شغل الزمان بما تقول وتفعل

فغدت خواطرنا بذكرك تشغل

Time is engrossed in what you say and do;

So our thoughts have become absorbed in remembering you.

أذهلتنا وكأن يقظتنا كرى

أبصارنا بخياله تتخيل

You have bewildered us, as though our waking were slumber;

Our eyes conjure visions from its dream-image.

ترنو العيون إلى جلالتك التي

ألبابنا فيها تحار وتذهل

Eyes gaze toward your majesty, before which

Our minds are bewildered and lost in wonder.

عظت سطى فقبيلها لا يفعل

وسمت على فقبيلها لا يعقل

Its feats of might grew great; their like cannot be wrought;

And its heights rose so high that their like cannot be conceived.

وإذا تبسم ثغر دستك ضاحكاً

شاهدت خد الأرض وهو يقبل

And when the mouth of your throne smiles in laughter,

You behold the cheek of the earth being kissed.

وتمنت الأيدي هنالك أنها

تحوي به شرفاً حوته الأرجل

The hands wish there that they

Could win through it the honor already won by feet.

تعنو الرقاب إذا نطقت كأنما

في كل فصل من كلامك مفصل

Necks bow low whenever you speak, as though

Every passage of your speech held a joint-cleaving sword.

وترد هيبتك العيون حواسراً

حتى كأن الستر دونك مسبل

Your awe sends eyes back weary,

Until it seems a curtain hangs before you.

كالشمس يشرق نورها وشعاعها

ستر عليه دون من يتأمل

Like the sun, whose light shines forth, while its rays

Veil it from whoever would gaze upon it.

شكرت علاك أبا الفوارس دولة

ما إن لها إلا عليك معول

A realm has thanked your eminence, Abu al-Fawaris,

For it has no reliance except upon you.

أضحت إذا استثنت أباك وأردفت

من بعده أحداً فأنت الأول

Now, when it sets your father apart and names

Anyone after him, you are the first.

لولا كمالك لم يقل لك كامل

لولا الفضائل لم يقل لك أفضل

Without your perfection, you would not be called Kamil;

Without the virtues, you would not be called Afdal.

بك تضرب الأمثال في الشيم التي

أصبحت غاية من بها يتمثل

Proverbs cite you for those noble qualities

Of which you have become the utmost exemplar.

إن الخلافة والوزارة لم تزل

يا ابن الكفيل بنصرها تتكفل

For the caliphate and vizierate, you have never ceased,

O son of the guarantor, to guarantee their victory.

ما امتد ظل الأمن فوق رواقها

إلا وتاجك بالفنا يتظلل

Never has the shade of safety spread over its portico

Without your crown taking shade within the courtyard.

لم تصد منها صفحة بملمة

إلا وعزمك في صداها صيقل

No surface of it has been tarnished by calamity

But your resolve has polished away its rust.

ولكم نصبت ذبالة في ذابل

تهدي المواكب والكواكب أفل

How often you have raised a wick upon a slender spear,

Guiding processions when the stars had set.

سترت بيض عمائم بغمائم

سود تولى نسجهن القسطل

You veiled white turbans with clouds

Of black, woven by the battle-dust.

وتنوفة بالجيش ضاق مجالها

فالذئب فيها والظبا لا تعسل

And a wilderness whose expanse grew cramped with the army,

So there neither wolves nor gazelles could lope.

غادرت يوم عداك فيها أيوماً

وتركتهم والليل فيها أليل

You left your enemies' day there a day of dread,

And left them with the night there darker still.

ورميتهم بالجرد وهي أجادل

منقضة من فوقهم أو جندل

You hurled sleek steeds at them, like falcons

Swooping down upon them—or like boulders.

وتوهموا لمع الحديد ولونه

روضاً بوارقه تجود وتهطل

They fancied the gleam and color of the steel

A meadow whose lightning-clouds poured abundant rain.

فإذا اخضرار الروض درع سابل

والغصن رمح والمهند جدول

But lo, the meadow's green was a trailing coat of mail,

The branch a spear, the Indian blade a stream.

وغدا أخوك الفتح يقسم لا نجوا

بك لا قفلت وباب مصر مقفل

And your brother Victory began to swear, not in secret:

'By you, may I not return while Egypt's gate is barred!'

صدقت نعتك في الكمال بأربع

شرف الفعال بها يتم ويكمل

You have proved your title of perfection true through four things,

By which the nobility of deeds is fulfilled and perfected:

بأس ومعروف تنازع فيهما

قلم تقلبه يداك ومنصل

Valor and generosity, in which contend

A pen your hands wield and a cutting sword.

