1. I was content with the veiled beloved,
And parted from a miserable life.

2. My hand submitted to love and passion,
Becoming a sash around a waist or bracelet on a wrist.

3. I gained wealth from a cheek I owned
More beautiful than the finest coin after it.

4. It grew redder whenever I made it more yellow,
As if what was in me was in it of blood.

5. That cheek kindled with green vitality
So I avoided paradise for hell.

6. On it is a line of musk that gleams on an apple,
The roses suffer and the lilies swoon over it.

7. My sickness did not cease before the day we met,
Growing with my passion for the bashful gazelle.

8. I spent the night yearning when she lisped over it,
My desire was only for the kiss of the veiled one.

9. No wonder if I die there young,
A soul is but part of a doting lover.

10. I risked my soul when I kissed and sipped it,
Passion said "Win the precious pearl!"

11. I stripped my heart of the clothes of its worries,
And it circled while my heart was in sacrosanct garb.

12. The memory of his kiss scented my words
When deposited on lips in a kiss.

13. I found happiness when its cheek eclipsed Scorpio,
So the talk of astrologers was false to me.

14. The rising of your veiled moon’s not more magical to me
Than the rising of my moon is to my critic.

15. I swear the face of dawn when it shows
Is not clearer to me than my argument to blamers.

16. Especially when I passed by an abode
Like a patience bead in a doting heart.

17. Only the sprigs of a willow appeared,
On its edges the light of a smile gleamed.

18. I stopped, avoiding the kiss of a reveling smile,
A shameful kiss, the kiss that remains.

19. The cheek I loved in beauty is a dummy,
My words’ truth is that it did not speak.

20. I cried with both my eyes as if I
Had lost two things I aimed to achieve.

21. My eyes never saw a gathering dispersed
Except by tears they addressed.

22. That mouth smiled from the brink of a tear,
Much stillness lies in smiling.

23. My heart and mouth asked not about a doe
Or my flirtations but praise for the Blessed.

24. He is the king who grants kingdoms by force
With perfect glory or determined resolve.

25. If he gains a kingdom then frees his Lord from it,
The freedman profits with great fortune.

26. Kings of mankind bow down before him in awe,
Non-Arabs and Arabs alike.

27. When one of them bows the situation is as told,
Of old, of hands and mouth.

28. The peace that comes to them from his bowing
Is more heartening to the outstretcher of hands.

29. In his land remain traces of his kiss,
On his face traces of its dust.

30. Tomorrow his might protects his protected,
So time seeks refuge and protection in him.

31. If birds mentioned his name in their atmosphere,
The harshness of a peregrine would not scare them.

32. The brother of lethal weapons, whose swords
Always cut lines of victory in the thick of battle.

33. Sent to every infidel as their death knell,
And sent as openings to all Muslims.

34. Swords are resolved through his resolved intent,
Who then is named the resolved sword?

35. His arrows penetrate every armored one,
So armor is just pierced fragments before them.

36. When they hunt gazelles, every prey
Is their master’s booty.

37. When their horses return bloodied, his gaze
Is adorned with what flowed over them of blood.

38. Who considers the racehorses’ galloping a rest,
And the wearing of armor a leisure!

39. The sweetest scent to him is the steeping of battle,
The softest bed to him the back of a zeitham.

40. How many worshippers of Jesus son of Mary
Saw him and became disbelievers in Jesus!

41. He has soldiers, knowing only war,
Though war means but swords and slaughter.

42. They stand in obedience when he says "Stop!"
And obey when he says "Proceed!"

43. How many castles in the sky were founded,
Inhabited from early Ad and Jurhum.

44. He climbed the ladder of glory leading him there,
And so obtained the means to heaven by a ladder.

45. He came upon one with a erected palace,
It became to him one with battered walls.

46. Of its heroes only bachelors remained,
Of its women only widows remained.

47. May God give you an eternal kingdom,
Your right hand pouring honey or butter.

48. Raging at the settled a time in misery,
Raging at the prosperous a time in bounty.

49. Bestowing when the clouds hoard their rain,
Enriching the land, no need to beg from the clouded sky.

50. You have been so generous you are the giver of finders,
Nay, the destroyer of destroyers!

51. I see spontaneous generosity from you,
While many are generous only from pretense.

52. O king I hope for your bounty, and I
Dare to approach and draw near you.

53. I saw you as a sea overflowing the land,
No flexibility remains for me regarding dry ablution.

54. I came to you hoping you'd suppress my enviers
As my heart defied their blame.

55. A censurer of me will serve your sun,
My words in your heavens will show my stars.

56. And my verse will suffice you against an unsheathed sword,
My poems suffice you against a well-stacked armory.

57. Take them though they come from a latecomer,
Creating excellence, precedence is no virtue.