1. Ummama rebuked me for blaming her, though she knows not
The secrets of my soul, nor my morning or evening walk.

2. The thighs of the swift she-camel rattle not with bells
Between meadow and sheepfold, yet sound are her legs.

3. Since the tribe set forth, no man but has sought
The shade of her side-panniers, over her flank so easy.

4. She roams the stony ground and the pebbles count, when the sun
Declines and shadow returns to the mansion and palace.

5. A day when the horsemen charge, you would think the rattling thorn-bushes
Are the eyes of the blind, yet no blindness is there.

6. My words grow long, when I stand beseeching:
“O Lord, make straight the affairs of religion and mankind!”

7. Successor of God, and God guard him!
God be your companion, the Merciful One, on your journey.

8. When the rain fails us, we hope from the Successor
What we hope from the rain, be it copious or scanty.

9. O Lord, a cloud of bounty, whose outpouring
Comes from a Giver ungrudging and pure.

10. Shall I recall the hardship and affliction that befell,
Or is the report you heard enough for me?

11. After you, still I dwell in a house that wearies me;
My rising and resting are hard, up and down.

12. The resolute man, his effort profits him not,
Nor does the desert-dweller return to us here.

13. How many a widow, dishevelled at the holy seasons,
How many a weak orphan, faint of voice and vision,

14. Who calls you with longing of a madman, as though in him
Were a demon, or he were touched by mankind,

15. And counts you a substitute for his father lost,
Like a chick in the nest who chirps but cannot fly,

16. Hope in you as in hoped-for rain that will bring them
Bless you, Healer of broken bones crushed to fragments!

17. If you leave them, who do they hope for after you?
Or if you save them, you save from affliction.

18. Successor of God, why do you pay us no heed?
We belong not to you, nor dwell we in your palace.

19. You are the blessed one guided aright in conduct,
Disobeying caprice, standing vigilant in worship.

20. Your seat, by the thronged pulpit, graces its assembly
And adorns the domes of the kingdom and mansions.

21. You attained the caliphate, since it was fated for you,
As Moses came to his Lord at the appointed time.

22. So through them this religion will never lack, while they live,
The flourishing of a kingdom, radiant, splendid,

23. Always they ride on, encamping or departing,
Only to rule a lofty kingdom, perilous, immense.

24. No snake has hissed, growing towards a mountain,
But you have crushed the serpent’s skull.

25. Your uncles of Syria, when in terror,
Cannot be protected from the encounter of death by excuses.

26. How often have I called you, in a complaint inducing
Slumber, when I saw the times of men in decline!

27. Today you will give my feathered arrow fresh life,
Then make easiness descend in me where was hardship.

28. In the people I have found none to equal you,
Nor known any among them to rival you.

29. Truly, I will thank you for the kindness you have shown me,
And best is he who obtains a benefit, being grateful.