نقَدْتَ القريضَ على ربِّه

نقَدْتَ القريضَ على ربِّه

وفَصْلَ الخِطابِ على الخاطبِ

وفَصْلَ الخِطابِ على الخاطبِ

You assayed verse in its master’s presence,

You have criticized verse, finding fault with its master,

You criticize the poem for its creator

You passed judgment on poetry before its very master, and dictated decisive speech to the orator,

and decisive speech before the orator;

And decisive speech, finding fault with its speaker.

And the discourse for the speaker

Your rhetorical innovation eclipsed Abd al-Hamid, as well as Ibn al-Amid and Al-Sahib,

بَدِيعُكَ أَزْرَى بعبد الحميد

بَدِيعُكَ أَزْرَى بعبد الحميد

وبابن العَمِيدِ وبالصاحبِ

وبابن العَمِيدِ وبالصاحبِ

your exquisite art put ʿAbd al-Hamid to shame,

Your artistry has put ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd to shame,

Your eloquence adorns Abdel Hameed

So who can help me enumerate your virtues, when merely a fraction of them confounds the reckoner?

and Ibn al-ʿAmid and al-Sahib.

And Ibn al-ʿAmīd and al-Ṣāḥib.

And the son of Al-Ameed and the companion

فَفَضْلُكَ مَنْ لي بإِحْصَائِهِ

فَفَضْلُكَ مَنْ لي بإِحْصَائِهِ

وفي بعضِه عِلَّةُ الحاسبِ

وفي بعضِه عِلَّةُ الحاسبِ

As for your excellence—who could number it for me,

So your excellence—who can reckon it for me,

So your virtue, who can I ask to count it?

when even a part of it is the reckoner’s undoing?

When even part of it afflicts the reckoner?

And in some of it is the flaw of the calculator