1. مدمعٌ سائلٌ لغير رحيمِ

    وإعنائي من سائل محروم

    A flowing tear for one without mercy,

    and my torment comes from a suppliant denied.

  2. ونثار من البكى مستفاض

    في الهوى من لقاءِ ثغرٍ نظيم

    And a lavish scattering of tears

    in love, from meeting a mouth with neatly arrayed teeth.

  3. صادَقَ الخدّ واسْتحمَّ به الجس

    م فآهاً من الصديق الحميم

    It befriended the cheek, and the body bathed in it;

    so, ah, for that intimate friend!

  4. ليت شعري أهكذا كلّ صبّ

    أم كذا حال حظِّيَ المقسوم

    If only I knew: is every lovesick soul like this,

    or is this the state of my allotted fortune?

  5. يجرح القلب وهو عدل عن الح

    بِّ ويقضي الغرام وهو غريمي

    He wounds the heart, though it bears true witness to love,

    and judges passion, though he is my adversary.

  6. حربي من مهفهف القدّ ألمى

    أوقعَ القلب في العذابِ الأليم

    My strife comes from one slender of figure and dusky of lips,

    who cast the heart into painful torment.

  7. قائم الخصر قاعد الردف أمري

    فيهِ ما بين مقعدٍ ومقيم

    Upright at the waist, seated at the hips; my plight

    with him lies between what seats me and what raises me.

  8. وعدهُ مثل خصره من جفاءٍ

    باطنيٌّ يقول بالمعدوم

    His promise, like his waist, in its coldness,

    is esoteric, believing in the nonexistent.

  9. لي على روض جدّه كلّ يومٍ

    أدمعٌ مستهلَّةٌ كالغيوم

    Each day I have, upon the garden of his fortune,

    tears pouring like clouds.

  10. لا تلم عاشقاً بكى بعد روضٍ

    كبكاء الوليد بعد نسيم

    Do not blame a lover who wept when a garden was gone,

    like al-Walid's weeping after Nasim.

  11. حطَّم الوجد ركن دمعي وطافت

    لوعتي بين زمزمٍ والحطيم

    Passion shattered the pillar of my tears, and

    my anguish circled between Zamzam and al-Hatim.

  12. ورمتني من العيونِ سهامٌ

    ذات نصلٍ كما ترى مسموم

    From eyes, arrows struck me,

    with points poisoned, as you see.

  13. بين مرأى فمٍ وطرَّة شعرٍ

    فهيَ لا شكّ بين سينٍ وميم

    Between the sight of a mouth and a forelock of hair,

    they are surely between a sīn and a mīm.

  14. يا لها من سهامِ لحظٍ كستني

    برد سقمٍ محرَّر التسهيم

    Oh, those arrows of a glance that clothed me

    in a robe of sickness, its arrow-pattern finely wrought!

  15. وفمٌ بارد المراشف لكن

    كبدي منه في سواءِ الجحيم

    And a mouth whose lips are cool—yet

    my liver, because of it, is in the very midst of Hell.

  16. برخيمِ الألفاظ صير حظِّي

    مثل حظّ الأسماء بالترخيم

    With mellifluous words he made my lot

    like the lot of names whose endings are clipped.

  17. ودجى طرَّة تسلَّمت القل

    ب فأمسى منها بليلِ السليم

    And the darkness of a forelock seized the heart,

    leaving it to spend a night like one snake-bitten.

  18. ذات صدغٍ دنا له مسك خالٍ

    فحسبناه نقطة تحت جيم

    With a temple-lock and a mole's musk close beside it,

    we took it for a dot beneath a jīm.

  19. ورقيم من العذار ثناني

    ساهراً طول ليلتي بالرقيم

    And an inscription of cheek-down kept me

    awake all night over that inscription.

  20. خطَّ ريحانه على ماءِ خدٍّ

    كادَ يجري في نضرةٍ ونعيم

    He traced his basil upon the water of a cheek

    that almost flowed with freshness and delight.

  21. ما تذكّرت ذا وهذاك إلاَّ

    بتُّ بين المشروب والمشموم

    I never recalled this and that without

    passing the night between what is drunk and what is smelled.

  22. ربَّ ليلٍ قد همت فيه بظبيٍ

    قربه لي أشهى من التَّهويم

    Many a night I was enamored of a gazelle

    whose nearness was sweeter to me than dozing.

