1. ناشدتُك الله أن تستفسِدَ المننا

    يا ابنَ الوزيرين أو تستشهد الظِّننا

    I adjure you by God not to undo your favors,

    O son of the two viziers, or call suspicions as witnesses.

  2. والقربِ منك لقد غشَّشتَ مُنتصحاً

    مِنْ محضَري ولقد خَوَّنتَ مؤتَمنا

    By my closeness to you, you have branded a trusted counselor deceitful,

    judging from my presence, and accused a trusted man of treachery.

  3. إني امرؤ مستعيذٌ أَن تُهَجِّنني

    أو أن أُرى بحجابٍ منك مُمتَهَنا

    I am a man seeking refuge lest you disgrace me,

    or I be seen humiliated by being barred from you.

  4. لا يَكتُبَنَّ على وجهي حجابُكمُ

    مَنِ اغتدى مُستزيداً راح ممتحَنا

    Let your barrier not inscribe upon my face:

    “He who set out at morning seeking more returned at evening afflicted.”

  5. إن كان عتبُك ضَنّاً فهو عارفةٌ

    لا يعرفُ الناسُ في الدنيا لها ثمنا

    If your reproach springs from cherishing me, it is a kindness

    for which people in this world know no price.

  6. وإن يكن ذاك إعناتاً لمَقْليةٍ

    فقد غدوتُ بسوء الحال مُرتَهَنا

    But if that is harassment born of hatred,

    I have become held hostage to my wretched condition.

  7. روحي رضاكَ وتأميلك ما بقيا

    فإنْ سخِطتَ فماذا يُمسك البدنا

    Your pleasure and hope in you are my life, so long as both endure;

    if you are displeased, what then sustains the body?

  8. لا أبتغي غيرَ أخلاقٍ خُصِصتَ بها

    دونَ السهام التي فوَّقْتَها جُننا

    I seek only the qualities with which you were uniquely endowed,

    as shields against the arrows you have nocked.

  9. وقد فتحتَ لواشٍ بابَ حيلته

    فاستعملِ العينَ بعد اليوم لا الأذنا

    You have opened to a slanderer the door of his stratagem;

    so use the eye henceforth, not the ear.

  10. يا من سطا بهزيل لا حراك به

    أَسْمِنه ثم انتقم منه إذا سمنا

    O you who assailed an emaciated man unable to stir,

    fatten him, then take vengeance on him when he is fat.

  11. لم يأذنِ الرأيُ في الشكوى فأشكُوَكُمْ

    وقد شكاكم لنا ما تفعلون بنا

    Prudence has not permitted complaint, that I should complain of you;

    yet what you do to us has itself complained of you to us.

  12. أشكو إليك ولا أشكوكَ يا وَزَرِي

    وكيف يشكوكَ من أعفَى له الزمنا

    I complain to you, not of you, O my refuge;

    how could one who pardoned Time for your sake complain of you?

  13. تالله أشكو زماناً أنت صاحبُه

    ولو تملَّأْتُ من أفعالِه إحَنَا

    By God, I will not complain of an age whose master you are,

    even if its deeds filled me with resentments.

  14. وقد نظرتُ بعينٍ غيرِ كاذبةٍ

    فلم أجِدك على الأيام مُضطغنا

    I have looked with an eye that does not lie,

    and have not found you bearing a grudge against the days.

  15. أليس قد قرَّبتْني منك في دَعَةٍ

    وأسعدَتْك كَفَتْها هذه مِننا

    Have they not brought me near you in ease,

    and blessed you? These alone suffice them as favors.

  16. يا أسمحَ الناس نفساً باللُّهى ويداً

    وأفسحَ الناس في مكروهةٍ عَطَنا

    O most generous of people in spirit and hand with gifts,

    and broadest in your watering-ground amid adversity.

  17. قد بان غَيُّ أُناسٍ في تَخرُّصِهم

    لك العيوبَ فلا تجعل لهم لَسَنا

    The error of some people is clear in their fabricating

    faults in you; so give them no voice.

