1. Are you still my life's desire, or have you ceased?
Or have you severed the ropes as they once did sever?

2. She is perfect in beauty and faith, none can attain her;
Neither the rigid Christians nor those who trade in her.

3. Whoever comes to visit, his greeting she'll not return;
What harm if they had only repented and returned?

4. You who have resolved this perplexing affair;
Had you wished, the law could have quenched the thirst of the lost.

5. What has kept you from responding to their need?
Long ago, for himself, the chance of reconciliation passed.

6. Nay, but you have a need for those souls who departed
Passing by the furtive valleys, they slipped away.

7. They unpacked the camel litters of Nejd, but did not stay
On a land where olives and wealth flourish and abound.

8. You have secluded yourself, unless fate’s ropes for us
Are drawn by the suns, then no despair and no hope.

9. No blame, for her own kinsmen prevented their access,
Since the heart must belong to that from which one is banned.

10. What memory is there of a bond that was never true?
Or the visit of a caravan that seldom rested?

11. I brought you the fawn whose necklace was never tied;
A doe, whose chest was never marked with the brand.

12. Like an oryx that took wing, whose tracks faded away,
Grazing the heavens or lost, with no trace on the ground.

13. Those who railed against me were misled in their way,
Like moths and the sparks of fires when they fall.

14. I stand exonerated amongst the rulers of men, Most decisive when they judge, staunchest against excess.
Were it not for the Caliph who recites the Quran,

15. No law for people would hold, no congregation kept.
You are the trustee, trustee of God, neither lavish

16. In your charge nor timorous, filled with pious restraint.
Like the whetted sword, unblunted by the stroke,

17. No cheap tin on its blade, no hollowness in its stamp.
I sheath the kindled flame yet the wise do not object,

18. So what you decree, they obediently accept.
None reckon a favor like the favor you have shown, Above what people have done, your doing towers.

19. You are the blessed one; may God guide your party
When passions disperse and sects branch away.

20. Each matter made right by your wisdom’s command
To us is obeyed, applauded, welcomed with joy.

21. I lowered my bucket down virtue’s deep well
And drew up precious water and bounty untold.

22. Soon I will come to you while the home is struck
With my thanks and fair words of praise if they return.

23. O House of Marwan, God exalted you above
The people of heresy and misguided sects.

24. They assemble but know not what they assemble
The perfect who gather do not grasp what they grasped.

25. You meet men whose might you subdued by your awe
Who walk humbly, shackled, heads bowed in meekness.

26. If you pardon you rise above others in pardon,
And if you strike, what hits like the strike that you struck?

27. Below you we sought no redress for our needs,
Beyond you, no prospects to seek what we sought.

28. The lands are content with whatever contents you,
If you walk, they walk; if you say “halt”, they halt.