الحمد لله على إنعامه

واصل للدين فضل حكَّامه

Praise belongs to God for His bounty,

Who sustains for religion the excellence of its judges,

من والدٍ في العلى ومن ولدٍ

قد جاء عن علمه وأعلامه

Through a father in the heights and through a son

Who has sprung from his learning and his beacons.

لو لم يكن في علومه ملكاً

ما زيدَ تاجاً شعار أيامه

Were he not a king in his sciences,

The emblem of his days would not have gained a crown.

مراتب الشرع أو علائمه

قد توّجت باسمه وأقلامه

The ranks of sacred law, or its insignia,

Have been crowned with his name and his pens.

ليت العلائي تاج مصر رأى

ذا التاج في مصر وفي شامه

Would that al-'Ala'i, Egypt's crown, had seen

This crown in Egypt and in his Syria,

مكلَّل الوصف بالفرائد من

صاغة حلى القريض نظَّامه

His description wreathed with peerless gems from

The goldsmiths of poetry's ornaments, its composers.

وابن عليّ عالٍ لنجمٍ سما

فهو على الأفق تاج بهرامه

And 'Ali's son towers toward a risen star;

He is the crown of its Bahram upon the horizon.

عربي محض العلى عمائمه

تيجان أخواله وأعمامه

An Arab of pure nobility, whose turbans

Are the crowns of his maternal and paternal uncles.

ينفح عن راحتيه نشر ندى

كأنما الزهر حشو أكمامه

The fragrance of bounty wafts from his palms,

As though his sleeves were filled with flowers.

ذو البيت حجّ الرجا إليه ومن

عسفان دهر ميقات إحرامه

Lord of the House, to whom hope makes pilgrimage; and from

Time's 'Usfan comes its station of consecration.

إلى حمى علمه وأنعمه

لكلِّ سامي الطلاّب مستامه

Toward the sanctuary of his learning and his favors,

Every lofty seeker has what he seeks.

لطالب الجود ملء رغبته

وطالب العلم ملء أفهامه

For the seeker of bounty, the fullness of his desire;

And for the seeker of knowledge, all his understanding can hold.

وشائع الاسم عند خنصره

وسامع الفضل عند إبهامه

The widely renowned stands beside his little finger,

And the hearer of excellence beside his thumb.

حسبك بين الأنصار تبصر من

دعا لنصر قديم إقدامه

Enough for you: among the Ansar, behold one

Whose long-standing daring has summoned victory.

عبية خير الورَى التي سلمت

من بيت ذي قولة ومن ذامه

The pride of the best of humankind, kept safe

From a speaker's verse and from his reviler.

أقلام أثباتهم كأنصلهم

حمى لدين الهدى وإسلامه

The pens of their stalwarts, like their sword blades,

Are a defense for the religion of guidance and its Islam.

عليّ يا ذا الفقار من قلمٍ

يقدّ قد العادي بأرغامه

O 'Ali, wielder of a pen that is Dhu al-Fiqar,

Which cleaves the aggressor's frame and humbles him.

دمْ واحداً للعلوم يعجبه

من التصانيف أنس أحلامه

Remain learning's peerless master, whose delight

Is the solace his discerning mind finds in books.

تسخو لنا بالعيان وابن دقي

ق العيد طيف يسخو بألمامه

You give to us in person, while Ibn Daqi-

q al-'Id is a phantom, generous in his fleeting visits.

مباركاً حيث كانَ حامله

عيون غيد فتور إسقامه

Blessed wherever its bearer may be—

The eyes of graceful maidens, whose languor makes him ill.

في كلِّ يومٍ له وليل دجى

سباق صوامه وإقدامه

In every day of his and every dark night,

A race between his devoted fasters and his daring.

كأن جنح الدجى يمدُّ يداً

من الثريَّا للمسِ أقدامه

As though the wing of darkness stretched out a hand

From the Pleiades to touch his feet.

