1. His eyes rule over lovers,
And they have no succor when he is stubborn.

2. As for his estrangement, it is familiarity,
And as for his intimacy, it is seldom.

3. When my death pleases him, so be it—
Whatever grieves me pleases him.

4. I gathered his hair and others heard me
Saying I was spared gathering his hair.

5. Sickly gazes and perfect magic
Overpowered you.

6. So beware, O insightful one, of how
You fell as I saw fools fall.

7. War is sown by words
While love is reaped by gazes.

8. And after that, my heart is in his hands,
So if it is lost from him, he divulges its secret.

9. The greatest regret is that I die
With sorrows for him still in my heart.

10. God combined for his sight
The water of his cheek and its greenery.

11. Its redness is kindled by the water of the eye
And its blossoms were never dried out by it.

12. I think it is milk and wine
While his enviers say it is water and embers.

13. The wine pitcher poured a draft
And I did not drink, so how did I find its intoxication?

14. It portrayed the pitcher in a neck and draft
While the cheeks of the lovely one sweetened his lips.

15. His earring frightens a distant lover,
So if it thunders, I have revealed its excuse.

16. Were it not for his generosity, injustice
Would not thicken his saddle or soften his waist.

17. Were it not for his stinginess, my composition
Would not have two lips receiving its mouth.

18. More wondrous than their withering thirstily
Is that they denied mankind the drinking of his wine.

19. By the redness of his cheek, the poetry has greenery.
While the whiteness of his complexion is adorned by black hair.

20. So it is a sun that appeared to me in the evening
And a moon that does not set in the morning.

21. You employed my secret thoughts
And did not release to me the reward of union.

22. My patience guaranteed being lovesick for you
And how many guarantors wear out from breaking!

23. I have not seen him be
Except that I strengthened love and released its fetters.

24. I have not reproached him
Except that anger prevailed over me while he had the upper hand.

25. I did not shed tears from my eyes
Except that I pressed oil in the sun.

26. I cried over you, my Master, until
I collapsed and there were no more tears in my eyes.

27. How much time we spend together and we used to say
To that: How did you cut off our camaraderie?

28. I poured it on him when my tears increased,
So he denied it. I said: “The water spilled it.”

29. He frightened me of the burdens in it
But for a lover, what is the burden of his sin!

30. His love trained me, so I became
One who overlooks all who are annoyed by him.

31. A full moon appeared whose night of hair
Adorned it with twilight glow.

32. O sun that dawned for me in the evening
And O moon that does not set in the morning.

33. You made use of my secret thoughts in reflections
And did not release to me the reward of union.

34. My patience guaranteed my infatuation with you
And how many guarantors wear out from their role!

35. I did not instill the fire of estrangement in a heart
That had in its love even a mustard seed’s weight.

36. Days will restore him to me unwillingly
And trials will turn him gentle even if he refuses.

37. I have the confidence that filled my right hand
From the confidence that I dictated and you transcribed.

38. I blame fate for blaming it.
He who blames his fate blames his fate.

39. A lord of leadership, hating ostentation,
A head of authority, and trustee of his people.

40. Of a people who, when their discourse spreads,
Musk diffuses when it emanates.

41. Faces of leadership, theirs are faces
And the secret of generosity is in those families.

42. They perished in the path of glory but
They have a mention God prolonged in age.

43. I loved him long ago when he was obscure.
So he returned in glory to his own trace.

44. I do not fear for you stumbling in the lead.
Does the illuminator of horizons fear stumbling?

45. The stumbling of the tolerant is glancing, so watch
For fortunes that were slow to bring abundance.

46. Hardships can intensely redouble
When moons are concealed.

47. Days differ in ruling
And the concerns of eve are erased in the morn.

48. So O you who was pleased by my shortcomings,
When the preceded clarifies his excuse from you.

49. I thought his script an unsheathed sword.
I recalled his excuse, so I licked its line.

50. And poetry I did not consider lighter of soul
Or thicker of blossom or greener of flower.

51. The night of worries revealed it to me in robes of my night.
So the night of cares saw its dawn from it.

52. Eloquence unleashed from it an ocean
I wanted to cross, but feared its crossing.

53. When a man drowns in the sword of the sea,
Do not mention its depth on your lips.

54. Sweeter than pleasure after anger
And more delicious than union after estrangement.

55. Little in words but abundant in meanings.
If you gain them precisely, they are plentiful.

56. It comforts then disheartens like a sea—
You see it, so the immersed belittle its immersion.

57. In the poetry of mankind is fraud and ignorance,
And this—each of its verses—is its forest.

58. Steeds wandering, rising,
To the command of the Able who they do not disobey.

59. You brought them to the measure, so they came
Showing us your measure in fate.

60. It is not like one who changes meanings
Then, if flaws appear, claims foolishness in critique.

61. Delicate in nature, perceptive,
As for his notions, they are like the sword’s danger.

62. He knew matters and matters made him known,
So he came to have knowledge of the outcome of the matter.

63. He does not hide wealth from a friend
But he sees only his own poverty.

64. May God reward you well for a friend
By lightening the sorrow that weighed his back.

65. Brides adorned by the face of my critique
So they select from the purity of love their bride-price.

66. If it came easy, it became difficult and turned
Into a meadow—the roads and wilderness below it.

67. So do not consider all verse to be poetry
Then assume each black thing to be its dates.

68. An ailment of the sedentary and song of travel
An overseer of the drinker and friend of desolation.

69. It lowers the period of reflection from me
And how much it crept intoxicated in its slowness!

70. So take it—a daughter of its night—improvised
Though it became disheveled by the sorcery of morning.

71. If it grew long, it became pleasant and agreeable
To the sight of thoughts—beautiful is its sight.

72. It walked or it became a star to the star
So it startled it and cast it down and captured it.

73. It introduces me to him though I do not see him
And ties for me the family ties of nobles.

74. The tribes of proper age—the law of poetry is that I am
A father to whoever I want to be a father-in-law.

75. I held its reins with the right hand of my thought
And it was emancipated for the sake of glory.

76. May God prolong your life in ease
Dragging its train above the horizon.