غدرت والغدر بي من شأنها

وأَسالت عبرتي من شانها

She betrayed me; betraying me is her way.

And she made my tears flow through her conduct.

غادة مذ ملكت قَادرة

حكمت بالجور في سلطانها

A graceful maiden who, once she gained power,

ruled unjustly within her dominion.

نقضت عهدي عنادا ووفت

بالذي أعهد من هجرانها

She defiantly broke my pledge, yet remained true

to the estrangement I have always known from her.

ما عليها ربحها لو اتبعت

حسنها بالنزر من إحسانها

What would it cost her—she would only gain—if she followed

her beauty with the smallest measure of kindness?

لا والحاظ لها ساحرة

صيرت عيني من أعوانها

No—by her enchanting glances,

which made my eyes her allies!

ما أرى أسقم من جسمي ولا

خصرها النضو سوي أجفانها

I see nothing more sickly than my body or

her wasted waist, except her eyelids.

أيها اللائم لي في لوعة

لا سبيل لي إلى كتمانها

O you who blame me for a burning grief

that I have no way to conceal,

إن من كلَّف كلف نفسي سلوة

طالب ما ليس في إمكانِها

surely, whoever bids my lovesick soul find solace

seeks what is beyond its power.

لا ترع بالعذل مني مغرما

شاب والصّبوة في ريعانها

Do not frighten with reproach the lover in me,

grown gray while his passion is in its prime.

ليس تطفي ما به من حرق

ادمع يغرق في طوفانِها

The fires within him cannot be quenched

by tears in whose deluge he drowns.

وبجرعاء الحمى باخلة

أصبح السوق قرى ضيفانِها

And at Jarʿāʾ al-Ḥimā dwells a grudging maiden,

whose guests now have [longing] for their fare.

أضحت السمر عليها والظبي

رقبة أغير من غيرانِها

Brown lances and sword-edges now stand over her,

a watch more jealous than her jealous guardians.

جاورت من وجرةّ دار هوى

غزلي وقف على غزلانِها

I dwelt beside a home of love in Wajra;

my love songs are devoted to its gazelles.

أرَّق الجفن تغنّي ورقها

وثنى الصبر تثنّي بانِها

Its doves' singing kept my eyelids wakeful,

and its bān trees' swaying bent my patience.

أَزعج القلب إليها فصبا

سَكَن أصبح من سكّانِها

My heart was stirred toward it and yearned,

by a beloved who became one of its dwellers.

فسقى ما مال من قضبانها

ريّه وانهال من كثبانِها

May whatever sways among its boughs be watered

to the full, and whatever tumbles from its dunes—

فخزاماها إلى جثجاثها

وأقاحهيها إلى حوذانِها

its lavender through to its jithjāth shrubs,

and its daisies through to its buttercups—

مستهلّ مهم منهمر

كيد الصّاحب في تهتانِها

by a pouring, rain-laden, streaming cloud,

like al-Ṣāḥib's hand in its steady downpour.

ملك الدنيا ومن أحلامه

وقر أرزَن من ثهلانِها

King of the world, from whose forbearance comes

a gravity weightier than its Mount Thahlān.

أسد الحرب الذي سطوتُه

تفرس الدارع من فرسانهِها

The lion of war, whose onslaught

tears apart the armored among its horsemen;

والمبيد الذمر في هبوتها

باللعان المر من مرّانِها

the destroyer of valiant warriors in its dust-cloud,

with the bitter curses of its ash-wood spears.

إن شهباء سلاح لم يكن

في ظلام النقع من شهبانِها

[What] army gleaming with arms has not had him

among its meteors in the dark of battle-dust?

وبلاغات مقال ما غدا

ساحبا ذيلا على سَحبانِها

And in eloquence of speech, has he not gone

trailing his robe in pride above its Saḥbān?

لم تضق أربعه الفيح على

معدم أَترب في أعطانها

His spacious dwellings have never been too narrow for

a pauper who grew rich within their precincts.

نجل من ساد والبرايا وجنوا

ثمرات العز من أغصانِها

Son of those who ruled mankind and gathered

the fruits of glory from its branches;

ناهبي أرواح أملاك الورى

في وغاها وأهبي تيجانِها

plunderers of the souls of mankind's kings

in battle, and bestowers of their crowns.

زينت الدولة من مجد الهدى

بأَمين غير ما خوَّانِها

The state was graced, in Majd al-Hudā,

with a faithful guardian, no betrayer of it.

شد من أزرعاها وغدا

معليا ما شاد من بنيانِها

He strengthened its support, and went on

raising higher the structure he had built.

فالرعايا شاكروا حسانه

الكهول الشيب مع شبّانِها

His subjects give thanks for his favors—

the gray-haired elders alongside their youths—

واصفوا عدل به قد أمنت

أدم القيعان من ذُوبانها

proclaiming a justice through which

the dust-colored gazelles of the plains are safe from their wolves.

خيمت منه المعالي وثوت

في محل الأنس من أو لأنها

Noble qualities pitched their tents with him and settled

in an abode of companionship among [unclear].

ما ترى أرض عِدا ما راضها

مسهلا بالخيل من أحزانها

You see no enemy land that he has not subdued,

leveling its rugged places with his cavalry;

وسماء للمعالي ما سما

مجده العالي على كيوانها

nor a heaven of noble deeds that has not seen

his lofty glory rise above its Saturn.

يا أبا الفضل فداء لك من

نوب الدّنيا ومن عدوانها

O Abū al-Faḍl, may you be ransomed from

the world's calamities and its assaults

منعشر قد علقوا من حبّهم

للهى جهلا على أوثانها

by men who have clung, out of their love

of wealth, foolishly to its idols.

أنت بذال لها يا ذا الندى

وهم للبخل من خزّانِها

You lavish it freely, O man of bounty,

while they, in their miserliness, hoard it.

عش لاسداء الأياد واستمع

أحصن الأشعار من حسّانِها

Live to bestow favors, and listen to

the most unassailable poems from their Ḥassān.

كل غراء المعاني تجتلي

في رداء زان من أوزانها

Each poem, radiant in meaning, you behold

in a robe made lovely by its meters.

تحسب الزوراء نجد كلما

فاح عرف الشيح من أردانها

You would think al-Zawrāʾ was Najd whenever

the scent of wormwood wafts from its sleeves.

وابق جم الرفد تغلي بالندى

ما غدا يرخص من أثمانيا

And live on, lavish in gifts, raising through bounty

the prices that had fallen low,

في نعيم يحمل الحاسد من

غصة النفس على أشجانها

in bliss that drives the envious, through

his soul's choking anguish, into its sorrows.