1. No color whiter than the cheeks’
The youth fell for that first whiteness

2. We were alike - fighting blame, and for him
A reason, aiding whoever blames and dispraises

3. I look to the thickening of white hair, I see nothing
But nooses on necks creeping

4. And the white mark, a slight misfortune
If only destiny does not hasten

5. I carried its youth and white hair
Yet white hair weighs down more on the chins

6. I was tempted by passion and drank it
Unaware that bitterness followed my drinking

7. And I knew what intoxication comes after
Is lengthier than my fervor and deeper draughts

8. Wondrous! One who meets passion with his heart
Hasty, while most patient and steadfast of all

9. One who does not expose his heart to piercing
Arrows find the stabs of calamities gentler

10. Now dignity cloaks me in its gown
And distracted me from that coquetry

11. I shook off fervor which grew bolder
Whenever blame enticed it and dispraise enveloped

12. I am he whom you knew, and none can extinguish my domination
Not even the injustice of one who transgresses against me, ignorant

13. The enemy’s eye dims when I appear
His heart boiling with resentments like embers

14. He would distract me from my purpose, evading
Yet the sturdy, smooth spear cannot waver

15. I revealed my incisors, and if he faced me
He would spend the night restless, writhing in pain

16. Why then do I threaten or attack in vain,
What do I seek by entry or withdrawal?

17. I was not content, as if my ancestor
Were not the prophet, the messenger sent

18. I will seize supremacy over time
My right, forbid what I wish, spend what I please

19. I will enter the homes of women
And today darkness is deeper with clouds

20. The desperate calls out his near while the deluded
Yearns for the distant, deceived star

21. It is incumbent on me to tread on Iraq and its people
A day redder than blood, armed

22. A day when hearts slip away in fear of fate
And feet should slip even more in dread

23. With clouds reaching equally high
As if the laden clouds stretched

24. Had Moses glimpsed its night with his palm
The whiteness would conceal even deep examination

25. He sought loftiness, and seriousness toward the loftiness,
Keep away from the goal, persisting in struggle

26. Be determined - nothing left but determination
Incapacity the mark of one who depends

27. Or blame fate, for it is
A rod leveling the blame heaped

28. A swimmer, horseman, languid or spoken
May provide cover during your concerns

29. Do not create hope while your fervor retreats
And seek the life of the world while desire comes

30. Tether your hopes to the excellent
Sanctum diminishing the times, and stronghold

31. Generous hands from which his days drip
Favors for seekers, hopeful and expectant

32. My words nearly crumple, when applied
On the day of trial, from their precision

33. He does not hastily punish a crime, once it wanes,
And is quick to bestow, hastening

34. The confusion of stirring up turmoil, it is enough
To be near destruction and the writhing of agony

35. We appeal to authority by his name
And it responds, or we call the Most High, and He comes

36. And perhaps one day, you filled its expanse
With steeds clad in dust, milling about

37. And horsemen vying over bodies
Stabbing them, while the cutting blades are scarce

38. In each valiant hand, anxiety waving
His death flag, and tools of annihilation -

39. Blows like the cheeks of warriors, faces distorted
Tumult as fierce as the ignited inferno

40. Eyes of piercing like eyes it sends forth
Water whose veins have shriveled

41. Out of every horrible gash in the ribs, it’s cause
A hostage-taker, and an onlooker examining

42. Voracious in consuming the soft internal organs
Gathering inquiries, or losing fingers

43. There descends to it soft things it chews after
Or a challenger meeting stares askance

44. While you - should the enemy aspire - have swords
That bloody the foe’s forearms and humble them

45. Like fire that requires no more than a slight
While the sword is loftier to give and is asked

46. The horrific unknown, you see nothing but
Rising nooses that are welcomed

47. Nothing between he who fears death and he
Who has it for life’s companion but halting places

48. Do not regard a wrong-doer as kin and make him suffer disgrace
Sever ties he depends on and pull his pillars down

49. This trusted one, his brother is more equitable than him
He died estranged from his trusting son

50. Pardoning is honorable - when conceded
To one forgetful, the men say: Oblivious!

51. I was present when you were absent at a defeat
Your absence spared you what the enemies said and what they invented

52. Do not be fooled if their arrows
Scorched, for they have not reached what they hoped for

53. Never does an enemy’s arrow, even if it hits true
Wound except what is already destined for death

54. I counter those who blame you with a saying
Past regrets, nor polished excuses

55. That sheds blood while still in its sheath
Rarely does a drawn sword remain sheathed

56. Never can armor reach the mortal spot
Nor can the wave push back the rapids

57. No blade’s like the buzzing of flies, not one
That bared its sharpness on smooth stone

58. Our gloomy sky hides its perspective
Wherever bright dawn leaks through

59. Being peerless is no arrogance
Loftiness is the rank of one who climbs

60. Poetry and prose - I aspired to them
As ladders, while beginnings yearn for the last

61. And talk of my merit laid roots
Coursing the land, transported on a fleet horse

62. Had it not been for you, my resolve would not have approved
My pen more sublime than poetry, superior

63. Along with some of what the countries brimmed with
Are disapproving critics finding fault

64. When I regarded your strange sublimity
While the guardian of glory was neglected

65. I seized it undetected, infiltrating its limits
For might fills the hand that infiltrates

66. In a splendid life story fire is borrowed
And eras don, the longest garb

67. Filled with your merit - authority proliferates
What circulates, while the enemy diminishes

68. In it the critics are tested, as though
What descended like the Scripture sent down

69. I congratulated your ancestor for clinging to the sublime
You are most worthy of coming and being welcomed

70. I presented congratulations for days in which I see
Equal whether diminished or ennobled

71. I see the frowning faces of enviers
Enmity writhing within their ribs

72. Why does time activate against me a gang
Who shun me, and my time weighs on them?

73. The span of their nights fades like leather
Fragmenting over accumulation into fibers

74. The forebearing one cured all your maladies
While bonds with fools are an unsolved affliction