هذي المخايل تشهد

فلما تروغ وتجحد

These signs bear witness;

so why do you evade and deny?

كذبتك نفسك ما الهوى

يخفى على من ينقد

Your own soul deceived you: love is not

hidden from one who discerns.

أرأيت إن عميَ السرّى

أفلا يدُلّ الفرقد

Tell me: if night travelers lose their way,

does Farqad not show the way?

صرح بمن تهوى ودع

ذاك العذول يعربد

Declare whom you love, and leave

that reproacher to rant.

أو فاستمع منّي فما

أمر العيافة يبعد

Or else listen to me, for

the art of augury is not far to seek.

ألقتك بارعة الدما

في سامر يتوقّد

A beauty surpassing statues cast you

into a night gathering ablaze.

خودٌ وخدّك شاهدٌ

لمّا غدا يتخدّد

A tender maiden—and your cheek bears witness,

now that it has become furrowed.

لو لم تهم بنهودها

لم يبد منك تنهّد

Had you not been infatuated with her breasts,

no sigh would have escaped you.

زارتك بعد تشّوف

أخطاك فيه الموعد

She visited you after eager expectation

during which the promised meeting had failed you.

فخطت إليك ودونها

حيٌّ لقاحٌ ايّدُ

Then she stepped toward you, though barring her way stood

a tribe, unsubdued and mighty.

تدنو وحول قبابها

حرسٌ يقوم ويقعد

She draws near, while around her pavilions

guards rise and sit.

وتخاف وشيَ شنوفها

فتضمّها أو تفرد

She fears the tale-bearing of her earrings,

so she holds them close or separates them.

وتجيل من خلخالها

بعضا وبعضا تصفد

And of her anklet she moves

one part, while fastening another.

لأيا تخلص سرها

من قائفٍ يترَصّد

With difficulty she keeps her secret safe

from a tracker lying in wait,

حتى ظفرت بدولة

منها وغاب الحسّد

until you won a turn of fortune

from her, and the envious were gone.

ونظرت بدر دجُنّة

في بانة يتأوّد

And you beheld a full moon in dark night,

swaying in a bān-tree.

ولثمت أشنب كلما

شبّت جمارك يبرد

And you kissed a pearly mouth that, whenever

your embers flared, brought coolness.

وضممت روحا لم تصل

لولا الوشاح لها اليد

And you embraced a spirit no hand could reach,

were it not for her sash.

تجني عليك بدلّها

وبقلبها تتوَدّد

She wrongs you with her coquetry,

yet woos you with her heart.

ويكاد فرق جبينها

يومي إليك فتسجد

The parting at her brow almost

beckons to you, and you prostrate yourself.

وذهلت في تشبيهها

إذ قلت فيها العسجد

And you erred in likening her,

when you called her gold.

ولو اهتديت لقلت في

تشبيهها ما يحمد

Had you found guidance, you would have said in

likening her what merits praise:

مددٌ من الوهّاب كا

ن لعبده يتجدّد

Succor from the Bestower was

ever renewed for His servant—

السيد السند الكريم

الألمعيّ الأوحد

the lord, the pillar of support, the generous,

the keen-witted, peerless one.

يا من توقّدُ ذهنه

ينماعُ فيه الجلمد

O you, in whose mind's blaze

solid rock melts,

كيف اقتحمت عميقها

والبحر طاغ مزبدُ

how did you plunge into its depths,

while the sea raged and foamed?

أم كيف صدت قصيّها

وهي الظباء الشرّد

Or how did you catch its farthest-ranging ones,

when they are fugitive gazelles?

ولهي بهاما ينقضي

ولهيبا ما يخمُدُ

My passion for her never ends,

and its flame never dies down.

وإذا كنيت بنعتها

فإلى الحقيقة أصمد

And when I speak allusively of her qualities,

I aim at the truth itself.

هذي خزائن مصرفي

أكناف تونس تنفد

These are Egypt's treasuries,

being emptied throughout the districts of Tunis.

إن كان يوسف ضمّها

فلأنت منها المرفد

If Yusuf was the one who gathered them,

then you are the giver from them.

ذاك الإمام الجهبذُ ال

أرضى التقي الأرشد

That imam, the discerning expert, the

most pleasing, the pious, the best guided—

فمن المجلّي منكما

وله الجواد الأجود

which of you two is the front-runner,

and whose is the noblest steed?

بل جئتما فرسَي رها

نٍ واليدان به اليد

Rather, you came as two horses in a

race—and in it the two hands are one.

فإذا جرى وصفاكما

سبق المثنّى المفرد

So when your two praises race,

the dual outstrips the singular,

لا للخصوص وإنّما

أمرٌ قضاهُ المورد

not out of partiality, but

because the occasion decreed it.

فلَهُ البداية خيرها

ولك الختام الأسعدُ

His is the finest beginning,

and yours the happiest close.