1. They said, "May you be a translator, so make it clear."
Alas! My peers are not like me, if they delude me.

2. That is their home and their water,
So withhold your love and inclination if they do not quench my thirst.

3. I almost went astray were it not for ambergris
In the soil, from the basil of loved ones that guided me.

4. Their breath perfumed it with delicate fragrance,
Though it sighed with earth and did not moan.

5. O dwelling where the hands of youth played around,
Playing doubts while surety appeared to me.

6. Whether they call me to uphold the pacts—for they
Were kept—misery is the treasure of the covetous.

7. After them, beasts dwelled in you resembling them.
Would that you had not been inhabited before.

8. Their eyes have a magical sign for me,
So why do gazelles appear to me?

9. Times through which I lavishly spent my youth,
While life, blind to the turns of fate.

10. Regretting every feminine utterance, if only
It had proposed, its beauty would not have adorned it.

11. It walks erect, then its height is mentioned—
That duality is for the rod—so it inclines.

12. By Allah, what are those branches? If only
They produced, apart from deception, fruit for the harvester.

13. Youth shook its leaves and returned me
To the lines of intellect, so it is obscure and bends.

14. I know before its seal is opened,
What is in a book titled with old age.

15. I care not for the world. I dreamed of it and it
Tricked me. How do I look at my hiding place?

16. Never fully pleased, its coquetry humbles me,
As if it is touched to be chaste with me.

17. To the point that I forgot its colour in the darkness,
Or my time’s changing doubt almost deceived me.

18. They said its owner is hostage to a loss,
If his hand clasps mine, then he will be duped.

19. My students avoided that I be accused, and perfect
Generosity is limited to a specific place.

20. O fate, arise and call out in the direction of wealth
During ease, and have mercy on the suffering of the inattentive!

21. And help me attain it, for by the likes of it,
You have distinguished between the successful and the appointed.

22. For whom is the radiant mixture, whose guarantee
Is sustenance for us, while through another, it is not permitted?

23. I yearned, O ships of the desert, so convey,
And I rejoiced, O camel driver, so sing to me!

24. And rise, saddle up nonchalantly, O boy,
The desert writhes from him in haste.

25. He is pleased with smelling the herbs if he misses them,
And travel eats him with the eating of the famished.

26. The free rein almost weighs down his back,
So the saddles scream at him to gently slow down.

27. Sustenance and justice are lost, so take
To travel and extract them from the mine.

28. And to Abu Al-'Abbas, protector of its kingdom,
Smooth is the most severe and the malicious is submissive.

29. O singular one, without peer, intending
That when I mention you by name, I curve in submission.

30. Lest a king forget the survival you guaranteed him
Yesterday by sheathing his sword of vengeance.

31. It was Hell, though deemed embers,
Until you were angry and its kindler said, "Calm down!"

32. A group with combined voices gathered around a translator—
His ears were not penetrated by the roar of Ayman.

33. He counted the many and was not perturbed by his account,
Between trusted and suspect.

34. And he obeyed an ignorant opinion. Had he seen
Signs other than yours as proof, he would not have been certain.

35. Until you rose like a sun that tore with
The north wind the clouds of a gloomy day.

36. They endowed you with unprecedented cunning, so
Security orbited the fortress of the defended.

37. With delusion but a dot, as if
It was pierced by an arrow in the forehead with holes.

38. You made it used to wading into blood, so if it buts,
The soil dries though it does not stand with you piled up.

39. When they saw you, their souls dispersed,
As if they had known you before the eyes.

40. Discard the weapons, for you have been enriched with bliss
Beyond carrying them. Strike with your excellence and stab!

41. And if you intend to rout a battalion,
You will meet it smiling within it, so pitch a tent.

42. Every merit stopped at you that led for you
Passions bound in chains of service.

43. You alone were counted supreme. So when will you add
In speech, a dual for it? It will not dualize.

44. The jealous of your kingship do not deny what they saw.
And Allah knows best what He chooses and grants victory.

45. Peace be upon you, mentioned in my praises,
While people are between dispraised and brilliant.

46. Read from a distance between us,
And if I could get near, I would say to grant me permission.

47. Words that acknowledge the truth from it acknowledging,
And return it if it were not with proof.

48. Of what I inform you, that we are in our land,
Where benefaction other than obligated is not mentioned.

49. Among a people, if the words of a pretentious one
Give away one of them, his intention blames.

50. The palms of their hands became rough, as if
In vileness, molded by the nature of fate.

51. None remains but you of whom it is said expectantly,
Or the caller to him is followed with belief.

52. Bounty you encompassed, and justice of a cloud
That leveled the rugged with its showers equally.

53. I complain of my thirst, and none but you are my water-bearer.
So extend your hands from afar and water me!

54. And listen, for if it is missed, then it has no
Sister for it among those who praise you that know me.

55. It is an aim for which the poet prayed. So whoever
Does not assist it, is no true believer.

56. Were it not for your praise, I would not have been pleased by attaining it,
For man sparks against the flint of the benefactor.

57. Value through it the profits, for it is merchandise
I have continued hoarding for a costly buyer.

58. Fate was about to guarantee it for me,
But it swerved from it for a mute insinuator.

59. And if aided, I would recite it praying
And inform you if you make me stand.

60. What is wrong with the writer when lowliness befalls him?
For deprivation is exile in the homeland.

61. Wealth avoided me, so stand with me forcing
Fate’s nose, and enrich me, gradually training me.

62. And if I plead with another after you, may the unlawful-
Ness of murder, the limit of inviolability, punish me.

63. Worries preoccupied my thoughts and
Misfortunes opposed the plentiful consideration, disobeying me.

64. So had I pursued a word other than your praise,
From it my conscience would not have obeyed.

65. Sitting confined my hands from my desire.
For the gazelle is imprisoned in the eyelids.

66. And when hearts were battered by sorrows,
The remnants appeared at the setting of tongues.

67. What missed me is that the likes of me can be enabled,
But I wearied fate, so it spurned me.

68. O You before whom I saw a people, when I asked
A generous people who told me, "Count me!"

69. Great hope today surpasses their capacities,
So it prevailed, and after you hope, the duplicitous, perished.