1. He frowned with poetry in his head, smiling,
Nothing made the eggs recoil like the eggs in adversity.

2. His youth thought it would remain though it did not know
That youth is a stairway up to old age.

3. Neither my resolve nor my composure nor my manners
Nor my loyalty nor my faith nor my nobility has aged.

4. Only the appearance of my head changed without its essence,
For grayness of the head, not of the morals, matters.

5. My soul said, on the day of our parting,
"Your love remains with me, so stay if you wish or go."

6. So I cried desperately and she blamed me. I said, "Do not fault him,
For he has not erred or been unjust."

7. When his heart was pure, his innermost thoughts were revealed,
For nothing in something pure remains concealed.

8. Some separation is closer to reunion, though oft
A healed rift is blamed when the rift remains unhealed.

9. How can I stay in a land where I fear nothing
And hope for neither youthful vigor nor my pen?

10. So she kissed me goodbye. I said, "Enough,
For drinking wine is not of my morals."

11. Had her saliva not been wine, her pearls
Would not have spoken from the crevices of her mouth in order.

12. Had I not been certain it was only spittle in her mouth,
I would not have been one who wards off kissing with blaming.

13. Her spittle made me colder as it trickled down
On the icy pebbles of her mouth’s crevice.

14. I do turn my gaze from her beauty out of chivalry
And I hold back my palm from ambitions.

15. I care not if another soul rivals me.
I ask God’s forgiveness except in fantasies.

16. I do not deny a phantom happiness though it dispersed illusions
Among us just as spirits do among bodies.

17. It lived so I lived, and its visit made us feel
We could do without sitting sadly alone withdrawn.

18. Imagination and cheeks can be joined if she is miserly.
How like despair is being severed from the nonexistent!

19. Fate is like a phantom who gives and favors him
Not deliberately, so do not praise or blame.

20. Do not praise fate when it unveils misfortunes,
For had it wanted lasting misery, it would not have lasted.

21. Oppose your passions, for were it not that its slightest
Murmur is lament, hawks would not be hunted with nets.

22. You hope to be cured by her eyes though they and their sickness
Caused you. Have you ever seen a cure come from sickness?

23. You claim the passion of Nejd’s youth. If it crosses your mind,
It would be an oasis for you away from all the people.

24. How can the passion of Nejd’s youth quench its thirst
When the winds just make every spark blaze?

25. I wake and sleep and nothing of my honor is reproached
Though honors are reproached with words.

26. I do not like praise not confirmed by my deeds,
Nor do I accept glory stained with blame.

27. Do not count the glory of forefathers a honor
For one who falls short of the peaks of their glory.

28. The merit of men is in their own merit, their pride
In rising to great heights, not in their height.

29. No envier has envied me but thereby I gain pride.
So my enviers do me a favor against their will.

30. They point out my superiority when my scrolls
On greatness are titled with reference to them.

31. O you who strive for glory across horizons exerting effort,
Glory is nearer than the shin to the foot.

32. Say: Helping the state of God’s religion is a hope of mine,
In word, though you have attained the utmost pinnacle of hopes.

33. How often I have shrunk from it but its virtues called me:
O seal of literature, praise the seal of nobility!

34. So divine guidance led me to it, then it called:
“This path leads to the most high, so follow it straight.”

35. Its palace is Arafat where good character is known, so sing its praises,
And its pilgrim shrine is the Kaaba of perfections, so greet it.

36. You see kings humbly standing at its doors,
A delegation and ransom, so leave aside all other tribes.

37. Every accompanied one is enveloped by its processions
In glory, and it is served by the army and servants.

38. Throngs crowd its processions,
Crowns of all who inspire awe and vengeance in people.

39. They enjoy the shade of a king who exercises modesty,
While many a despised, immodest king rules others.

40. The king is like a forest, with a harmful, vicious snake
And a lion lurking for prey and blessings.

41. They are the greatest of people in status and fortune,
But his superiority came from above their superiority.

42. When the sphere of kissing its courtyard appeared,
Not a handspan on earth remained unkissed.

43. The surface of the mouth is a mouth of a gap-toothed army,
Split open and overflowing with every mouth.

44. If it preferred fingers to mouths and the land of its procession,
It would not lack a palm print or a kiss.

45. As if its land were a magnet attracting every mouth,
Nature draws them willingly and unwillingly.

46. When you rose high you flooded both worlds with dew,
And overflowing rain makes the land fertile.

47. You have risen in rank but your blessings do not thin out for anyone,
“Blessed, blessed,” from the Sublime, the Harmonious!

