1. حيينا فإنَّا في رضى حبِّهم متنا

    وصحَّ لقانا بالغيوبِ فما غبنا

    We lived, for in the contentment of loving them we died.

    And our meeting became real in the unseen, so we were not absent.

  2. وقلنا وقد جاء البشير فبشَّرنا

    أحبَّتنا صدُّوا وقد علموا أنَّا

    And we said, when the bearer of glad tidings came and cheered us:

    Our beloveds turned away, though they knew that we,

  3. متى بعدنا عن جنابهمُ عدنا

    بعدنا عياناً والقلوب على المنى

    Whenever we went far from their presence, returned.

    We were distant in sight, while our hearts rested on hopes.

  4. منى القلب لا تخلو لديها من الجنا

    فيا حبَّذا الأحباب والبين بينَنا

    The heart's hopes never lack fruit in her keeping.

    How dear the beloveds, though separation lies between us!

  5. منعنا جناهم فاغْتديْنا بأنَّنا

    مدى الدهر ما لذنا بغير ولا عذنا

    Denied their fruit, we nourished ourselves on this:

    Through all time, we sought neither shelter nor refuge with another.

  6. لها نعم ملء الأيادِي مباحةٌ

    لها راحتا جود وللبحر راحةٌ

    She has favors freely offered, filling the hands.

    She has two palms of bounty; the sea has but one.

  7. ومهما عرتنا من صدودِ إجاحةٌ

    لنا برحاء القرب في البعدِ راحةٌ

    And whatever devastation from rejection befalls us,

    For us, nearness's anguish is repose amid distance.

  8. وقد مسَّنا ضرّ فكيفَ ولو أنَّا

    سقى جفنيَ البسَّام سفح المقطم

    And harm has touched us—how, then, if we...

    My smiling eyelid watered the slope of al-Muqaṭṭam.

  9. وحامَ عليها نوء دمع ومهزم

    فكم في حماهم من شجيِّ القلب مغرم

    And a raincloud of tears and a thundering cloud hovered over it.

    How many a sorrow-hearted, love-stricken soul is in their sanctuary!

  10. وكم من ذراهم من مشوَّق متيَّم

    يودُّ دنوّ الحين منه إذا حنا

    And how many a yearning, love-enslaved soul is in their shelter,

    Who longs for death to draw near him when he yearns.

  11. وكم مستهام صادح بحنينه

    دفين الأسى يبكي لأجل دفينهِ

    And how many a lovesick wanderer sings aloud with yearning,

    Buried in sorrow, weeping for his buried beloved.

  12. وكم ذي بكى يروي عن ابن معينهِ

    وكم ذي سقامٍ مشعر بأنينهِ

    And how many a weeper narrates from Ibn Maʿīn, his wellspring's son!

    And how many a sick man makes himself known through his moaning!

  13. وما شعروا من ضعفِهِ أنَّه أنَّا

    وكم ثمَّ من أغصانِ غيد ثنينا

    Yet so weak was he, they never noticed that he groaned.

    And how many boughs of graceful beauties we bent there,

  14. إلى العهدِ لا تلوي من الوعدِ بيننا

    ورُبَّ ظباً عارضننا ورميننا

    Toward the pledge, not swerving from the promise between us.

    And how many gazelles crossed our path and shot at us,

  15. وأعين عين رُعْننا ورعيْننا

    بما أخذتْ منَّا وما صرفتْ عنَّا

    And eyes of wide-eyed beauties startled us and tended us,

    Through what they took from us and what they turned away from us.

  16. علونَ وأظهرنَ الجمال مثابةً

    تخال لها عندَ الشموس قرابة

    They rose high and displayed beauty as a haven.

    You would think it had kinship with the suns.

  17. ولم تُبق من أرواح قومٍ صبابة

    تجافيننا حتَّى فتنا صبابة

    It left not a last drop of those people's souls.

    They shunned us until we perished from longing.

  18. ولا طفْننا حتَّى سلمنا وما كدْنا

    يجنُّ سواد الليل لي بعد قربكم

    Nor did they circle us until we were safe—and we scarcely were.

    Night's darkness goes mad for me after nearness to you.

  19. ويضحي نهاري باسماً عند عتبكم

    فلله ليل ما أجنّ لصبِّكم

    And my day becomes smiling at your reproach.

