أعد من أحاديث الحبيب على سمعي

وأسند روايات الغرام إلى دمعي

Repeat to my ears some tales of the beloved,

and trace the accounts of passion back to my tears.

ولا ترو أخبار الصبابة عن سوى

مُسلسل ذاك الدمع في مرسل الفرع

And do not narrate the tales of yearning from any but

the linked flow of those tears amid the flowing tresses,

وسُقم غدا في ثوبه الجسم مُدرجا

ولا زال موقُوفا على وصله خلعي

and an illness in whose robe the body has become enfolded;

and casting it off remains dependent on union with him.

فأخبار دمعي والسقام صحيحةٌ

وهل في أحاديث الصحيحين من وضع

For the reports of my tears and sickness are sound;

and is there any fabrication in the traditions of the two Sahihs?

فما سقمي بالبين مؤتلف الشفا

ولا رمقي في الحبّ مستدرك الرجع

My illness from separation is not joined by healing,

nor can my last breath in love be brought back.

أرى أصل دائي ليل فرع يجرّه

صباحٌ يؤول الجرّ فيه إلى الرفع

I see my illness rooted in a night of tresses drawn along by

a dawn in which drawing down turns into lifting up.

ترى خلف معسول اللمى حية لها

تلوّ تُميت الصبّ من ألم اللسع

You see behind his honey-sweet dusky lips a serpent with

coils that kill the lover with the pain of its sting.

أغنّ بدت غناء روضة وجهه

فغنى عليها طائر القلب بالسجع

A soft-voiced beloved, whose face's garden appeared luxuriant;

so over it the bird of the heart sang in rhythmic coos.

غزالٌ مراعيه العقول وربعهُ

بطي الحشا ويلي على ساكن الربع

A gazelle whose pastures are minds, and whose abode

lies in my breast's folds—alas for me, for the dweller there!

تفرق صبرين مُذ جمعت غرامه

وما رجع التفريق فيه إلى الجمع

My twofold patience scattered since I gathered love for him;

and its scattering never returned to gathering.

يُبيح دمي جورا ويمنعُ وصلهُ

فوا حيرتي بين الاباحة والمنع

He unjustly permits my blood to be shed and withholds union with him;

oh, my bewilderment between permission and prohibition!

وهي ركنُ صبري كلما شاد أو رنا

فوا جزعي إن شاد من شادن الجزع

The pillar of my patience weakens whenever he sings or gazes;

oh, my anguish if song comes from the valley's young gazelle!

نوى بالحشا وترا وصلاه بالحيا

ووترُ المصلي بالفؤاد بلا شفع

He intended a single prayer within my breast and offered it with modesty;

and the worshipper's single prayer in the heart has no paired prayer.

تدرعت في حرب الغرام لصدّه

بصبر أمنت الدّهر فيه من الصدع

I armored myself in love's war against his rejection

with patience, secure within it for all time against a breach.

فجرد سيفا من بواتر لحظه

ومزق ما أحكمتُ من ذلك الدرع

Then he unsheathed a sword from the cutting blades of his glance

and tore apart the armor I had made so strong.

تُريدُ اللّواحي نزعه من ضمائري

ومن دُونه نزعُ الحياة بلا نزع

The reproving women seek to wrench him from my inmost thoughts;

but taking my life would come sooner, without a dying struggle.

أبينُ ولي عينٌ يُرى طارقُ الكرى

على بابها كلّت يداهُ من القرع

I am parted, with an eye where sleep's visitor is seen

at its door, both his hands weary from knocking.

تطاول ليلي من تطاوُل صدّه

فيالك ليلٌ ضاق من طُوله ذرعي

My night lengthened with the lengthening of his rejection;

what a night! Its length exhausted my endurance.

ولمّا تردّى اللّيلُ ثوب بقائه

تيقّنتُ أنّ الصّبح في حالة النّزع

And when night donned the robe of its permanence,

I became certain that dawn was in its death throes.

ولم أنس يوما قُلت صلني ليلة

فقال أليس الوصلُ يُمنعُ في الشرع

I have not forgotten the day I said, 'Join me for a night.'

