هذا العقيق تلك أعلام الحمى

فإلام وخدك والدجى قد هوما

This is al-Aqiq; those are the landmarks of the preserve.

How long, then, will you press on, when the darkness has already dozed?

نهنه ركابك والدمع فسبة

لا سنة سح الدماء على الدمى

Restrain your mounts and your tears; it is a disgrace,

not a custom, to pour blood upon the idols.

من لي بمعتدل القوام تخاله

والغصن في لين المعاطف توأما

Who will bring me one of balanced stature, whom you would deem

the branch's twin in the suppleness of his curves?

عيناه عوناه فسقمي منهما

شفتاه كم شفتا فبرئي فيهما

His eyes are his two helpers; my sickness comes from them.

His lips—how often they have healed! My cure lies in them.

خلف الضحى بعد الدجى ونجومه

وجهاً وصدغاً كالظلام ومبسما

He replaced the morning light, after the darkness and its stars,

with a face, a temple-lock like night, and a smiling mouth.

ولقد وشى بالوجد وشي عذاره

كتم الهوى غفلاً ونم منمنما

Indeed, the tracery of his cheek-down betrayed passion;

it hid love while bare, and betrayed it when finely patterned.

يا فاتكاً بعاشقيه بمقلة

أمنت فلا قود وقد سفكت دماً

O you who slay your lovers with an eye,

you are safe from retaliation, though you have shed blood.

لو صح لي من يوم وصلك مطلب

ما كنت من صبري لهجرك معدما

If a wish for a day of union with you came true for me,

I would not lack patience for your estrangement.

لا تسقني من خمر فيك فإنها

تذكي الصبابة أو يدوم بها الظما

Do not give me the wine of your mouth to drink, for it

kindles longing, or keeps thirst alive.

وكذاك لا تبسم فثغرك بارق

والدمع غيث ما أضاء له همى

Likewise, do not smile: your mouth is a lightning flash,

and tears are rain: whenever it flashes, they pour.

وافى وقد هزم الظلام بمبسم

أعشى العيون فما رأيت له فما

He arrived, having routed the darkness with a smiling mouth

that dazzled the eyes, so I could not see his mouth.

فجلوت كالدنيا في كف الكرى

والبدر تجلوه الدجنة درهما

Then you shone forth like the world in slumber's palm,

while darkness burnishes the full moon into a dirham.

والبرق يومض والسحاب كظاعن

الوى به طول الكلال فخيما

Lightning flashes, and the clouds are like a traveler

whom long weariness has overcome, so he pitches camp.

كصفات سعد الدين في قصاده

والوفد جاد كعاده وتبسما

Like Sa'd al-Din's qualities toward those who seek him

and the delegations: he gave, as was his custom, and smiled.

يحبو إذا ظن الغمام بمائه

ويضيء إن وجه المطالب أظلما

He gives when the clouds withhold their water,

and shines when the face of aspirations grows dark.

ويجول في حيث الرماح شوابك

وإذا تأخرت الكماة تقدما

He ranges where the spears are interlocked,

and advances when the champions hang back.

كم فك من حلق الأعادي عانياً

وأغاث ملهوفاً وأغنى معدما

How many a captive he has freed from enemies' shackles,

rescued the distressed, and enriched the destitute!

فأجل في ضنك الوقيعة أشهبا

وأعاده بالنقع جوناً أدهما

He wheeled a gray horse through the battle's press,

and brought it back dust-darkened, jet-black.

فإذا اغتدى تلقى الظلام ونجمه

نقعاً ترفع كالسماء ولهذما

When he rides out at dawn, you encounter darkness and its star:

dust risen like the sky, and a keen spear.

والبيض تكتب والوجوه مهارق

ومدادها المهجات خطاً معجما

Bright swords write, and faces are parchment sheets;

their ink is lifeblood, their script dotted.

في حيث يلقى في كل طود مثله

طوداً من الزرد المضاعف أيهما

Where he encounters, in every mountain of a man like himself,

an unassailable mountain of doubled chainmail,

والسمر للسمر الذوابل مشرباً

والبيض للبيض القواضب مطعما

and dark-skinned men as drink for slender, dusky spears,

and fair-skinned men as food for bright, cutting swords.

