عتبت على الدنيا عتاب لبيب

وان كنت في ذا العتب غير مصيب

I reproached the world with a discerning man's reproach,

Even if I was mistaken in that reproach.

تعاكس مجدي وهي تدري بأنني

بصف اولي الاحساب خير حسبي

It thwarts my glory, though it knows that I

Stand among the wellborn, my ancestry the finest.

وتعلم اني في بني المجد واحد

نجيب جليل الشان وابن نجيب

It knows that among the sons of glory I am unique:

Noble, exalted in station, and the son of a noble man.

تسلسلني اعراق قومي فتنتهي

الى نسب ضخم الفخار نسيب

My people's bloodlines link me in a chain, reaching

A noble lineage of immense glory.

من الفاطميين الجحا حجة الاولى

شموس المعالي غوث كل كئيب

From the Fatimids—[unclear wording]—those who are

Suns of high distinction, succor to every sorrowing soul.

ائمة بيت رفرفت شرفاته

على النجم من عالي المنار مهيب

Imams of a house whose battlements fluttered

Above the star, from a lofty, awe-inspiring beacon.

وحجت لعرفاني الرجال فضمخت

من الحال والذوق الشريف بطيب

Men made pilgrimage to my gnosis and were anointed

With fragrance from the spiritual state and noble inward taste.

لان انكر الانذال باهر مظهري

فهذا على الانذال غير غريب

Should the base deny my radiant presence,

That is nothing strange for the base.

لمثلي باعيان النبيين اسوة

وما ضر نور الشمس جحد مريب

For one like me, the prophets themselves are an example;

A doubter's denial has never harmed the sunlight.

تناكدني الايام حتى كانها

تطوف على مجدي بعين رقيب

The days plague me, as though they

Circle my glory with a watcher's eye.

فلو رمت من سيال جيحون شربة

من الماء مست صوفها بلهيب

Were I to seek a draught from the flowing Jihun,

Of water, they would touch its 'wool' with flame [text unclear].

بذلت الايادي البيض غير مشارك

بعصري فابدتها بلون ذنوبي

I bestowed white-handed favors, without a rival

In my age; yet the world showed them in the color of my sins.

واعنت فؤادي باللئام ولم ازل

لهم هدفا يرمي بكل عجيب

It wearied my heart through the base, and I remained

Their target, pelted with every strange thing.

تطرف مجدي بالعلوم وبالتقى

وبالجود عن جد كريم شعوب

My glory gained fresh distinction through learning and piety,

And generosity, from an ancestor noble among peoples.

وقمت باعباء المعالي بأمة

تكر على العليا بنهشة ذيب

I shouldered the burdens of high endeavor among a people

Who assail the heights with a wolf's bite.

وما هد عزمي الحظ الا بخائن

عتل زنيم مفتر وكذوب

Fortune broke my resolve only through a traitor:

Brutish, baseborn, a slanderer and a liar.

يمر الليالي ساحرا متفكرا

يبدل بري والتقى بعيوب

He spends the nights as a sorcerer, brooding,

Turning my righteousness and piety into faults.

لقد جان يا عز الزمان وهل اذن

يرى اهله نجحا بوعظ خطيب

Time has indeed [unclear verb], O ‘Izz; can, then,

Its people find success through a preacher's counsel?

نعم فيه من زهر الكرام بقية

به التحقت للضنك ثوب غريب

Yes, some remnant of nobility's flower remains in it;

Through it, in hardship, I donned a stranger's robe [verb uncertain].

تمنيت اني لا ولدت ولا الألى

نظرت ولا هذي الحياة نصيبي

I wished I had not been born, nor those whom

I had seen, and that this life were not my lot.

ندبت كرام العصر عن حزن لكي

يقابلني منهم رغاء نجيب

In sorrow I summoned the age's noble men, only

To hear from them a noble camel's bellow.

وما جهلوا مني جليل مناقبي

ولا حبل اتعابي وعسر كروبي

They were not ignorant of my exalted virtues,

Nor the cord of my toils and the severity of my sorrows.

