1. طيب النّسيم على رسم الدّيار قف

    وحيّها من مُحبّ وامق دنف

    Sweet breeze, pause over the traces of the dwellings,

    and greet them from a devoted, passionate, lovesick lover.

  2. وأذكرنهُ لويلات لنا سلفت

    دُنيا علينا لهذا الدّهر من سلف

    Remind them of little nights of ours gone by,

    a worldly life upon us, an advance owed to this age [wording unclear].

  3. وقُل سقاك إلاهُ العالمين حيا

    يُحيي معاهد أنس منك مُؤتلف

    And say: May the God of all worlds water you with rain

    that revives your haunts of harmonious companionship.

  4. أضحت مراتع غزلان الفلاة وقد

    كانت بها ظبياتُ الأنس في سُجف

    They have become pastures for wilderness gazelles, though

    the gazelles of companionship once dwelt there behind curtains.

  5. كأنّها ما حوت شمسا ولا قمرا

    لم يدر أفقا سوى العالي من الغرف

    As though they had never contained a sun or a moon

    that circled any horizon but the loftiest chambers:

  6. من كلّ ريم كحيل الطّرف ذي حور

    وكلّ غُصن رشيق القدّ ذي هيف

    each gazelle with kohl-dark eyes of striking contrast,

    and each bough, slender of figure and narrow-waisted.

  7. يظلُّ بدرُ الدُّجى يصبو لطلعته

    عشقا ألم تر ما فيه من الكلف

    The full moon of darkness keeps yearning for his face

    in love—do you not see its dark stains of passion?

  8. فما تلقّتهُ شمسٌ غيرُ كاسفة

    ولا تلقّاهُ بدرٌ غيرُ مُنخسف

    No sun has met him without being eclipsed,

    nor any full moon without being darkened.

  9. سقى معاطفهُ من راح ريقته

    لذا يميلُ بقدّ منهُ مُنعطف

    He watered his supple limbs with the wine of his saliva;

    hence he sways with a bending figure.

  10. إذا تبسّم في داج رأيت سنا

    برق من الثغر للأبصار مُختطف

    When he smiles in a dark night, you see a gleam,

    lightning from his mouth that snatches sight away.

  11. كأنّنا ما تقضّت بالعذيب لنا

    منها ليال بأعلى الرّوضة الأنف

    As though there had never passed for us at al-ʿUdhayb

    nights among them, high in the untouched meadow;

  12. ولا قضينا على أكتاف كاظمة

    بوصل سلمى زمانا غير مُنحرف

    nor had we spent upon the slopes of Kāẓima

    a time in union with Salmā, untroubled by adversity;

  13. ولا سفحنا على وادي العقيق دما

    من منحر العين إذ يحيى ويقتل في

    nor had we shed blood upon the valley of al-ʿAqīq

    from the eye's slaughter-place, when one lives and is slain in—

  14. حيثُ المنى كان لي عبدا ومن خدمي

    سعدُ السّعود بها والعيش في ترف

    where desire was my slave, and among my servants

    was Saʿd al-Suʿūd, with life there steeped in luxury.

  15. وطرف حظّي بالإقبال مُنتبهٌ

    يرنُوا إلى وطر في النّائبات غف

    The eye of my fortune was awake with prosperity,

    gazing toward a wish, drowsy to calamities.

  16. إذا ذكرت ليالي الوصل من إضم

    قضّيتها بسليمى صحتُ واأسفي

    When I recall the nights of union at Iḍam

    that I spent with Sulaymā, I cry: Alas, my sorrow!

  17. وبدّد الدّمع من عيني تذكّرُها

    كما يُبدّدُ صافي الدُرّ من صدف

    Remembering them scatters tears from my eyes,

    as pure pearls are scattered from a shell.

  18. وبتُّ ليلي ما في اللّيل ساعته

    عندي بأطول منها ليلةُ الدنف

    I passed my night; no hour of the night

    was longer to me than that night of lovesickness.

  19. يفنى الفناءُ ولا يفن لهُ عُمرٌ

    كأنّهُ من صُرُوف الدهر لم يخف

    Annihilation itself perishes, yet its lifespan never ends,

    as though it had never feared the vicissitudes of time.

  20. يسودُّ مبيض وجهي في دُجاه ولا

    يبيّض مُسودُّهُ من شدّة العنف

    Its darkness blackens the whiteness of my face, yet

    its blackness does not whiten, however fierce the torment.

  21. يشيبُ من طُوله رأسُ الغراب ولا

    يشيبُ رأسا بصبح منهُ مُرتدف

    Its length turns the raven's head gray, yet

    it never grays its own head with a dawn following it.

