من أجل هيبة ذا المقام المذهل

لم تغن عن أحد شجاعة مقول

Because of the awe of this bewildering station,

no boldness of tongue has availed anyone.

يا لائم الشعراء في تقصيرهم

ويل لما يلقى الشجي من الخلي

O you who blame the poets for falling short,

alas for what the sorrowful suffer from the carefree!

عنفتهم ولو ابتليت عذرتهم

لا يعذر المبلي إلا من بلي

You reproached them; had you been afflicted, you would have excused them.

None excuses the afflicted but one who has been afflicted.

أنكرت ما عرفوه من مضغ الحصى

فلأجل ذا سهلت ما لم يسهل

You denied what they had known of chewing pebbles;

thus you deemed easy what was not easy.

وأشد ما كلفت خاطر شاعر

صعب المعاني في الكلام الأسهل

And the hardest charge you lay upon a poet's mind

is difficult meaning cast in the simplest speech.

لكن مدح العاضد بن محمد

مفتاح أبواب الكلام المقفل

Yet praise of al-Adid ibn Muhammad

is the key to the locked doors of speech.

أقسمت بالفقر التي أرواحها

من سلسل وجسومها من جندل

I swear by the verses whose souls

are of sweet flowing water, and whose bodies are of stone:

لو كنت أمدح غير آل محمد

لرفعته فوق السماك الأعزل

had I been praising anyone other than Muhammad's family,

I would have raised him above the Unarmed Simak.

لكن دفعت إلى مديح خلائف

بمديحهم آتى الكتاب المنزل

But I have been thrust into praising caliphs

whose praise the revealed Book has brought.

فلذاك أبذل فوق ما في قدرتي

مدحاً لهم وكأنني لم أبذل

And so I lavish more than lies within my power

in praise of them, yet seem to have lavished nothing.

والشعر بالقرآن يخفى نوره

كالنجم يخفى بالضياء المنجلي

Poetry's light is obscured by the Qur'an,

as a star is hidden by the radiance shining forth.

قوم إذا ما أسندوا خبر العلى

جاؤوا بأصدق مسند عن مرسل

A people who, when they cite the report of greatness,

bring the truest attested account from a Messenger.

من كل ملثوم البساط غدت به

قمم الرؤوس حواسداً للأرجل

Each one's carpet is kissed, and upon it

the crowns of heads have come to envy feet,

حتى كأن ثراه ساحة قبلة

بل ثغر معسول الرضاب مقبل

until his ground seems a precinct toward which prayers turn—

nay, a mouth with honeyed saliva, being kissed.

الشائدون من المعالي رتبة

أضحت بهم فوق المعالي تعتلي

They raise, out of lofty deeds, a station

that through them has come to tower above all heights.

ورثوا الإمامة حاضراً عن غائب

وتداولوها آخراً عن أول

They inherited the imamate, the present from the absent,

and passed it onward, the later from the earlier.

من ظافر أو فائز أو عاضد

بيت خلافته على النص الجلي

From al-Zafir, al-Faiz, or al-Adid:

a house whose caliphate rests on clear designation.

أوصى إليك بها ابن عمك بعده

نصاكما نص النبي على علي

Your cousin bequeathed it to you to succeed him;

your two designations are like the Prophet's designation of Ali.

فتيقن العصر الذي لك أنه

من كنت حجة عصره لم يخجل

So the age that is yours knows for certain:

whoever has you as his age's proof is not ashamed.

وتيقنت رتب الخلافة أنها

سعدت بطلعة وجهك المتهلل

And the ranks of the caliphate know for certain

that they are blessed by the sight of your beaming face.

أو ما ترى رجباً بقيت بقاءه

من بعد عامك ألف عام مقبل

Do you not see Rajab—may you endure as long as it,

a thousand coming years beyond this year of yours—

وافى إليك مهنئاً ومعزياً

عن شيمتي زمن مسيء مجمل

coming to you with congratulations and condolences

for Time's two dispositions, hurtful and gracious?

فهناؤه بالناصر الذخر الذي

مذ قام في نصر الهدى لم يخذل

Its congratulations are for al-Nasir, the treasure who,

since rising to defend guidance, has never been forsaken.

وعزاؤه بالصالح الهادي فوا

أسفي عليها غمة لا تنجلي

And its condolences are for al-Salih, the guide—oh,

my sorrow over it! A gloom that will not lift.

إن الرزية والعطية فيهما

مزجت بطعم الشهد طعم الحنظل

Indeed, the calamity and the gift embodied in these two

have mingled the taste of bitter colocynth with honey.

وإذا نظرت إلى الرزية كدرت

بقبيحها الماضي يد المستقبل

And when you look upon the calamity, it sullies

with its past ugliness the hand of the future.

