1. Do not ask how he is,
For he went astray when his crescent disappeared.

2. The censurers rose early to censure him sincerely,
Yet nothing is sweeter than their sincerity.

3. He is a lover of mine and others’
Who went away, and whose leaving broke my heart.

4. Happiness did not reveal itself except through its stealth,
And tranquility was not removed except through its departure.

5. Nothing humiliated me but his love,
And no disease fell upon me but through his coquetry.

6. His smooth cheek is flawless,
But the blackness of my eyes has marked it.

7. He is pliant yet tightly embraces,
His handhold being tighter than his embrace.

8. A gazelle and branch were angry at him
Until his wolfish nature and emaciation appeared.

9. The sun only rose when they said
it was his shadow—else it was his apparition.

10. And so too the moon in the darkness—
Beauty did not speak of it, rather its passage did.

11. O Lord of a day in which I attained what I attained,
In which I did not fall short in believing him to be my peer.

12. I bid him farewell with a kiss and a sip,
With his necklaces tightly fastened.

13. I forbid the necklace to roam, for
The necklace has scarcely room in the embrace.

14. I have not tasted anything but his sweet saliva,
So no wonder it has been made lawful to me.

15. That was an age now past, a bygone epoch,
And youth whose circumstances have changed.

16. The heart found peace and the lover found rest—
Not through his youthfulness or his censurers.

17. And a beloved whose estrangement I asked about, so the heart said:
His abandonment and company are equal.

18. His preoccupation cured my heart, and indeed
The truth is to say that it is his blazing fire.

19. How can my life be serene when the devout worshipper of religion
Has had his disputations unleashed against someone other than me?

20. And his favors had promised me and eluded me—
Far be it from his exceeding favor.

21. I am spurning him if his gifts did not find me,
And ignoring him if his intimacies did not include me.

22. A glance from you turns fortune toward me,
And through its inclining, his inclination is seen.

23. What kingdom but to it you lead,
And what sovereignty but on it you depend?

24. For sovereignty is but a flock
Whose shepherd he is, the tether of whose stallion is in his hands.

25. A burden upon kings called vizier,
Whose names his deeds have sanctified.

26. So his generosity guided the king and his bounty granted him success,
And his might protected the king and his vengeance subdued him.

27. And through his management the king's burden was eased
And through his undertaking its heaviness was alleviated.

28. So through his great works he has become
One whose realms in their entirety are his achievements.

29. He is a judge—no, but a prince, and the kings of the lands
Have become his men.

30. For this the world and what it contains
Is his house, and its people are his dependents.

31. The heavens are his house and the stars
His shoes, and the crescent moon therein his purse.

32. As for its clouds, they are his generosity,
And as for its stars, they are his family.

33. They erected his tent after the pillar had inclined
And the ropes had become decayed.

34. None calls the clouds but his call,
And none directs the clouds but his gesture.

35. We have seen wonders from him when
His sun rose and his shadows stretched.

36. He brought glory when the times of dearth had arrived
And the ropes were pulled toward the generous.

37. A generosity whose streams do not run dry,
And a forbearance whose mountains do not pass away.

38. I do not know whether his position is higher
In its loftiness or its word.

39. Sublime is He who fashioned the wild in a person—
So Glory be to Him and Exalted is His Sublimeness.

40. You have been absent from Your servant who was absent from
His good fortune, his supremacy, and his moderation.

41. His light has faded, his pillar has collapsed,
His foundation has weakened, and his ropes have decayed.

42. His enviers have exulted in seeing
His diminished state and absent perfection.

43. And if You so will, that which has departed from him will return,
And the circumstances will straightaway be set right for his state.

44. He has a promised time upon the responsibility of the years
That has been fulfilled, its fruits having ripened.