1. The memory of loved ones makes you weep again
Though time had made you forget those tears in vain

2. You remembered whom you love, and the thought made you cry
Neither the memory forgotten, nor are the tears dry

3. You yearn, but love won’t help though you implore
For death is better than a love that helps no more

4. Too long has love made you shed tears willingly
While the fair ladies leave you, those feathers bright

5. Their glances remind us of the red-lipped gazelle
Their necks adorned with chokers, clasped tight

6. Beware, their flirtatious talk may entrance you
And the fair ladies may mock you in their spite

7. Their conversation drips like pearls from a necklace
Freed by an unclasping hand in the night

8. To you, O Commander of the Faithful, we were drawn
On a night by slender figurines, like idols slight

9. A Yemeni, shunning the near, approaches in grace
While the far neighbor stays apart in his plight

10. The Pleiades appeared, and for the Archer eyes
And necks toward you, with purpose and delight

11. To a king whose palms bring life when the land is arid
With clasped hands holding firm in their might

12. Above the glory of men he has two glories
One, piercing with arrows those germs full of blight

13. The other, keeping death away with its basin
Of honor none can touch, its walls glowing bright

14. The hands of Abbas' sons are white and generous
Visiting each people, their needs to requite

15. They make the faith as just as the Kaaba’s cornerstone
Held straight by its pillars, upright

16. The might of Muslims rests on their sturdy arms
For feats of strength come from arms wielding might

17. A caliph adorns the Sacred Mosque’s servants
The light of truth radiant on his face and bright

18. His sleep is a cave guarding Islam’s sanctum
Protecting all people with his watchful sight

19. The Commander seems as though a doting father
So tender his care for all humankind's plight

20. But those who transgress the truth, death overtakes them
His arrows hitting their mark with precision and might