لولا مخافة بيع قائد الغبن

وجالب البخس للغالي من الثمن

Were it not for fear of a bargain that brings loss

And fetches a paltry price for what is precious,

لم أَورد الصرم فيكم بعد وصلكم

حتى تفارق روحي عندكم بدني

I would not have broken with you after our union

Until my soul left my body in your presence.

لكن يرى الحانق الأَشياء ظاهرة

بباطن الأَمر فيما كان أَو يكن

But the resentful man sees things made plain

Through the inward truth of matters, past or yet to come.

فقد أَرى الأَمى فيما بيننا سحبت

فيه الوشاة ذيول العذل والفتن

For I see [unclear] between us, where

The slanderers have dragged the trailing skirts of blame and strife.

وصادق القلب لم تأسر ضمائره

ولا يريك هدنات على دخن

And the true-hearted man's secret thoughts do not ensnare,

Nor does he offer you truces built on rancor.

فارقتكم ويميني غير كاذبة

بأَن عرضي فيكم غير ذي درن

I parted from you, and my oath is no lie:

My honor in my dealings with you is unstained.

وصحبتي فيكم كالشمس صاحية

تفوح مسكاً بأَنف العاقل الفطن

And my companionship with you is clear as the sun,

Wafting musk to the nose of the wise, discerning man.

لكن ذخرتكم حتى تركتكم

آلي وأَوطانكم خلّفتها وطني

Yet I treasured you until I left you—

My family—and left your lands, my homeland, behind.

وقلت للحاسد النعما باكفتكم

هذا زمانك إِني قد مَضى زَمَني

And I told him who envied the bounty in your shelter [reading uncertain]:

“This is your time; my time has passed.”

يا عيبة السر في دهر صحابته

تروق عينك كالأَزهار بالدمن

O repository of secrets, in an age whose companions

Delight your eye like flowers on dung heaps,

أَراك عاذرتني فيكم بلا زلل

مثل المعيدي فاسمع بي ولا ترن

I see you have excused me concerning you, though I have not erred;

Like al-Muʿaydi: hear of me, but do not see me.

حمّلتني داء مغرور فجدت له

بالرعي والكي لي ما كُنت يالقمن

You burdened me with a deluded man's illness, then lavished on him

Pasture, and on me cautery—what were you, O Luqman? [ending uncertain]

إِني أَنا الرجل الضرب الَّذي خلُصت

منه الطبائع في سر وفي علن

Indeed, I am the resolute man whose

Nature is pure, in private and in public.

منزه الأَصل ان يُسقى بماء خنىً

والفرع زاكٍ عظيم القدر غير خني

My root is too pure to be watered with the water of lewdness,

And the branch flourishes, great in worth and free of baseness.

وتعتلي بي إِلى نيل العلا همم

موروثة من جدود سادة اليمن

And lofty ambitions bear me upward to attain greatness,

Inherited from forefathers, lords of Yemen.

تهنا الوداع على قربى إِليك فقد

أَديت نصحي وَإِني بالوداع هن

May parting please you, despite my closeness to you; for

I have given my sincere counsel, and am content to part.

وسوف تذكر من نصحي أَدلته

متى أَذاع بشر حادث الزمن

And you will remember the proofs of my counsel

Whenever a calamity of time proclaims ill tidings.

أَنت الغني ومنك الفقر يطلبني

أَنا الفقير وباللَه العظيم غني

You are the wealthy one, yet from you poverty pursues me;

I am the poor one, yet through God Almighty I am rich.

لئن فقدتك في أَشياء طلتُ بها

فأَنت في جُملة الأَشياء تفقدني

Even if I have lost you in some things through which I rose,

You, in all things, have lost me.

كم قد نصحت فالقتني نصيحتكم

بين الجبال كسير الساق والضبن

How often I gave counsel, yet my counsel to you cast me

Among the mountains, broken in leg and flank.

وغش غيري فقادته خلائقه

لنعمة ودعي يا خير مؤتمن

Another acted deceitfully, and his character led him

To favor, and he was hailed: “O best of trusted men!”

وصرت هارون موسى في نصيحته

وصار غيري قصيراً بالمحل رني

And I became Aaron to Moses in sincere counsel,

While another became Qasir in rank—[unclear ending].