ما استشعر الصبر إلا وهو مجهود

ولا رعى النجم إلا وهو معمود

He embraced patience only when utterly spent,

Nor watched the stars except when grief-stricken.

ولا انتحى الماء إلا أنه رجل

في قلبه من ضرام الحب تنضيد

Nor sought water save as a man

With love’s flames heaped up in his heart.

أبقى له الحب وجدا في جوارحه

يفنى ويبقى الهوى ما أورق العود

Love left him yearning in his limbs;

He wastes away, but desire remains as long as branches leaf.

إن الغويّ الذي تحلو جوارحه

من لوعة الحب والمهجور مكمود

Indeed, the deluded one is he whose limbs find sweetness

From love’s burning pain; the forsaken is grief-stricken.

نام الخليّ ولم أرقد لبينهم

والصبر أية حال فهو محمود

The carefree man slept; I could not sleep for their departure.

Yet patience, in whatever condition, is praiseworthy.

سقيا لأيامنا بالكرخ إن لها

فضلا على سائر الأيام معدود

May rain bless our days in al-Karkh, for they have

A recognized excellence above all other days.

إذ نحن لا نعتب اللاحي وليس لنا

إلا الغواية حاد والهوى قود

When we did not rebuke the reprover, and had

No driver but waywardness, with passion for our guide.

وإذ حوائجنا يسعى بها رسل

من الحبيبة والإيماء موعود

And when messengers hurried with our requests,

From the beloved, and a gesture was promised.

حتى تغيّرت الأيام فهيَ وقد

كانت تلوح بياضا كلها سود

Until the days changed; now, though

They once shone white, they are all black.

وأقبلت نوب الأيام يقدمها

من لائح الشيب إيراق وترعيد

And life’s calamities came, preceded

By the sprouting of gleaming gray hair and trembling.

ما أكره الشيب إلاأنه سببٌ

إلى صدود الغواني فهو مصدود

I do not hate gray hair, except that it causes

Beautiful women to turn away; so it is shunned.

مهما نسيت فلا أنسى التي كتبت

يا زارع الحب إن الوصل محصود

Whatever I forget, I will not forget the woman who wrote:

“O sower of love, union is a crop to be reaped.

كم ذا الوقوف بباب الدار مستترا

أقصر فإنك مرموق ومرصود

How long will you stand concealed at the house’s door?

Desist, for you are watched and kept under surveillance.”

فقلت سيّدني رفقا بأحنفكم

إني عليك لمحسود ومكمود

I said, “Ennoble me; be gentle with your Ahnaf;

For on your account I am both envied and grief-stricken.”

قالت لجارتها من بعد ما رحمت

فقري إليها رقيق الحال محدود

She said to her neighbor, after she had pitied

My need of her: “Poor in means, luckless.”

يا أيها البائس المغرى بنا سفها

بيني وبينك تصويب وتصعيد

“O wretched man, foolishly infatuated with us,

Between me and you lie descents and ascents.

ودون وصلك أبواب مغلقة

أما تراها وسترات وتشييد

And before your union stand locked doors—

Do you not see them?—screens and fortifications.

أما ترى الباب قد حفت به زمر

من الخلاوز مسهود ومهجود

Do you not see the door surrounded by bands

Of guards, some kept awake and some asleep?”

واحتلن حتى خلونا ساعة ولها

بعض ببعض فباب البيت مردود

And they contrived until we were alone an hour, yearning

For one another, with the house door shut.

فلم يكن غير عتب من أخي شحن

يتلوه من بعد تأنيب وتعديد

There was nothing but reproach from one full of rancor,

Followed afterward by rebuke and a tally of faults.

يا حبّذا من عتاب لو تضمّنه

من الأجاول بالمنقاش جلمود

How welcome that reproach! Had it been contained

In a boulder from al-Ajawil, beneath the chisel,

إذن تفتّت حتى لا يحسّ له

حجم ولو أنه في الصخر صيخود

It would have crumbled until none could feel

Its bulk, though it were the hardest of rocks.

هذا ورب فلاة لا أنيس بها

للحن فيها تعازيف وتمريد

This—and by the Lord of a wilderness with no companion,

Where the hinn-spirits sound strange strains and run wild,

بيداء ريداء تضحي والقتام بها

على مخارمها من دونها بيد

A bleak desert, dust-filled by day,

Across its passes, with other deserts before it,

مضلة تتأواها الحتوف بها

ذئب أسكّ وللحيّات ترديد

A trackless waste where deaths take shelter; within it

A short-eared wolf, and snakes moving to and fro.

ترى النعام الأصم الذود معترضا

دون السراب صحيا وهو معدود

You see a small flock of deaf ostriches crossing

Before the mirage, clearly visible and countable.

كأنّه نخلات قد غبران على

مرّ الأعاصير يمحو آلها القيد

As though they were palm trees, dust-covered through

The passing whirlwinds; distance effaces their mirage.

