حفظت منك بما لم يجر في خلدي

فالآن أعذر حسادي على حسدي

I have preserved from you what has never occurred in my mind

So now I excuse my enviers for their envy

سماح كف إذا ما شمت بارقه

نابت زيادته عن أن اقول زد

The generosity of your palm, if its lightning is suspected

Its growth exceeds my ability to say, increase!

وذمة الدهر معتصماً

بما تلقيته فرداً بلا مدد

And I take refuge in the covenant of time

With what I have received as an individual without allies

فأي موهبةٍ لم أحو أشرفها

عفواً وفائدة بالفضل لم أفد

So what gift have I not attained the noblest of it

Forgiveness and benefit, through merit I did not benefit

أيا أبا صالحٍ أصلحت من زمني

فعاد فاسده لي غير منفسد

O Abu Salih, you reformed an era of mine

Yet its corruption returned to me without reforming

تركت دهري وقدماً كان يلحظني

شزراً يلاحظني من مقلتي رمدِ

I left my time, and it had been an era that observed me

With contempt, observing me from the wetness of my eyelid’s mucus