1. بدا وقامته تختال بالتِّيه

    فأيُّ شمس على رمحٍ تحاكيه

    He appeared, his figure swaying with pride;

    what sun upon a spear could resemble him?

  2. وقمتُ أذكره بالظبيِ ملتفتاً

    فقالَ لي طرفهُ من غير تشبيه

    I began likening him to a gazelle as he turned;

    then his glance spoke to me, without a simile.

  3. أغنّ يبعد مشتاقاً ويرشقهُ

    باللَّحظِ فهو على الحالين يرميه

    A sweetly nasal-voiced beloved repels a yearning lover and shoots him

    with his glance; either way, he casts him off or strikes him.

  4. ما للذي فتنت قلبي محاسنهُ

    أضحى يعذِّب روحي وهي تفديه

    Why does he whose charms bewitched my heart

    now torment my soul, though it would ransom him?

  5. وما لعاذل قلبي في محبَّته

    تعبان يدخل فيما ليسَ يعنيه

    And why is the one who reproaches my heart for loving him

    so weary, meddling in what does not concern him?

  6. ألفاظه الريح لكن في الحشا لهب

    وربَّما كانَ مرّ الريح يُذكيه

    His words are wind, but in my breast there is a flame,

    and sometimes the passing wind fans it.

  7. والقلب قد أشكر الله الحبيب بهِ

    فما الملام على حالي بمخليه

    And my heart: God has favored the beloved with it;

    so reproach, in my present state, will not empty it of him.

  8. لا يختشي بيت قلبي غزوَ لائمه

    فإنَّ للبيتِ ربًّا سوف يحميه

    The house of my heart does not fear its reproacher's assault,

    for the house has a lord who will protect it.

  9. يا ثاني العطف من تيهٍ ومن غضبٍ

    حتَّى كأنيَ قلت الغصن ثانيه

    O you who turn your shoulder away in pride and anger,

    as though I had said, 'The branch is his peer!'

  10. خفض قلاك وعلَّلني بوعدِ لقا

    وخلّ عمري يقضي في تقاضيه

    Lessen your aversion, and soothe me with a promise of meeting;

    and let my life pass in pressing for its fulfillment.

  11. وابعث خيالاً تراني منه في جدلٍ

    فالروح تثبته والجسم ينفيه

    Send a phantom: you will see me disputing over it;

    my soul affirms it, while my body denies it.

  12. هيهات طال سهادي في هواك فلا

    طيف أراه ولا سقم أواريه

    Alas, long has my sleeplessness lasted in love of you: I have no

    dream-phantom to see, nor an illness I can conceal.

  13. أحيي اللياليَ تِسهاداً فيا لفتىً

    يميته الليل حزناً وهوَ يحييه

    I keep the nights alive with sleeplessness—alas for a youth

    whom the night kills with sorrow, though he keeps it alive!

  14. لو كانَ للَّيلِ سلطان كما زعموا

    لكانَ ينصف جفني من تشكِّيه

    If the night had a sovereign, as they claim,

    he would grant my eyelid justice in response to its complaint.

  15. سقياً لوصلك والأيام عاطفة

    تردُّ دمع المعنَّى من مآقيه

    Rain's blessings upon union with you, when the days were kind,

    turning the anguished lover's tears back from his eye-corners.

  16. وصل تكنَّف روحي بعد ما جهدت

    كمل تكنَّف دين الله محيِّيه

    A reunion enfolded my soul after it had grown exhausted;

    it became complete; God's faith was enfolded by its reviver.

  17. حامي حمى الملك بالأقلام مشرعة

    على المنى والمنايا حول واديه

    Guardian of the kingdom's bounds, with pens leveled

    toward hopes, while deaths surround his valley.

  18. لو ألقيت كعصا موسى على حجرٍ

    نفجَّر الماء من أقصى نواحيه

    Were they cast, like Moses' staff, upon a stone,

    we would make water gush from its farthest sides.

  19. جاءت بيحيى معاليه مبشراً

    فصدَّقت يده بشرى معاليه

    His lofty virtues brought Yahya as a herald of glad tidings;

    his hand confirmed the glad tidings of his lofty virtues.

  20. يدٌ بأصلِ نداها فرع كلّ ندى

    كالبحر ناقلة عنهُ سواقيه

    A hand whose bounty is the root of every branch of bounty,

    like the sea, whose channels carry water from it.

  21. سارت وراءَ خباها السحب وادعة

    لا تأخذ الماء إلا من مجاريه

    The clouds traveled peacefully behind its tent,

    taking water only from its watercourses.

  22. يا محسن الظنّ هذا نحو أنعمه

    بمفرد الفضل قد نادى مناديه

    O you of hopeful expectation—this way, toward his favors!

    His herald has proclaimed the one peerless in excellence.