    What a night, by God—how maddening for your lover!

  20. سلو إن شككتم في جنوني بحبِّكم

    نهاري إذا أضحى وليلي إذا جنىّ

    Ask, if you doubt my madness from loving you,

    My day when it brightens, and my night when it darkens.

  21. نهاري بأخبار الرضا يتبسَّم

    وليلي إلى روح الرجا يتنسَّم

    My day smiles at tidings of acceptance.

    And my night inhales the soothing breath of hope.

  22. وجوهر روحي منكم يتقسَّم

    تبشِّرني الألطاف بالقرب منكم

    And my soul's essence is apportioned from you.

    Kindnesses bring me glad tidings of nearness to you.

  23. فصدريَ ما أفضى وعيشيَ ما أهنا

    وما أحسن الدنيا نعيماً ومنسكا

    How spacious my breast, how blissful my life!

    And how lovely the world, in pleasure and worship,

  24. بدولة سلطان محا شكوَ من شكا

    بمطلب جود لم يخف منه مهلكا

    Under a sultan's reign that erased the complaints of those who complained,

    At a place to seek bounty, where none feared ruin from him.

  25. فسهَّل للدنيا وللدين مسلكا

    وأسبلَ أذيال النجاح فأسبلنا

    He made a path easy for worldly life and religion,

    And let success's skirts trail, so we let ours trail.

  26. فيا رُبَّ أيد دولة الملك الذي

    روى حسن الأوصاف عن عرفها الشذي

    So, O Lord, strengthen the reign of the king who

    Recounted fair qualities from its sweet fragrance.

  27. لقد أخذت في ملكها خير مأخذ

    بسهميْ ثناء أو دعاءٍ منفذ

    Indeed, I secured the best foothold within its realm,

    With the twin arrows of praise or a penetrating prayer.

  28. ترى الفوز منه قابَ قوسين أو أدنى

    مليك وجدنا بابه الرحب معدنا

    You see victory from him two bow-lengths away, or nearer.

    A king whose spacious gate we found to be a mine

  29. لكسب الثنا والأجر والملك موطنَا

    فجاءَ الرجا من كلِّ ناحيةٍ بنا

    For gaining praise and reward, and whose realm we found a homeland.

    Hope brought us from every direction.

  30. وفاضت بحور الشعر بالمدحِ والهنا

    على بابِهِ حتَّى سبَحنا وسبَّحنا

    And seas of poetry overflowed with praise and joy

    At his gate, until we swam and offered praise.

  31. وزدنا به من رائق العيش صفوهُ

    وجوَّز من بعد التحرُّج زهوهُ

    Through him we gained still more of fair living's purity.

    And he permitted its splendor after scrupulous restraint.

  32. ولما رأينا الجدّ بالجودِ لهوهُ

    ركبنا المطايا والسوانح نحوهُ

    When we saw that earnest generosity was his pastime,

    We rode our mounts and favorable omens toward him.

  33. فيا بحر قد صارتْ سوابحنا سُفنا

    جرينَ بنا كالسفن جري السوابح

    O sea, our swimming steeds have become ships!

    They raced with us like ships, with the racing of swimming steeds,

  34. إلى بابِ قصرٍ سافر النجْح سافح

    سوائر من غادٍ إليه ورائح

    Toward a palace gate, its success unveiled and overflowing,

    Traveling with those who go to him morning and evening.

  35. عمرنا وعمَّرنا بيوت المدائح

    فلله حسنى ما عمَرْنا وعمَّرنا

    We inhabited and built up the houses of panegyric.

    How splendid, by God, what we inhabited and built!

  36. مليك له في اسم وفعل بنصرِهِ

    عوائد من سرِّ الجميل وجهره

    A king who, in name and deed, through his aid, has

    Recurring favors, in kindness hidden and revealed.

  37. ولما نصرنا في الحروب بذكرِهِ

    قصرنا على كسب الغنى باب قصره

    And when we gained victory in wars by mentioning him,

    We sought wealth only at the gate of his palace.

  38. فيا حبَّذا القصر المشيَّد والمغْنى

    لنا ملكٌ قد كمَّل الله فضله

    How delightful the lofty palace and the dwelling!

    We have a king whose excellence God has perfected,

  39. فخوله ملك البسيطة كلّه

    بحدٍّ وجمع جمَّع الفضل شمله

    Granting him sovereignty over all the earth,

    With a blade and a host whose ranks excellence has united.