  18. هَبني خلعتُ بجهل فارطٍ زِيني

    أخالعٌ أنت يا ذا الحكمةِ الزِّينا

    Suppose that, through excessive ignorance, I cast off my adornment:

    will you, O man of wisdom, cast off adornment too?

  19. لا يُسخِطَنَّك ذنبٌ غيرُ معتمدٍ

    على الوفاء الذي استخلصته سَكَنا

    Let no unintended fault anger you

    at the loyalty you chose as your haven.

  20. أنجِز مواعيدَ قد شُدَّت مَعاقدها

    شَدَّ المواثقِ إِنَّ الخُلفَ قد لُعنا

    Fulfill promises whose knots have been bound fast,

    as solemn covenants are bound; promise-breaking is accursed.

  21. واعلمْ بأن شهودَ الشعر قد شهدت

    قِدماً وأن ضَميرَ المجد قد ضَمِنا

    Know that the witnesses of poetry have testified

    long ago, and that glory's conscience has stood surety.

  22. يا من إذا حُكتُ فيه المدح أوسَعني

    مجداً فلم أجتلبْه من هُنا وهنا

    O you who, whenever I weave your praise, lavish upon me

    glory, so I have not fetched it from here and there.

  23. ومَنْ إذا ما أقامت لي مَواهبُه

    فما أُبالي أقامَ الغيث أم ظعنا

    And you whose gifts, whenever they stay with me,

    leave me heedless whether rain stays or departs.

  24. لا تهجُرنَّ أليفا إلا لفاحشةٍ

    إن الكريم يرى أُلّافَهُ وطنا

    Do not forsake an intimate except for a grave offense;

    a noble man regards his intimates as a homeland.

  25. سلِّط عليَّ حيائي منك حَسْبُكَهُ

    ولا تُسلط علي الهمَّ والحَزنا

    Unleash my shame before you upon me; it suffices you,

    and do not unleash worry and grief upon me.

  26. ها قدْ سألتك غُفراناً ونافلةً

    فلا أكن كالمُعنَّى يسألُ الدِّمنا

    Behold, I have asked you for forgiveness and an added gift;

    let me not be like a tormented man questioning the ruined camps.

  27. ولا يقولنَّ حُسادي دعا وثناً

    وإنما كنت أدعو الله لا الوثنا

    Let not my enviers say, “He invoked an idol,”

    when I was invoking God, not the idol.

  28. أعجِبْ بحاجة ملهوفٍ تُؤَخّرها

    عنايةً مع إمكانٍ قد اعتونا

    Marvel at a desperate man's need that you delay

    with deliberate care, though the means have grown strong.

  29. ولو عقِلتُ ما حاولتُ نافلةً

    ولا بكيتُ وقد أقصيتني شجنا

    Had I been sensible, I would not have sought an added gift,

    nor wept in sorrow when you had driven me away.

  30. أمثلُ سُخطك يدهوني فيَكرُبني

    شيء سواه وإن مثقالَهُ وَزَنا

    Could anything afflict and distress me like your anger—

    anything else, even if it matched its weight?

  31. في سوء رأيك لي عن غيره شُغُلٌ

    ينفي الكرى عن جفون العين والوسنا

    Your bad opinion of me absorbs me from all else,

    banishing sleep and drowsiness from the eye's lids.

  32. لو يئستُ من العُتبَى وفِتنتها

    لما حَفِلتُ أطارَ الحظُّ أم وكَنا

    If I despaired of reconciliation and its allure,

    I would not care whether fortune flew away or roosted.

  33. لكن نفسي تُمنيني مراجعةً

    وربما قَرُب الأمر الذي شطنا

    But my soul holds out to me hope of a return,

    and sometimes a matter once far away comes near.

