances through it
Capacious when sitting and ample when moving,

37. Every hue of passion for it
Matches a hue falling on the mind,

38. As if you sprinkled dye on it -
The beauties you contained of perfection,

39. And made you a cloud above pleasure,
Just so are clouds mistresses of mountains,

40. And clothed you in the gazelle's back, a glance
Created and outpaced like the gazelle.

41. Each of its edges from generosity and freedom
Adorned by a bracelet and anklets,

42. You see it bared, glorifying itself
Above veils, thick and imposing,

43. How not, when its flanks and rear
Are studded with pendants of pure gold,

44. With which coquetting beauties sway
Their trailing hems over dunes.

45. When life showers you with fortune
You gain it, and I string verses,

46. But apportion me some share from it
By your status - I do not charge a price for wealth.

47. And let your bounty suffice
As reward for his abounding favors,

48. For a gift like me is enough
Requital for his ample generosity,

49. And include me in his gatherings, you'll find me
The perfection contained in beauty,

50. And how could I guarantee from my pen and heart
Rectitude, without fear of deviance?

51. You've tested me and known me of old
Is there still doubt in you of my traits?

52. While others have undertaken others' affairs
And gotten some gain by their efforts,

53. And others were advanced, who are slow,
So why begrudge the hasty?

54. You've heard what they declaimed and recited
Of poetry, what verse and rhyme!

55. Jewels my diving cannot procure
And waters my contentions cannot disturb.

56. If the beloved comes with no chaperone
What's the use of pretending to be asleep?

57. None but you concludes my preparation and caravan
So I said: what bride without her procession?

58. And I returned to you in trust and knowledge
That the sword is sharper with use in fighting.