1. خُذْ بالمسرَّة واغنم لذَّةَ الطَّرَبِ

    وزوِّج ابنَ سماءٍ بابنةِ العنب

    Embrace joy and seize the delight of rapture.

    And wed the son of heaven to the daughter of the grape.

  2. واشرب على نغم الأوتار صافية

    مذابة من لجين الكأس من ذهب

    Drink a clear wine to the melodies of the strings,

    Molten gold from the silver of the cup.

  3. ولا تضع فرصةً جاد الزمان بها

    ساعات أنسك بين المجد واللعب

    Do not squander an opportunity that time has bestowed:

    Your hours of pleasure, between glory and play.

  4. أما ترى الروض قد حاكت مطارفه

    أيدي الربيع وجادتها يد السحب

    Do you not see the meadow, whose robes were woven

    By spring's hands and lavishly watered by the clouds' hand?

  5. والورد قد ظهرت بالحسف شوكته

    وخضب وجنتاه من دم كذب

    And the rose's thorn has shown its harshness,

    And its two cheeks are dyed with false blood.

  6. وزان ما راق دمع الطل حين بدا

    تبسّم الأقحوان الغض عن شنب

    And tears of dew adorned the lovely sight, as there appeared

    The tender daisy's smile, revealing gleaming white teeth.

  7. والراح منعشة الأرواح إن مزجت

    صاغ المزاج لها تاجاً من الحبب

    And wine revives the spirits; when she is mixed,

    The mixing fashions her a crown of bubbles.

  8. وإن بدت وظلام الليل معتكر

    رمت شياطين هم المرء بالشهب

    And when she appears while night's darkness thickens,

    She pelts the demons of a man's care with shooting stars.

  9. داو بها كلَّ ما تشكوه من وصب

    ففي المدامة ما يشفي من الوصب

    Heal with her every illness you complain of;

    For in aged wine lies what heals illness.

  10. ودُر بحيث ترى الأقداح دائرة

    فإنها لمدار الأنس كالقطب

    And circle wherever you see the goblets going round,

    For they are like the pole of pleasure's orbit.

  11. يعود ما فات من عهد الشباب بها

    يشبّ فيها معاطيها ولم يشب

    Through her, the vanished days of youth return;

    Her drinker grows young with her and does not grow gray.

  12. يمجُّ منها فمّ الإبراق رائقة

    تخالها إنها صيغت من اللهب

    The ewer's mouth pours forth a clear draught of her,

    You would think she was fashioned from flame.

  13. في جنة راق للأبصار رونقها

    وأدمعُ المزن ما تنفك في صبب

    In a garden whose splendor delights the eyes,

    And the rainclouds' tears never cease pouring down.

  14. والوُرق تملي من الأوراق ما خطبت

    على منابر غصن الدوح من خطب

    And gray doves dictate from the leafy pages what they preach:

    Sermons from the pulpits of the spreading trees' branches.

  15. وما برحت لأيام مضت طرباً

    داعي المسرة والأفراح يهتف بي

    I never ceased rejoicing through the days that passed,

    As the herald of pleasure and gladness called to me,

  16. حتَّى إذا العيد وافانا بغُرَّتِه

    أقَرَّ شوال عيني في أبي رجب

    Until, when the feast came to us with its radiant brow,

    Shawwal gladdened my eye in Abu Rajab.

  17. بالسيد العلويّ الهاشميّ لنا

    فوز يؤمَّل من قَصْدٍ ومن أرب

    Through the Alid, Hashimite lord, ours is

    The success hoped for in purpose and desire.

  18. أحيت مكارمه ما كنت أعْرِفُها

    من الأوائل في الماضي من الحقب

    His noble deeds revived the virtues I had known

    Among the ancients in ages long past.

  19. الله ألهمه فهماً ومعرفة

    وحسن خلقٍ وحلماً غير مكتسب

    God inspired him with understanding and knowledge,

    And good character and a forbearance not acquired.

