أهلا بغرتك السعيده — أبو زيد الفازازي

أهلاً بغرتك السعيده

وبقرب غزوتك البعيده

Welcome to your auspicious, radiant brow,

and to the approach of your distant campaign;

وبما خُصِصتَ به من الش

شيم الطريفة والتليده

and to what was specially bestowed upon you:

qualities both newly acquired and inherited.

يا ابن الإمامة والخلي

فة نسبة الشرف المجيده

O son of the imamate and

the caliphate, of glorious noble lineage;

وأخا الندى والبأس وال

منن العريضة والمديده

and brother of generosity, valor, and

favors broad and enduring.

لك في الجهاد مزية

قامت بها نفس جليده

You have distinction in jihad,

upheld by a steadfast soul,

ونكاية ذَلَّ العدوُّ

لها وَوَطأَتُهُ شديده

and a crushing blow—the enemy bowed

before it, though his onslaught was fierce.

قدَّمت بين يديك قب

ل الغزو آراء سديده

You sent ahead of you, before

the campaign, sound plans;

وأزرت أفريقية قِطَعاً

قطعت بها وريده

and you reinforced Ifriqiya with detachments

with which you severed his jugular vein.

وتركته مترقباً

بأساً لكرتك المبيده

You left him awaiting

the might of your annihilating charge.

صاد الكماة مخاتلا

والسعد يقضي أن تصيده

He hunted the champions by guile,

while good fortune decreed that you would hunt him.

ولكم أعد مكيدة

لكم فلم تغن المكيده

How often he prepared a stratagem

against you, yet the stratagem availed him nothing.

قد ذاق حطمة عزمه

بدأت وسوف ترى معيده

He has tasted a crushing blow to his resolve;

it has begun, and you will see it recur.

آثار من هجر الحفا

ظ قصوره أنفا وغيده

The traces of one who forsook

honor—his palaces, out of disdain, and his graceful women [syntax unclear].

ورأى عن القعدي عن

حرِّ الوغى سيمى القعيده

And he saw, in the man who stayed back from

battle's heat, the marks of a housebound woman.

يا ضيغم الحرب الذي

صار الهزبر له طريده

O lion of war, for whom

the lion itself became prey,

أحببت تونس بعد ما

أودت بها محنٌ عتيده

you loved Tunis after

afflictions lying in wait had laid it waste;

ومحوت إذ كلب العد

وُّ بصدق وعدكُمُ وعيده

and you erased, when the enemy raged,

his threat through the truth of your promise.

وتركتها كالروض

بجود راحتك المجيده

You left it like a garden,

through the bounty of your glorious palm.

يثني عليك مسوَّمٌ

بِدَمِ العُلا حَلَّيتًَ جيده

A marked steed praises you,

whose neck you adorned with the blood of glory;

ومومٌ لدنُ المهزِّ

وصارمٌ صافي الحديده

and [an unclear word], supple when brandished,

and a keen sword of pure steel.

وغدت رسوم الدين بعد

دروسها بكم مشيده

The institutions of religion became, after

their effacement, rebuilt through you.

أنفقت من سوق التُّقى

فكأنها بك مستفيده

You spent from piety's marketplace,

as though it were profiting through you.

واختالت الدنيا بكم

تيهاً فها هي كالخريده

The world strutted because of you,

in pride—behold it, like a secluded maiden.

وغدوت في دست العلوم

ولا عميد له عميده

At the throne of learning you became—

when it had no leader—its leader.

ونشرت ما بين الخليل

من الأئمة وابن سيده

You spread the learning between al-Khalil—

one of the scholarly masters—and Ibn Sidah.

شيّت أرجاء العلاءِ

أبا العلا وعمرت بيده

You adorned the reaches of glory,

O Abu al-'Ala, and made its deserts flourish.

الملك ناس ذكره مَأمُو

نَهُ بك بل رشيده

Kingship forgets the memory of its Ma'mun,

through you—indeed, even of its Rashid.

أنَى يعيد وأنت أنت

ملوكه ويعد صيده

How could it recall, with you being who you are,

its kings, and count its proud lords?

وإذا أردت من الخليَ

فة المحبة والعنيده

And if you seek from the caliph

the loving and the defiant,

ملك له طعمان لل

فئة المحبة والعنيده

a king with two flavors for

the loving faction and the defiant:

هو للمسالم شهدةٌ

وعلى الأعادي كالهبيده

to the peaceful he is honeycomb,

and to enemies, like bitter colocynth.

وُجدت به شيمُ السيادة

بعد أن كانت فقيده

The qualities of lordship were found in him,

after they had been absent.

يهنا الأكارم أن غدا

ملكاً لهم وَغَدوا عبيده

May the nobles rejoice that he has become

their king, and they his servants.

وإليك يا نجل الإمام

وشبهه منِّي قصيده

And to you, O son of the imam

and his likeness, comes a poem from me:

إنشاء مجبول الضمير

على محبتك الوكيده

the work of one whose heart is molded

upon steadfast love for you;

داعٍ لملكك بالدوا

م وحظهأن يستزيده

praying for your reign to endure

and seeking still more of its good fortune.

أناً واحد في نشر ما

تطوي سيادتُك الوحيده

I alone proclaim what

your peerless lordship keeps concealed.

قد صار شكركم لديّ

سجيةًُ لا بل عقيده

Gratitude to you has become for me

second nature—no, rather a creed.

يبلي الزمان وأهله

ومحبتي أبداً جديده

Time and its people wear away,

but my love is forever new.

وافى البشير بقربكم

فسجدت مراتٍ عديده

The bearer of glad tidings came with news of your nearness;

so I prostrated many times.

ووهبته نفسي ومن

حق البشارة أن أزيده

I gave him my very self; and it is part of

the due of glad tidings that I give him more.

فَليَهنَكَ العيدُ السعيد

ويهنَهُ أن كنت عيده

May the joyous feast bring you joy,

and may it rejoice that you are its feast.

واخلد لملك لا تزا

ل فريد بهجته الفريده

And live forever for a reign, never ceasing

to be the peerless jewel of its peerless splendor.

والسعد ينشد دائباً

أهلاً بغرتك السعيده

while good fortune sings unceasingly:

Welcome to your auspicious, radiant brow.