يزاحمني من رأسه دون اخمصي

وهام ذويه السود حب زبيب

One whose head lies below my foot's arch jostles me,

And his kinsmen's black heads are raisins.

ويهضم حقي من كسته عوارفي

رداء المعالي فهو غير اديب

And he denies my due—he whom my favors clothed

In the robe of high rank; yet he is ill-bred.

تفرست في البعض الخيانة ثم لم

اتباع فؤادي واتبعت حليبي

I discerned treachery in some, but then did not

Follow my heart; instead, I followed my milk-nurtured nature.

فاوليتهم قربا فكانوا عقاربا

واقبح غدر الناس غدر قريب

I granted them closeness, and they proved to be scorpions;

The foulest human treachery is betrayal by one close.

وجلببتهم عزا وفخرا ورفعة

فساموا فخاري لا برأي ليبي

I clothed them in might, pride, and high rank,

Yet they bargained over my glory without a discerning man's judgment [ending uncertain].

وردوا علي العيب جهلا وخسة

وقد قنعوا للمكر كل معيب

They cast reproach upon me out of ignorance and baseness,

Having masked every fault for the sake of deceit.

اتوا بصنوف الزور من عيبة الخنا

وما سلكوا فيها طريق اديب

They brought kinds of falsehood from the chest of obscenity,

And took no well-bred man's path in doing so.

ولو انصفوا ذابوا حياء لفعلهم

وللحر جمر الغدر أي مذيب

Had they been fair, they would have melted in shame at their deeds;

How treachery's embers melt a freeborn man!

هم اوقدوا بالبغي والبغي نارهم

فأجت لهم تصلى بغير تقوب

They kindled their fire with oppression upon oppression,

And it blazed for them, burning without kindling [reading uncertain].

لقد عارضوا الباري وحطوا رحالهم

برحب من الحرص القبيح جديب

They have indeed opposed the Creator and set down their saddles

In a barren expanse of ugly greed.

والقوا على الاوهام والزعم حبهم

من الارض عن جهل بكل جريب

They cast their seed upon illusions and conjecture,

In ignorance, on every jarib of land.

وعادوا عيون الاقربين سفاهة

ووالوا من الاغيار كل جنيب

Foolishly, they made enemies of the finest of their kinsmen,

And allied themselves with every distant outsider.

ويا ليت لما استبدلوني وازمعوا

دنوا من كريم الدوحتين حسيب

Would that, when they replaced me and resolved to leave,

They had approached one wellborn in both ancestral trees!

ومن اين يدري لذة الشرف امروء

تمحض عن لؤم بكل حليب

How can a man know the sweetness of honor

Who was bred of pure baseness with every draught of milk?

اذا كان قلب المرء قلبا مصدعا

بلؤم فلم يصلحه ماء قليب

If a man's heart is a heart cracked

By baseness, no well's water can mend it.

لحا الله ايام الغرور فانها

تجيء لارباب النهى بخطوب

May God curse the days of delusion, for they

Bring calamities upon men of understanding.

تكدر عيش الاكرمين بغصة

وتردي بداء الهجر كل عروب

They embitter the noblest men's lives with choking grief,

And slay every loving woman with the sickness of abandonment.

وتلحق كبار المحافل في الورى

بكل رقيب للشؤن عقيب

They bring the great men of the world's assemblies

Alongside every watcher who dogs their affairs.

واني اذا لم ارتدي الدين كسوة

واجعله رغم الكفور نصيبي

If I do not wear religion as my garment

And make it my portion, despite the faithless,

وان لم اؤدي المجد يا هند حقه

فلا اخضر في روض الفخار قضيبي

And if I do not render glory its due, O Hind,

May my branch never grow green in the garden of pride.

واني لميمون النقيبة سيد

وللسادة الاشراف خير نقيب

I am indeed a lord of blessed disposition,

And the finest chief of the noble lords.

وما ضرني نبح الكلاب وانني

لبدر ولم يلصق برمل كثيب

The barking of dogs has not harmed me; indeed, I

Am a full moon that has never clung to a dune's sand.

ولست ابالي من زماني بريبة

اذا كنت عند الله غير مريب

I care not for suspicion from my age,

So long as I am above suspicion in God's sight.