يا مَلِكًا وهو بالتُّقى مَلَكٌ

ووالياً وهو بالعفافِ وَلِي

O King, who with piety is an angel,

And with chastity, a guardian,

أَصبحتَ شَمْساً تزيدُها شَرَفاً

حُمْلانُها لا الحُاولُ بالحَمَلِ

You have become a sun, made more noble

By its carriage, not the vain attempt at carrying,

واعتدَلَ الدَّهْرُ إِذ عَدَلْتَ فيا

للهِ من عادلٍ ومُعْتَدلِ

And time attained balance when you acted justly in it,

By Allah, what a just and balanced one!

وفي سبيلِ السّماحِ مكرُمَةً

نَزَلْتَ منها بمُلتَقَى السُّبُلِ

And generously upon the path of gentleness,

You descended where the roads meet,

كفَّاكَ في الغيثِ مثلُ عارِضِهِ

إِذا انْبَرَى فيه ضاربُ المَثَلِ

Your sufficiency in rain is like its harbinger’s,

When the one who coins proverbs hastens to it,

هيهاتَ كم بالرُّعودِ من قلقٍ

لَهُ وكم بالبروقِ من خَجَل

Alas! How much alarm is in the thunder for it,

And in the lightning, how much bashfulness,

كنتُ أَذُمُ الزمانُ في جَمَلٍ

أَوْقَعَنِي أُخْتَ وَقْعَةِ الجَمَل

I was stumbling through time in beauty,

Until the fate of the camel made me stumble,

حتى تَوَلَّيْتَ يا محمدُ ما

كانَ تولاه قبل ذاك علي

Until you took charge, O Muhammad, of what

Before that, no one had taken charge of but Ali,

وهذه الحالُ وَهْيَ مَسْأَلَةٌ

قدِ انْتَقَلْنَا منها إِلى البَدَلِ

And this condition—how hard the question—

We have moved from it to substitution,

ولم أُشاهِدْ ولا سَمِعْتُ بِهِ

من قبلِ ذا اليومِ وَقْعَةَ الإِبِلِ

I did not witness, nor hear of before this day,

The incident of the camel.