اِختَرتُ دَهماءَتَينِ يا مَطَرُ

وَمَن لَهُ في الفَضائِلِ الخِيَرُ

I have chosen two darknesses, O rain

I have chosen two dark steeds, O Matar, as your due, / You to whom the choicest virtues ever accrue.

And who has the best of virtues?

For eyes may speak, and in the glances they let fly, / The gaze may sometimes tell the truth, and sometimes lie.

وَرُبَّما قالَتِ العُيونُ وَقَد

يَصدُقُ فيها وَيَكذِبُ النَظَرُ

And maybe the eyes have said, while

You are the one who, were he blamed in public view, / Would bear no fault save that he is a mortal too,

The sight may be truthful or lying

And that his gifts are sharp swords, horses bred for war, / Tawny lances, and vast herds of camels in store.

أَنتَ الَّذي لَو يُعابُ في مَلَإٍ

ما عيبَ إِلّا بِأَنَّهُ بَشَرُ

You are the one who, if blamed in an assembly

He shames his foes, for to his undaunted eye, / They seem to grow fewer, the more they multiply.

Has no fault but that he is human

May God protect you from the arrows they cast soon, / Though he surely misses who takes aim at the moon.

وَأَنَّ إِعطائَهُ الصَوارِمُ وَال

خَيلُ وَسُمرُ الرِماحِ وَالعَكَرُ

And that giving him swords and

Horses, lances and men of war

فاضِحُ أَعدائِهِ كَأَنَّهُمُ

لَهُ يَقِلّونَ كُلَّما كَثُروا

Exposes his enemies as though they

Lessen for him however numerous they are

أَعاذَكَ اللَهُ مِن سِهامِهِمِ

وَمُخطِئٌ مَن رَمِيُّهُ القَمَرُ

May God protect you from their arrows

And the one who shoots at the moon errs