1. I alerted him, so he rose with outstretched arms,
The handsome victor over disgrace whenever he reposed.

2. In his hand a polished, augmented sword,
And his coat of mail fully extending to the anklets.

3. Whenever he marched forth he did not spare a fugitive,
And whenever he traveled he did not fear a frigid night.

4. If cares did not detain him in consultation,
And if he marched forth on a journey, he did not prepare.

5. For every seeker of forbidden game a hunted quarry
Fleeing him, though to him belong all the prey.

6. He answered my calling of “At your service,”
Content with his saying for all time.

7. Better than one who supported my back are a lion,
Or a man with the heart of a lion in his breast.

8. And he said about the recklessness of any danger,
“It tosses me about, so what land can restrain me?”

9. When I said, “A need,” he stood up and climbed
To precede me in my quest, until he attained for me what I had not intended.

10. We returned, save two blades sheathed, embracing,
And two withered roses—where did they bud?

11. The innards of the coats of mail and corselets
Conceal two bodies in one body.

12. As if our two traces when they marched forth at dawn
Upon the ground were the trail of a spear or a plow.

13. Until I reached with him the racecourse of glory
At the start of the first lap and the nearest point.

14. And how often did a firm resolve mount its she-camel
But it flagged that I be wronged and persecuted.

15. And a raid of eloquence I launched
Against the vile—every consistent thrust.

16. I witnessed it as one who dares, though without
Urging it on while absent, as one who attended.

17. And a pleasure I turned my face from out of nobility
And abstained from it, though one who renounces yearns for it.

18. Its fetters did not bind me,
Its shame did not touch me, it did not almost undo me.

19. And an adornment whose verses I locked out
As a gate, elevating its lintel as a pillar.

20. For the living are either shirkers or attenders—
The thread of fate lies tied in their eyelids.

21. And they have no guardians save for the barking
Of dogs, or else the vigilance of kindled fire.

22. So I remained still, conversing only with him,
While all others—had it not been for chastity—I would have prepared for.

23. And were it not for my intimidation, a firm limit
I embraced, and wise words from it sobered me.

24. And how many loathsome female camels among the sandy dunes,
Without the anklets of youth, went unimpeded.

25. Fairer than lavishing his love on her is preventing him from her,
And than union with singing girls is one who spurns.