48. Apportioned in the Highest to the right in its good fortune,
The left in its good fortune, all for generosity.

49. If he says no, it is repeated no’s,
If he says yes, it leads to even more blessings.

50. His firmness appears in the water of his kindness,
And water shares some qualities with the stern, strong man.

51. He is bold in spending wealth he gives away,
While stinginess in generosity is like cowardliness in Resolution.

52. The rain, when it flows with good, distributes it
Among the rivulets, streams, and watering places.

53. Through it every height craves its sublimity,
Thirsting perpetually however much it drinks of its water.

54. A craving for divine bestowal comes over it.
Capacity encompasses that craving.

55. To you I composed poetry's treasures on
Parchment that loves the swoop of the voracious vulture.

56. As if the hides were scriptures written in chapters
With its veins in red, explaining every obscure meaning.

57. Their trotters match each convoluted problem
With red markings, elucidating all obscure texts.

58. A clear, vivid bay horse sharing
Day and night, divided.

59. His limbs shine except for his hooves.
For they and the skirt are for darkness.

60. Your smooth riding beast’s forelock adorns him
As fire clung to kindling in the beginning.

61. He galloped, so dawn revealed his kindness,
Kissing and stroking with his legs and servants.

62. He kissed dawn so it would reward him in return,
So it smiled back, reciprocating the kiss.

63. Through your justice the mouth of mouths smiles now,
Though before it frowned and did not smile.

64. It resents only that you erased a night
Of darkness from them when they were in darkness.

65. You restrained yourself from them, so they grew more chaste and devout.
They are safe and faithful, inviolate.

66. God has magnified their rule, which Banu ‘Uqayl attained
Along with blessings they comprise.

67. Had your father Nasr not seized it, you would not have found
One whose origin and nobility could equal it.

68. If the sun sought other than the moon, it would not have joined
Anything like it in splendor and greatness.

69. With him Mudar gained more glory,
And sometimes lofty ones hunt prey in the protected zone.

70. Fifty thousand cover the land altogether, their multitude
Like the wave of a raging sea crashing.

71. Of all who come to greet its visitor
With the new moon that signals the Feast clasped to their mouths.

72. Tested with seasoned old camels they were enriched
Needless of provisions, so they were needless of supplies.

73. Wild game was their advance party and rain their water.
It sustained them, making them needless of homes.

74. Beneath the spears, the horses wink at each other as if
They are lions roaring together in thickets.

75. A people who see living a short life as an honor,
So nothing leads them to old age.

76. Most of them resemble you in manners, not in character.
Sometimes man is likened to an idol.

77. I do not deny the merit of poetry since narratives
Of glorious deeds are transmitted through it from ‘Aad and Iram.

78. The best traits are those expressed smoothly in words
And elaborated with maxims and wisdoms.

79. Inherit from every miser whose palms withheld:
Most people are keepers of wealth for others.

80. The generous man bequeaths blessings during his life
While the timid inherit after death and perishing.

81. A man’s worth is what his hands have given away,
And your merit is the most precious appraisal.

82. Excellence is diverse things whose entirety you embody
And whose meaning you are the exemplar for as long as you endure.

83. O you who strive ambitiously for glory in the horizons,
Glory is closer than the shin is to the foot.

84. Say: “Supporting the state of God’s religion is a hope I have,”
In words, though you attained the utmost pinnacle of hopes.

85. How often I have shrunk from it but its virtues beckoned me:
“O seal of literature, eulogize the seal of nobility!”

86. So providence guided me to it, then it called out:
“This path leads to the Highest, so follow it straight.”

87. Its palace is Arafat where good character is known, so sing its praises,
And its pilgrim shrine is the Kaaba of perfections, so greet it.

88. You see kings humbly standing at its gates,
A delegation and ransom, so leave aside all other tribes.