1. O bird, we shall be birds tomorrow
My soul, for separation makes one rise early

2. I seek my want from the Noble
Without it are grief and repulsion

3. An Iraqi woman has given me a draught
As if when she was revealed, it was light

4. Ask not about our whole affair
From my trace, well-omened and buried

5. Not all I have do I boast about
Malice is folded and good wide published

6. A poet whose eye was hurt through us
At times, discernment guides him not

7. I said to him when his demons clamoured
And many cock-and-bull stories about him abounded

8. Had it not been for my respite becoming
A way into you and a lute singing you

9. There appeared a warner to you from an adviser
And the lute, serpents hissing

10. I wonder at one striving towards my embers
When the nobles called me

11. He comes to my fire though I did not invite him
Abu 'Amr is surely entombed

12. I visited the estates of Banu Hashim
And the whites, airborne flocks, visited me

13. Of every doe, slender of waist
High-born, revered her growth and manner

14. Perfume is enhanced when she turns
A mouth and a glance wherein is languor

15. An ornament which hovers over it
As if it, in the Persian cloak, a furnace

16. And I sometimes visit a glorious brother
By whose hands dinars are split

17. Woe to me for Abu Wabis
What ails him? Stinginess and neglect

18. A knight whose cup matches his palm
In munificence, while some men are swine

19. I came early to his fire
Yearning, and dwellings were not cramped for me

20. So he kept roasting me, and I let him wander
Each one made happy by what he does

21. Until the day had completely passed
And the secret was announced by glad tidings

22. There espied us in its gathering an infidel
Successor to the sun who takes cover

23. The lies of Abu Wabis led him astray
Vehemently, so the endings jostled him

24. The doe-eyed girls called for us, upon them life
How excellent pure doe-eyed girls

25. We sip it slowly with wanderings in the goblet
It is among us a picture perfect image

26. It enhances drinking, and jewels have adorned it
As if it were, in the topaz, a bakehouse

27. Languid, if kissed, it would bend
As the fine spears bent

28. They sing melodies from Medina
And an instrument of Mecca was strumming for it

29. The pipes weep for it at times
Grief, and the lutes discourse of it

30. While I am enchanted by its trilling
Now the bamboos and pipes ring

31. Then that passed, and I did not bewail it
The bliss of life embittered by uproar

32. Leave that, for the nobility of Hashim
Are sons of David, acting with speed

33. They set out to war with its like
Game, when the preyer flees

34. Among them are outstanding chiefs
To whom throngs thow themselves

35. Say to those who foolishly seek to debase them
The winds do not overtake the clouds

36. How many a noble of Banu Hashim
Guided aright by providence and prosperity

37. For kingship, there is Abbas and his sons
Afoot, and for the rabble, swine

38. The like of Solomon, and who is the like of him?
Under the fray and the famed sword

39. Two halves of munificence and might
That the vile mob cannot appraise

40. In his breast, clemency; in his coat of mail
A lion with the bejewelled crown

41. The whites give happy tidings when they meet him
At times, and the wild geese strut

42. Dew sweats amber upon him
As though completed by it, coldness

43. His bestowal gushes, and his promise
A good opinion and face triumphant

44. He expends wealth and preserves repute
And no unsound word issues from him

45. Praise is ordained upon his face
Musk wraps it in waves

46. By God, I have none but his probity
And the righteous king is blessed

47. His well-being like water in its abundance
Munificence by which he gives drink at dawn

48. So my enviers are vexed, and I saturate him
With praise – for praise is dyeing

49. He adorns Solomon of Banu Hashim
As beauty adorns the well-robed

50. Of his forbearance, forbearance; of his wisdom, wisdom
And from his bounty, facilitation

51. Smiter of necks and deliverer of them
His sword chaste musk perfumed

52. He effaces the meanness of his brothers with munificence
And destiny erases sins