Sol 6.1

  1. بَني الحَرب وَالهَيجاء وَالشَرف الضَخم

    وَمَن جَعلوا للناس أَهدى مِن النجم

    O sons of war, of battle, and of mighty honor,

    and those made surer guides for people than the stars!

  2. طَفأتم بِماء الهِنداوني غلة

    يحركها في الصَدر نائرة العَزم

    You quenched with the water of Indian steel a burning thirst,

    stirred within the breast by the blaze of resolve.

  3. علوتم على البيض الشوازب فَاِنثَنَت

    مِن الزرد المَحبوك في صورة الدهم

    You mounted the lean white steeds, and they turned,

    through tightly woven mail, into the likeness of black steeds.

  4. وَرحتُم عَلى الجرد العتاق لأَنَّها

    إِذا ما جَرَت البيد كانَت مِن الرقم

    And you set out on sleek, noble steeds, for they,

    when they raced across the deserts, were like speckled serpents.

  5. وَطلتم بريقها بِأَسياف خال

    شُعاعاً وَفي إفرندها هَيئة الرقم

    And you outshone their gleam with swords one fancied

    rays of light, their watered patterns resembling speckled serpents.

  6. يَمانية قَد رقق القين أحدها

    وَلَكنها في الضَرب مِن جُملة العجم

    Yemeni blades, whose edges the smith had thinned,

    yet in striking they are of the hard, unyielding kind.

  7. تَحلمتم للناكثين وَبَعد ذا

    غَضبتم وَبَعض الغيظ أولى مِن الحلم

    You showed forbearance toward the oath-breakers; after that,

    you grew angry—and some wrath is more fitting than forbearance.

  8. فَسرتم كَما سارَ القَطا في فجاجها

    وَلَم يَدر مِنكُم غَير قَعقعة اللجم

    Then you marched as sandgrouse travel through their passes,

    and nothing betrayed you but the clatter of bridles.

  9. أنوف علاها العجب حَتّى تَجدعت

    برغم وَكَم أنف تجدع بِالرغم

    Noses lifted by conceit, until they were cut off,

    in humiliation—how many a nose is cut off in humiliation!

  10. نَثَرتُم بسحر الخَط نَظم جُيوشهم

    وَمن عجبي أن يحسن النَثر في النَظم

    With the magic of al-Khatt spears, you scattered their armies' ordered ranks,

    and I marvel that scattering should look so fine within ordered verse.

  11. وَخَطت حُدود البيض رَسم ديارهم

    وَمثلكم من عرف الحَد بِالرَسم

    And the edges of bright blades traced the outlines of their dwellings,

    and men like you know the boundary by its outline.

  12. لَقَد جَهلوا شَر اللقا وَتَوَهموا

    لُحوم البزاة الصيد مِن سائر اللحم

    They knew nothing of combat's evil, imagining

    the flesh of proud falcons to be just like other flesh.

  13. وَقَد علموا أن الرياح قَصيرة

    وَما هُوَ إِلا الجَهل في صُورة العلم

    And they knew that the winds fall short,

    yet that is only ignorance in the guise of knowledge.

  14. لعمرك إن النقع يَعلو بِنفسه

    وَلَكنه لا يَستَطيع إِلى النَجم

    By your life, dust rises of itself,

    but it cannot reach the stars.

  15. فيا لشبيب هاكم الخَيل ضحوة

    علت في هضاب المَجد بِالفارس القرم

    O Shabib, behold the horses at midmorning,

    climbing glory's heights with the noble horseman.

  16. وَذا عمر المقدام ذو العَدل في الوَرى

    وَلَكنه في حَربه جائر الحكم

    And here is Umar the fearless, just among humankind,

    yet in his warfare he is unjust in judgment.

  17. عفو عَن الزَلات لَكن سَيفه

    نَسي حينَ خاضَ الحَرب ما كانَ بِالسلم

    He pardons faults, but his sword

    forgot, on plunging into war, how it had been in peace.

  18. وَقَد كانَ ظام للحروب حسامه

    فَقَد صار في الهَيجاء كَالوابل الوَسمي

    His sharp sword had been thirsty for war,

    and in battle it became like a drenching autumn rain.

  19. مدير رحاة الحَرب قطب مدارها

    وَصاعقة في كل ناحية تصمي

    Turner of war's mill, the pivot of its rotation,

    and a thunderbolt that kills outright in every quarter.

  20. جُيوش عراها الخَوف لَما أراعها

    بِساعده الأَعلى وَكلكله الضَخم

    Armies were seized by fear when he terrified them,

    with his mighty arm and his massive chest.

  21. فَوَلت عَلى الأَعقاب هَزمي كَأَنَّهُم

    شَياطين تَرميها الكَواكب بِالرجم

    They turned back on their heels, routed, as though they were

    devils that the stars pelt with stones.

