بكيت وما يجدي البكاء على العاني

وتثبت كفِّي للأحبَّة أشجاني

I wept, though weeping does the captive no good;

and my hand records my sorrows for the beloved.

كأنَّ زماني خاف لحناً فلم يكن

ليجمع بين الساكنين لأوطاني

As though my time feared a grammatical error and would not

bring together the two dwellers of my homelands.

وقالوا عفت حسبان ممن تحبه

كأن لم تكن شمس الكمال بحسبان

They said, 'Husban is bereft of the one you love,

as though al-Kamal's sun had never been in Husban.'

فقلت لجفنيَّ البعيد كراهما

قفا نبكٍ من ذكرى ديارٍ وجيران

So I said to my two eyelids, whose sleep was far away,

'Halt, you two; let us weep over remembered homes and neighbors.'

أأحبابنا أعدَا تغير عهدكم

دموعي فأمست مثلكم ذات ألوان

O our beloveds, has the change in your loyalty infected

my tears, so that they, like you, have become many-colored?

وقد كان يكفي أولٌ من صدودكم

فما للنوى ينشي صدودكمُ الثاني

The first of your rebuffs would have sufficed;

why, then, does separation create your second rebuff?

وممَّا شجاني أن جفنيَ ساهرٌ

على كلّ فتَّان اللواحظ وسنان

Among my griefs is that my eyelid keeps vigil

for every drowsy one whose glances bewitch.

تعشقته لا قول فيه لعاذلٍ

لديَّ ولا في حسنه الفرد قولان

I loved him passionately; no reproacher has a say about him

with me, nor are there two opinions about his peerless beauty.

إذا جالَ فكرِي في لماه وخده

تنزهت ما بين العذيب ونعمان

When my thought roams over his dusky lips and his cheek,

I stroll between al-'Udhayb and Nu'man.

ولو نظرت عيني لغير جماله

لكان إذاً إنسانها غير إنسان

And if my eye gazed upon anything but his beauty,

its pupil would then be no human being.

شغلت بذكراه ومدح محمدٍ

فيا لك من حسن لديَّ وإحسان

I am engrossed in remembering him and praising Muhammad;

oh, what beauty and beneficence I have before me!

لعمري لقد حلَّ الكمال بغايةٍ

من الفضل ترمي الفاضلين بنقصان

By my life, al-Kamal has indeed attained a summit

of excellence that charges the eminent with deficiency.

إمام أقامته الفضائل واحداً

فلم يختلف في فضله الباهر اثنان

An imam whom the virtues have made unique,

so no two have disagreed about his dazzling excellence.

تأخَّر عن عصرِ الكرام وفاقهم

فكانَ وكانوا مثل بسمٍ وعنوان

He came later than the age of the noble and surpassed them,

so he was like 'In the Name,' and they like a heading.

وجهَّز جيش العسر من طالبي الندى

فلابن عليٍّ في الورى وصفُ عثمان

And he equipped hardship's army of seekers of bounty;

thus Ibn 'Ali bears 'Uthman's distinction among humankind.

إلى جبلٍ من حلمه يقرع الثنا

إذا غاص من جدواه في فيض طوفان

Praise knocks at a mountain of his forbearance,

when it sinks into a surging deluge of his bounty.

فتى العلم والنعماء يرجى ويفتدى

وفي بابه للجود والعلم بحران

A youth of learning and bounty, a source of hope, for whom lives are offered,

and at his door are two seas, one of generosity, one of learning.

فوائدهُ للوفدِ مثل سحابةٍ

وأنعمه كالتابعين بإحسان

His benefactions to the delegation are like a cloud,

and his favors are like those who follow in goodness.

وفي كفِّه الغصن الذي كلما جرى

على صفحاتِ الطرس جاء ببستان

And in his palm is the branch that, whenever it runs

across the pages of parchment, brings forth a garden.

يراعٌ له في كلِّ معضلةٍ سطاً

تعلمها في الغاب من أسد خفَّان

A reed pen with onslaughts against every knotty problem,

which it learned in the forest from the lions of Khaffan.

وأروع أخبى للأئمة منصباً

يرقّ ويزهى حين يبكي الجديدان

And a splendid man who established a station for the imams,

that grows delicate and radiant when day and night weep.

فللشافعيِّ السائر الذكر بهجة

فتى حنبلٍ فيها ومالكُ سيان

Thus al-Shafi'i, whose renown travels far, feels a joy

in which Hanbal's son and Malik share equally.

وقد أشرقت خدَّا ابن ثابت فرحة

فهنَّ بلا شكٍّ شقائق نعمان

And Ibn Thabit's two cheeks have shone with joy,

so they are, without doubt, Nu'man's anemones.

سحبت ذيول الفضل واللفظ للورى

فكنت على الحالين أشرف سحبان

You trailed the hems of excellence and eloquence before humankind,

so in both respects you were the noblest Sahban.

وأتعبت نفساً للمعالي كريمةً

وليس العلى والمجد إلاَّ لتعبان

And you wearied a noble soul in pursuit of lofty achievements,

and eminence and glory belong only to the weary.

إليكَ رعاكَ الله مدحة واصلٍ

يحاشيكَ أن تلقى المديح بهجران

To you—may God guard you—a praise-poem from one who keeps ties,

who holds you above greeting praise with estrangement.

منظمةً من كلِّ بيتٍ كأنَّه

لإفراط ما ضمَّ الولا بيت سلمان

Strung together from verses, each as though it were—

for the abundant loyalty it holds—the house of Salman.

حلا بك في شعبان مرّ حديثها

وقالَ الورى هذي حلاوة شعبان

Through you, in Sha'ban, the bitterness of its speech grew sweet,

and humankind said, 'This is the sweetness of Sha'ban.'