1. The image of my beloved has departed, leaving behind only what remains cherished.
She went away, and for a moment we saw her again as she once was. Yet without her presence, the jealous one became a stranger.

2. She appeared not gently inclined, nor softly touched beneath the stars.
She greets the pleasures of the night’s journey; they cleave close to the earth’s skin without turning over.

3. When they find comfort in the night, the hooves of the steeds traversing the darkness lead them, and sleep is most sweet.
In the soil remains a trace of the one whose image has departed, stirring my heart, though far removed.

4. She let me know, among the riders, that the bundle of my departure would remain throughout the night incomplete.
Perhaps, O you who fulfill wishes, the coincidence of dreams would grant you a truth from whence it lied.

5. On a day as long as the sword, made short for a need sought in the sands,
I sent her the wild cows to walk her path ahead of the steeds, moving straight or veering off.

6. She inclined to the judgment of the morning breeze for a rocky place, and for traveling another, deemed fitting and probed.
Look again and wait, O gazing eye, perhaps she you love is she who avoids you.

7. Not every house emptied by the heat of fever, nor every white-robed beauty, is Zainab.
I marveled that my heart receives love and hopes for the pleasures of life while my head is white with age.

8. It joins the bonds of union from Umm Salam while your rope, after forty, is frayed.
The black-eyed ones, even if they draw near, have no cause in the whitening of the aged head.

9. Blaming fate, she thinks it is by the cunning and striving of a man that fortune is seized.
She saw me covered in dishevelment, which I concealed in modesty, and living a hateful life, which to me was beloved.

10. I had wealth and at night roamed freely. Were wealth obtained through merit, I would have deserved it.
But its best is bought through honor, and it grows according to the extent of begging and becomes fertile.

11. My face’s water is not for me if I do not let it flow upon the students’ thirst and run dry.
You do not know - and today discloses my disturbed state - what tomorrow may hide from me.

12. Perhaps the appointed time of death, from which she is far, will ordain the crown of kingship be brought near.
Nothing beyond it is the domain of overreaching hopes, nor from it is there for neglected truth an exit.

13. If his generosity and preference have eluded me until today, tomorrow his hands may favor and grant me gifts.
My quarter alone has withered of clouds that spend the night shedding their rain on the likes of me.

14. My legs before that were too short, and my share of what came to me from him was misdeeds.
I am not to blame that the sea did not come to me; rather, I drink from the sea according to what I strove for.

15. A lion protecting Islam’s egg, the slinking enemy jackals warned one another against his might.
The jewel in his crown weighed down his splendid brow, so no turban could be snatched away.

16. Bearing the heights independently, though his armies dwindled, a dead man when willpower was crucified.
You see him comprehend occult mysteries with a mind more penetrating than a starry puncture.

17. When faced with slow events, his wisdom makes clear what consequences will ensue.
The slippery serpent’s saddlebags hinder its harness, and the bow of Andromeda is asked from whence it originates.

18. She refused to be circled by riders, so you roped her, a slave girl mounted on the back.
A day white as the portico yet rupturing, its hours beneath its surface exposing death while its sun peers out.

19. You showed patience towards a beloved soul, keeping her until victory was brought about.
Kufa and Anbar were like Kufa yesterday, and from one of your two days I am not astonished.

20. How many a state has aged while you were its brother, and others you foresee while you are their father!
Their elders and boys sleep while you are their wakeful protector.

21. I saw the ministers walking about, demanding appreciation for their merit, only to be disappointed.
They shunned the matter you undertook, deeming insignificant what brings near.

22. Had their days coincided with you, guided by your precedent they would have walked, or learned discipline from you.
I deterred those who envied you, riding their grudges to your time, but grudges to the time are riding beasts.

23. I said, “Wallow, you are but a flux spewing pus and gathering wood.”
Leave off aspiring and be content with compromise, pleading for your soul that the head with a crown is most fitting.

24. The ruler other than you is unfocused, inexperienced with misfortunes.
Among us the good news of your firmness is awe-inspiring while not every cheerful face is formidable.

25. With your deeds block their ears - boasting of lineages is borrowed fame. Boast rather of the soul, not those from whom you claim descent.
They wished the crown of kingship to adorn them, so they pursued your dust, but the son of the wind outdoes in swiftness.

26. Thinking the burdens of rule easy, they stumbled onto grievances on the path, and traveling it proved difficult.
Yet you still find victory wherever you seek it, raising it up through your seriousness, or striking it down with your sword.

27. The world meekly offers you its pavilions, so you take from it what you will and ride upon it as you desire,
Until you see the expanse of the desert a fistful under your hands, the east and west fused.

28. I was granted a favorable moment from your good opinion, for my withdrawn fortune to be doubled.
Your justice rains upon me gifts to moisten the barren soil of my condition with what I need.

29. Perhaps suppressed within me your blessings will hint to some concealed merit while clarifying me.
Who can I turn to, if destitute before your patronage the confounded would listen while I speak fervently?

30. You would witness that no virtue befitting your stature has been absent in me as I draw near.
From me you would learn how I praise a composer, for you know how I write prose.