بطل إذا حمي الوطيس حسبته

ليثاً يصول على الكماة بأرقما

A champion: when the furnace of battle blazes, you would think him

a lion charging the champions with a speckled serpent.

وتخال لبدته المضافة والقنا

أجماً ومخلبه الحسام المخذما

You would think his augmented mane and the spears

a thicket, and the cleaving sword his claw.

ومن سخطه ورضاه ينشر في الوغى

بؤسى وإن كمد الحسود وأنعما

From his wrath and his favor he spreads in battle

misery and blessings, though the envious man wastes with grief.

وإذا تخاف وغى تسمى واكتنى

ورمى الصفوف على الصفوف وأعلما

When battle is feared, he proclaims his name and his byname,

hurls ranks upon ranks, and displays his battle-mark.

ومحكم في الدارعين حسامه

ومن عز في حكم النزال تحكما

He makes his sharp sword the judge over armored men;

and whoever prevails in combat's judgment rules at will.

أصفى لي النعمى وكانت حمأة

وأباحني الحسنى وقد كانت حمى

He purified bounty for me, though it had been black mire,

and granted me goodness, though it had been a guarded preserve.

وأحلني حيث السماك برمحه

دوني فقد أصبحت أمنع منهما

He settled me where al-Simak, with its lance,

lies below me; now I am more impregnable than both.

وأعلني ماء الحياة سماحه

حتى آمنت بظله إن أهرما

His generosity gave me another draught of the water of life,

until I trusted in his shade, even should I grow old.

وغدوت منه مظفراً حتى شبا

قلمي ثنى ظفر الخطوب وقلما

Through him I became victorious, so that even the points of

my pen bent back misfortune's claw and clipped it.

أضحى جميلاً والعلاء بثينة

كل بصاحبه يبيت متيما

He became Jamil, and glory Buthayna;

each spends the night enthralled by the other.

فليهنه عيد أتاه بمثله

إلفاً نوى يم السماح ويمما

May the feast gladden him, bringing him his equal,

as a companion who sought generosity's sea and made for it.

هو والقرين شهره وختامه

كل غدا في العالمين معظما

He and his companion, its month and its close—

each has become revered throughout the worlds.

الآن بات الشمل وهو مجمع

والعقد في جيد الزمان منظما

Now the company has come together,

and the necklace is strung in order on Time's neck.

شمس وبدر في محل واحد

عما قليل ينسلان الأنجما

A sun and a full moon in a single abode:

before long, the two will beget stars.

ذو الصيت جاوز ما كبا عنه الدجى

والجود أنجد في البلاد وأتهما

The famed one has passed beyond where darkness falters,

and generosity has traversed the lands, to Najd and Tihama.

والناس أبناء الزمان وعاده

يجفو بنيه قطيعة وتغشرما

People are Time's sons, and it is his habit

to spurn his sons with estrangement and brutality.

ولقد أساء فكان براً محسناً

أحيان ضن فكان سمحاً منعما

Time did ill, but he was kind and beneficent;

when it withheld, he was openhanded and generous.

فإذا سخا أو جاد بعد تمنع

فأظنه من راحتيه تعلما

So if it is generous, or gives after holding back,

I suppose it learned from his two palms.

شيدت ركن الدين يا ابن معينه

لولا أبوك وأنت كان مهدما

You raised religion's pillar, O son of its champion;

without your father and you, it would have been demolished.

حسنته ومن العدى حصنته

لما ادرعت وبات سفيك محرما

You adorned it and fortified it against the enemies,

when you donned armor and your sword became inviolable.

قد كان قبلك للمعالي مالكاً

وضع الأساس وجئت أنت متمما

Before you, he had been master of lofty deeds;

he laid the foundation, and you came to complete it.

أثبتما خير الندى حتى لقد

نطقت مع الوفد الحقائب منكما

You both established the best of bounty, so that

the saddlebags spoke with the delegations of what came from you both.

لو كان أمهله الحمام وقيته

لم يبق في الأفاق إلا مسلما

Had death granted him respite—may you be spared it—

none but a Muslim would have remained across the horizons.

يلقاك يومك بعد أمس مهنئاً

وغد لو استطاع السلام لسلما

Your day meets you with congratulations, following yesterday,

and tomorrow, could it offer greetings, would surely greet you.