1. From longing, hopes caress me,
And from affection, my time deceives me.

2. Yet I yearn not to meet glancing eyes,
When my mind is preoccupied with the reins.

3. I wondered, how can the times protect a face
Exposed to blows and stabs?

4. The sun mourned its lost beauty,
Which refused to be termed ugly.

5. How beautiful are those with cheeks grown hollow!
When tested by the springs of Paradise.

6. The nights introduce themselves to me,
Yet I disdain to make my place known to them.

7. I am the son of the dispeller of dark sorrows,
Beneath which the throats of camels meet.

8. My grandfather probed the desert sands
Until water sprang from the shepherds’ staffs.

9. His steeds roamed the highlands,
And his guests gathered around the valleys.

10. Gazelles clothed him in white shrouds
And his blood was spilt by brown spear points.

11. I have spread over time the cloak of glory
Beneath which 87 pearl necklaces sway.

12. My guide in darkness is a tender breast
That helps me to blame the times.

13. A steed from which eyesight trembles
When his legs sport with hands.

14. As though I were in its flowing stream, a brook,
Playing with a bough of acacia from my reins.

15. Lively of glance, were it not for cunning
Revealed in its fine character.

16. If you espy it from a thatched house,
You would think it one of the wild cows.

17. I will muster from the bosom of time a resolve
By which war helpers are set flowing.

18. I will not forget the ascent to high deeds
Even if the steps of farewell forgot it.

19. The kind rain clouds halted at every house.
We were their quarter from which songs poured forth.

20. We were not frightened by a time
Which stretched harm beyond the nearby.

21. We disdain that nights should liken us
To a brilliant sun or a resplendent moon.

22. So here I am, and the beloved, we wish
We had drawn near when we were two fleas.

23. By a dark, restless night
I made its blackness white like my hair.

24. By a morn whose freedoms pour forth
While its sun peers out through the wavy mirage.

25. I have tied the ends of the heroes’ plaits with it
By the edges of the gilt-edged pages.

26. Dishevelled ones seeking lofty deeds—
Each stripped warrior horse.

27. I say to them “Trust in God regarding it,
For the Bountiful hand exceeds the assistant.”

28. Do not pursue glory–I saw
Glory demean the reins.

29. None rode glory save Ali
Who wiped its shoulder after war.

30. He raced while the sun climbed hesitantly,
So it passed and its course was in the air.

31. They shot arrows from you and the horses are dishevelled
With polished cheekbones and shining necks.

32. A hand that never failed to harvest the high stems
Shaking them, or the harvest of grapes.

33. You left them eyes of stab wounds flowing
With what drips from the edge of a keen sword.

34. The darkness was stripped from the chest of a day
Adorned in chainmail and dyed branches.

35. And bodies which fatalities share
With souls amid thrusts and stabs.

36. He is one who floods tribulation with his deliberation
Through every warding-off blow of two hands.

37. No man rose with resolve
Except that he met its heat amid hostility.

38. From him the frightened thirsty one gains
Refuge warming him against the cold of wishes.

39. His flame laughs brightly whenever
The fires of tribes blaze with smoke.

40. A day like the snarling lion’s cheek, awesome,
From which the gazelles’ tongues recoil.

41. You blocked its openings with words until
You process as one who sold perfume.

42. As for others whom lofty deeds terrify
And songs of lute players trick,

43. When rapiers and high deeds were recalled,
They sought refuge in spells and amulets.

44. If he pursued prey, it broke him
And he bartered the blood of steeds for gum resin.

45. Abu Sa’d, a prayer whose
Beginnings my tongue would chastise, were it slack.

46. You attained what you desired from the nights
And were given what you wanted from wishes.

47. Yours is the prize falcon of the lofty crested cup
And from it the firmly planted Yemeni spear’s charge.

48. When darkness was torn cowardly
You clothed it in a festival gown.

49. When the spears of diversion were driven away by it
Lifeblood gushed over the drinking vessels.

50. A draft you slaughtered for them, an antidote
Like the trim of the purple cloak.

51. As though a sunset leaned unto it
And plunged in the camel litters’ throats.

52. Separate the blood of the poison with the blood of foes
And sounds of lofty deeds with songs.

53. A day of which you are the foal—a steed
Who stomps free with its prowess.

54. I made my ode to you an artful order
Polished like the incoming flood.

55. In lines whose glances are wicked, they nurture
Its beauties into the meaning of a horse.

56. I joined the pearls of words in it
To the display of meanings and significances.

57. So there came, blossoming, a glance
That picked for its beauty pearls of poetry.

58. As though Abu ‘Ubadah split his mouth open
And al-Hasan ibn Hani kissed his lips.