1. The sun of intoxication appeared from the horizon of the clouds,
Displaying the necklaces of branches and adorning the cloak of mist.

2. What captivated me was only a tender, weak glance,
Still gaining in strength over weakness.

3. A gazelle of the herd that the lion seizes in its glance
With the snare of eyelids and soft hair.

4. My tears paused for it so I could behold a pause,
But it turned away and the tears kept flowing.

5. How strange that I incline when it sings
Though it was the one who brought my demise.

6. And my passion for it kills me and betrays me -
My fine patience, by God, is from my oath.

7. A fascination like my heart, its anklets and scarf
Fluttering from ardour and yearning.

8. They slipped away like stars in the darkness of night
Until dawn shone above a branch in the roof.

9. If not for its scent I wouldn’t have known
It was a spring breeze except from the perfume and fragrance.

10. One day I presented myself and it turned away scornfully
Preferring to submerge my honor in the abyss of rejection.

11. So I said, “have mercy on the suffering one for he has helped me
Intend and that you force my will.”

12. “Though my malady, its cure is not hidden from you
Because if you wish, you can cure me.”

13. “Did the Merciful create your mouth and soft skin
My life for you except for kissing and sipping?”

14. It said, “Does passion own you, are you my possessor?”
I said, “No, I am a seal on your hand.”

15. I was conciliatory when the train of its seduction flowed
Knowing that pulling arises from gentleness.

16. And I warned it of the might of my people and that
They have sought against every proud one my proud defense.

17. It said, “Would one like me fear spears?
Had it but glimpsed my stature it would have called it to the battlefield.”

18. “Does the professional with the Yemeni cane watch over me?
While you know it was rendered powerless by me.”

19. “Is the kingdom of Murran attributed to your absence?
It rages against lovers only by my inclination.”

20. “Are not the Gemini stars my necklaces?
Is any pretender claiming the Pleiades are my combs?”

21. So I said, “O soul’s wish, I have but
Indicated, by God, the contradiction in it.”

22. “Who then led you to adorn my hearing
With the essence of your refined grace and subtlety?”

23. It said, “Exalt the pride of my glory for it
Is the description of Ali among people, exalted over my description.”

24. “Prophecy favored him when it inspired him
To take the pardon and order generosity and chivalry.”

25. “A gallant whose character suited glory and sublimity
As humility suited the beauty of his gentleness.”

26. “His mind filled with wisdom and knowledge -
Learned in what hearts reveal and what they hide.”

27. “The traits of his valor have portrayed with their perfection
His radiant qualities untouched by pure generosity.”

28. “If he did not resemble the spring breeze through them
It would not be described as kind.”

29. “He has in speeches the ambition of the resolute
The army can do without and determination can suffice.”

30. “He comprehended branches of knowledge and highest positions
A place for him, the best of ranks and genre.”

31. “I see people in droves to the cave of his excellence
And recall those who succeeded in the Cave.”*

32. “I look at a thousand wise men and see not one among them
Who approximates him in that description.”

33. “He is aloof from the like, so one who worships
The Almighty sincerely is not like one who worships frivolously.”

34. “He weighed loftiness and wishes with his eloquent logic
Consuming speech in letters.”

35. “Necklaces of the magic of rhetoric, if only
He articulated them, would make grammar and morphology superfluous.”

36. “How alike are pens in his composition
To the scripts of Zuf and India in their flourishing.”

37. “The confines of thought are too narrow to confine his description -
The fields of paper and pages cannot encompass it.”

38. “And every praise falls short of him and contents itself
With a fraction, however much it is extolled.”

39. “To you, O Ali, I dedicate a garden
Of praise with basil flourishing and branches.”

40. “The springs of eulogies and poetry have watered it
And the hand of thought made it independent of irrigation.”

41. “Sanctify through it the Elite’s gaze, for it is a paradise
Whose fruits of meaning transcend plucking.”

42. “With your arrival associated with good, it expressed
The structures of joy, hyphenating affliction.”**

43. “So leave all else, for it is the essence of praise,
And if you wish, rhymes will meet your needs.”

44. “Though it is truthful speech, it has not increased
And one in jewels is better than a thousand.”