  23. باللّمى والطلا سعى فسقاني

    من كلا الساعيين بالخرطوم

    With dusky lips and wine he served and gave me drink,

    the choicest wine from both those cupbearers.

  24. حيث وجه الزمان عندِيَ هشّ

    ونبات الشباب غير هشيم

    When time's face smiled upon me,

    and youth's growth was not yet withered.

  25. يا زمان الصبا سقتك الغوادِي

    أينَ كأسي وروضتي ونديمي

    O days of youth, may morning rains water you!

    Where are my cup, my garden, and my drinking companion?

  26. عن جمالِ الوجوه قصّر شجوي

    وثنائي يهوى جمال العلوم

    My yearning falls short of the beauty of faces,

    while my praise loves the beauty of learning.

  27. سيدٌ وابن سيدٍ هامَ حمدِي

    فيهما بالكريمِ وابن الكريم

    A master and a master's son—my praise is enamored

    of them both: the generous man and the generous man's son.

  28. وإمامٌ محرابُ أفكاره الطر

    س وكلُّ الأنام مثل الأميم

    And an imam whose thoughts' prayer-niche is the page,

    while all humanity is like one led in prayer.

  29. بشِّروا بيته الذي طالَ قدراً

    بغلامٍ في العالمين عليم

    Bring his household, so exalted in rank, glad tidings

    of a boy learned among all peoples.

  30. ذو كلامٍ تجمَّع الجوهر الفا

    خر فيهِ وذلّ قدر اليتيم

    His is speech in which splendid gems are gathered,

    and the peerless pearl's worth is humbled.

  31. أينَ عبد الحميد من نثرِهِ الجز

    ل الذي قد كساه ثوب الذميم

    Where is Abd al-Hamid beside his vigorous prose,

    which has clothed him in the garment of blame?

  32. أينَ نظم السعيد منه ومن قوَّ

    ةِ ما خطَّه ابن العديم

    Where is al-Sa'id's verse beside him, and beside the power

    of what Ibn al-Adim penned?

  33. ذاك خطّ أغضى ابن مقلةَ عنه

    يوم فخرٍ إغضاء غير حليم

    That is handwriting from which Ibn Muqla averted his eyes,

    on a day of boasting, averting them without forbearance.

  34. زاحف بين أسطرٍ وطروسٍ

    لسطا عسكرين زنجٍ وروم

    Advancing between lines and sheets,

    to assail two armies: Zanj and Rum.

  35. صغت من حلاك يا ابن عليٍّ

    طوق مجدٍ على الفخارِ مقيم

    I fashioned from your virtues, O son of Ali,

    a collar of glory, enduring upon honor.

  36. وأدارت يمناكَ لي كأس درجٍ

    كلن فيها المزاج مع تنسيم

    And your right hand passed me a scroll's cup,

    in which the blend [was?] accompanied by wafted fragrance.

  37. يلتقيها لفظ المصلِّين عجباً

    ويمدُّون راحة التَّسليم

    The worshippers' utterance meets it in wonder,

    and they extend the palm of salutation.

  38. ليسَ فيها عيبٌ سوى أنّني بال

    عجز عنها شكوت شكوى الظليم

    There is no fault in it, except that, in

    helplessness before it, I lamented like a male ostrich.

  39. حين ولَّى زمان لفظي وجفَّت

    أيكتي وانْثنى هبوب نسيمي

    When the season of my words had passed, and withered was

    my grove, and my breeze no longer blew.

  40. ورأيت الألفاظ أولاد فكرٍ

    نفَّرتها عنِّي وجوه همومي

    And I saw words as children of thought

    whom the faces of my worries had driven away from me.

  41. فغدا الفكر في التغابن عجزاً

    وهيَ عنه في غاية التحريم

    Thus thought became helpless amid mutual loss,

    and they were utterly forbidden to it.

  42. نقَّصت قوَّتي عن المدحِ فاصْفح

    في نظامي عن خجلة التتميم

    My strength for praise has waned; so forgive

    in my verse the embarrassment of its completion.

  43. واكْتم السرّ عن معائب فاهت

    فسروري في سرِّها المكتوم

    And conceal the secret concerning flaws that spoke out,

    for my joy lies in their secret kept hidden.