  20. إنِّي أباهي به الأشراف أجمعها

    بذلك النسب العالي الَّذي حسب

    I boast of him before all the nobles,

    Through that lofty lineage, which is honor enough.

  21. فداؤه كل ممقوت بشانئه

    فلا إلى حسب يعزى ولا نسب

    May every despised man, his hater included, be his ransom;

    For he is ascribed to neither ancestral honor nor lineage.

  22. هو السعيد الَّذي يشقى العدو به

    من ذا يعاديه في الدنيا ولم يخب

    He is the fortunate one whose enemy suffers through him;

    Who in this world has opposed him and not failed?

  23. لما دعاه وليّ الأمر منتدباً

    أجابه وأراه خير منتدب

    When the ruler summoned him for service,

    He answered, proving himself to him the best man called to serve.

  24. دعاه مستنصراً في عسكر لجب

    وقد ينوب مناب العسكر اللجب

    He called upon him for aid amid a clamorous army,

    And he himself could stand in for the clamorous army.

  25. فسار مستصحب التوفيق يومئذٍ

    فسار أكرمَ مصحوبٍ ومصطحب

    He marched that day accompanied by success,

    And went, noblest of the accompanied and the accompanying.

  26. وصار تدبيره يغني عساكره

    عن الكتائب بالأقلام والكتب

    His strategy came to make his armies self-sufficient,

    Without battalions, through pens and written dispatches.

  27. كم كربة نفّست للجيش همته

    فحقّه أنّ يسمى كاشف الكرب

    How many a hardship his resolve dispelled for the army!

    He deserves to be called the dispeller of distress.

  28. دعا إلى طاعة السلطان فاجتمعت

    له القبائل من بعد ومن قرب

    He called for obedience to the sultan; then there gathered

    Around him the tribes from far and near.

  29. لقد أجابته وانقادت لطاعته

    ولو دعاها سوى علياه لم تجب

    They answered him and submitted to his authority;

    Had anyone but his exalted self called them, they would not have answered.

  30. أراعهم ما أراهم من مكارمه

    وجاء من بره المعروف بالعجب

    What he showed them of his noble deeds filled them with awe,

    And his well-known benevolence brought wonders.

  31. تلك المزايا لأجدادٍ له سلفت

    فأعقب الله ما للمجد من عقب

    Those virtues belonged of old to his forefathers,

    And God granted glory its succession of heirs,

  32. من سادة شرّف الله الوجود بهم

    قد أوْرِثوها علاءً من أبٍ فأب

    From lords through whom God ennobled all existence.

    They were bequeathed those virtues as honor, from father to father.

  33. فلم تجد من لسان غير منطلق

    ولا فؤاداً إليهم غير منجذب

    So you found no tongue that did not speak freely,

    Nor any heart that was not drawn toward them.

  34. فلا تقسهم بقوم دونهم شرفاً

    يوماً وكيف يقاس الرأس بالذنب

    So do not compare them with people beneath them in honor,

    Ever—for how can the head be compared with the tail?

  35. لقد كفى العسكر المنصور نائبة

    تجثو لها نوب الدنيا على الركب

    He spared the victorious army a calamity,

    Before which the world's calamities kneel on their knees.

  36. وقوّمت كل معوَجٍّ صوارمه

    وسكنت منذ وافى كلّ مضطرب

    His sharp swords straightened everything crooked,

    And from his arrival stilled everything turbulent.

  37. وأسعد الله مولانا الفريق به

    فكان ثابت سعد غير منقلب

    And God brought our lord, the general, good fortune through him,

    So his good fortune was steadfast, never overturned.

  38. وكان أعظم أسباب الفتوح له

    فيا له سبب ناهيك من سبب

    He was the greatest cause of his conquests;

    What a cause he was—an excellent cause indeed!

  39. أما وربك لولاه لما خمدت

    نار لها غير فعل النار بالحطب

    Indeed, by your Lord, but for him there would not have died down

    A fire whose work was unlike fire's work upon wood:

  40. دهياء تفغر فاهاً لا سبيل إلى

    ترك ابتلاع سراة القوم بالنوب

    A dire calamity, mouth agape, with no way

    To stop its swallowing the people's chiefs through disasters.

