1. عوِّض بكأسكَ ما أتلفتَ من نشبٍ

    فالكأسُ من فضةٍ والرَّاحُ من ذهب

    Make up with your cup for the wealth you have squandered.

    For the cup is of silver, and the wine of gold.

  2. واخطبْ إلى الشربِ أمَّ الدهر إن نسبت

    أختَ المسرَّةِ واللهو ابنةَ العنب

    And seek from the drinking companions Time's mother's hand—if her lineage is traced,

    the sister of joy and merriment, the daughter of the grape.

  3. غرَّاءُ حاليةُ الأعطافِ تخطرُ في

    ثوبٍ من النورِ أو عقدٍ من الحبب

    Radiant, her flanks adorned, she sways in

    a robe of light, or a necklace of bubbles.

  4. عذراءُ تُنجزُ ميعادَ السرورِ فما

    تومي إليك بكفٍّ غيرِ مختضب

    A virgin who keeps joy's appointed tryst; she never

    beckons to you with an unstained hand.

  5. مصونةٌ تجعلُ الأستارَ ظاهرةً

    وجنةٌ تتلقى العينَ باللهب

    Guarded, she makes her veils visible—

    a cheek that greets the eye with flame.

  6. لو لم يكن من لقاها غيرُ راحتنا

    من حرفة المتعبين العقلِ والأدب

    Even if meeting her brought us nothing but relief

    from the penury of those who weary mind and letters,

  7. فهات واشربْ إلى أن لا يبينَ لنا

    أنحنُ في صعدٍ نستنُّ أم صبب

    bring it, then, and drink until we cannot tell

    whether we are racing uphill or down a slope.

  8. خفت فلو لم تدرْها كفُّ حاملها

    دارت بلا حاملٍ في مجلس الطرب

    She is so light that, if her bearer's hand did not pass her round,

    she would circle the gathering of revelry without a bearer.

  9. يا حبَّذا الرَّاح للأرواحِ ساريةً

    تقضي بسعد سراها أنجم الحبب

    How lovely is wine, coursing by night through souls:

    the bubble-stars decree good fortune for her nightly course.

  10. من كفِّ أغيدَ تروي عن شمائله

    عن خدِّه المشتهَى عن ثغرِهِ الشنب

    From a graceful youth's hand, she tells of his qualities,

    of his desired cheek, of his sweet, cool mouth.

  11. علقته من بني الأتراكِ مقترِباً

    من خاطري وهو منِّي غيرُ مقترب

    I loved him, a son of the Turks, close

    to my thoughts, though he is nowhere near me.

  12. حمَّالة الحلي والديباجِ قامتهُ

    تبت غصونُ الرُّبا حمَّالة الحطب

    His figure is a bearer of jewels and brocade;

    perish the hills' boughs, bearers of firewood!

  13. يا تاليَ العذَلِ كتباً في لواحظه

    السيفُ أصدقُ أنباءً من الكتب

    O reciter of reproof in volumes—in his glances,

    the sword is truer in its tidings than books.

  14. كم رمتُ كتمَ الجوى فيه فنمَّ به

    إلى الوُشاةِ لسانُ المدمعِ السرب

    How often I sought to hide my anguish for him, only for it to be betrayed

    to the talebearers by the tongue of streaming tears.

  15. جادت جفوني بمحمرِّ الدُّموعِ لهُ

    جودَ المؤيد للعافين بالذَّهب

    My eyelids lavished reddened tears for him,

    as al-Mu'ayyad lavishes gold on petitioners.

  16. شادت عزائم إسماعيلَ فاتَّصلت

    قواعدُ البيتِ ذي العلياء والرُّتب

    Isma'il's resolves built high, and so were joined

    the foundations of the house of eminence and rank.

  17. ملكٌ تدلك في الجدوى شمائلهُ

    على شمائلِ آباءٍ له نُجب

    A king whose generous ways point you

    to the noble ways of his forefathers.

  18. محجب العزَّ عن خلق تحاوله

    وجودُ كفَّيه بادٍ غير محتجب

    His glory is veiled from people who would attain it,

    while the bounty of his hands is plain, unveiled.

  19. قد أتعبَ السيفَ من طولِ القراعِ به

    فالسيفُ في راحةٍ منه وفي تعب

    He has wearied the sword through long combat with it,

    so the sword rests in his palm, yet is wearied.

  20. هذا للحلمِ معنًى في خلائقهِ

    لا تستطيلُ إليه سَورَة الغضب

    This man gives forbearance a meaning in his character

    that anger's surge cannot overreach.

  21. يُغضي عن السبب المردي بصاحبه

    عفواً ويعطي العطا جمًّا بلا سبب

    He overlooks the offense that would ruin its doer,

    in pardon, and grants abundant gifts without a cause.

  22. ويحفظُ الدِّين بالعلمِ الذي اتَّضحت

    ألفاظهُ فيه حفظَ الأفقِ بالشهب

    And he guards the faith with knowledge whose

    words are clear within it, as meteors guard the horizon.

  23. يَممْ حماهُ تجدْ عفواً لمقترِفٍ

    مالاً لمفتقرِ جاهاً لمقترب

    Make for his sanctuary: you will find pardon for a sinner,

    wealth for the needy, standing for whoever draws near.

  24. ولا تطعْ في السرى والسيرِ ذا عذلٍ

    واسجدْ بذاك الثَرى الملثوم واقترب

    On your night-travel and journey, obey no reproacher,

    but prostrate yourself on that kissed earth, and draw near.

