أما ونجوم الحسن أعيى طلوعها

لقد بليت أجسادَنا وربوعها

Ah, by beauty’s stars, whose rising has proved elusive,

our bodies and their dwellings have indeed worn away.

لقد سيرت تلك النجوم يدُ النوى

فهلا كتسيار النجوم رجوعها

The hand of separation has indeed carried those stars away;

why, then, do they not return as the stars make their rounds?

تركت جمادى كلّ عين قريرةٍ

وقد جرَّ أذيال السيول ربيعها

Jumada has deserted every once-contented eye,

while its spring has trailed the skirts of torrents.

وأعددت أجفاني منازلَ للبكى

فولى وما يدرِي الطريق هجوعها

I prepared my eyelids as lodgings for weeping;

so their sleep fled, not knowing the way back.

فدىً للغواني مسلمٌ فتكت به

وحلّ لهاتيك العيون صريعها

Let a Muslim they have slain be ransom for the beauties;

their victim is lawful prey for those eyes.

أساكنة بالجزع إن مدامعي

سيرضيك منها بالعقيق نجيعها

O woman dwelling at al-Jizʿ, surely my tears—

the fresh blood they shed at al-ʿAqiq will please you.

أبت لي دموعِي أن أماكس في الهوى

فحسنك يشريها وجفني يبيعها

My tears refused to let me bargain over love;

your beauty buys them, and my eyelid sells them.

وأسهرت أجفاني وإن كنت ساهراً

ومحترقاً في الغيد لولا شموعها

I kept my eyelids wakeful, though I would be sleepless,

and burning among the beauties, were it not for their candles.

ليَ الله نفساً لا يخفُّ نزاعها

إليكَ وروحاً لا يكفُّ نزوعها

God help me—a soul whose longing never lessens

for you, and a spirit whose yearning never ceases.

وأغيد فتَّان اللواحظ فاتك

يروق حشا عشَّاقه ويروعها

And a supple youth, bewitching of glance, deadly,

delights his lovers’ hearts and terrifies them.

سعى بالحميّا في نشاوى تهافتت

عليها بأيدٍ ما تكاد تطيعها

He went about with strong wine among drinkers who lunged

for it with hands that could scarcely obey them.

فيا لكَ من ألباب قوم تنكَّرت

مصانعها منها وأقوت ربوعها

Oh, those people’s minds! How estranged

their palaces grew from them, how deserted their quarters!

أخادِع آمالي بكأسٍ وشادنٍ

وقد يقتضي آمال نفسٍ خدوعها

I beguile my hopes with a cup and a young gazelle;

a soul’s beguiler may yet fulfill its hopes.

وقد أشتكِي همِّي إلى أريحيةٍ

ولوعِي بأكناف الحمى وولوعها

At times I confide my grief to a spirited she-camel:

my yearning for the sanctuary’s environs, and hers.

تكاد من الذكرى إذا ما تنفسَّت

تناثر من شجوٍ عليها نسوعها

At a memory, whenever she sighs, she comes close

to having her girths scatter over her from grief.

وتسعدني الورقاء منها نواحها

بغصنٍ ومن أجفان عيني هموعها

The gray dove joins my mourning: hers is the lament

upon a bough, while from my eyelids stream my tears.

تطوقت من جود ابن يحيى كطوقها

فلله أطواق اللّهى وسجوعها

I wear a collar of Ibn Yahya’s bounty, like hers;

God be praised for bounty’s collars and their cooing!

أخو الكلمات الغرّ تندِي غمامها

وينفح ريَّاها وتزكو زروعها

He is master of radiant words whose clouds shed dew,

whose fragrance wafts and whose crops flourish;

وذو الدّوحة العلياء أرست أصولها

وطابت مجانيها وطالتْ فروعها

and lord of a lofty tree whose roots are firmly set,

whose fruits are sweet and whose branches rise high.

بحور اللّهى والعلم فيهم بسيطها

وكاملها منهم وعنهم سريعها

Seas of bounty and learning: in them lies their breadth;

from them their fullness, and from them their swift flow.

إذا أسرة الفاروق قامتْ لمفخرٍ

أقرَّت لعلياها السراة جميعها

When al-Faruq’s family rises to a deed of glory,

all the nobles acknowledge its supremacy.

تصول وتحمي شرعةً نبويةً

فأسيافها منهم ومنهم دروعها

It charges forth and guards the Prophet’s law;

for its swords come from them, and from them its shields.

ألم ترَ علياهم بطلعة أحمدٍ

كما نض عن عبق الرياض سريعها

Have you not seen their eminence in Ahmad’s appearance,

as the gardens’ swift breeze flows forth from their fragrance?

على يدِه البيضاء آي يراعةٍ

ينعم جانيها ويشقى لسيعها

On his white hand are the wonders of a reed pen:

its fruit-gatherer prospers, and its stung victim suffers.

معوّد سحر البيان فبينما

تروق ذوي الألباب أمست تروعها

Practiced in the magic of eloquence: even as

they delight the discerning, they turn to strike their minds with awe.

فرائد لا ترضى ابن عبَّاد عبدها

ويعلو على وصف البديع بديعها

Peerless gems that would not accept Ibn ʿAbbad as their slave;

their artistry surpasses al-Badiʿ’s description.

لئن حفظت مصرٌ وشامٌ برأيه

لقد حفظت بطحاؤها وبقيعها

If Egypt and Syria are indeed safeguarded by his judgment,

their Bathaʾ and Baqiʿ have surely been safeguarded.

وقد بثّ فيها العدل حتى بأمنها

مها الرمل تمسي والهزبر ضجيعها

He has spread justice there until, in its safety,

the sand oryx pass the evening with the lion as their bedfellow.

ربيب العلى والعلم تفديك مهجة

تضلع من خلفي فداك رضيعها

O fosterling of eminence and learning, may a soul ransom you,

whose nursling drank his fill at my breast—may he ransom you.

أفدتَ يدي وفراً ونطقي بلاغةً

لفضليك يعزى صنعها وصنيعها

You gave my hand abundance and my speech eloquence;

their craft and handiwork are owed to your two favors.

وفرّجت بالنعماء حالي وفكرتي

وقد ضاقَ بالأنكادِ عني وسيعها

And you relieved my condition and my thought with bounty,

when hardships had made their spaciousness too narrow for me.

وأمّن يا ربّ السيادة والتقى

برجواك خوف الرحلتين وجوعها

And, O lord of leadership and piety, allay,

through hope in you, the fear and hunger of the two journeys.

ومثلك من أسدى لمثلي أنعماً

تسرّ وآفاق البلاد تذيعها

And one such as you bestows on one such as me favors

that bring joy, while the lands’ horizons proclaim them.

فخذْها بتفويف الثنا كلّ حلةٍ

لها من مقاماتِ المقالِ رفيعها

So accept it: every robe is striped with praise,

and holds the highest station in the ranks of speech.

لأنجمها وصل السعود بذكرِكم

إذا أنجمٌ أخنت عليها قطوعها

Its stars join auspicious stars through mention of you,

when other stars are undone by their adverse aspects.

وهنئت بالأعوامِ يصفو جديدها

عليك بإقبالٍ ويطوى خليعها

May you be blessed with years whose new garb grows fair

upon you in good fortune, their cast-off garb folded away,

مدى الدهر في علياءٍ تبهر أعيناً

فما لمحات العين إلاَّ ركوعها

through all time, in an eminence that dazzles eyes,

for the eye’s glances are nothing but its bows.