  23. يمَّم مغانيَهُ بالقصدِ محتكماً

    إنَّ الغنى اشْتقَّ فينا من مغانيه

    Make for his dwellings with purpose, asking what you will;

    indeed, among us, 'wealth' derives from his 'dwellings.'

  24. ذاك الذي يستمدُّ النيل أنعمه

    فما الأصابع إلا من أياديه

    He is the one from whose favors the Nile draws its sustenance;

    its fingers are but favors from his hands.

  25. حوت كنانة سهماً من براعته

    لا تعرف اليمن إلا حينَ تحويه

    Kinana has held an arrow of his brilliance;

    it knows good fortune only when it holds that arrow.

  26. بكفٍّ زاكي السجايا إن برى قلماً

    يكاد ينطقُ تمجيداً لباريه

    In the hand of one pure in character, if he trims a pen,

    it almost speaks in glorification of its maker.

  27. ذو السؤدد المحض لا طود يجاذبه

    ثوب الوقار ولا نجم يساميه

    Of unalloyed nobility: no mountain contests with him

    the robe of dignity, nor does a star rival his height.

  28. ماضي شبا العزم كم حالٍ به علقت

    تعلُّق الحال من فعلٍ بماضيه

    Keen is the edge of his resolve: how many a circumstance has clung to him,

    as a circumstantial qualifier attaches to a verb in its past tense.

  29. في بيت فضلٍ على الجوزاء مرتفع

    تعنو القصائد عن أدنى مبانيه

    In a house of excellence raised above al-Jawza,

    poems bow before even its lowliest structures.

  30. لم ندرِ ما فيه من وصفٍ فنحصره

    وصاحب البيت أدرَى بالذي فيه

    We do not know the qualities within it well enough to sum them up;

    the master of the house knows best what is within.

  31. بيت ليحيى من الفاروق متَّصل

    بخٍ لماضيه من بيتٍ وباقيه

    Yahya's house is linked to al-Faruq;

    bravo to this house, its past and what endures of it!

  32. قلْ للذي نهضت للمجدِ همَّتهُ

    ضاهى السماك ويحيى لا يضاهيه

    Tell the man whose aspiration has risen toward glory

    that he has rivaled al-Simak, but cannot rival Yahya.

  33. إنَّ السيادة قد نضَّت سوالفها

    لواحد العصر يصبيها وتصبيه

    Indeed, lordship has bared the sides of her neck

    for the peerless man of the age: he enchants her, and she enchants him.

  34. مقسم الدين والدنيا على شيمٍ

    قد أتْعبت في المعالي من يجاريه

    He apportions faith and worldly life according to virtues

    that have exhausted those who keep pace with him in greatness.

  35. أيامهُ للعلى والمجد قائمة

    وللعفاف وللتقوى لياليه

    His days stand devoted to eminence and glory,

    and his nights to chastity and piety.

  36. ما زالَ يعمل آراء وأدعية

    حتَّى اسْتوى الملك في أعلى صياصيه

    He has never ceased employing counsels and prayers,

    until the kingdom stood firm within its loftiest strongholds.

  37. واسْتوثق العدل في الدنيا فليسَ بها

    جانٍ سوى راتع في الروضِ يجنيه

    Justice became secure throughout the world, where there is no

    offender save one reveling in the garden, gathering its fruit.

  38. يا من له الفضل باديه وحاضرهُ

    ومن لهُ القصد دانيه وقاصيه

    O you to whom excellence belongs, in desert and town,

    and toward whom all seekers turn, near and far,

  39. دين الرجا قد تناهت لي مطالبهُ

    على الزمانِ ولكن أنتَ قاضيه

    the debt of hope—my claims for it have reached their limit

    against Time; yet you are the one who will repay it.

  40. أدعوك دعوة شاكي الحال معتقد

    أن ليسَ غيركَ بعد الله يشكيه

    I call upon you as one lamenting his condition, convinced

    that none but you, after God, can relieve his grievance.

  41. إن لم تراع برأيٍ منك مقصده

    يا ابن السراة فقل لي من تراعيه

    If you do not heed his aim with your counsel,

    O son of the eminent, tell me whom you would heed.

  42. في نظرةٍ منك تأميلي ومفترجي

    ولفظة منك تنويلي وتنويهي

    In one glance from you lie my hope and my relief;

    and one word from you brings me gifts and renown.

  43. أقول والدمع قد سارتْ ركائبهُ

    إلى حماكَ وقد طافتْ أمانيه

    I say, while my tears' camel-caravans have journeyed

    to your sanctuary, and their hopes have circled it:

  44. هذا نباتيُّ لفظٍ يشتكي عطشاً

    لعلَّ أفقك بالأنواء يسقيه

    Here is Nubati speech, plantlike, complaining of thirst;

    perhaps your horizon will water it with star-born showers.

  45. نعم وهذا مقالٌ داثرٌ فعسى

    يا من له قلم الإنشاء تنشيه

    Yes, this is a faded utterance; perhaps,

    O master of the pen of composition, you will revive it.