كلفتها صاحبي من بعدما نسمت

عيناه طليب الكرى والليل مبرود

I charged my companion with crossing it, after

His eyes stirred in pursuit of sleep, while the night was cool.

وللثريّا شروق في تسنّمها

كأنّها في علوّ الجوّ عنقود

And the Pleiades gleamed as they ascended,

Like a cluster of grapes high in the sky.

فارتاع ثم تأبّى أن يساعدني

هيهات يسعدني في الليل رعديد

He took fright, then refused to help me;

Far be it that a coward should help me by night!

لا يركب الليل إلا كلّ محتنك

عود لناظره في الليل تحديد

None rides into night except a seasoned man,

An old hand whose gaze sharpens in darkness.

ما حاد عنّي أخ في كشف نائبة

إلا وكان أخي الصمصامة الصيد

Whenever a brother turned away from helping me dispel a calamity,

The proud Samsamah sword became my brother.

ثم اعتلقت جريرا فيه ذا هوج

من الأباعر في متيه تحصيد

Then I seized a halter holding a headstrong beast,

One of the camels, in a bewildering, death-dealing waste.

كان يلاعب أثناء الزمام ضحى

وللغام على شدقيه تزبيد

In the forenoon he played with the folds of his rein,

With spume frothing upon his jaws.

حتى إذا الشمس صارت فوق هامته

وللحنادب في الرمضاء تغريد

Until, when the sun stood above his head,

And locusts chirped on the scorching ground,

أوردته ماء مزن آسن أجش

يحميه ليث هريت الشدق ممسود

I brought him to stagnant, murky water from rainclouds,

Guarded by a wide-jawed, sinewy lion,

عالي اليديد رحيبالزور مندمجٌ

مقارب الخلق في رجليه توهيد

Tall in the forequarters, broad-chested, compactly built,

Close-knit in build, with sluggishness in his hind legs.

إذا اغتدى فاتحا فاه رأيت فما

كأنما كل ناب فيه سفود

When he went forth in the morning, mouth open, you saw a mouth

In which every fang seemed a roasting-spit.

فأجابته وهو طاوٍ فازدرى شحبي

ومرّ بي والخبيث الكلب مجهود

Then she answered him while he was hungry; he scorned my pallor,

And he passed by me, that wicked cur exhausted,

حتى إذا ما رآني قد دلقت له

بصارم فيه للأعضاء تبديد

Until, when he saw that I had rushed at him

With a keen blade that scatters limbs,

تل الجبين بوجه الأرض من جنق

يرى زئيرا له تعنو الصناديد

He pressed his brow against the face of the earth in rage,

Giving a roar before which champions bow.

عاجلته ضربة في الرأس دامغة

أقعى لها وهو بالأمشاج ملدود

I struck first, with a brain-crushing blow to the head;

He crouched under it, his mouth dosed with mingled fluids.

أردفتها ضربة كانت منيّته

فيها فخرّ وفيه السيف معمود

I followed it with a blow; his death was

In it, and he fell, the sword driven into him.

ورحت من عنده والطير عاكفه

عليه وهو بوحش البر محسود

I went away from him, while birds gathered

Over him, and the beasts of the wild envied him.

وعارضتني ظباء البر لو رزقت

نطقا لفدّينني والعرف محمود

The wild gazelles crossed my path; had they been granted

Speech, they would have ransomed me; kindness is praiseworthy.

ومعضل وارد أعيت مصادره

وضاق ذرعا به القوم المناجيد

And many a daunting problem arose, its ways out baffling,

And the valiant men were at their wits’ end over it.

اصدرته بعد أن كادت تضيق به

صدور قوم لهم حلّ وتعقيد

I found a way out for it, after it nearly constricted

The hearts of men versed in untying and knotting.

قد كان هذا وعين الحرف هاجعة

عنّي وإذا مدخل الحرمان مسدود

All this was when the eye of misfortune lay asleep

Away from me, and behold, deprivation’s entrance was barred;

والدهر عوني على ما نابني وله

في حال إقباله رفق وتوطيد

And Time was my ally against what befell me, possessing

Gentleness and firm support in its season of favor.

حتى إذا ما الرزايا لذن بي انعكست

حالي وها أنذا والعيش منكود

Until calamities took refuge with me and overturned

My lot; here I am, with life embittered.

رثّ الصديق رقيق الحال في بلد

أهلوه قوم لهم في اللؤم تحوي

Poor in friends, slender in means, in a town

Whose people are wrapped in baseness.

ما سميت مفتحا إلا وقد فتحت

فيها المخازي وزال المجد والجود

It was called Maftah only when there were opened

Within it disgraces, and glory and generosity vanished.

قوم يباع رجيع القوم بينهم

في السوق نقدا فهذا البيع مفسود

A people among whom human excrement is sold

In the market for cash; this trade is corrupt.

غذاؤهم من مسوخ البحر يزحة

وعومة أكلها سخف وتفنيد

Their food is from the sea’s monstrosities: yazhah

And ʿawmah fish; eating it is folly and cause for censure.