1. The glory of the Arabs revived in the land of the Turks,
And the followers of the Cross were humiliated by the son of Ayyub,

2. In the time of the son of Ayyub, Aleppo attained
The status of Egypt, and Egypt attained that of Aleppo,

3. To the son of Ayyub submitted every kingdom
Either willingly or through war and fighting,

4. Victorious, aided by his resolve,
His determination leading him to triumph,

5. While fate in its prescribed course serves him
And the earth with its creatures and the stars with their orbits,

6. Before his banners creation perpetually appears
White with victory, yellow with ripened fruit.

7. The citadels - which citadel ever
Was immune in its loftiness from all change?

8. Never did the cycle of vicissitudes revolve around it
Nor did the stroke of fate reach it.

9. Had time desired to vanquish it, it would not have succeeded,
Had it shot at it with the bow of the horizon, it would have missed.

10. Had the lion of the zodiac attacked it victoriously,
Its feet would have slipped and it would not have pounced.

11. It sits with the stars in their highest mansions,
Though they set, it does not set.

12. When thirsty, it draws the stars in the bucket of the clouds
As the water-carrier draws water from the well.

13. All fortresses seek clouds on high ground,
While the citadels seek clouds from low valleys.

14. Until the one whose destiny was the stars came,
“O seeker of stars, you have plunged deep into seeking!”

15. One who, had the revolving sphere refused him obedience,
Would have reversed it, making its head its tail.

16. He came to it, leading the roaring sea,
With his whites like waves and his tents like pearls.

17. The horsemen in their armours appear
Between the opposites of water and flame.

18. Their beauty as they return from their raids,
Not carrying firewood but leading captives.

19. He circled a sanctuary which no tongue touches
Except the tips of canes made slender by peeling.

20. He descended around it on a revolving sphere
And circled its highest tower on an axis.

21. It denied him access like a reluctant beloved,
Sweeter to him than honey or sweetest wine.

22. So he passed it by neither angry nor annoyed
And marched on neither spiteful nor wrathful.

23. His battalions folded up the lands and their inhabitants
As books are folded by their binders.

24. He reached the Euphrates and found in it a ferocious lion
Who sat mocking its flowing waters.

25. His troops plunged into the waves, throwing themselves in,
Floating in it like straws and scraps of paper.

26. They scorned to cross it in boats and carry them,
For their glory scorned the ignominy of wood.

27. He had taught them to cut across the Euphrates with him,
Learning to swim in a sea of blood.

28. They crossed it and left behind them in its twists and turns
Scattered pearls atop ridge and dune.

29. To lands that had responded ere called
By their suitors, else, fearing ruin, they would not have consented.

30. Had they not answered Joseph's call,
Their lands would have become like a desolate valley.

31. Their kings feared and fled, the cities panic-stricken,
The people scattered and lands deserted.

32. Then they consented, and no fortress remained inaccessible,
No kingdom unviolated.

33. Dawn overtook them anxious and dusk left them drunk
With revelry, play, and musical pipes.

34. Free of all cares, they indulged in the pleasures of life
And neglected their frontiers for kisses and youths.

35. The lands of Syria attained no clever ruler
Or wise counselor to guide them aright.

36. Kingdoms ruled not by their appointed ruler
But by the whims of eunuchs or minds of boys.

37. Until Salah al-Din came and reformed them,
Saving them from corruption as a body is cured of disease.

38. He took governance seriously, heedless of frivolity,
As if it were in earnest rather than a game.

39. He embraced it all and freely granted some of it,
For he is the one who grants dominion, and did not receive it as a gift.

40. He gave to him from whom kingdoms had been seized
And would bestow on the despoiled the spoils themselves.

41. He gifted cities to those who asked of him,
While he himself remained aloof from wealth.

42. Since Aleppo saw him deny it his presence,
While joining it to the lands of sweetest aleppine.

43. It turned on him, hands outstretched in need,
Beseeching him, face gloomy and sad.

44. He was merciful to its pleas,
Solidly concluding a peace it had urgently sought.

45. He entered it with unwavering resolve
For those who rise up, and unshakable stronghold.

46. The openings of victory without obstacles, and its hero
The sovereign of sovereigns, its master without falsehood.

47. The marvels that came to us from him are many,
His wondrous talents turned the marvelous into the unmarvelous.

48. Rejoice at the conquest, O greatest of all people,
For it is your heritage from your noble forefathers.

49. So glory in your conquest, for yours is a glory for the glorious,
A treasure for the treasurer, gain for the gainer.

50. Through you the citadels were set right after rotting
Under their rulers. Without you, they would not have prospered.

51. Would that each dawn whose radiance breaks
Were a ransom for the knight of knights in Aleppo!

52. I love a land in which you dwell,
And its dwellers, though they are not my kinfolk,

53. Only because you have become its master,
Beyond all other men. Is love without cause?

54. So the bounty of your hand is my treasure and my hand’s,
And love of your abode my inheritance from my father and his father.

55. For the praise of you has diverted my poetry from amorous verse,
Making it concise after diffuseness.

56. I have not said in it, "My youth was the day I departed,"
Nor "The beautiful one is with me."