  22. تَأَبط شَراً شَيخهم ثُم لَم يَزَل

    إِلى أَن رَماه الشَر سَهماً عَلى سَهم

    Their chief tucked evil beneath his arm and kept at it,

    until evil shot him with arrow after arrow.

  23. وَما عرفوا طَعم اللِقاء وَإِنَّما

    بهِ علموا فاستبطنوا الدو بالعلم

    They had not known the taste of combat; only

    through him did they learn, then plunge deep into the desert with that knowledge.

  24. ألا هَكَذا فعل الرِجال هبلتم

    هلموا إلى المران للقرع والصدم

    This is how men act—may your mothers mourn you!

    Come to the spears, to blows and charges.

  25. فَيا أمهم أولادك الصيد البسوا

    قَبائح لا تَنفك قبحت مِن أم

    O mother of theirs, your proud sons have been clothed

    in shame that cannot be shed—cursed be you as a mother!

  26. كَأَن فلاة خاضها في جُنوده

    سماء وَبَدر في كَتائب مِن نجم

    As though the wilderness he crossed amid his troops

    were a sky, with a full moon among battalions of stars,

  27. وَاسيفاً هَوى مِن كَفه في عدوه

    شهاب هَوى يَرمي بِهِ اللَه من يَرمي

    and a sword descending from his palm upon his foe

    were a falling meteor God hurls at those He would strike.

  28. فَيا أَيُّها البَحر الَّذي زَخرت بِه

    طَوافح عَزم في جَداول مِن حلم

    O sea, within whom swell

    overflowing tides of resolve in channels of forbearance!

  29. فَأغرق أَقواماً وَنَجى سواهم

    وَجازاهم بِالعَدل في الخَط وَالسَهم

    It drowned some peoples and saved others,

    and repaid them justly with al-Khatt spears and arrows.

  30. مَلَكت وَلَكن قَد عَفَوت وَهَكَذا

    سَجايا مُلوك العَدل في العَفو وَالحكم

    You gained mastery, yet you pardoned; such are

    the traits of just kings in pardon and judgment.

  31. وَعَفو الفَتى حتم إِذا تابَ عَبده

    فَإِن عَق كانَ العَفو مِن جُملة الظُلم

    A man's pardon is obligatory when his servant repents,

    but if he rebels, pardon is a kind of injustice.

  32. وَيا قسوراً في كَفه المَوت وَالغِنى

    فَأنمله تغني وَأظفاره تدمي

    O lion, whose palm holds death and wealth,

    whose fingertips enrich and whose claws draw blood!

  33. فَيا رب قرن جدلته عَلى الثَرى

    وَميت نحاها فاستفاقَ مِن السقم

    How many a rival you have felled upon the earth,

    and how many a dead man sought that palm and recovered from sickness!

  34. تَهن بِهَذا النَصر إِذ كُنت خَتمه

    فَقَد طابَ مِنهُ مَبدأَ الفَتح وَالخَتم

    Enjoy this victory, for you were its seal;

    for in it, conquest's beginning and its close were sweet.

  35. وَقُم في سَرابيل الوزارة رافلاً

    بِثَوب العُلى سام عَلى كُل ذي اسم

    And stand, proudly arrayed in the robes of the vizierate,

    in the robe of eminence, high above every man of renown.

  36. وَعش بِالتَهاني كُل يَوم وَساعة

    برفع موال لَو بِنَصر عَلى خصم

    And live amid congratulations every day and hour,

    by raising an ally, even if through victory over a foe.

  37. وَكرر قَصيدي مَرة بَعد مَرة

    لِتنشق وَرداً قَد تفتح مِن كم

    And repeat my poem time after time,

    to breathe in a rose newly opened from its sheath.

  38. فَأَبيات أَشعاري عَلي رَضية

    وَلَكن أَبياتي شَكَتني مِن العدم

    For the verses of my poems are pleased with me,

    but my houses complain of me for my poverty.

  39. فَخُذها أَبا الخَطاب بكراً خَريدة

    وَأوفر بِها حَظي وَأجزل بِها قَسمي

    So take her, Abu al-Khattab, a virgin, a modest maiden,

    and through her enlarge my share and make my portion generous.

  40. وَنور بِنور مِنك مصباح ظلمة

    كَأَني بِها أَعمى وَفي لُغة أعمي

    And illuminate with light from you a lamp in darkness,

    as though I were blind in it—'aʿmā,' or, in another usage, 'aʿmī.'

  41. فَلا زلت مَنصوراً بِقَوم شِعارهم

    بني الحرب وَالهَيجاء وِالشَرف الضَخم

    May you never cease to be victorious through a people whose battle cry is:

    'O sons of war, of battle, and of mighty honor!'