رِضاكَ رِضايَ الَّذي أوثِرُ

وَسِرُّكَ سِرّي فَما أُظهِرُ

Your pleasure is my pleasure that I prefer

Your pleasure is my pleasure, the choice I prefer above all,

And your secret is my secret that I do not reveal

And your secret is my secret, which I never reveal.

كَفَتكَ المُروأَةُ ما تَتَّقي

وَآمَنَكَ الوُدُّ ما تَحذَرُ

Your fairness has sufficed what you fear

Your chivalry suffices to guard against what you fear,

And your love has secured what you dread

And your friendship secures you from all that you dread.

وَسِرُّكُمُ في الحَشا مَيِّتٌ

إِذا أُنشِرَ السِرُّ لا يُنشَرُ

Your secret with me is dead in the tomb

Your secret lies dead within the depths of my heart;

Once the secret is revealed, it is not concealed

Though other secrets be resurrected, this one shall not rise.

كَأَنّي عَصَت مُقلَتي فيكُمُ

وَكاتَمَتِ القَلبَ ما تُبصِرُ

It's as if my eyelid disobeyed about you

It is as if my eyes have disobeyed me regarding you,

And my heart concealed what it sees

And have concealed from my own heart what they behold.

وَإِفشاءُ ما أَنا مُستَودَعٌ

مِنَ الغَدرِ وَالحُرِّ لا يَغدِرُ

Revealing what I safeguard

For to divulge that with which I have been entrusted

Is a betrayal and sin that does not betray

Is an act of treachery, and the noble do not betray.

إِذا ما قَدَرتُ عَلى نَطقَةٍ

فَإِنّي عَلى تَركِها أَقدَرُ

When I am able to utter a word

If I possess the power to utter a single word,

I am more able to refrain from it

Then I am far more capable of leaving it unsaid.

أُصَرِّفُ نَفسي كَما أَشتَهي

وَأَملِكُها وَالقَنا أَحمَرُ

I maneuver myself as I wish

I govern my own soul exactly as I desire,

And control it while the spear is red

And I am its master, even when the spears are red.

دَواليكَ يا سَيفَها دَولَةً

وَأَمرَكَ يا خَيرَ مَن يَأمُرُ

Your affairs, O sword of it, have ups and downs

May fortune serve you in turns, O Sword of the Realm,

And your matter, O best advisor, commands

And yours is the command, O best of those who rule.

أَتاني رَسولُكَ مُستَعجِلاً

فَلَبّاهُ شِعري الَّذي أَذخَرُ

Your messenger came to me in haste

Your messenger arrived before me in urgent haste,

So my poetry, which I hoard, answered him

So my verse, which I hoard like treasure, answered him.

وَلَو كانَ يَومَ وَغىً قاتِماً

لَلَبّاهُ سَيفِيَ وَالأَشقَرُ

And if it were a dark day of calamity

And had it been a gloomy day of war and dust,

My sword and blade would have answered him

My sword and my sorrel steed would have answered him.

فَلا غَفَلَ الدَهرُ عَن أَهلِهِ

فَإِنَّكَ عَينٌ بِها يَنظُرُ

Time does not neglect its people

So let not Time be heedless of its noble kin,

For you are an eye through which it sees

For you are the very eye by which the Age sees.