  22. ما لليالي بما أجفو تُعاملني

    حتّى إذا رُمتُ جُرعة كأس كان من لهف

    Why do the nights treat me with what I shun,

    so that, when I seek a draught from a cup, it is anguish;

  23. او رُمتُ لين وطاء كان من إبر

    أو رُمت رطب غطاء كان من خشف

    or seek soft bedding, it is made of needles;

    or seek a soft covering, it is dry, brittle material?

  24. أو جئتُ أسعى لشرب الماء من ظمإ

    غصصتُ حتّى روى غربي من التّلف

    Or if I come seeking water to drink from thirst,

    I choke until my bucket drinks its fill of ruin.

  25. من لي بمنتصف من ذا الزّمان فقد

    مضى الزّمانُ ولم أظفر بمنتصف

    Who will win me redress from this age? For

    time has passed, and I have found no one to give me justice.

  26. تسعى الحظوظ إلى من لاحظوظ لهم

    ورُحتُ منها سليبا عاري الكتف

    Fortunes hasten toward those who have no fortune,

    while I go away deprived of them, bare-shouldered.

  27. ورُبّ مُنكرة حالا عرفتُ بها

    قالت أراد من الأكدار غير صف

    Many a woman, denying the condition by which I was known,

    said: He sought from turbid things something other than clarity.

  28. فقلتُ خُضتُ سُيول النّائبات فتى

    لغيره العلمُ والادابُ لم تُضف

    So I said: I waded through calamity's torrents as a youth

    whose learning and letters were ascribed to none other.

  29. فقلتُ أعدى الأعادي للزّمان فتى

    في سائر العلم والاداب ذا طُرف

    Then I said: Time's fiercest enemy is a youth

    possessing rare accomplishments in every branch of learning and letters.

  30. قالت ألم تكُ من بيت لها شرف

    فقلت غيري بذاك البيت لم يطف

    She said: Were you not from a house possessed of honor?

    I said: No one but me has circled that house.

  31. قالت فهل لك عقدٌ بالشّهادة في

    ما تدّعيه قُلتُ لي عقدٌ من الشّرف

    She said: Have you a deed bearing testimony to

    what you claim? I said: I have a bond of honor:

  32. شيخٌ جليلٌ هُمامٌ فاضلٌ علمٌ

    لغير كسب المعالي غيرُ مُقترف

    a venerable sheikh, noble-minded, virtuous, a luminary,

    engaged in nothing but the attainment of lofty deeds.

  33. هُو الهمام أبو العباس أحمد من

    علا على مفرق الجوزا بلا كلف

    He is the noble-minded Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, who

    rose above the crown of al-Jawzāʾ without effort;

  34. ومن قضايا فتاويه مُسوّرةٌ

    بالسّلب من مُوجبات الميل والحيف

    and whose judgments in his legal opinions are fortified

    by excluding the causes of bias and injustice.

  35. أقرّ بالعجز فيها الخصمُ فارتفعت

    عند الخصومة من إقراره وكفي

    The opponent admitted his inability in them; then rose

    during the dispute, at his admission—and my palm [syntax unclear].

  36. كأنّما منصبُ الفتوى به شغفٌ

    فلم يُفارقهُ طُول الدّهر من شغف

    As though the office of legal opinion were infatuated with him,

    never leaving him throughout time, out of passion.

  37. أمسى على الرّفع للتّمييز مُنتصبا

    في خفض عيش لها بالأمن مُكتنف

    He became established in the elevated rank of distinction,

    in an easy life, surrounded by security for its sake.

  38. فكلُّ ثوب على الفتوى لهُ قصرُ

    سواهُ إذ هُو ثوب سابغ الطرف

    Every robe upon the office of legal opinion is too short

    except him, for he is a robe with an ample hem.

  39. كأنّما هي جسمٌ وهو مضجعها

    وكلُّ جسم بدُون الرُّوح لم يقف

    As though it were a body and he its resting-place;

    and no body without a soul can stand.

  40. في كلّ قطر من الأقطار نافذةٌ

    فُتياه مثل نفوذ السّهم في الهدف

    In every region of all the regions, effective

    is his legal opinion, like an arrow penetrating its target.

  41. بُنيانهُا قطّ لم تُهدم مسافته

    وغيرُها قد هوى على شفا جرف

    The span of its structure has never been demolished,

    while others have fallen upon the brink of a cliff.

  42. فما العقودُ الّتي تبري يداه

    سوى عُقود دُرّ على اللّبّاتُ مُرتصف

    The deeds his hands fashion are nothing

    but strings of pearls set in rows upon throats.

