كيف الشفاء ومن جفونك دائي

يا طاعن النجلاء بالنجلاءِ

How can there be healing, when my illness comes from your eyelids?

O you who deal gaping wounds with wide eyes!

أغربتَ في الهجران حتى أعربت

رسل المدامع عن جوى البرحاءِ

You went to extremes in estrangement, until they spoke plainly—

the messengers of tears—of torment's inward fire.

بعد السلو وقد بليت بوجنة

حمراء منك ومقلة حوراءِ

Solace is far off, for I am stricken by your cheek,

rosy, and by your eye of striking black and white.

اخجل بقامتك الغصون تثنيا

واكسر بلحظك سورة الصهباءِ

Shame the boughs with the swaying of your stature,

and with your glance break the potency of tawny wine.

وأما وخمر من رضابك حشوة

برد يبرد غلة الأحشاءِ

Indeed, by wine from your saliva, filled with

hail that cools the burning thirst within,

لا خالفن العاذلات على الهوى

وأحالفن صبابتي وعنائي

I shall surely defy the women who reproach my love,

and ally myself with my longing and my suffering.

هيهات أن ينسى الغرام متيم

ذكر الكثيب الفرد من تيماءِ

Far from forgetting passion is a love-enslaved man

who recalls the solitary dune of Tayma.

ذو عيشة لم تحل بعد فراقه

وجوانح لم تخل من برحاءِ

One whose life has held no sweetness since parting from him,

and whose breast has not been free of torment.

عقلته من بعد الفكاك بجوه

الحاظ كل عقيلة حسناءِ

After release, he was fettered in its expanse

by the glances of every noble beauty.

سكرى الجفون كأن صبح جبينها

من فرعها في ليلة ليلاءِ

Drunken-lidded, as though the dawn of her brow

were in a pitch-black night formed by her tresses.

تبدو كما تبدو الغزالة في الضحى

وتريك جيد غزالة جيداءِ

She appears as the sun appears in the forenoon,

and shows you the neck of a long-necked gazelle.

ومدامة حمراء من يد طفلة

بيضاء رضت بروضة خضراءِ

And red wine from the hand of a tender maiden—

fair-skinned—I mellowed in a green garden.

غناء للورق السواجع في ذري

أوراق دوحتها الذّغناءِ

The cooing gray doves have song in the topmost

leaves of its great, densely foliaged tree.

والأقحوان الطلق في أرجائها

ريان يضحك من بكاء الأنواءِ

And the bright-faced daisies throughout its reaches,

well-watered, laugh at the weeping of the rains.

ردت جداولها ذكاء عسجدا

أصلا وكن كفضة بيضاءِ

Dhuka, the sun, turned its streams to gold

at eventide, though they had been like white silver.

ومهومين على الرحال تناقلوا

تحت الظلام سلافة الأعياءِ

And drowsy travelers upon their saddles passed around,

beneath the darkness, the choicest wine of weariness.

قد أنكحوا أخفاف كل مطية

أجواز كل تنوفه عذراءِ

They had wedded the hoof-pads of every mount

to the depths of every virgin wilderness.

وافوا على خوص برتهن البرى

فرأيت أنضاء على أنضاءِ

They arrived on hollow-eyed camels, worn down by nose-rings,

so I saw wasted riders upon wasted mounts.

أموا بها نادى أبي الفرج الذي

أضحى نداه مفرج الغماءِ

With them they sought the assembly of Abu al-Faraj, whose

bounty has become the dispeller of distress.

رب اليد البيضاء عام الجدبة الش

هباء والأثفية السوداءِ

Lord of the white hand in the year of famine, ash-

gray, and of the blackened hearthstone.

لك من أنامله سماء ثرة

بل من خلائقه نجوم سماءِ

From his fingertips you have a sky of abundant rain;

rather, from his virtues, the stars of a sky.

صدر كصِرِ السيف أطلق حده

طلق الرواء مشيع الآراءِ

A chief like a sword's keen edge, his blade unleashed,

cheerful in aspect, bold in counsel.

ذو همة قد جاوزت بعلوها

فرق السماك وهامة الجوزاءِ

His ambition, in its height, has passed beyond

the crown of al-Simak and the head of al-Jawza.

في نوء راحته وصفحة خده

ما شئت من صوبي حيا وحياءٍ

In the rainfall of his palm and the surface of his cheek

is all you wish of two showers: rain and modesty.

مثر من المدح الذي بطلابه

أضحى أخا عدمٍ من الإثراءِ

Rich in praise, for the sake of which

he has gone from riches to being poverty's brother.

ألقى عليه من القلوب محبَّة

ما عنده للهاه من بغضاءِ

It has cast upon him love from hearts,

as great as the hatred he bears his riches.

تلقاه يوم الحرب خائض غمرة

وتراه يوم السلم غمر رداءِ

You meet him on war's day plunging into the fray,

and see him in peace, his cloak ample with bounty.

كلفا بسمراء الإهاب يعيدها

حمراء تحت عجاجة كلفاءِ

Enamored of the brown-skinned spear, he brings it back

red beneath a dusky cloud of battle-dust.

أحرى الورى في حلمه برزانة

أضحت تخف بها متون حراءِ

Most deserving among men, in his forbearance, of such gravity

that the ridges of Hira have grown light beside it.

حلو السجايا والخلال مؤمل

مرا الآباء ممدح الآباءِ

Sweet in disposition and character, looked to with hope,

bitter in proud refusal, much praised in his forebears.

يا ابن الدوامي من يقيسك غالط

بالغيث أو بالليث والدأماءِ

O son of al-Dawami, whoever compares you is mistaken,

whether with rain, or with the lion and the sea.

أزرت يمينك بالسحاب لأنها

تندى بمال والسحاب بماءِ

Your right hand has put the clouds to shame, for it

rains wealth, while the clouds rain water.

وصبا لك المرهوب فالليث الذي

في الغاب غاب مخافة الهيجاءِ

And the dreaded one is drawn to you; for the lion that

dwells in the thicket has hidden for fear of battle.

ونداك بالبحر الممنع ماؤه

وحليه بملوحة وشقاءِ

And your bounty shames the sea, whose water

and jewels are barred by salinity and hardship.

يا ماجدا تأتي مكارم كفه

سؤاله شفعا بلا شفعاءِ

O noble one, whose hand's generous gifts reach

his petitioners twofold, with no intercessors.

أسلم تقلد كل طوق منة

منا كطوق حمامة ورقاءِ

Live safe, and wear each collar of favor

from us, like the collar of an ash-gray dove.