1. Between me and the swords of ambition
No helper in the fray, no foot

2. Reproach me not for your westerly estrangement
For my wound feels no dew of healing

3. In shelter's dread I said to him
Every abode I trod is forbidden

4. I admire each one steadfast of will
Who covets not the fruit of gray hairs' regret

5. If he stands, graces veil his features
If he walks, graces veil his tread

6. I love not the boy of ill repute
Who rends his cloak of secret words

7. A breast like the scabbards of swords has not
A secret bleeding from the shedding of bloods

8. The stars of fortune ranked up so I said to them
What blessings have you brought to our lands?

9. The nights race on our dominion
And in time are boons and banes

10. Our souls toy with the vicissitudes
As if they are in our palms a plaything

11. By night I plunged in hurriedly
Its morn embraced in darkness clinging

12. The dawn peeped out from its fringes
And night slipped out of its fetters darkening

13. As if the darkness in its jostling
Were steeds whose lightning flashed bright glows

14. The Pleiades cease not to rise over us
As the night in the prime of dawn glooms

15. So there poured on night's hue upon us
A grey of morn and pasture's verdure dimming

16. O flower of the valley, you're stingy with glad tidings
And ruin has not touched your soil

17. In you, how many tormented gazelles
Whose yearning with the breeze collides

18. Branches whose pendant drops
Slide on the garden floors and blood

19. Youth who taught wine ferment
So of your guests is the relaxed and bold

20. Were their brows to rise lofty
Their hair would shine and glitter

21. How can darkness hide them when
Among night hosts are their piercing blades?

22. Al-Husayn's right hand brings me justice
If his enemies oppress and do wrong

23. Degradation covets not the adjacency of a man
In whom sharp swords flash bright

24. In his grip the sword stands fixed
As in others' the staff trips

25. When a bump he grandly surmounted
His judgments and the spears took flight

26. From his face darkness' misfortunes smile
As if a new moon he wore beaming

27. He rent it as the iron charges forth
And plunged as the strikes spread flaming

28. When the withering of lips persevered
The retainers and endurance took over

29. From his mouth he belittled his smiles
As if in frowning he wore a smile

30. When night's veil kissed him
His garment's folds fell from his shoulders

31. As if from the joy of his watchful waking
Good tidings of praise the dreams brought him

32. When his concerns stretched long
The whites of his hands sobered and the pen frolicked

33. If he walked, his swords shone bare
And the anklets round his feet clamored

34. No hopes grew restless from his gaze's length
Nor did the cycles and covenants complain

35. Had the beasts sensed his horses
No cattle would walk beneath his delegation

36. He rivals horses in their chestnut hues
An old camel seeking to rend their meat aged

37. Spacious is the rending of his conscience wherein desires flowed
As if his open palms were lanterns

38. Whose flames in the dark thickets flared
He would not have sipped the wine and it poured from him

39. Had what the cups concealed been blood
Lo! The foes at his setting did rise

40. And after his sword darkened they flourished
They hurt not in you the threats of spears

41. And after tribulations, no pains
O silent one of time, from its discourse

42. Every era towards you stands accused
You are a symbol in the face of every conqueror

43. A dawn, and in every unknown, a flag
Unto Ahmad's father I unfurled it

44. As the darkness and the soul kindled
I surpassed Zuhair in my poetry, and here I am

45. I am not pleased that it is aged