لك في رقاب الشاكرين صنائع

ووقائع بالناكثين تنكل

Your favors lie upon the necks of the grateful,

And your battles make examples of oathbreakers.

ولقد أخذتم ثأركم من عصبة

تفصيل جملة فعلهم لا يجمل

You have indeed taken your vengeance upon a band

Whose deeds it would be unseemly to recount in full.

لم يجهلوا مهر الوزارة غير ما

ساقوا لها من غدرة لا تجهل

They did not mistake the vizierate's dowry, save for

The unmistakable treachery they brought her.

إن سميت ذات الخيل فإنها

لمجدل في الرمل منكم مرمل

If she is called the Mistress of Horses, then she

Is widowed for one of yours laid low upon the sand.

ولئن توارت بالحجاب وأعرضت

عنكم فخاطرها إليكم مقبل

Though she hid herself behind a veil and turned

Away from you, her heart was turned toward you.

أهملتموها حمل تسعة أشهر

وهي العقيم لغيركم لا تحمل

You left her untended for a pregnancy of nine months,

Though to others she is barren and cannot conceive.

رجعت إليكم وهي ذات طهارة

وسليلها فتح أغر محجل

She returned to you in purity,

Her offspring Victory, white-blazed and white-stockinged.

وعضلتموها عند خطبة غيركم

حتى انجلت وهي المهم المعضل

You withheld her when others sought her hand,

Until she stood unveiled—a grave, perplexing affair.

أنقذتموها من أناملهم وقد

قبضت عليها كفهم والأنمل

You rescued her from their fingers, when

Their hand and fingertips had closed upon her.

ولقيتمو عنها القتال بمثله

من بعدما انكشفت وبان المقتل

You met warfare with warfare in her defense,

After she lay exposed and her vital spot was revealed.

ضمنت لكم شهب الكواكب والقنا

نصراً فطاعنه السماك الأعزل

The bright stars and spears have promised you

Victory—so its lancer is al-Simak the Unarmed.

يا مالكاً لو سمته رد الصبا

أيقنت أن يمينه لا تبخل

O, what a master! Were I to ask him to restore youth,

I would be certain his right hand would not begrudge it.

أشكو إليك من الزمان أجاجة

وجراحة تدمى وليست تدمل

I complain to you of time's briny bitterness,

And a wound that bleeds and will not heal:

دين كما شاء الحريق وحالة

في خاطري منها حريق مشعل

A debt such as the fire decreed, and a plight

From which a fire blazes within my mind.

أعجمت مبلغه فأشكل قدره

ولسوف ينقطه نداك ويشكل

I left its sum obscure, so its amount became hard to discern;

Your bounty will surely add its dots and vowel marks.

وعلى اهتمامك أن يخفف ثقله

إن أنت لم تسأل فمن ذا يسأل

It rests upon your care to lighten its weight;

If you are not asked, who then can be asked?

هل بعد عبادان تعلم قرية

أو يرتجى ملك وأنت الأفضل

Do you know a village beyond Abadan,

Or can one hope in any king, when you are the most excellent?

حاشاك أن أشكو محولاً أو ظما

ونداك منهل وكفك منهل

Far be it from you that I should complain of drought or thirst,

While your bounty pours down and your palm is a watering-place.

حاشاك أن تقذى لواحظ حالتي

وجفونها بجمال وجهك تكحل

Far be it from you that the eyes of my plight should smart,

While their lids are kohled with the beauty of your face.

وإذا توسلت الرجال بخدمة

فبخدمتي ونصيحتي أتوسل

And when men seek favor through service,

I seek it through my service and loyal counsel:

أيام أغشى باب دارك هذه

وحدي وأخرج في رضاك وأدخل

The days when I frequented the gate of this house of yours

Alone, coming and going in your good pleasure,

وأرى القبول على كلامي لائحاً

فأشير في الأمر المهم ويقبل

And saw approval shining upon my words,

So I advised on weighty matters, and my counsel was accepted.

إن المواسم حلبتاك تباريا

فمعجل شرفته ومؤجل

The festivals are your two bands of racers, vying:

One early, which you have honored, and one yet to come.

فتهنه صوماً أتت بركاته

منهلة وجبينه متهلل

May you rejoice in a fast whose blessings have come

Pouring down, its brow beaming with joy.

سبق المواسم نحو بابك خدمة

فغدا يعظم دونها ويبجل

It outran the festivals to your gate in service,

And so it came to be honored and revered above them.