A poem dedicated to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, may God protect him, on the occasion of his blessed birthday.
O lord of horses, of honour and of glory,
Keeper of the word, between the ya' and the alef,
And heir to pride and triumphs from a man
Who guarded trust, from grandfather and forebear,
Mohammed the Good — the pride and master of the house,
A treasury of nobility, rain upon the people in hardship,
On your feast day, O foremost of our land,
The Emirates blooms with longing and with passion,
Sixty years, and you the star of my homeland,
You give and build, shoulder pressed to shoulder,
You have lit paths through life
As rain pours down upon the fresh and verdant meadow,
From youth you plunged headlong into the sea,
Bearing the sword amid the palms and fronds,
You build men, you spread awareness in a homeland
So it may tell the diamond from the clay,
The palms of Jumeirah are the finest witnesses
To the heights of glory in their harvested pearls,
You built with a resolve that does not yield
To conjecture, nor to fortune, nor to chance,
Word and deed and determination and an epic
That knows no fear, nor withers from indulgence,
On your feast day, glory blooms in my homeland
And roses flower with longing for Muzdalifah,
Your remembrance among the people endures still,
We recount it from forebear, we tell it to posterity,
From us, peace upon a face that overflows with contentment,
O lord of horses, of honour and of glory.