Sol 6.1

  1. بيض تسل مِن الجُفون السود

    وَغُصون بان شكلت بقدود

    White blades drawn from black eyelids,

    And bān-tree boughs fashioned into slender forms,

  2. وَحَديقة راض الجَمال رياضها

    فَتكللت قُضبانها بورود

    And a garden whose beds Beauty tended,

    So its branches were crowned with roses.

  3. بَرَزت وَقَد صَبَغ الحَيا وَجناتها

    فَشَقايق النُعمان فَوقَ خُدود

    She appeared, modesty having dyed her cheeks,

    And there were red anemones upon her cheeks.

  4. صنم حوت نار الجَمال صِفاته

    فَلِذاك قَد عزيت إِلى نَمرود

    An idol whose features held beauty's fire,

    Thus she was ascribed to Nimrod.

  5. وَصَليب حسن لَو تبين لِراهب

    في المهرَجان هَوى لَها بِسُجود

    And a cross of beauty—were she revealed to a monk,

    At the festival, he would fall prostrate before her.

  6. تَرنو كَما يَرنو الغَزال لإلفه

    وَكَذلك شَأن الطفلة الأملود

    She gazes as a gazelle gazes at its mate,

    And such is the way of the tender, supple maiden.

  7. نَجلاء رائعة الجَمال رَقيقة

    لَكنها أَقسى مِن الجلمود

    Wide-eyed, wondrously beautiful, delicate,

    Yet she is harder than solid rock.

  8. غِناء كَالظَبي الأَغَن غَريرة

    مزجت حَلاوة وَصلها بِصُدود

    Melodious as the soft-voiced gazelle, guileless,

    She mingled her union's sweetness with rejection.

  9. هَيفاء يثنيها النَسيم فَتَنثَني

    وَتَميل ميل الغُصن بِالعنقود

    Slender-waisted, the breeze bends her, and she bends,

    And sways like a bough bearing a cluster of grapes.

  10. عَرَضت وَقَد نَشَرَ الدُجى أَعلامه

    وَنُجومه قامَت مَقام عُقود

    She appeared when darkness had unfurled its banners,

    And its stars had taken the place of necklaces.

  11. في لَيلة طَلعت طَلايع نورها

    وَرَمى الزَمان نحوسها بسعود

    On a night when the first gleams of her light arose,

    And Time pelted its unlucky stars with lucky ones,

  12. حَيث الحَسود غَفا وَنامَ رَقيبنا

    وَمَضى العذول إِلى ديار ثَمود

    Where the envier dozed and our watcher slept,

    And the reproacher departed for the abodes of Thamūd.

  13. فَطَفقت أنثر في الخُدود لآلئاً

    سالَت مِن الأَجفان بَعد جمود

    Then I began to scatter pearls upon cheeks,

    That flowed from eyelids once dry.

  14. وَأضم مِنها قامة ميادة

    دلا وَخَصراً يَلتَوي كَالعود

    And clasped her figure, swaying

    Coquettishly, and a waist that bent like a twig.

  15. وَأشم عطراً مِن حَواشي طوقها

    قَد خل بَين تَرائب وَنهود

    And inhaled perfume from the edges of her collar,

    That had seeped between collarbones and breasts.

  16. مالت عَلي وَحدرت عَن ثَغرِها

    وَجمانه المَنظوم وَالمَنضود

    She leaned toward me and unveiled her mouth,

    And its pearls, strung and set in rows.

  17. فَشَربت نَهلاً مِن سلافة غادة

    وَشَربت علاً مِن زُلال الغيد

    Then I drank a first draught of a maiden's finest wine,

    And drank a second draught of the limpid waters of graceful beauties.

  18. فَهُناكَ أَظهَرَت العِتاب وَأطنَبَت

    بِحَديثها المَقصور وَالمَمدود

    Then she voiced reproaches and spoke at length,

    In her speech, both brief and prolonged.

  19. فَبثثتها شَكوى الغَرام وَكُل ما

    لاقَيتهُ مِن كاشح وَحَسود

    So I poured out to her my complaint of love and all that

    I had suffered from a spiteful foe and an envier.

  20. حَتّى إِذا أَبدى الصَباح جُيوشه

    بيضاً أَتَتنا عَن جيوش سود

    Until, when morning displayed its armies,

    White, coming to us in place of black armies,

  21. قامَت تعانقني عِناق مودع

    فَضممتها بِفُؤادي المَفؤود

    She rose to embrace me in a farewell embrace,

    So I pressed her to my stricken heart.

  22. وَبَقيت مَبهوتاً كَما بَهت الوَرى

    بِمحمد نَجل الكِرام الصيد

    And I remained awestruck, as mankind was awed

    By Muhammad, scion of noble, lordly men.

  23. مِن ضئضئي نَظم الزَمان نُجومه

    سَمطاً فَأَودَعَها بِذاكَ الجيد

    From my ancestral stock, whose stars Time strung

    Into a necklace, then set them upon that neck.

  24. نسب غَدا يروي الفخار معنعناً

    عَن مذجح عَن حمير عَن هود

    A lineage that came to transmit glory, link by link:

    From Madhhij, from Himyar, from Hūd.

  25. بيت رَفيع شيدت أَركانه

    قدماً بآباء لَهُ وَجُدود

    A lofty house whose pillars were raised

    Long ago by his fathers and forefathers.

  26. فَمحمد عَين القِلادة مِنهُم

    وَمُحمد في الكُل بيت قَصيد

    So Muhammad is their necklace's central jewel,

    And Muhammad, among them all, is the poem's crowning verse.

  27. ذو فطنة نَحر العُلوم بحدها

    فَأنيل مِنها غاية المَقصود

    Gifted with wit, he slaughtered the sciences with its edge,

    And through them was granted his ultimate goal.

  28. أَحيا المَدارس مِنهُ بَعد دُروسها

    بِمَعارف كَالجَوهر المَنضود

    Through him the schools were revived after their decay,

    With learning like jewels set in rows.

  29. بَحر تلاطم بِالنَدى فَسَقى الوَرى

    مِن فَيضه بِدراهم وَنُقود

    An ocean surging with bounty, he quenched mankind's thirst

    From his overflow, with dirhams and coins.

  30. غَيث يروي الوافدين بسحه

    وَيميرهم في الحال عِندَ ورود

    Rain that quenches visitors with its downpour,

    And provisions them at once upon arrival.

  31. جبل رَسا فلك الكَمال بِقعره

    فَلِذاك يُدعى في الوَرى بِالجودي

    A mountain at whose foot the ark of perfection came to rest,

    And so among mankind he is called al-Jūdī.

  32. كَيف الوصول إِلى حَقيقة وَصفه

    حداً وَلَيسَ علاه بِالمَحدود

    How can one reach a true description of him

    By definition, when his eminence is unbounded?

  33. أَو كَيفَ ترسم في الطروس صِفاته

    عداً وَلَيسَ نَداه بِالمَعدود

    Or how can his qualities be inscribed upon pages

    By enumeration, when his bounty is beyond count?

  34. لا زالَ مَرفوع اللواء مؤيداً

    بَينَ الوَرى بِمجامع التَأييد

    May he ever stand with banner raised, upheld

    Among mankind with every form of support,

  35. ما لاحَ في أُفق الكَمال مكمل

    أَو فاحَ في الإصباح عطر ورود

    As long as a paragon shines on perfection's horizon,

    Or the fragrance of roses wafts at dawn.