هنئت مفتتح الصيام السافر

عن وجه مغفرة وأجرة وافر

May you be blessed with the opening of the fast, unveiling

The face of forgiveness and abundant reward.

شهر قسمت صيامه وقيامه

في الله بين هواجر ودياجر

A month whose fasting and night prayers you apportioned

For God's sake between midday heats and deep darknesses.

وجمعت بين صلاته وصلاته

فشفعت برتقى ببر غامر

You joined its prayers to its charitable gifts,

Pairing pious goodness with overflowing bounty.

لا يفرحن بدر غدوت سمية

فالبدر دون علاك أعشى ناظر

Let no full moon rejoice that you have become its namesake:

Beside your loftiness, the moon is a dim-eyed watcher.

وافى وقد محق المحاق ضياءه

فاعرته نور الجلال الباهر

It came when the moon's dark phase had effaced its radiance,

And you lent it the dazzling light of majesty.

أكرمت مثواه بحسن تحية

حلت على الخلق الزكي الطاهر

You honored its stay with a gracious greeting

That alighted upon a virtuous, spotless nature.

قابلته بجبين وجه ساهم

شوقاً إليك ولحظ طرف ساهر

You met it with the brow of a careworn face,

Longing for you, and the gaze of a sleepless eye.

سهلت إذنك مطعماً أو منعماً

فتعلم الشاكي لسان الشاكر

You made access to you easy, offering food or favors,

So the complainant learned the language of the grateful.

وأمرت كفك أن يحقق عندنا

ما قيل عن كرم الغمام الماطر

You commanded your hand to prove among us

What is said of the bounty of rain-bearing clouds.

ونهيت جوادك أن يخص بفيضه

فسقى ثرى البادي وريف الحاضر

You forbade your bounteous giver to single anyone out with its flood,

So it watered the nomad's soil and the townsman's fields.

واستأثرت بالمجد همتك التي

يأبى نداها قسمة المستأثر

Your high resolve claimed glory for itself,

Though its bounty rejects the hoarder's division.

وأعدت بعد الشيب في أغصانها

ما انحت من ورق الشباب الناضر

After grayness, you restored to its branches

The fallen leaves of flourishing youth.

وصحبتنا والنجم دونك رتبة

متواضعاً في عز ملك قاهر

You kept us company, though the star ranks beneath you,

Humble amid the might of all-conquering kingship.

قل للزمان عدمت وافر همتي

إن لم أكل لك بالصواع الوافر

Say to Time: may I lose my ample resolve

If I do not repay you with a brimming measure.

أأكون جار أبي الضياء وأتقي

في ظله ظلم القضاء الجائر

Shall I live under Abu al-Diya's protection, yet fear

In his shade the oppression of unjust fate?

هيهات ما ورقي بمغنم خابط

كلا ولا عودي بنهزة كاسر

Far from it! My foliage is no prize for a branch-beater,

Nor is my bough easy prey for a breaker.

يا حائر الآمال أخفق سعيه

تجد عندي دليل الحائر

O you, bewildered in your hopes, whose striving has failed,

With me you will find a guide for the bewildered.

هذا المظفر قبلة الكرم التي

نصبت لشد على وسد مفاقر

Here is al-Muzaffar, generosity's qibla,

Raised to uphold high honors and fill the gaps of want.

ضمنت هداية كل خابط عشوة

بمشاعل للجود فوق مشاعر

It has pledged to guide everyone groping in darkness,

With torches of bounty above sacred landmarks.

يلقى مؤمل عزه ونواله

ما شاء من خيل وبحر زاخر

The seeker of his might and bounty finds

All the steeds he wishes, and a surging sea.

أصبحت أشعر زائريه ولم أكن

لولا مكارمه بأفصح شاعر

I became the finest poet among his visitors; I would not,

But for his noble deeds, have been the most eloquent of poets.

وحذوت في الإحسان حذو مثاله

وهو الذي نصب المثال لخاطري

In doing good, I followed his example,

And he himself set that example before my mind.

عمر المديح بغامر من جوده

فشكرت منه غامراً بالعامر

He made praise flourish with his overflowing bounty,

So I thanked his overflowing gift with flourishing praise.

وجلوت صفحة مجده بمدائح

يصقلن من صدأ السماح الداثر

I burnished the face of his glory with praises

That scour away the rust of long-neglected generosity.