He said, 'Is union not forbidden by religious law?'

فقلتُ لهُ عمّن رويت فقال عن

إمام لغريان انتمى شامخ الفرع

I asked him, 'From whom did you narrate that?' He said, 'From

an imam belonging to Gharyan, whose branch towers high.'

إمامٌ زكيٌّ درّ ضرعُ عُلومه

فأنهل كلّ النّاس من ذلك الضّرع

A pure imam, the udder of whose learning flowed with milk,

and from that udder he gave all people drink.

لقد عمّ آفاق البيسطة فضله

كما عمّها من سائر العلم بالنّفع

His excellence has surely encompassed the horizons of the earth,

as he filled it with benefit from every field of learning.

لهُ عُقدت في المجد ألويةُ العلى

وطالت معاليه عن الشّهب السّبع

For him the banners of eminence were raised in glory,

and his lofty merits rose beyond the seven shining stars.

تكادُ خفيُّ المشكلات بدرسه

تُخاطبهُ جهرا فتدركُ بالسَّمع

In his lessons, the hidden sides of difficult questions almost

address him aloud, and thus become understood by hearing.

تحلّى به جيدُ الزّمان فأصبحت

يداهُ تحلّي ماضي الدّهر بالنّفع

Time's neck was adorned with him, and so

his hands came to adorn bygone days with benefit.

أفاض على أرجاء تُونس منبعا

فسمّيت الخضراء من ذلك النّبع

He poured a fountain over the reaches of Tunis,

so it was named 'the Green' because of that spring.

تقدّم في جمع العلوم فأخّرت

سواهُ عن التّقديم في رُتبة الجمع

He took the lead in gathering the sciences, and so

others were kept from precedence in the ranks of that gathering.

مُصيب بسهم الرأي في كلّ مُعضل

مُجلّى صباح النّصح من غيهب الخدع

He hits the mark with judgment's arrow in every difficult problem,

and unveils counsel's dawn from the darkness of deceit.

يضيقُ نطاقُ النّطق عن حصر مجده

وما حصر ما يحوي من المجد في الوسع

The compass of speech is too narrow to encompass his glory;

encompassing the glory he holds is beyond all power.

تحلّى بتقوى الله في كلّ حالة

وبالزّهد في الدّنيا الدّنيّة والقنع

He adorned himself with reverence for God in every circumstance,

and with renunciation of the lowly world and contentment.

سريٌّ سرى في النّاس معرُوفُ فضله

وبشرٌ به قد خُصّ من كرم الطّبع

A noble man whose bountiful kindness spread among the people,

and a cheerfulness uniquely his, born of a generous nature.

إذا زُرعت في السّمع منه مواعظٌ

جنيت ثمار البرّ من ذلك الزّرع

When counsels from him are planted in the ear,

you reap the fruits of righteousness from that sowing.

ألا أيّها الحبرُ الّذي هامةُ العلى

من المجد من نعليه في موضع النّسع

O learned master, before whom the highest peak

of glory lies at the level of the straps on his sandals!

ختمت أحاديث البخاري فانثنت

جميعُ الورى تُثني على ذلك الصّنع

You completed a reading of al-Bukhari's traditions, and then

all humankind turned to praise that deed.

أحاديث من في محفل اسمع الورى

كلام جماد والحنين من الجذع

Traditions of him who, in an assembly, made mankind hear

the speech of lifeless matter and a tree trunk's yearning cry.

عليه صلاةُ الله ما هبّت الصّبا

وما غرّدت ورقاءُ يوما على فرع

God's blessing be upon him as long as the east wind blows,

and whenever a gray dove sings upon a branch.

ويسألُ ربُّ النّظم حُسن دُعائكم

عسى بالدُّعا منكم يُعمّمُ بالنّفع

And the author of these verses asks for your gracious prayers,

that through your prayers he may be fully graced with benefit.

فلا زالت الأختامُ في روض درسكم

تضوعُ وهذا الختمُ في غاية الرّفع

May completions of readings in your teaching's garden never cease

to waft their fragrance; this completion is supremely exalted.