  43. أحيا الفرائض قسما بعدما بذلت

    وعلمها المسلمين قف

    He revived the prescribed inheritance shares by division, after they had been given away,

    and taught them to the Muslims. Stop.

  44. فعنهُ تُدرى فكلٌّ بين مُغترف

    من بحره ولهُ بالفضل مُعترف

    From him they are learned; everyone is among those drawing

    from his sea and acknowledging his excellence.

  45. إن أمرضت باعتساف الفهم مسألةٌ

    صحّت لديه بفهم غير مُعتسف

    If a question is made ill by forced understanding,

    it becomes sound with him through understanding that is not forced.

  46. يفي بإحصاء ما قد رُمت من عدد

    إلا مُفاخرتي الغرّاء ليس يفي

    It suffices to enumerate whatever number you have sought,

    except my radiant boasting, which it cannot encompass.

  47. تأوي الوُفودُ لهُ من كلّ ناحية

    تسعى بكل سؤال عنه غير خفي

    Delegations resort to him from every direction,

    bringing every question, none hidden from him.

  48. يُجيبُ في الحال عن كلّ بأجوبة

    تُشفي غليل حشا ما كان منهُ شُفي

    He answers each at once with answers

    that heal a heart's burning thirst, never yet relieved.

  49. في فضل كلّ سواهُ القول مُختلفٌ

    وليس في فضله قولٌ بمختلف

    Opinion differs concerning the merit of everyone else,

    but no opinion differs concerning his merit.

  50. لاغرو ان قال مجدٌ ليس يُدركهُ

    سواهُ إذ عرقُهُ في المجد غيرُ خفي

    No wonder if glory says that none can attain it

    except him, for his lineage in glory is plain.

  51. إنّ الخطابة كانت والإمامة في

    أسلافه خلف تأتي على السّلف

    Indeed, preaching and leading prayer belonged to

    his forebears, successor following predecessor.

  52. لكنّها ارتحلت كي ما تعودُ لهُ

    كالشّمس من شرف تأتي إلى شرف

    But they departed only to return to him,

    like the sun passing from one height to another.

  53. من بيت علم وفضل لا يُنازعُه

    فيه سوى حاسد بالجهل مُتّصف

    From a house of learning and excellence, none rivals him

    therein except an envier characterized by ignorance.

  54. إن كان مجدا طريفا نال غيرُهُم

    فإنّهُ تالدٌ فيهم بلا طرف

    If others have attained a newly acquired glory,

    in them it is inherited, without novelty.

  55. قد كان موطنهم في أرض أندلس

    وقيل أندلس لزويه في الصّحف

    Their homeland was indeed in the land of al-Andalus,

    and Andalus was named for its people in the writings [reading uncertain].

  56. يا من لهُ شرف لم يرق رتبته

    من رام يرقى بعزم رتبة الشّرف

    O you whose honor's rank has never been reached

    by anyone resolutely seeking to climb the rank of honor;

  57. ومن تُحاول منهُ الشّهبُ منزلة

    ترنو مدى الدّهر من طرف إليه خفي

    and you whose station the stars strive to attain,

    gazing toward him throughout time with a furtive glance:

  58. ولاتكن عن رجائي غير مس

    واصحب بوارقهُ بالهاطل الوكف

    do not be untouched by my hope [wording unclear],

    and accompany its lightning flashes with pouring, streaming rain.

  59. واحكم لبنيان عقد لم يحلّ سوى

    حماك فالعقدُ بالإحلال غير وفي

    Firmly secure the structure of a bond that has lodged nowhere but

    your sanctuary; a bond is not kept when dissolved.

  60. لازال عقدُك بالإحكامُ منتظما

    وما سوى عقدك الإحكامُ عنهُ نُفي

    May your bond always remain firmly ordered,

    while firmness is denied to every bond but yours.

  61. دُم في تصرّف ما وُلّيتهُ أبدا

    فأنت أحمدُ عنهُ غيرُ مُنصرف

    Remain forever in charge of what was entrusted to you,

    for you are Aḥmad, never turning away from it.

  62. وابشر بنجل به كدت الحواسد إذ

    جاء بخلف كما قد جئت بالخلف

    Rejoice in a son through whom you outwitted the envious, when

    he came with a successor, just as you had come with a successor.

  63. ودع حسودا فنارُ الحسد تأكلهُ

    فالنّارُ مثواهُ في الدّنيا بذاك وفي

    Leave the envier alone, for envy’s fire consumes him;

    fire is his abode in this world because of that, and in—