1. لو كان يشتاقه مَن كان شوَّقَهُ

    ما فرَّق الصبرَ عنه يومَ فرَّقهُ

    Had the one who stirred his longing longed for him,

    He would not have robbed him of patience the day he left him.

  2. صبٌّ إذا ذاق بردَ الوصل خاطرُه

    أغصَّهُ هجرُ من يهوى وأَشرقَه

    A lovesick man—whenever his mind tastes reunion's coolness,

    The desertion of the one he loves chokes and stifles him.

  3. انظر إلى جسدي تنظرْ إلى جسدٍ

    أبلاهُ تجديدُ بلواهُ وأخلقه

    Look at my body, and you will see a body

    Worn out and wasted by its ever-renewed affliction.

  4. وقائلٍ ما له لم يبك قلتُ له

    مقالَ صدقٍ رجاءً إن يصدِّقه

    To one who asked, "Why has he not wept?" I gave

    A truthful answer, hoping he would believe it:

  5. قد فاض وجْدي إلى عيني فأحرقها

    وغاض دمعي إلى قلبي فَغرَّقه

    "My passion overflowed into my eye and burned it,

    And my tears sank into my heart and drowned it."

  6. يا من تعادت جفوني في هواه كما

    عادى مؤَزَّرُهُ ظلماً منطِّقَه

    O you whose love sets my eyelids at war, just as

    Your loin-wrapped hips wrongfully war with your girdled waist.

  7. نسرينُ خدِّكَ مَنْ بالورد لمَّعهُ

    وخطُّ صدغِكَ مَن بالمسك غرَّقه

    The wild rose of your cheek—who flecked it with roses?

    And your temple's hairline—who drenched it in musk?

  8. من ماءِ وجهك ظلَّ الحسنُ في تعَبٍ

    في كلِّ راووقِ معنىً منه رَوَّقه

    Your face's luster keeps Beauty laboring

    At every strainer, clarifying a subtle grace drawn from it.

  9. رقَّت حواشيه حتى لستُ أعلم كم

    أراق من دمعِ إنسان وأرَّقه

    Its contours are so delicate that I cannot count

    The human tears it has spilled, or those it has kept awake.

  10. أنتَ الغزالُ غزالُ الإنسِ زيَّنهُ

    دلٌّ وتَرَّفه شكلٌ وفنَّقه

    You are the gazelle, the gazelle of humankind, adorned

    By coquetry, and indulged and pampered by charm.

  11. ملكتَ قلبي فصار السقمُ يملكه

    فهل ترقُّ لمملوكٍ فتعتقَه

    You took possession of my heart, and now sickness possesses it.

    Will you then pity a slave and set him free?

  12. أراهُ أوبقَ قَدرَ المستهام بكم

    لديكَ أن لباسَ العُدْم أوبَقَه

    I think what has ruined the standing of one enamored of you

    In your eyes is that poverty's garb has ruined him.

  13. الحلمُ والعُدمُ خيرٌ أم يُقالُ له

    لا كان ما كان أغناهُ وأحمقَه

    Are good sense and poverty better, or to have it said of him:

    "May whatever made him rich and foolish never have existed!"

  14. فالآن أطلقتُ تأميلي وكنتُ وما

    أنفكُّ أحبسُ دون الخلقِ مُطلَقه

    So now I have let my hope loose, whereas I had always

    Held its free course captive, away from humankind.

  15. وسرتُ في الرأي إِصعاداً ومنحدَراً

    وجالَ مغربه قلبي ومَشرقَه

    I journeyed through thought, uphill and downhill,

    And my heart roamed its west and its east.

  16. فلم أجدْ كعليٍّ من يليقُ به

    حَلْيُ العلاءِ إذا ما اخترتُ أليقه

    I found none like Ali, whom so well befit

    The jewels of eminence, when I chose their fittest wearer.

  17. وأنّ مَنْ خلَقَ التوفيقَ وَفَّقني

    لحمدِ مَنْ لحميدِ الفِعْل وفَّقه

    And He who created success has enabled me

    To praise one He enabled to do praiseworthy deeds.

  18. يهني أبا حسنٍ إذ لم يدعْ خُلُقاً

    من المكارم إلا قد تَخلَّقه

    May Abu Hasan rejoice: he has left no trait

    Of noble virtue without having made it his own.

  19. تعشَّقَ المجدَ أدناه وأبعدَه

    والمجدُ أعشقُ شيءٍ مَن تعشَّقه

    He passionately loved glory, its nearest reaches and its farthest,

    And glory is the most ardent lover of whoever loves it.

