شأن الغرام أجل أن يلحاني

فيه وإن كنت الشفيق الحاني

The matter of love is too exalted for me to be blamed

For it, even if you are the tender, caring friend.

أنا ذلك الصب الذي قطعت به

صلة الغرام مطامع السلوان

I am that lovesick man for whom

Love's bond has severed every hope of forgetting.

نمت رجاحة صبره بضميره

فبدت خفية شأنه للشاني

The firmness of his patience betrayed his inward thoughts,

And his hidden condition became plain to his hater.

غدرت بموثقها الدموع فغادرت

سري أسيراً في يد الإعلان

The tears betrayed their covenant and left

My secret captive in the hand of disclosure.

عنفت أجفاني فقام بعذرها

وجه يبيح ودائع الأجفان

I rebuked my eyelids; in their defense arose

A face that sets the eyelids' treasures free.

يا صارفاً نحوي عنان ملامة

والشوق يصرف عنه فضل عناني

O you who turn blame's reins toward me,

While longing turns my reins' loose end away from it,

أقصر عليك فطالما أشجاني

ريم تهيج بذكره أشجاني

Desist, hold back; for often I have been grieved

By a gazelle whose mention stirs my sorrows.

كلفي بغرته الذي ألجاني

لتخضعي وهو المسيء الجاني

My infatuation with his radiant brow has driven me

To humble myself, though he is the wrongdoer, the offender.

يقرأ غرامي من صحيفة خده

بشر الرضى وتجهم الغضبان

My passion reads from the page of his cheek

The brightness of favor and the angry one's scowl.

متعتب أهدى إلي عتابه

وصلاً مشى في صورة الهجران

A reproachful one offered me his reproach,

A union that walked in the guise of estrangement.

إني على حذر الوشاة وخيفتي

عين الرقيب وصولة الغيران

I, though wary of slanderers and fearful of

The watcher's eye and the jealous one's assault,

ليروقني هيف الغصون إذا انثنت

شغفاً بقد منعم ريان

Still delight in the slender branches when they bend,

For love of a delicate, luxuriant form.

لو لم يكن في البان من أعطافه

شبه لما حسنت غصون البان

Were there not in the ban-tree, from his supple curves,

A likeness, the ban-tree's branches would not be fair.

يا صاحبي وفي مجانبة الهوى

رأي الرشاد فما الذي تريان

O my two companions, in avoiding passion

Lies sound judgment; what, then, do you both advise?

قبضت على كف الصبابة سلوة

تنهى النهى عن طاعة العصيان

Forgetfulness has seized the hand of yearning,

Forbidding reason to obey rebellion.

أمسي وقلبي بين صبر خاذل

وتجلد قاص وهم دان

I spend the evening, my heart between failing patience,

Distant fortitude, and grief close at hand.

قد سهلت حزن الكلام لنادب

آل الرسول نواعب الأحزان

The roughness of speech has been eased for one who mourns

The Messenger's family, by sorrow's cawing ravens.

فابذل مشايعة اللسان ونصره

إن فات نصر مهند وسنان

So offer the tongue's allegiance and its aid,

If the aid of an Indian blade and spearhead is beyond reach.

واجعل حديث بني الوصي

تشبيب شكوى الدهر والخذلان

And make the tale of the Legatee's sons

The love-prelude to lamenting time and abandonment.

غصبت أمية إرث آل محمد

سفهاً وشنت غارة الشنآن

Umayya's clan usurped the inheritance of Muhammad's family

In folly, and launched hatred's raid.

وغدت تخالف في الخلافة أهلها

وتقابل البرهان بالبهتان

And came to oppose the rightful holders of the caliphate,

Countering clear proof with slander.

لم تقتنع أحلامها بركوبها

ظهر النفاق وغارب العدوان

Their judgment was not content merely to ride

The back of hypocrisy and the withers of aggression,

وقعودهم في رتبة نبوية

لم يبنها لهم أبو سفيان

And to sit in a prophetic rank

That Abu Sufyan had not built for them,

حتى أضافوا بعد ذلك أنهم

أخذوا بثأر الكفر في الإيمان

Until, beyond all that, they added this:

They exacted unbelief's vengeance upon the faith.

فأتى زياد في القبيح زيادة

تركت يزيد يزيد في النقصان

Then Ziyad brought an increase in vileness

That left Yazid increasing in degradation.

