Sol 6.1

  1. نجومٌ تراعيها جفون سوافح

    ولا طيفكم دانٍ ولا الليل نازح

    Stars watched by eyelids streaming with tears,

    while neither your phantom comes near nor the night departs.

  2. أباخلةً عنِّي بطيف خيالها

    عسى ولعلَّ الدهرَ فيك يسامح

    O woman who begrudges me even her dream-image,

    perhaps—perhaps time will relent concerning you.

  3. وتاركة قلبي كليماً وناظري

    ذبيحاً ولا في العيش بعدك صالح

    And you who leave my heart wounded and my eye

    slaughtered—nothing in life is good after you.

  4. لمحتك للبين المصادف لمحةً

    فطاحت بأحشائي إليك الطوائح

    At the parting that befell us, I caught one glimpse of you,

    and sweeping passions flung my inmost heart toward you.

  5. وما أنت إلاَّ الظبي جيداً ومقلةً

    فلا غرْوَ أن أهوت إليك الجوارح

    You are nothing but a gazelle in neck and eye;

    no wonder, then, that the raptors swooped toward you.

  6. جوانح ينمو شجوها وسقامها

    عليَّ ودوني جندل وصفائح

    A breast whose grief and sickness grow

    upon me, with stones and slabs before me;

  7. وقلب عصى نصحي عليكِ وسلوتي

    فأبعد شيء صبره والنصائح

    and a heart that defied my counsel about you and my solace—

    patience and counsel are the farthest things from it.

  8. وقلتُ جبين المالكية عذره

    فقال الورى عذرٌ لعمرك واضحُ

    And I said, 'Al-Malikiyya's brow is its excuse,'

    and all people said, 'By your life, a clear excuse!'

  9. وضاقت علينا عينها فتمنَّعت

    وهيهات أن تسخو النفوس الشحائح

    Her eye begrudged us a glance, and she held aloof;

    and how far from generosity are miserly souls!

  10. ولم أنس يوم البين إيماءَ طرفها

    وعيس المطايا للفلاة جوانح

    I have not forgotten her eye's signal on the day of parting,

    while the pale riding camels leaned toward the wilderness.

  11. فليت الردى أجرى دم العيس ناحراً

    فسالت بأعناق المطيّ الأباطح

    Would that death had made the pale camels' blood flow, slitting their throats,

    and the stony streambeds had run with blood from their necks.

  12. وممَّا شجاني في الضحى صوت ساجع

    كأني له بعد الحبيب أطارح

    And among my forenoon sorrows was a cooing bird's voice,

    as though, after my beloved's departure, I exchanged laments with it.

  13. يساعدني نوحاً يكاد يجيبنا

    بأمثاله بانُ الحمى المتناوح

    It joins my lament; we are almost answered

    in kind by the preserve's ban trees, moaning to one another.

  14. فليت حمام الأيك يوماً أعارني

    جناحاً إلى الركبِ الذي هو نازح

    Would that the thicket's doves would one day lend me

    a wing to reach the caravan that is far away.

  15. وليت النجوم الزهر تدنو قوافياً

    لنا قتنقى في ابن خضر المدائح

    And would that the bright stars drew near as rhymes

    for us, so praises of Ibn Khidr might be refined.

  16. رئيسٌ تجلَّى بشره ونواله

    فلا الأفق مغبرٌّ ولا العام كالح

    A leader whose cheerfulness and bounty shine forth,

    so neither is the horizon dusty nor the year grim.

  17. على المزْن من تلك البنان تشابه

    وفي البدر من ذاك الجبين ملامح

    The rain clouds take their likeness from those fingers,

    and the full moon bears features of that brow.

  18. وفي الأرض من أخلاقه وثنائه

    سِماتٌ فنعم المزهرات الفوائح

    And on the earth, from his virtues and his renown,

    are marks—what excellent, fragrant blossoms!

  19. ولله أقلام الحماسة والندى

    على يده حيث السطا والمنائح

    By God, how wondrous the pens of valor and generosity

    in his hand, where might and gifts abide!

  20. حمينَ الحمى لمَّا فتحنا بلادَه

    وقد أقصرت عنها القنا والصفائح

    They guarded the preserve when we conquered its lands,

    though spears and sword blades had fallen short of them.