نعم وهنئت دهر سيدنا

قاضي قضاة الزمان حكَّامه

Yes—O age, be blessed with our lord,

Chief of the judges of the age, its rulers.

مثلك في نسكه وسؤدده

مطهَّر في جميع أقسامه

One like you in his devotion and his eminence,

Purified in every part of his being.

أحكامه الزهر وهي واصلة

بالحق أيدي أسباب إعظامه

His radiant judgments join,

Through truth, the hands of the bonds that exalt him.

الله وهَّاب عبده شرفاً

وفره فيه قسم قسَّامه

God lavishly gives His servant honor;

Its Dispenser's allotment has made it abundant in him.

وأسرة جانسوا إذا حكموا

إكراه عدل القضا بإكرامه

And a family who, in judging, matched

The compulsion of judicial justice with its honoring grace.

يا آل سبك الخلاص مجدهم

نطقتم الشعر بعد إفحامه

O house of Subk, whose glory is purity,

You voiced poetry after it had been struck dumb.

أحلامكم قد زكت وحاسدكم

بين كرى همِّه وأوهامه

Your wisdom has flourished, while your envier

Lies between the slumber of his worry and his delusions.

نام وسرتم شتَّان حينئذ

ما بين أحلامكم وأحلامه

He slept while you journeyed—how far apart, then,

Are your wisdom and his dreams!

غايات قوم مبدا سريّكم

في رتب الفضل بيت أقوامه

The utmost goals of others are your nobleman's beginning;

In the ranks of merit stands the house of his people.

يهدى له المدح في نفائسه

والذخر من درّه نجا تامه

Praise is offered him in its choicest treasures,

And its flawless pearls survive as treasure.

وما عسى ذوي المديح تحمل من

طيبه في الثنا وتمامه

And what can the bearers of panegyric carry of

His fragrance in praise, and its perfection,

إلى سريٍّ فاق السراة وما

زيد نبات الفلا كقلاَّمه

To a nobleman surpassing the nobles? Nor is

The desert's abundant growth like its qallam.

ما الروض يروي شذا النسيم لنا

صحائحاً من حديث نمامه

The garden, recounting to us the breeze's fragrance

In sound reports from its tale-bearing herb,

أعبق من ذكره ولا عبق المس

ك المسمَّى أقلّ خدَّامه

Is not more fragrant than the mention of him, nor is the scent of mus-

k, called the least of his servants.

ولا حيا السحب في تراكمها

بالودق تسخو طلال تسجامه

Nor the life-giving rain of massing clouds,

Lavishing showers, fine drops of its downpour—

عن ابن عبَّاسها الدجون روت

والبرق يروي عن ابن بسَّامه

The dark clouds relate from their Ibn 'Abbas,

And lightning relates from their Ibn Bassam—

أسمح منه بما حوته يده

في يومهِ والسحاب في عامه

Is more generous than he with what his hand holds

In his day, while the clouds have their year.

ولا بحار الطوفان طائفة

كالبحر في صدره وأكمامه

Nor are the seas of the Flood, circling round,

Like the sea within his breast and sleeves.

ولا ولا أو يعود قائلها

من بعد إفصاحه كتمتامه

Nor, nor—or the speaker will revert,

After eloquence, to something like his stammering.

خذها نباتيَّة المدائح من

جائد فكر القريض همامه

Take this Nubatian panegyric from

One pouring forth poetic thought, its high-minded champion,

سابق مدَّاحكم وأجدرهم

بأن تبدا إعدام إعدامه

The foremost of your panegyrists, the worthiest

To have you begin by annihilating his poverty.

لا زالَ مهدِي اليتيم من درر ال

مدح يراكم ثمال أيتامه

May the giver of the peerless pearl among the gems of

Praise always see you as the refuge of his orphans.

سام وحام الثنا لكم صحفاً

وجاءَ في سامه وفي حامه

Lofty, guarding praise for you in scrolls,

He has come with its Shem and with its Ham.