وإذا نظرت إلى العطية منصفاً

قامت بعذر التائب المتنصل

But when you look upon the gift with fairness,

it provides an excuse for the penitent seeking pardon.

أما جراحك يا زمان فإنها اندمل

ت ولكن بعد حز المفصل

As for your wounds, O Time, they have healed,

but only after the joint was slashed.

يا راحلاً عنا وفي أكبادنا

حرق عليه مقيمة لم ترحل

O you who left us, while within our livers

burning sorrows for him abide and have not left.

نقص الكمال وقد قضت بك في

سنة عداد شهورها لم تكمل

Perfection waned when your end was decreed in

a year whose tally of months was not complete.

عجل الرثاء إليك قبل تمامها

والذم يلزمنا إذا لم تعجل

Elegy hastened to you before that year was complete;

and blame falls upon us if you do not hasten.

إن يبل من ذاك الجبين جماله

فجميله عند الخليقة ما بلي

If the beauty of that brow should fade,

his kindness among humankind has not faded.

سافر بطرفك لا تجد إلا يداً

مخضوبة بيد له لم تنصل

Let your gaze roam: you will find only a hand

dyed by a favor of his, its color not faded,

أو وجنة ذبلت طراوتها أسى

أو روضة بنوالها لم تذبل

or a cheek whose freshness has withered in grief,

or a garden whose share of bounty has kept it from withering.

وذا أردت على مقالي شاهداً

فشهود قولي أهل ذاك المحفل

And if you seek a witness to my words,

the witnesses to my speech are those in that assembly.

ما منهم إلا امرؤ بلغت به

نعمى أبي الغارات أرفع منزل

Not one among them but has been brought

by Abu al-Gharat's bounty to the highest station.

ولكثرة المعروف أنكر نفسه

فأعاد فيها نظرة المتأمل

And from the abundance of favors he no longer knew himself,

so he looked upon himself again with a pondering gaze.

يا صاحبي وما سألت جهالة

كم سائل عن علم ما لم يجهل

O my two companions—I did not ask from ignorance:

many a questioner knowingly asks what he already knows.

هل نشأة الزمن القديم أعادها

منشي الخليقة في الزمان الأول

Has the birth of ancient time been renewed

by the One who brought creation into being in the first age?

لو لم يكن هذا المقام نهاية الش

رق الرفيع وغاية المتمثل

Were this station not the pinnacle of the

lofty East and the goal of all who seek an exemplar,

لظننت أن الفتح أصبح قائماً

فينا بدولة جعفر المتوكل

I would have thought al-Fath had risen to stand

among us, in the reign of Ja'far al-Mutawakkil;

أو أن عصر الآمر ابتسمت به ال

أيام عن هادي الدعاة الأفضل

or that in al-Amir's age there smiled the

days, revealing al-Afdal, guide of the preachers.

ولئن أتيت أبا شجاع بعدهم

فلأنت أول سابق متمهل

Though you came after them, Abu Shuja',

you are indeed first, an unhurried forerunner.

كالشمس بعد الفجر أو كالوبل بع

د الطل أو كالبحر بعد الجدول

Like the sun after dawn, or a downpour after

the dew, or the sea after a rivulet.

أحييت بالحسنات سالف ذكركم

لا ينكر الوسمي عارفة الولي

With good deeds you have revived your old renown;

the season's first rain does not deny the following rain's bounty.

وطلعت في ذا الدست بعد طلائع

ذخراً لأبناء النبي المرسل

And you rose upon this throne after forerunners,

a treasure for the sons of the Prophet sent forth.

وكفلتهم وكفلت عنهم للورى

نعماً عممت بهن كل مؤمل

You cared for them, and on their behalf guaranteed to mankind

blessings with which you embraced every hopeful petitioner.

ووصلت حبلك في الحياة بحبلهم

صلة الأشاجع ركبت في الأنمل

You joined your cord in life to theirs,

as the hand's tendons are fitted into the fingers.

سبب غدا نسباً وأنت وصلته

منهم بعصمة عقدة لم تحلل

A bond became kinship, and you bound it

to them through the firm hold of a knot never untied.

ورأيت ملك أبيك وتراً مفرداً

فشفعت منه مؤثلاً بمؤثل

You saw your father's dominion as single and unpaired,

so you paired its firmly founded glory with another.

وحفظت منصبه الكريم ولم يكن

أحد سواك لنيلها بمؤهل

You preserved his noble station, and there was

no one but you qualified to attain it.

فطل الملوك وقد فعلت ممتعاً

بدوام عزك في البقاء الأطول

So outstrip the kings, as you have done, enjoying

your glory's endurance through the longest life.