  21. فهنَّ على اللائي فتحن مغالقٌ

    وهنَّ على اللائي غلقن مفاتح

    They are locks upon the things they opened,

    and keys to the things they closed.

  22. وطوَّقنا أطواق جود فكلنا

    على شبهِ الأغصان بالحمد صادح

    He wreathed us in collars of bounty, so we all

    are like branches, singing aloud in praise.

  23. وروَّضنَ أقطار الشآم بأحرفٍ

    سقى أصلها طاف من النيل طافح

    They made gardens of al-Sham's regions with letters

    whose root was watered by a rising, overflowing Nile flood.

  24. وصدر لما يلقى من السرِّ لائق

    وكوكب فضلٍ في سما الملك لائح

    And a breast fit for the secrets entrusted to it,

    and a star of excellence shining in the sky of kingship.

  25. عليَّ المدى لا بالملمَّة جازعٌ

    ولا بالتي يثني لها العطف فارح

    Lofty in reach, not dismayed by calamity,

    nor elated by what makes one strut.

  26. وزاكي النهى إمَّا لمعنى سيادة

    وإمَّا لأكباد المعادين شارح

    And pure of mind, laying open either the meaning of leadership

    or the livers of his enemies.

  27. بليغٌ إذا نصَّ المقال وبالغ

    مدى الرأي حيث النيِّرات الطوامح

    Eloquent when he sets out his words, and reaching

    the utmost bounds of judgment, where the bright stars soar.

  28. وأبيض وجه العرض والوجه والتقى

    إذا لفحت سفع الوجوه اللوافح

    And white in honor, countenance, and piety,

    when scorching blasts sear darkened faces.

  29. على دولة الأملاك كلّ فصوله

    ربيع وفي الأعدا سعودٌ ذوابح

    For the kings' dynasty, all his seasons

    are spring; against enemies, his lucky stars are slaughterers.

  30. وللطالبي العمى غمام كأنه

    لما جدّ في جودٍ وحاشاه مازح

    For seekers of blindness, he is a rain cloud, as though

    when earnest in giving, he were—far be it from him!—jesting.

  31. إلى عدلهِ يشكو الزمان فإنه

    خديمٌ يغادِي أمرهُ ويراوح

    Time brings its complaint before his justice, for it is

    a servant attending his command morning and evening.

  32. تعوَّدت أن تسري إليه ركائبي

    فترجع وهي المثقلات الروازح

    My riding camels have grown used to traveling by night to him,

    then returning heavily laden, sinking under their loads.

  33. وآخذُ من قبل المديح جوائزاً

    تقصر عن أدنى مداها الممادح

    And I receive rewards before the panegyric,

    whose smallest measure all panegyrics fail to match.

  34. فلا غَرْوَ أن آتي بهنَّ مضيئة

    كأنَّ المعاني في البيوت مصابح

    No wonder, then, that I bring them radiant,

    as though the meanings in the verses were lamps.

  35. أمولاي إن يسكت لساني صابراً

    فإنَّ لسان الحال منِّي صادح

    My lord, if my tongue falls silent in patience,

    then the tongue of my condition sings aloud for me.

  36. ألم ترَ أنِّي معمل الفكر في كِرى

    حمار أماسي غبنه وأصابح

    Have you not seen me pondering the hire of

    a donkey, whose bad bargain I endure evening and morning?

  37. ركوبي على أمثاله في زمانكم

    كما ركّبت في العالمين القبائح

    My riding the likes of it in your time

    is as though the world's ugly things had all been compounded.

  38. فهل لي ببيت المال حقٌّ فيقتضى

    وهل أملِي في أرذل الخيل جامح

    Have I a claim on the treasury, then, that may be paid,

    and is my hope for the meanest horse too unbridled?

  39. ولي في بديع الوصف كالصخر قوة

    ولكنه سيل على الأرضِ سائح

    In wondrous description I have a strength like rock,

    yet it is a torrent flowing over the earth.

  40. أقدم فيه الوصف قبل أوانه

    على ثقة منِّي بأنَّك مانح

    Here I offer the description before its time,

    confident that you will give.