1. God willed that excellence be yours
And that speech and deed boast of your name

2. And that people reckon nothing auspicious
Except with you counted among its causes

3. And that high hopes depend on you
When serious or trivial matter gives worry

4. And that you be generous with days and aid
When no bond or solution is without you

5. And that you back a sword whose blade is rarely
Unsheathed for war without doves shading it

6. The sun shields him from every onlooker
Veiling him while he in its sheath still gleams

7. His scabbard seems to stream from his eyelids
While in his hands rages fire and stout staff

8. Wherever you see his scabbard you see it all
Though no battle or killing put it to the test

9. And he shows clemency in each disturbance
Though it was roused by the ignorant's recklessness

10. And he whose madness fells him will learn
From him how reason itself is gained

11. Lions fear the might of his blades
Though ants have worked away at them

12. Nonsense words have bound our minds
Leaving us no time but busying rhymes

13. Of whiteness only what its sheen made lawful
Of blood only what swords allowed, nothing taboo

14. With it what longing lovers bodies bear
Though neither alluring nor allured

15. To it belong the station of pact and protection amid fray
Aspirations neither pact nor protection

16. And thing can exploit thing wrongfully
No lineage bringing it close no shape

17. He has privacies with souls though nights
Conceal him and the throng stands between

18. As if I sketched him in part
But without delight or sweetness

19. He has gift unbound by self-restraint or passion
To where no excuse reached before or clemency

20. And he darkened the sandal-binder's hide
As if it were a dangling bracelet or anklet

21. And one with a cow-like servant, ally of rectitude
Who goes to her whenever greens sprout

22. Deaf, desires call him heedless
And disasters call but he hears them not

23. Death coursed in his flanks at first and again
As water flowed in them before

24. He swayed as his loins turned to kidneys
As he swayed before when his roots were soil

25. Ecstasy took him and the banner leads him
As you promised when green leaves wave

26. Once copious, while prosperous how will he be
Now that maturity has marred his fullness

27. We knew him quickly undone by change
So beware it where change has not undone him

28. I've seen none as tall as him endure til death
Save one contending with him in nobility

29. When its branch grew and its carpenter
Hewed it, though it did not hew, the credit is hers

30. Death has causes the brave youth fears
I undertake them though mail does not deflect them

31. Demise by staff or blade is dreaded
And undermined though eyes see it as slight

32. A garden of sorrow amid pleasant breeze
And undulating ponds, an easy clear path

33. Where love between lovers goes
Like missives, neither lost nor unsent

34. Aroma the boughs and dawn whisper to each other
Turning the tryst in its leaves to babble

35. With the wind wherever it blew so when it waned
It wandered confused in its folds, it and its shadow

36. As if ruby wine made it tipsy
So that notwithstanding the perfume it rarely is pure

37. By the cup they reach the heights though it
Does not cheer a heart or bring ease

38. It is the thing whose description eludes me
Save my admission it is not mine to describe

39. They said "Pass her beloved's breeze" though
Neither singing nor conveying sanction it

40. I'd thought the zephyr before their claim
Would couple again with bees

41. Was that which watered its blooms or a cloud
That if it exhaled I'd know rain was at hand

42. Of ponderous hips, perfect buttocks
Swinging waterskin, reciting verse to him or reciting

43. As if the gleam of lightning in her flanks
Were lanterns lit or bared swords

44. And thunder roared from her every side
As the brave roared amidst battle's fray

45. She bellowed though not like forbearing camels
Does she know what camels undergo?

46. She leaned upon Lebanon's slopes
And a cloud poured on it, all of it, and rained

47. So every plain by her
Became a pool and every overlook a hollow

48. Until the falcon flying met her path
And the wolf, sparrows, and deer

49. Until the dawn sun rose as if
Your visage, no exaggeration though I exaggerate none

50. Her morning dew on the garden of sorrow poured
With water, like passion when union is attained

51. Like my poetry when it meets your vibration for the dew
Without both high aspirations no alliance

52. Illumine, lamp of faith, and builder of its niche
When those roads and paths are uncertain

53. Tell me how time was when you were complaining
Though brilliance and nobility adorned it

54. The scabbard is not graced by its ornament
The day after battle until the blade does so

55. You complained and all the land shook with its people
As if mountains had people that shook

56. The spheres halted in their spin
As if your long nights this form took

57. Arts were lonesome as if
Embraces, gravity, and heaviness were shunned

58. The world and all its people were clad
In sorrow, some tasting, all curing it

59. No air except murky gloom
No earth except desolate ruins

60. Eyes' sorcery was annulled after a time
When sorcery beyond it was undone

61. My enemy wished to clarify his affair
Hoping I'd be fair though fond of putting off

62. For my loss of youth in an instant
And days before it slipping away

63. Shall I be envied when the world stints
Its pearls to me though its nature is stinginess

64. And my youth bows to the command of time
Without its prime throwing off its mantle

65. A decree of days I resented
Blaming them though it being a decree

66. My devil withdrew from my right and wrong
As if no rein or halter drew him near

67. I pursued pleasures only in wistfulness
At losing them, with no possibility of return

68. And composed poetry only to sing
Of your memory, healing or curing madness

69. Does he know glad tidings have come
Of your well-being, dispelling my worries

70. And the face of contentment has drawn near
After drafts of my concerns blotted it

71. That I've renewed my life, behold me
A newborn though youth thought me aged

72. That I could reclaim my wantonness
Through every compliant child, no foal outpacing him

73. Of smooth brows, their souls contested
By whims which steeds and camels seek

74. To Ibn Abi Marwan's son, giving them sanctuary
A lad heedless of consequences or unmindful

75. Chaste where the land is not for him
Though benevolence and generosity grow in it

76. With roes of my playfulness, though their souls
Craved purposes which mounts and luggage bear

77. Light lamps of faith, and builder of its niche
When those paths are uncertain