1. My heart is a comet and my passion a glow,
And every heart is a rising horizon and sky.

2. My poetry has softened even the hardest hearts,
So from the rock of the valley, water burst forth.

3. I will hear it in the pulsating veins as if
A call rings out from the Highest Assembly on high.

4. The angels will chant it, and mankind, enraptured,
Will echo it through both worlds in song.

5. I sang in my poetry because I composed it,
With a smile of love and tears of sorrow from me.

6. At times, a lip cracks open from it, and at others,
Tears and blood trickle down because of it.

7. By God, ancient poetry still has grace,
Which the ancients fell short of.

8. But it is lost among non-Arabs,
Having no splendor amidst ignorance.

9. Blessed indeed is Baghdad, seat of the Caliphate!
Blessed indeed are the leaders and caliphs!

10. Whenever poetry and glory come together,
Wherever heroes and poets keep company.

11. By your life! The roots of glory and poetry are one,
Just as the eminent and exalted are derived from the same source.

12. Say to Imru’ al-Qays, who died in despair:
I see that poetry is a throne protected by princes.

13. Peace be upon you from your caliph who
Will establish a kingdom that loss has brought down.