  41. المطمعين بنيل المجد أنفسهم

    لا يسأمون من الإقدام في الطلب

    Men who fed themselves the hope of attaining glory,

    Never tiring of bold advance in its pursuit.

  42. وكان خيراً لهم لو أنهم رجعوا

    عن غيّهم بعد ذاك الجهد والنصب

    It would have been better for them had they turned back

    From their error after all that effort and toil.

  43. بَغوا لما نزغ الشيطان بينهم

    والبغي يسلم أهليه إلى العطب

    They rebelled when Satan sowed discord among them,

    And rebellion delivers its followers to ruin.

  44. حتَّى إذا دبّروا للحرب أمرهم

    وهم عن الرأي والتدبير في حجب

    Until, when they planned their affairs for war,

    While veiled from sound judgment and planning,

  45. فأقبلت برجال لا عداد لها

    وحيّر الترك ما لاقت من العرب

    War advanced with men beyond all counting,

    And what the Turks faced from the Arabs bewildered them.

  46. لله درك ماذا أنتَ فاعله

    بذلت نفسك فوق المال والنشب

    God bless you—what deeds you accomplish!

    You offered yourself, beyond wealth and possessions.

  47. والحرب قائمة والنار موْقدة

    يقول منها جَبانُ القوم واحَربي

    While war raged and the fire was kindled,

    The people's coward cried because of it, 'Alas, my ruin!'

  48. يساقط الموت من أبطالها جثثاً

    كما يساقط جذع النخل بالرطب

    Death dropped corpses from among its champions,

    As the date-palm trunk sheds ripe dates.

  49. برزت فيهم بروز السيف منصلتاً

    من غمده وأخذت القوم بالرعب

    You emerged among them like a sword drawn

    From its scabbard, and seized the people with terror.

  50. كففت أيديهم عن ما تمد له

    فما استفادوا سوى الخذلان في الغلب

    You restrained their hands from what they reached for,

    So they gained only failure in their bid for victory.

  51. وشتت الله ممن قد طغى وبغى

    جمع الخوارج بين القتل والهرب

    And God scattered, among those who had tyrannized and rebelled,

    The rebels' host, between slaughter and flight.

  52. ودمّر الله في أقدامهم فئة

    فكان أعدى إلى أخرى من الجرب

    And God destroyed a band at their feet,

    Its ruin spreading to another more readily than mange.

  53. تعبتم فأرحتم بعدها أمماً

    كم راحة يجتنيها المرء من تعب

    You toiled, then gave nations rest afterward;

    How much ease a person harvests from toil!

  54. وعم فضلك ذاك القطر أجمعه

    يا حسن ما أصبحت في مربع خصب

    Your bounty encompassed that entire land.

    O Hasan, what a fertile abode you have come to inhabit!

  55. رأس الأكابر والأشراف من مضر

    صدر الرئاسة فخر السادة النجب

    Chief of the great men and the nobles of Mudar,

    Foremost in leadership, pride of the distinguished lords.

  56. ليهنك النصر والفتح المبين وما

    بلغت من جانب السلطان من أرب

    May victory and manifest conquest give you joy, along with all

    The wishes you have fulfilled through the sultan.

  57. لئن حباك بنيشان تُسرُّ به

    بطالع لقران السعد لم يغب

    If he has bestowed a decoration on you that delights you,

    Under the ascendant of a fortunate conjunction that has never set,

  58. هذا المشير أعزّ الله دولته

    أبانَ فضلك إعلاناً لكلّ غبي

    This marshal—may God strengthen his rule—

    Has proclaimed your merit plainly to every dullard.

  59. وخذ إليك بقيت الدهر قافية

    تلوح منك عليها بهجة الأدب

    And accept—may you live for all time—a rhymed poem,

    Upon which the splendor of letters shines from you.