ملك إذا اختصم القنا في مأزق

حكمت ظباه على القنا المتشاجر

A king: when lances clash in a narrow pass,

His sword-edges judge the quarrelling spears.

يجلو دجى النقع المثار بأنجم

يطلعن زرقاً في العجاج الثائر

He dispels the darkness of stirred-up dust with stars

That rise blue amid the swirling dust-cloud.

يرمي العدى من سيفه وسنانه

يوم الهياج بناظم وبناثر

He assails his foes with sword and spearpoint,

On battle's day, with one that strings and one that scatters.

وتقيل ضاحية المنى في ظله

ويقيل عاثرة الرجاء العاثر

The sunlit expanse of wishes rests at noon in his shade,

And he rights the stumble of faltering hope.

لما أقام صغى الرقاب رأيتها

تعنو له بسجود صاغ صاغر

When he straightened crooked necks, I saw them

Bow to him in the prostration of the meek and humbled.

تحوي بطون دفاتر من ذكره

مافي بطون أسرة ومنابر

The pages of books contain, in accounts of him,

All that lies within thrones and pulpits.

متناسب يلقاك أطهر باطن

من عينه أبداً وأحسن ظاهر

Harmonious in nature, he greets you with the purest heart,

Ever through his eye, and with the fairest outward form.

ترجو نداه ولاتخاف عقابه

مادمت في كف الوفاء السائر

You hope for his bounty and do not fear his punishment,

So long as you remain in the hand of far-famed loyalty.

لاتلزم الدنيا أخاه فإنما

ترجو الولادة من عقيم عاقر

Do not demand his brother of this world: that would mean

Expecting childbirth from one barren and sterile.

أبقت بنو رزيك منه ذخيرة الش

رف الرفيع لهم وكنز الذاخر

The Banu Ruzzik left in him a treasury of

Their lofty honor, and a hoarder's treasure,

وبقية الحسب الصميم ووارث ال

كرم القديم وخير ناه آمر

And the remnant of unalloyed lineage, and the heir to

Ancient generosity, the best to forbid and command.

يا ليت أعينهم رأت ماشاده

من حسن آثار لهم ومآثر

Oh, would that their eyes had seen what he built

Of fine memorials for them and glorious deeds,

لتطيب منهم نفس ماض أول

أودى وحمل ثقله للآخر

So the soul of an earlier departed one among them might rejoice,

Who died and passed his burden to his successor.

أمام الهمام أبو العماد فلم يزل

جرار ألوية وهوب جرائر

The valiant imam, Abu al-Imad, was ever

A leader of banners, a lavish forgiver of offenses.

تزهر بيومي بأسه ونواله

أبداً صدور مواكب ومحاضر

On the two days of his valor and bounty there bloom

Forever the foremost ranks of processions and assemblies.

قد كان عوناً للكفيل طلائع

ومؤازر من دون كل مؤازر

He was a help to the guardian Tala'i,

A supporter surpassing every other supporter.

مازال عند نزول كل ملمة

عنه يسد فم الزمان الفاغر

Whenever a calamity descended, he never ceased

To close for him the gaping mouth of Time,

بعزيمة لولا تأخر عصرها

خلقت مضاء في الحسام الباتر

With a resolve that, had its age not come so late,

Would have been created as keenness in the cleaving sword.

ولكم تفكر في الكماة فما رأى

غير المظفر خاطراً في الخاطر

How often he pondered armored warriors, yet saw

None but al-Muzaffar passing through his mind.

وصلته عنك أواصر الرحم التي

وجدتك أكرم واصل لا قاصر

Bonds of kinship reached him from you—bonds that

Found you their noblest keeper, never remiss.

أيقنت أن الملك يخذل ضده

لما رأيتك ناصراً للناصر

I knew for certain that kingship would forsake its foe

When I saw you supporting al-Nasir.

حققت ظن أبيه حين لحظته

يا مقلة الدنيا سواد الناظر

You fulfilled his father's hopes when you regarded him,

O eye of the world, as the pupil of your eye.

فلو استطعت خبأته عن كل ما

يخشاه بين حناجر ومحاجر

If you could, you would hide him from all

He fears, between throats and eye sockets.

فبقيتما وبقيت وحدي ناظماً

في جيد مجدكما عقود جواهري

May you both endure, and I alone endure, stringing

Necklaces of my jewels around the neck of your shared glory.