  34. ولم أكنْ عن رجاءٍ فيك مُنصرفاً

    ولو عدلتَ بذنب واحد حَضَنا

    I have not turned away from hope in you,

    even if you made a single fault equal to Mount Ḥaḍan.

  35. وفي الرجاء على الإجرام تعفيةٌ

    عند الأشداء في آرائهم مُننا

    And hoping despite wrongdoing means erasing

    favors, in the view of men firm in their judgments.

  36. ولو فَطنتُ لكان الذنبُ حينئذٍ

    ذنْبين لا شك إلا عند من أفِنا

    Had I understood, the fault would then have been

    two faults—undoubtedly, except to the witless.

  37. فاعذِرْ على طلبي جَدْواك في هَنةٍ

    دهياءَ تنسي السُّقاةَ الغربَ والشَّطَنا

    So pardon my seeking your bounty amid a plight

    so dreadful it makes water-drawers forget the great bucket and well-rope.

  38. جاذَبتَني الحبلَ حتى كدت تصرِمُه

    عن غير جُرم فصادفتَ امرأً طبِنا

    You tugged the rope against me till you nearly severed it,

    for no offense, and encountered an astute man.

  39. إن احتجبتَ فلم تُنْصِفك غاشيةٌ

    واستَنْكَفَتْ قال بدرٌ ربما دجنا

    If you shut yourself away, and your visitors do not do you justice

    and take offense, he says, “A full moon is sometimes clouded.”

  40. وإن مطلتَ فلام الناسُ قال لهم

    غيثٌ يجود إذا ما ربُّه أذنا

    If you delay and people blame you, he says to them,

    “Rain gives freely when its Lord permits.”

  41. وإن تَعتَّبْتَ أو أعرضتَ آونةً

    ناجَى النُّهى واستلانَ الجانبَ الخشنا

    If you reproach him or turn away for a time,

    he communes with reason and finds the rough side gentle.

  42. وإن تلوَّمتَ في أمرٍ يقوم به

    قال اتَّقَى العَثْرَ محموداً وما وهنا

    If you take time over a matter he undertakes,

    he says, “He guarded against stumbling, worthy of praise; he did not weaken.”

  43. فلست تعدَمُ منه عاذراً أبداً

    مُسدَّداً يجمعُ الأفهامَ واللَّقنا

    You will never lack in him one who excuses you,

    sound in judgment, joining understanding with quick perception.

  44. أتبعتُ جَدبَك طَوْعي لا كذي خطَل

    ممن تقاعسَ إذ جاذبتَه القَرنا

    I answered your censure with willing obedience, unlike a fool

    among those who balked when you tugged his tether.

  45. ما فوق ظاهِر وُدِّي ظاهرٌ حسن

    وإنَّ أحسنَ منه للذي بطَنا

    No fair outward show surpasses the outward show of my affection,

    and what lies hidden is lovelier still.

  46. أما لنا فيك آراءٌ مُسدَّدةٌ

    فلا تعُدَّن أهواءً ولا فِتنا

    Do we not hold sound judgments of you?

    So do not count them as whims or infatuations.

  47. وقد جعلتَ لدعوى طاعنٍ سبباً

    فلا تُبرهنْ على الدعوى إذا طعنا

    You have given a detractor grounds for his claim;

    do not prove his claim when he attacks.

  48. لا تَغبننَّ موالاتي ولا مِدَحي

    فقد عهِدتك ممن يكره الغَبَنا

    Do not shortchange my loyalty or my praises,

    for I have known you among those who detest unfair dealing.

  49. ولا تَفُتك العلى يا ابن الأُلى شَرعوا

    فيها الشرائع واستنُّوا لها السُّننا

    Let high honor not elude you, O son of those who ordained

    its laws and established its traditions:

  50. قومٌ تخطتْ إلى الأعقابِ أنعمُهم

    حتى غذتهم غذاءً سابق اللَّبنا

    a people whose favors reached onward to their descendants,

    till they nourished them with sustenance that raced ahead of milk.