حن الفؤاد إلى سلمى ولم تصب — أبو وجزة السعدي

حَنَّ الفُؤادُ إِلى سَلمى وَلَم تُصِبِ

فيمَ الكَثيرُ مِنَ التحنانِ وَالطَرَبِ

The heart yearned for Salma, but you missed the mark.

Why so much yearning and agitation?

قالَت سُعادُ أَرى مِن شَيبَةٍ عَجَباً

مَهلاً سُعادُ فَما في الشَيبِ مِن عَجَبِ

Su'ad said, "I see something strange in gray hair."

Easy, Su'ad—there is nothing strange about gray hair.

إِمّا تَرَيني كَساني الدَهرُ شَيبَتَهُ

فَإِنَّ ما مَرَّ مِنهُ عَنكِ لَم يَغِبِ

If you see that time has clothed me in its gray hair,

then what has passed of it has not passed you by.

سَقياً لِسُعدى عَلى شَيبٍ أَلَمَّ بِنا

وَقَبلَ ذلِكَ حينَ الرَأسُ لَم يَشِبِ

May rain bless Su'da, despite the gray hair that has come upon us,

and before that, when the head had not turned gray.

كَأَنَّ ريقَتَها بَعدَ الكَرى اِغتَبَقَت

صَوبَ الثُرَيّا بِماءِ الكَرمِ مِن حَلَبِ

As though her saliva, after sleep, had drunk at evening

the Pleiades' rain, mixed with vine-water from Halab.

أُهدي قِلاصاً عَناجيجاً أَضَرّ بها

نَصُّ الوَجيفِ وَتَفحيمٌ مِنَ العُقَبِ

I send forth young, swift, long-necked she-camels, worn down by

hard-driven trotting and breathless exhaustion from successive stages.

حَرفٌ بَعيدٌ مِنَ الحادي إِذا مَلَأَت

شَمسُ النَهارِ عَنانَ الأَبرَقِ الصَخِبِ

A lean she-camel, far from the camel-driver, when

the daytime sun filled the sky above clamorous al-Abraq.

حَتّى إِذا طَوَيا وَاللَيلُ مُعتَكِرٌ

مِن ذي أُكَيهفُ جِزعَ البانِ وَالأَثَبِ

Until, when the two had crossed, while night was thick with darkness,

the valley bend of ban and athab trees in Dhu Ukayhif,

يَقصِدنَ سَيِّدَ قيسٍ وَاِبنَ سَيِّدِها

وَالفارِسَ العِدَّ مِنها غَيرَ ذي الكَذِبِ

they head for Qays's chief, also the son of its chief,

and its knight, an unfailing wellspring, never a liar.

مُحَمَّدٌ وَأَبوه وَاِبنُه صَنَعوا

لَهُ صَنائِعَ مِن مَجدٍ وَمن حَسَبِ

Muhammad, his father, and his son have wrought

for him great deeds of glory and ancestral honor—

جَيشُ المُحمّين شَبَّ النارَ تَحتَهُما

غَرثانَ أَمسى بِوادٍ مُوهب الحَطَبِ

the seething of two heated pots, beneath which a fire was kindled

by a hungry man who passed the evening in a valley rich in firewood.

إِنّي مَدَحتُهُمُ لَمّا رَأَيتُ لَهُم

فَضلاً عَلى غَيرِهِم مِن سائِرِ العَربِ

Indeed, I praised them when I saw that they possessed

merit above all the other Arabs.

إِلّا تُثِبني بِهِ لا يَجزني أَحدٌ

وَمن يُثيبُ إِذا ما أَنتَ لَم تُثِبِ

If you do not reward me for it, no one will recompense me.

And who will give reward if you yourself do not?