  40. هو البحر إلا أنَّنا سمكٌ له

    بلقياه نحيى أو بفرقته نَفنى

    He is the sea, except that we are his fish:

    Through meeting him we live; through separation from him we perish.

  41. مبادِيه في العلياء غايات من مضى

    من الحائزين الملك يَعْنُو له القضا

    His beginnings in glory are the utmost goals of those who passed before,

    Among possessors of sovereignty; fate bows to him.

  42. له صارم عزم وحزم قد انْتضى

    فهو حاكم بالعدلِ في وصفه رضا

    He has unsheathed a keen blade of resolve and prudence.

    He rules with justice; his description wins approval.

  43. وكم معرب يبني وكم شرف يبنى

    يحقُّ لشعري أن يطيش نباته

    How many an eloquent speaker builds, and how much honor is built!

    My poetry's growth may rightly run wild

  44. سروراً بسلطانٍ وفت لي صِلاته

    ومدح تسامت كلّ يومٍ رواته

    In joy at a sultan whose gifts to me were paid in full,

    And at praise whose reciters rise higher every day

  45. إلى روض قولٍ باكرت زهراته

    وأعذرهُ لو طاشَ والإنس والجنا

    Toward a garden of speech whose flowers I visited at dawn.

    I would excuse it if it ran wild, along with humankind and jinn,

  46. لذكركَ يا أوفى الملوك الأكارم

    عفا طلل من ذكر معنٍ وحاتم

    At your remembrance, O most faithful of noble kings.

    A ruined trace of Maʿn and Ḥātim's renown has vanished.

  47. كأنَّك عنهم قد ختمت بخاتمٍ

    فحاتم طيّ ما له بشر باسم

    As though, in their stead, you had sealed with a signet.

    Thus Ḥātim of Ṭayyiʾ has no smiling countenance.

  48. ومعن فلا لفظ يحسّ ولا معنى

    لعمريَ لو كانوا نجوماً ترفَّعت

    And Maʿn has neither a perceptible utterance nor a meaning.

    By my life, had they been stars, they would have risen high,

  49. وأحملها ضوء الصباح فأقلعت

    ممدَّحة يوم النوال تورَّعتْ

    And morning's light burdened them, so they withdrew,

    Much praised, yet holding back on the day of giving.

  50. وكانوا بحاراً في زمانٍ توزَّعت

    ندامى كأنَّا في أحادِيثِهم خضنا

    They were seas in an age when they were apportioned,

    Boon companions, as though we had waded through their tales,

  51. إلى أن تجلَّت طلعة ناصريَّة

    جلتْ دولة من ملكها قاهريَّه

    Until a Nāṣirī visage shone forth,

    Unveiling a Cairene, conquering realm through its sovereignty,

  52. مليَّة أبيات العطا قادريَّة

    وكان عطا معن القرى نادريَّه

    Rich in houses of bounty, Qādirī in power.

    Maʿn's gift of villages had been a rarity,

  53. وأنت القرى أعطيتَ والكنز والمدنا

    فلا زالَ للإسلامِ ملكاً وناصراً

    But you gave villages, treasure, and cities.

    So may he ever be a king and champion of Islam,

  54. وللمالِ والأعدا مبيداً وقاهراً

    ولا زالَ كلّ الناس أصبحَ شاعراً

    An annihilator of wealth and a conqueror of foes.

    And may every person continue to become a poet,

  55. يقيم لوزني شعره البرّ وافراً

    وما كانَ ذو وفر يقيم لنا وزنا

    Setting his poem of bounty to my meter, in abundance.

    No wealthy man used to accord us any weight.

  56. وحقُّكَ لا أنسى ببابِك ثروتي

    مرتَّبة في حالِ ضعفي وقوَّتي

    By your due, I shall not forget my wealth at your gate,

    Regularly allotted, whether I am weak or strong.

  57. ولا قلتُ ما قالَ ابن جرح لعسرتي

    أذو صنعة فاسْتخدِموني لصنعتي

    Nor, in my hardship, did I say what Ibn Jurḥ said:

    Am I a craftsman? Then employ me for my craft,

  58. برزقي وإلا فارْزقوني مع الزّمنى

    For my livelihood; otherwise provide for me with the chronically infirm.