1. Is it the scent of your breeze, or the fragrance of meadows,
Or the illness of your glance, or the flash of lightning?

2. The clouds poured down where you reside,
When he called and poetry within is my vocation.

3. When he called and poetry within is my vocation.
I received his orders and since he commanded me,

4. My resolve did not settle or find peace.
I left, seeking your abode, a noble sanctuary,

5. Honoring Egypt over all lands.
Certain that in seeking you I was never absent

6. From it or from the council of ambassadors.
For you, from your blessed family, is a house whose destinies

7. Are bound to the forelocks of fate.
If they support you and are supported by you, their king,

8. Then for you is a right hand aided by the left.
Since you went to the Abul Muhannad as their

9. Confidante and outstanding horseman of the racetrack.
They contracted with you the belts of trust, which

10. You have purified of all murkiness.
When you assumed governorship of the lakes, you became

11. A sanctuary, safe and inexpensive.
You secured it until its inhabitants thought

12. No night startled them like daylight.
And you protected its coasts, so its land

13. Has no winds blowing or ghosts wandering.
I have heard the boasters say that I

14. Am a guest whose breadth matches his house.
A king, though if blamed, it’s for

15. Baring his shoulders of the clothes of shame.
I came to him out of sincere praise, poems

16. Riding the currents amidst the currents.
I said, when they spoke, I found his praise

17. Was like the meadows’ gratitude for rain.
The chosen Qais gained the choice of praise;

18. How excellent the chosen is for the chosen!