يا عمرو أضحت مبضةً كبَدي

فاصبغ بياضاً بعُصفرِ العنَب

O Amro, my liver has become inflamed

O Amr, my liver has become pale and exposed,

So dye it white with the yellow of grapes

So dye a whiteness with the safflower of the grape.

أحمدُ ذاك الخنيس ذو الكَفَلِ

الرابي وذو الوجنتين كاللهب

That scoundrel Ahmad with the curly hair

Ahmad, that languid youth with the heavy haunches,

The tall one with the two cheeks like flames

The prominent one, possessing cheeks like flame.

لي بلاءٌ وأنتَ تعرفهُ

رحمةُ الخطّاط في الكُتُب

I have an affliction that you know

I bear an affliction, and you know it well—

The mercy of the calligrapher in books

The mercy of the calligrapher within the books.

هذا وأمّا الذي يتمّ بهِ الإستارُ

في الوزن مُنتهى الأربِ

And as for what completes the concealment

This, and as for that by which the veiling is perfected,

In meter, the pinnacle of eloquence

In its measure lies the ultimate desire.

قدّامهُ الرابعُ المحاكيَ في المش

يةِ قابوسَ مالك العرب

Before him the fourth, resembling in walking

Preceding him is the fourth, mimicking in his strut...

Qabus, king of the Arabs

...the gait of Qabus, King of the Arabs.

فطمّسَ اللَهُ كلَّ ناظرةٍ

ومدَّنا للسماءِ في سَبَبِ

So may God blind every onlooker

So may God obliterate every prying eye,

And give us a path to the heavens as cause

And extend for us a cord reaching to the heavens.