  20. فَردُ الفَعال بتاج الفخر توَّجَه

    فَعالُهُ وبطوق الفخر طَوَّقه

    Peerless in deeds, he was crowned with pride's crown

    By his deeds, which also encircled him with pride's collar.

  21. المشتري من عُلوقِ الفضلِ أثمنَها

    والمكتسي منه أبهاه وأشْرَقَه

    The buyer of the costliest treasures of excellence,

    And the wearer of its most splendid and radiant robes.

  22. والهندوانيّ تَخْشَى حدَّ مضربه

    كفُّ الذي استحسنتْ عيناهُ رَوْنَقه

    And the Indian sword's cutting edge is feared

    By the hand of him whose eyes admired its sheen.

  23. ما سَوّدَ الطِّرْسَ خطاً حين سوّده

    لكنه بِخَلُوقِ الفكرِ خَلَّقه

    He did not blacken the page with writing when he darkened it;

    Rather, he perfumed it with the perfume of thought.

  24. ألَدُّ يبلغُ ما شاءَت بلاغته

    وليس يطلبه خَلْقٌ فيلحَقه

    A fierce disputant whose eloquence achieves all it desires,

    Whom no creature can pursue and overtake;

  25. موحٍ إلى ناطقٍ نُطْقاً بغير فمٍ

    فالعينُ تسمعُ دونَ الأذْنِ منْطِقَه

    Imparting speech to a speaker, though without a mouth,

    So the eye, not the ear, hears his utterance.

  26. ما بارز العسرَ مسودّاً مفارقُه

    إلا أشابَ بهول اليُسر مفرقه

    He never dueled with hardship, its hair-partings black,

    But turned its parting gray with the terror of ease.

  27. شهابُ فكرٍ إذا استوعرتَ مسلكه

    مفتاحُ ذكرٍ إذا استفتحتَ مُغلقه

    A firebrand of thought when you find its path rugged,

    A key to remembrance when you seek to open its locked door.

  28. رأيٌ تحصَّنَ مِن لبسِ الظنونِ به

    مذ ابتنى سُورَهُ واختطَّ خندقه

    A judgment fortified against being clouded by conjectures,

    Ever since it built its wall and marked out its trench.

  29. تلقى عليَّ بنَ إبراهيم ذا خُلُقٍ

    يكفيكَ أن تتقاضاه تَخلُّقَه

    You find Ali ibn Ibrahim possessed of a character

    That spares you having to demand its practice of him.

  30. تلقاه أنفذَ ذي حزمٍ وأثقبَ ذي

    فهمٍ وأفتقَ ذي علمٍ وأرتَقه

    You find him the most incisive man of resolve, the keenest in

    Understanding, the ablest among the learned to unravel and mend.

  31. أفَلَّهُ لشبا خطبٍ وألطفَهُ

    بحلِّ ما يَلْتَوي منه وأرْفَقَه

    Most able to blunt calamity's points, and most deft

    At untying its tangles, and most gentle.

  32. فقلْ لحاسِدِهِ أطْرِقْ على حَسَدٍ

    لو كنتَ رُخّاً لما وازَنتَ بَيْذَقَهُ

    So tell his envier, "Bow your head in envy;

    Even were you a rook, you would not match his pawn."

  33. المنفقُ الوفرَ لما قلَّ مُنْفِقُهُ

    وإنما في اكتساب الحمد أنفقه

    He spends abundant wealth when those who spend it are few,

    And spends it only to acquire praise.

  34. لله هضبةُ أرفاقٍ يَلوذُ بها

    مَنْ وسَّدَتْهُ صروفُ الدهر مِرفَقه

    What a hill of kindness, where refuge is sought

    By one whom time's reversals have made his elbow his pillow!

  35. بشراً أَمامَ العطايا كالغمامِ إذا

    أنشا يُقَدِّم قبل الوبلِ مُبْرِقَه

    A cheerful face before his gifts, like a cloud when

    It forms and sends its lightning before the downpour.

  36. هذا ثنائي وشعري فيك زَخْرَفَهُ

    صدقُ الثناءِ من المُنْشي وَنَمَّقَه

    This is my praise; my verse about you was embellished

    And adorned by the sincerity of the composer's praise.

  37. طابقته لا كمن كدَّ القوافيَ كي

    يطابقَ اللفظ في المعنى فأطبقه

    I made it fit you—not like one who strains his rhymes

    To fit wording to meaning, then clamps it shut.

  38. ترى الأعاديَ زُرقاً نحو منشده

    يرون منه طريرَ الحدِّ أزرقه

    You see the foes, blue-eyed, facing its reciter;

    They see in it a blue blade, keen of edge.