1. The genius of his time alighted, Kindanah,
So gaze, Egypt, at the magic of his eloquence,

2. And al-Husn came, so congratulate the king of virtues,
On the rise of his state and the return of his beauty,

3. The Nile turned its hearing to him,
And the water held back its flow for him,

4. The flowers listen rapt and the gazelles stand in awe,
And the birds, perched on their twigs, pay heed,

5. The rain clouds yearn for an Andalusian melody,
A melody that quenches its burning thirst,

6. If Ahmed sings, listen like the community of Ahmed,
Turns its ears to his call to prayer,

7. So speak up and sing to the Nile and stir its compassion,
It has suffered enough melancholy,

8. And relate to us of al-Hamra what you saw,
And of the palace what was its structure,

9. What of its dwellings is now in ruins and what
Has time's vicissitudes left of its pillars?

10. Alas for it and its people and daughters,
When it was inhabited by the celestial bodies,

11. When the kingdom of Andalus had widespread glory,
And its flourishing youth was at its prime,

12. Conquest and prosperity were signs of its era,
And the regiments of fate were its assistants,

13. The world wore by it the garb of civilization,
Which it would cast off onto its neighbors,

14. Its joy faded and its intimacy was lost,
And the world was emptied of its human presence,

15. And the earth folded the secret of its decay,
Did the earth's chest become too narrow to conceal it?

16. Those hills spoke and became eloquent,
When you stood questioning their condition,

17. And perhaps dispersal and disunity over there,
Were what had been among its crowns,

18. Lessons we saw in our own days,
Which made light of what had afflicted it back then,

19. And successive events in existence,
Came resolved to destroy its edifice,

20. Glory to the Almighty of the Highest Heaven,
Turner of the cycles of being in their cycles,

21. Hello O sun of the two dawning places, and welcome,
O radiant light hoped for from his brothers,

22. I complain to you of time and a horde,
That has wounded the heart of poetry in its notables,

23. How many strays beyond his bounds the people censure,
With his poetry, and wonder fills his mind,

24. He struts among the people, trailing his train,
The winds of arrogance blow from his cloak,

25. How he has deafened our hearing with his insignificant verse,
And prolonged our torment with his lengthy tongue,

26. He continues to proclaim himself among us,
Till the deaf have implored an end to his proclamation,

27. The rightly-guided counselled them in vain, so their arrogance intensified,
And the torrent of their tyranny swelled,

28. Have you not seen the Criterion, clear in its separation,
To which the Buddhist pays no heed in his idolatry?

29. Tell the one who presumptuously maligns Ahmed:
"Leave poetry, for you are no knight of his."

30. Poetry by its metrics, were it to be weighed,
Would eclipse it with pearls on the scale,

31. This is a man who came before his time,
If he had not come after his time,

32. If he says poetry or mounts the pulpit,
Then seek refuge in God from his devil,

33. He makes fantasy his steed and gallops,
High above the clouds, scanning the sky arrogantly,

34. He would not be safe from a stumble had not
The spirit of truth held his reins,

35. So he came with what no predecessor had come with,
Nor could minds aspire to bring the like,

36. Does fantasy and reality have a spring,
Unsought by the visitors in his diwan?

37. We are entertained when we are serious, and he,
Is serious when he playfully composes poetry,

38. His pens, if he wished, their nibs would pierce,
The Pleiades and Suhail with their points,

39. His mind and heart dictate to them,
What no passion or deep affection would deny,

40. It behooves our poets to remain silent,
Before appearing before him and seeking permission,

41. He brought new life to the ancient worn by decrepitude,
And created the eternal so the ephemeral seemed lowly by it,

42. And he refused the new though its proponents indulged,
In ornateness until they were deluded by its hues,

43. So his novelty revived the ancient from decay,
And restored its pillars to their prime,

44. And he threw their novelty so its edifice collapsed,
By the traffickers' tricks and the paintings' flash,

45. The fragrant-breathed poets, mention of them spread,
In the land of Andalus by its most eloquent of eras,

46. Ibn Hani and Ibn Ammar strove for it,
Could they together attain the kiss of his lips,

47. And if they could attain more than that they would hasten,
Defying decrepitude and the grave to reach him,

48. O vine of Matrud, rejoice in him,
And quench the thirsty from his streams,

49. Spread your shade over the pilgrims and renew,
A time hidden by fate in your orchard,

50. How many a gathering of joy in it I attended,
And from his ode and rhymes grew drunk,

51. A singer sang and his singing was impassioned,
The lament of doves for their departed beloved,

52. So its trees swayed gently and its boughs,
Swayed in rapture upon their trunks,

53. And so our gathering there was like a poem,
Of his composition rising over his servants,

54. So praise be to Allah who returned him,
After his exile to his homelands,

55. So await his signs and hearken,
For your nightingale is calling from his branches