26. My sleep is protected if I visit her,
And my place, if I am absent from it, is inquired about.

27. My heart is delighted by her face, for so long
Has the thirst for her tossed me about and driven me back.

28. God has beloveds, and for them
I have faithfully carried out their rights to anguish and concealment.

29. After them, my streaming tears did not suffice,
Until they sought the aid of weeping and wakefulness by night.

30. They went away with the crowds of life along with them,
Entrusting my lips, in their absence, to wither.

31. I accompanied a people after them whose covenants
Were feeble, shackles slack and pacts fragile.

32. He who is parched by the burning thirst is not harmed
By impure fetid water, once he attains it and drinks.

33. A people strike the faces of my camels
Though it sufficed them that the camels turned away from them.

34. Do not drive the sheep too quickly to their fold
For they are pestered by you even when left alone.

35. Why does the miser avoid being beside me
When he sees me dwelling on minted coins?

36. He hides from me the empty cup if in it
There was a sip, after he had drunk up the sweetness.

37. The days did not see what I desired
Even if regarding me branches were being split open.

38. He made my station among wealth and poverty
One He did not stint on, nor was openhanded with me.

39. And the worst of Your decrees is a middling fortune—
Capricious, with which I do not become familiar nor satisfied.

40. The nights deluded me that I know
Their easy ways and bitterness full well.

41. And that in their ups and downs I stir up
With a will that illuminates my path however far.

42. My suspicions inform me of the weather to come
As if my day tells me the secret of tomorrow.

43. O You who made me cheaply sell myself,
Soon will one who takes me for less praise me.

44. One like me in bloom, the fists begrudged him,
Had there been among the people an appraiser.

45. Her glances were cognizant of my worth,
And my eyes saw clear the misguidance and the right course.

46. And I knew which lightning I should make my mount,
I gauged its reins, and which sea I should draw from.

47. And You expanded for me the hands of the Ayyubids,
Giving them the fullness of desire, wealth, and love.

48. So why should I care, they being lasting for me—
Who among men lasts or can keep lasting?

49. I do not intend sustenance apart from them,
But rather I seek it from wherever I find it.

50. They who bring safety through neighborliness and protection,
And rise with troops and military supplies,

51. And who gamble their generous hands that melted
In every clenched fist throughout years frozen,

52. And who strike in the thickets and groves
When the houses of degradation seek shelter in bushes,

53. Their accounts shine for their guest beneath the night
If the eyebrow of the kindled fire dies down.

54. From their tongues to needs they extended
Ducts, ever since they became upright, never flagging,

55. Neither avoided by a pardoned crime,
Nor avoided by the coat of mail and breastplate.

56. They dazzle the hearing of every charlatan
Once the spurt of wounds flowed forth and burst.

57. They were recognized by glory until their news traveled
Fragrantly while they sat still at home.

58. And they differed—no wish erring in its aim
At their splendor relied upon missed its mark.

59. They corrupted the world for its people
So you see no one like them among those born.

60. They are what they are, originally, and of their branches
Is the whitest, swiftest lightning across the hills.

61. Muhammad fulfilled his people’s glory
So he blessed them, while children at times betray their ancestry.

62. And there shone among them with a resolve
That closes every gap a breach may open.

63. It was completed, yet the full moon after it
Is incomplete, and the endless sea did not gain.

64. He managed the world with one opinion
Scornful that any share it with him.

65. You see him as one with all, unique,
While the moon among the array of stars solitary.

66. When consulted, he increased no insight,
Nor does his opinion blame him when he seizes it firmly.

67. Until by his oneness he became
The orphan of time and the unique one of the age.

68. He stood up and attained noble deeds with toil
And won relaxation diminished, sitting down.

69. A group declined to carry rights
So their carrying did not caution them, nor did they repay.

70. Had the sleeper known which step
The watchman protects, he would yearn for wakefulness by night.

71. And perhaps the eyes would delight in respite
Though relaxation were a disease of the body.

72. His character was safe from grit—
While water is made gritty by jug and froth.

73. And longing for his affection organized hearts—
No lover or friend is seen but loves and adores.

74. Anger makes no allowances for a guarded heart
Against you, if poetry does not deem it faithful.

75. Your peer hopes to succeed you,
Though the hour of misery has passed for him to be seized.

76. He is led into abasement, voluntarily, due to ancestry,
Perplexed in ancestry, blind, not guided.

77. He is avaricious when asked, so if
One day he misses a gift, he will not repeat it.

78. He stretched out the rope of his evil, so its causes snapped
And you stretch out goodness—ever extending.

79. So whenever he surpassed a span, you surpassed him
Drawing near to glory from however far.

80. Through you my hand, once neglected, clung
And my intimacy, once dispersed, he gathered.

81. A character, once unyielding, consented to me for you
Not knowing before what gift-giving and redemption were.

82. You won my heart forthrightly, so my patience
And fortitude did not match my passion for you.

83. Until cares surrounded me, first and foremost,
While one first among a thousand in counting.

84. How many groves your generosity grew for me
Whose blessed abundance the water irrigates!

85. And whenever a bough sang out from them,
Your generosity returned to me other fresh ones.

86. Their fruits filled my containers, so I almost
Lost you when the torrents of the flood drove them away.

87. No gap remains in me that would bar them,
For gaps are only blocked with wealth.

88. In you, for all I lose there is replacement—
So farewell, I am not harmed by those I lose.

89. If my teeth are perfect, though the rest
Decay, let the front ones continue their course!

90. And shoot with a successful arrow through the heights
From the hand of a successful lifetime that wastes not.

91. Misfortunes are dusted from you in streams
Where congratulations throng and gather.

92. Every dawn, your ascending sun rises
Infatuated, like the sun of perpetuity.

93. Prancing between praiser and envier
So the causes of praise make envy deserved.