1. ماسَتْ فقيل هي القضيبُ الأملَدُ

    ورنَتْ فقيلَ هي الغزالُ الأغيَدُ

    She swayed, and they said, 'She is the supple bough.'

    And she gazed, and they said, 'She is the graceful gazelle.'

  2. ورأتْ بديعَ جمالِها فتبسّمتْ

    عن لؤلؤ بمثالِه تتقلّدُ

    And she saw the marvel of her beauty and smiled,

    revealing pearls whose like she wears as a necklace.

  3. بيضاءُ روضُ الحُسْنِ منها أخضرٌ

    ومدامِعي حُمر وعيشيَ أسوَدُ

    She is fair; through her, beauty's garden is green,

    and my tears are red, and my life is black.

  4. فعلَتْ سيوفُ الحُسنِ في أجفانِها

    ما يفعلُ الصَمصامُ وهْو مجرّدُ

    The swords of beauty in her eyelids have done

    what the keen sword does when it is unsheathed.

  5. ومؤنّبٌ فيها كأنّ فؤادَهُ

    مما أطالَ هو المشوقُ المُكمَدُ

    And a man reproaches me over her, as though his heart,

    judging from his long harangue, were itself lovelorn and grief-stricken.

  6. كاتمتُه أصلَ الصبابةِ جاحداً

    وعلى المحبِّ دلائلٌ لا تُجحَدُ

    I concealed from him the source of my passion, denying it,

    yet upon a lover are signs that cannot be denied.

  7. يا هذه إن كنتُ دونَكِ ثانياً

    طرْفي ففي قلبي المقيمُ المُقعَدُ

    O lady, if before you I lower

    my gaze, you dwell in my heart, firmly seated.

  8. دافعتُ في صدرِ الظنونِ ولم يكنْ

    بسوى الثُريّا يُسترابُ الفرقدُ

    I pushed against suspicion's breast; and never was

    Farqad suspected except on account of the Pleiades.

  9. هل عندَ ليلِ الشعرِ أني نائمٌ

    ولصَبوَتي طرفٌ عليه مسهَّدُ

    Does the night of her hair suppose that I am asleep,

    while my longing has an eye kept sleepless over it?

  10. يا ضيفَ طيفٍ ما هَداهُ لمَضجَعي

    إلا لهيبٌ في الحشى يتوقّدُ

    O phantom guest, nothing guided it to my bed

    except a flame blazing in my breast.

  11. واللهِ لولا أنني بكَ طامعٌ

    ما كنتُ كلَفي بحبّك أرقُدُ

    By God, were I not hoping for you,

    I would not sleep, so consumed am I by love of you.

  12. هذي النجومُ وأنت من إخوانها

    بجميع ما نصّبته لك تشهد

    These are the stars, and you are one of their kin;

    they bear witness to all I have raised up for you.

  13. كم فيكَ عن بلقيسَ من نبأ فهلْ

    قلبي سليمانٌ وطرْفي الهدهد

    How many tidings of Bilqis are in you! Is, then,

    my heart Solomon and my gaze the hoopoe?

  14. لا تنفِ همّي بالعُقارِ فإنها

    أبداً يُثارُ بشُربِها ما يوجَدُ

    Do not dispel my grief with wine, for

    whatever grief is felt is always stirred up by drinking it.

  15. لي روضةٌ من خاطري ومُدامةٌ

    وُرْقُ القوافي بينهنّ تغرِّدُ

    I have a garden from my imagination, and wine;

    the gray doves of rhyme sing among them.

  16. وكفاك في فخرِ الأئمةِ أحمدٌ

    إنْ قُلْتَ يا فخرَ الأئمةِ أحمدُ

    And 'Ahmad' is all you need to praise the Pride of the Imams,

    if you say, 'O Pride of the Imams, Ahmad!'

  17. حبْرٌ لنا في راحتيهِ سَحابةٌ

    ذابَ اللُجينُ بها وسالَ العسجَدُ

    A scholar, with a cloud for us in his two palms,

    in which silver melted and gold flowed.

  18. متنوّعُ الأوصافِ من أفكاره

    نارٌ مضرّمةٌ وبحرٌ مُزبِدُ

    Manifold in his qualities, from his thoughts spring

    a blazing fire and a foaming sea.

  19. هو واحدُ العَليا وواحدُها الذي

    ألقابُه وصفاتُه تتعدَّدُ

    He is high distinction's peerless one, its unique one whose

    titles and qualities are manifold.

  20. فَقْرٌ يُلينُ المشكلاتِ فيستوي

    في العِلمِ نِظّارٌ بها ومقلِّدُ

    Poverty softens difficult questions, making equal

    in knowledge of them the reasoner and the follower.

  21. وروايةٌ صحّتْ وسحّتْ فارتوى

    من جانبيْها مرسَلٌ أو مسنَدُ

    And transmission proved sound and poured forth; there drank its fill

    from its two sides a report, with an omitted link or a stated chain.

  22. الحمدُ في الطرفين منها واضحٌ

    أوَ ليسَ فيها أحمدٌ ومحمّدُ

    Praise is clear at both its ends;

    are not Ahmad and Muhammad within it?

  23. وفصاحةٌ دعْ عنك ذكرَك من مضى

    إنّ المبرِّدَ عندَها لمُبرَّدُ

    And eloquence—leave aside your mention of those of old:

    beside it, al-Mubarrid is indeed cooled.

  24. وإصابةٌ في الرأي تشهدُ أنّهُ

    سهمٌ لشاكلةِ الرميّ مسدَّدُ

    And sound judgment testifies that he

    is an arrow aimed true at the target's flank.

  25. هذي أحاديثُ الكمال ولم تزَلْ

    لجلالِه تُعزى وعنهُ تُسنَدُ

    These are the reports of perfection, and they have always

    been ascribed to his grandeur and transmitted on his authority.

  26. متملِّكٌ في الفُرسِ هضبةَ نِسبةٍ

    ما بينَها إلا العُلا والسؤْدَدُ

    He possesses, among the Persians, a lofty hill of lineage,

    containing nothing but high honor and lordliness.

  27. يا ماجداً قذَفَتْ بحارُ صفاتِه

    دُرّاً بلبّاتِ القريضِ تنضَّدُ

    O noble one, the seas of whose qualities have cast up

    pearls strung upon poetry's throats.

  28. لبسَتْ بك الأعوامُ ثوبَ فضائلٍ

    خلقَ الزمانُ وذكرُها يُتجدَّدُ

    Through you the years have donned a garment of virtues;

    time has grown threadbare, while their remembrance is renewed.

  29. فاهنأ به حولاً يعيدُك يمنه

    حولاً تُشدُّ به العُلا وتشيَّدُ

    So rejoice in it for a year whose blessing restores you

    to strength, through which high honor is fortified and built.

  30. وسمعتَ أنّ القمحَ خُصَّ بقِسمةٍ

    ضيزى وتلك قضيةٌ لا تُحمَدُ

    And you have heard that the wheat was allotted by a division

    unjust—and that is a ruling not to be praised.

  31. لا يستوي الطرَفانِ قومٌ غُيَّبٌ

    عند الدروسِ بها وقومٌ شُهّدُ

    The two sides are not equal: people absent

    at the lessons there, and people present.

  32. فارجِعْ الى فضلِ الحُكومةِ بينَنا

    هذي الدفاتِرُ والمحابرُ تشهَدُ

    So turn to fair arbitration between us;

    these notebooks and inkwells bear witness.