1. A lethal passion afflicts him when we part
What can I attempt with her beforehand?

2. Alluring is the glance that kills me
His longing shields him while it slays him

3. A gazelle who drank the wine of beauty intoxicated
Reeling tipsily, the signs overwhelmed him

4. My blood is made lawful by his rulings
With a mere glance, he takes all ere you attempt it

5. Evil that has paralyzed what his lids envelop
And draped over what his garb embraces

6. My life, my wealth - I won’t say, nor my demise
Is solace for my agony, whatever it embraces

7. Where can I find a loose-flowing scarf
Fluttering coquettishly with the morning breeze?

8. Ask me by it or ask it about me, which companion
Bears a mark of fate that time cannot erase?

9. I'm content with it whatever the estrangement, even if aloof
A minister the merits acquainted me thereof

10. Foe of fierce wars - ally of each august summit
Its bridges and missiles defend it

11. He built his abode in war, vying in glory
The antelopes walk between its streams

12. Illuminating a crescent in the dark of our nights
Its meteors shine in their sky

13. Unsheathing from resolved intent a sharpened sword
Fate would prefer that on the morrow he bears it

14. Refuge for the anxious, safety for the fearful
Sanctuary for a beautiful voyager, ruined by his knaveries

15. He built his glory as a guard, by might
Not distracted by what its onset established

16. So let its builder be, not one who transgressed
Deceived about the like of it, warring against it

17. Toward him my resolve guided me, though
Fate incited me, with all its intrigues

18. My time is unforgiving, it neither wanes nor flags
My sins to it - that I do not defy it

19. I teach myself about it, though perhaps
I’ve ignored it, so it thinks me ignorant of it

20. Woe to it! What is it doing?
Would that I knew what it is doing!

21. My hands have clung to the most wondrous
Pillar, its means strewn, its methods plenty

22. A sword - in the grip of resolve its stamp is ruin
The pens sharpen it and victory polishes it

23. The redness of death’s throes take pride in it
Its eyelid blossoms, its brow exalts

24. Regard the Yemeni lightning and its like
Inhale from it untainted inspiration

25. A stalwart leader, his reign abounds
Even if his envious foes and slanderers spurned

26. And speak of the sea that is like Kawthar
The coasts vie over it jealously

27. When one who aspires undertakes grave affairs
His means will succeed, his methods prove worthy

28. And since his guests began frequenting his abode
His wealth fell ill, his dwellings deserted

29. Far from the conceit and luxury of the world
Even if his lodgings and encampments seem splendid

30. Deeds so majestic, description falls short
What capacity have I then to convey them?

31. Perhaps you may heed, O gleaming scion, my passion
For lo, the arrows of love have pierced their prey

32. An ailing one who saw his cure in your aid
And knew that silence would surely kill him

33. A remnant of time that long toyed with him
The hand of sickness left him unlike his likeness

34. He saw, within your grasp, the fullness of health His essence quaked, his being tottered
Good fortune blesses you, blesses your era, a brilliant glory Whose daybreak and galloping steeds illuminated it

35. An era like the burgeoning bloom of youth
Would that the early morn thereof be praised!

36. The horizons donned it as a mantle, East and West
Its perfume wafts - we said, “The scent of two abodes!”