1. سروا والوجد في الاحشا باق

    فما طرفي لغيرهم بباق

    They departed by night, yet longing remains in my breast.

    So my gaze has nothing left for anyone but them.

  2. والقوني على مقلاة يأس

    الاقي من اساه ما الاقي

    And they cast me upon a frying pan of despair;

    I endure from its sorrow all that I endure.

  3. فيا قلبي المعين على شوقي

    ويا دمعي المعين من اشتياقي

    So, O my heart, aiding my yearning,

    And O my tears, flowing from my longing,

  4. الام تخازمان على شقآي

    وبينكما سياج الصبر شاق

    How long will you two contend over my misery,

    With patience's painful fence between you?

  5. وحتام التعلل بالاماني

    وما تشفى العليل من الفراق

    And how long this solace sought in wishes,

    When they do not heal one sick from separation?

  6. نحبت من البعاد فما اساني

    وطول اساي لم ينف ائترافي

    I sobbed at their distance, yet found no solace;

    Nor did my long sorrow dispel my sleeplessness [uncertain reading].

  7. وما رقأ المدامع طيب رجو

    وما ارجى الفواجع طب راق

    Nor did sweet hope stanch the tears,

    Nor did a charm-healer's medicine delay calamities.

  8. ومن يك ضره منه فاني

    يرجى النفع من فرق الرفاق

    And if one's hurt comes from oneself, how, then,

    Can benefit be hoped for from the parting of companions?

  9. ومالي اكثر الشكوى هلوعا

    ولي من فضل ابراهيم واق

    And why do I complain so much, distraught,

    When Ibrahim's bounty affords me a protector?

  10. من الحدب الذي يعني حنوا

    له لقب لذي كرم ملاق

    From solicitude, a word that means tenderness,

    He bears an epithet befitting a generous man.

  11. امام العصر ان يفصل عدالا

    فما هو بعد داع للشقاق

    The leader of the age: when he judges justly,

    He is thereafter no instigator of discord.

  12. اذا ما راب امر حاد عنه

    ويسعى لليقين على استباق

    Whenever a matter rouses doubt, he turns away from it,

    And races onward in pursuit of certainty.

  13. يجئ لنا بدر القول نثرا

    فيرخص عنده نظم العراق

    He brings us pearls of speech in prose,

    So beside him, Iraq's verse grows cheap.

  14. وان رام القوافي طاوعته

    فجلى محرزا قصب السباق

    And if he seeks rhymes, they obey him,

    So he leads the field, winning the race's prize-reed.

  15. تقاد له العلوم كانما قد

    تلاها اذ تلاها بالوثاق

    The sciences are led to him, as though he had

    Bound them with fetters as he recited them.

  16. وايا طفت مغتربا اطافت

    مدائحه بسمعك كالنطاق

    And wherever you roam far from home,

    Praises of him encircle your hearing like a girdle.

  17. ومهما صغت من وصف جميل

    على اخلاقه فبالانطباق

    And whatever lovely description you fashion

    Of his character fits him exactly.

  18. حليم عالم شهم كريم

    تقي ماجد وقس البواقي

    Forbearing, learned, gallant, generous,

    Pious, noble—and infer the rest.

  19. هو البحر الخضم فرده عذبا

    ولا تردن سواه من السواقي

    He is the mighty sea: drink from his sweet waters,

    And draw from no other watercourse.

  20. تشاخست المدائح في سواء

    وفيه لم تزل ذات انتساق

    Praises have clashed when bestowed on others,

    But in him they have always been in harmony.

  21. وبعض الناس مشربهم فرات

    وبعضهم امر من الزعاق

    And some people's draught is sweet,

    And some are bitterer than brackish water.

  22. ومنهم من الى العلياء يرقى

    ومنهم من تزل به المراقي

    And some among them climb to lofty heights,

    And some are made to slip by the steps of ascent.

  23. وكان الشعر فيهم في كساد

    فصار اليوم فيه في نفاق

    And poetry about them once found no market,

    So today, in his praise, it sells briskly.

  24. كاني حين انشد فيه مدجى

    اعاطي الراح من كأس دهاق

    It is as though, when I recite my praise of him [uncertain reading],

    I share wine from a brimming cup.

  25. اذا فنى المديح على اناس

    فمدحي فيه طول الدهر باق

    If praise bestowed on people dies away,

    Still my praise of him endures for all time.