  25. وعذْ من الخوفِ والبؤسِ بذي هممٍ

    للمدحِ مجتلبٍ للذمِّ مجتنِب

    Seek refuge from fear and misery with one of high resolve,

    who draws praise to himself and shuns blame.

  26. ذاكَ الكريم الذي لو لم يجدْ لكفت

    مدائحٌ فيه عند اللهِ كالقُرب

    That generous man—even if he gave nothing, sufficient would be

    praises of him, like devotional offerings in God's sight.

  27. نوعٌ من الصدقِ مرفوع المنارِ غدا

    في الصالحاتِ من الأعمالِ في الكتب

    A kind of truth, its beacon raised high, now counted

    among righteous deeds recorded in the books.

  28. وواهبٌ لو غفلنا عن تطلبه

    لجاءَنا جودُهُ الفيَّاضُ في الطلب

    And a giver: if we neglected to seek him,

    his overflowing bounty would come in search of us.

  29. أسدى الرغائب حتَّى ما يشاركُه

    في لفظها غيرُ هذا العشرِ من رجب

    He has bestowed such wished-for gifts that nothing shares

    their name with him but this ten-day span of Rajab.

  30. وأعتاد أن يهب الآلافَ عاجلةً

    وإن سرى لألوف الجيشِ لم يَهب

    He is accustomed to giving thousands at once,

    and if he marches by night against thousands of troops, he does not fear.

  31. كم غارةٍ عن حمى الإسلام كفكفها

    بالضربِ والطعنِ أو بالرعبِ والرّهب

    How many raids he has driven back from Islam's sanctuary,

    with blows and thrusts, or with terror and dread!

  32. وغايةٍ جاز في آفاقها صعداً

    كأنَّما هو والإسراع في صَبب

    And many a goal whose distant reaches he has ascended,

    as though he, in all his speed, were on a downward slope!

  33. ومرمل ينظر الدُّنيا على ظمإٍ

    منها ويطوي الحشا ليلاً على سَغب

    And many a destitute man, looking on the world in thirst

    for it, folding his belly at night over hunger,

  34. نادته أوصافه اللاتي قد اشتهرت

    لِمَ القعودُ على غيرِ الغنى فثب

    the king's widely famed qualities called out to him:

    "Why remain without wealth? Rise up!"

  35. فقامَ يعمل بين الكثب ناجيةً

    كأنَّما احتملت شيئاً من الكتب

    So he rose and drove a swift she-camel among the dunes,

    as though she bore something from the books,

  36. حتى أناخت بمغناهُ سوى كرمٍ

    يسلو عن الأهلِ فيه كلُّ مغترب

    until she knelt at his dwelling—nothing but generosity—

    where every exile is consoled for being far from kin.

  37. كم ليلةٍ قال لي فيها ندى يدِه

    يا أشعرَ العرب امدح أكرمَ العرَب

    How many nights the bounty of his hand said to me,

    "O finest poet of the Arabs, praise the most generous Arab!"

  38. فصبحته قوافيّ التي بهرَتْ

    بخُرَّدٍ مثل أسراب المها عُرُب

    So my dazzling rhymes greeted him at dawn,

    with loving virgins like herds of oryx.

  39. ألبسته وشيها الحالي وألبسني

    نواله وشيَ أثوابِ الغِنى القشبِ

    I clothed him in their ornate brocade, and I was clothed

    by his bounty in the brocade of fresh robes of wealth.

  40. فرُحتُ أفخر في أهلِ القريض بهِ

    وراحَ يفخرُ في أهلِ السيادةِ بي

    So I went boasting of him among the poets,

    and he went boasting of me among the lords.

  41. يا ابن الملوك الأولى لولا مهابتهم

    وجودُهم لم يطعْ دهراً ولم يطب

    O son of kings, but for whose majesty

    and bounty, time would never yield or grow sweet,

  42. الجائدِين بما نالت عزائمهم

    والطاعنين الأعادي بالقنا السلبِ

    who give freely what their resolves have won,

    and pierce enemies with slender spears,

  43. والشائدينَ على كيوان بيتَ علًى

    تغيب زهر الدَّراري وهو لم يغب

    and build above Saturn a house of eminence:

    the radiant stars set, while it never sets.

  44. بيتٌ من الفخرِ شادوه على عمدٍ

    وبالمجرَّةِ مدُّوه على طنبِ

    A house of glory they raised upon pillars,

    and stretched it on guy ropes of the Milky Way.

  45. لله أنت فما تصغي إلى عذلٍ

    يوم النوال ولا تلوي على نشبِ

    God bless you! You never listen to reproach

    on the day of giving, nor cling to wealth.

  46. أنشأتَ للشعرِ أسباباً يقالُ بها

    وهل تنظمُ أشعارٌ بلا سببِ

    You have created reasons for poetry to be spoken;

    and are poems composed without a reason?

  47. أنت الذي أنقذتني من يدَي زمني

    يدَاه من بعد إشرافي على العطب

    You are he who rescued me from the hands of my time,

    with his two hands, after I had reached the brink of ruin.

  48. أجابني قبلَ أن ناديتُ جودُك إذ

    ناديتُ جودَ بني الدُّنيا فلم يجبِ

    Your bounty answered me before I called, when

    I called on the bounty of this world's sons, and it did not answer.

  49. فإن يكن بعض أمداح الورى كذِباً

    فإنَّ مدحكَ تكفيرٌ من الكذبِ

    If some praises of humankind are lies,

    then praising you is atonement for falsehood.