حرب بنو حرب أقاموا سوقها

وتشبهت بهم بنو مروان

War—the sons of Harb set up its market,

And the sons of Marwan followed their example.

لهفي على النفر الذين أكفهم

غيث الورى ومعونة اللهفان

Alas for those men whose hands

Were rain for humankind and aid to the distressed!

أشلاؤهم مزق بكل ثنية

وجسومهم صرعى بكل مكان

Their limbs are shreds at every mountain pass,

And their bodies lie slain in every place.

مالت عليهم بالتمالي أمة

باعت جزيل الربح بالخسران

A community turned against them in collusion,

Trading abundant gain for loss.

دفعوا عن الحق الذي شهدت لهم

بالنص فيه شواهد القرآن

They were denied the right to which, on their behalf,

The Qur'an's testimonies bore explicit witness.

ما كان أولاهم به لو أيدوا

بالصالح المختار من غسان

How deserving of it they would have been, had they been aided

By al-Salih, the chosen one of Ghassan!

أنساهم المختار صدق ولائه

كم أول أربى عليه الثاني

His true allegiance made them forget al-Mukhtar;

How often has the second surpassed the first!

ليت الليالي أسفلتهم نصره

وزمانه في سالف الأزمان

Would that the nights had earlier granted them his aid,

And his age among the bygone ages,

كيما يروا أن السماع مقصر

من فضله عما ترى العينان

So they might see that hearsay falls short

Of what both eyes behold of his excellence.

ينشي لهم في كل وجه مدحة

سحبت مطارفها على سحبان

He composes for them, in every form, a panegyric

That trails its fine cloaks over Sahban.

ويود من فرط المحبة فيهم

لو أنهم مدحوا بكل لسان

And wishes, from his overflowing love for them,

That they were praised in every tongue.

ملك تراع به الملوك وعنده

ورع يسير بسيره الملكان

A king by whom kings are awed, possessing

A piety whose course the two angels follow.

متغاير الأوصاف فوق جبينه

بشر الولي وهيبة السلطان

Contrasting in his qualities: upon his brow

Are a friend's cheer and a sovereign's awe.

تعنو الوجوه إذا رأته فيلقتي

خد الثرى ومعاقد التيجان

Faces bow when they behold him; then there meet

The dust's cheek and the places where crowns are bound.

إن الوزارة لم تزل من قبله

هدفاً لأسهم خيفة وهوان

Indeed, before him the vizierate had always been

A target for the arrows of fear and humiliation,

حتى اتيح لها أغر متوج

غصب النفوس إذا التقى الجمعان

Until a radiant, crowned man was granted to it,

Who seizes lives when the two hosts meet.

فأدالها بعد الهوان بعزة

قعساء جلت خوفها بأمان

He restored its fortune after abasement, with a might

Unassailable, dispelling its fear with security.

وأبان نقصان الملوك كماله

بغرائب المعروف والعرفان

And his perfection exposed the failings of kings

Through wonders of kindness and gratitude.

يرعى سوام الظن بين رحابه

روض الغنى ومنابت الإحسان

The herds of hope graze amid his spacious courts

On wealth's meadows and the growing-grounds of bounty.

لو أمكنته النيرات لأصبحت

فيه ولكن ليس في الإمكان

Had the heavenly lights been within his reach, they would have been

Within him—but that is beyond possibility.

غيث بعيني منزعات حياضه

فنقعت منها غلة الظمآن

He is rain, whose pools I saw being drawn from;

So from them I quenched a thirsty man's burning thirst.

ورأيت ليث الغاب في عرنينه

ووقفت حيث أرى العلى وتراني

And in his nose I saw the forest's lion,

And stood where I see high glory, and it sees me.

ولقد أمل به الرجاء مهاجراً

عن مستقر الأهل والأوطان

And indeed, hope alighted on him, a migrant

From the settled home of family and homeland.

فأنالني فوق الرجاء وزادني

قرباً ومن نادي الندى أدناني

So he granted me beyond my hopes, and increased my

Closeness, and drew me near to bounty's assembly.

كرم يقل كثير مدحي عنده

ويكل عن أدناه شكر لساني

A generosity beside which my abundant praise is little,

And my tongue's thanks fall short of its least measure.

من كان لي شرف بنظم مديحه

فمتى أقوم بشكر ما أولاني

He whose praise in verse has been an honor to me—

When can I ever thank him enough for what he bestowed on me?