ما عن هوى الرشأ العذري أعذار

لم يبق لي مذ أقر الدمع إنكار

No excuses avail against love of the chaste fawn.

No denial remains to me since my tears confessed.

لي في القدود وفي ضم النهود وفي

لثم الخدود لبانات وأوطار

I have, in figures, in embracing breasts, and in

kissing cheeks, longings and desires.

هذا اختياري فوافق إن رضيت به

أولا فدعني وما أهوى وأختار

This is my choice; agree if you are content with it;

or else leave me with what I love and choose.

وغر غيري ففي أسري ودائرتي

من المهادرة صدري لها دار

And beguile another; for in my bondage and my circle

of clamorous dispute, my breast is a home for her.

لمني جزافاً وسامحني مصارفة

فالناس في درجات الحب أطوار

Reproach me without measure, and indulge me in exchange;

for people differ in their degrees of love.

لا عتبها من سموم القيظ معتصر

ولا عتابي لها إن فهت إعصار

Her reproach is not drawn from midsummer's scorching wind,

nor is my reproach to her, if I speak, a whirlwind.

تبيت دائرة الإنصاف دائرة

على صفاء هوى ما فيه إكدار

The circle of fairness spends the night revolving

around the purity of a love untouched by murk.

يميل بي وبها والريح ساكنة

للوصل والهجر إقبال وإدبار

Swaying me and her, though the wind is still,

are advances and retreats toward union and estrangement.

هذا هو الغزل المنسوج من كلم

في العقل منهن صهباء وأوتار

This is the love poetry woven from words;

in the mind, from them come tawny wine and lute-strings.

تغزل طال ما حل الإزار به

ظبي وحلت عن الأجياد أزرار

Love verse through which, so often, a waistwrap was loosened

by a gazelle, and buttons were unfastened from necks.

منزه العرض لا يرزي بقائله

مع الدماثة لا إثم ولا عار

Unblemished in honor, it does not disgrace its speaker;

with its gentleness, there is neither sin nor shame.

وصلته في مديحي في على ملك

أفعاله سير تتلى وآثار

I linked it, in my panegyric, to the glories of a king,

whose deeds are chronicles recited and legacies.

متوج من بني أيوب عاش به

حظي وأصبح للأشعار إشعار

A crowned one of Ayyub's sons, through whom flourished

my fortune, and poetry gained recognition.

إن قلت ساحته للوقد منتجع

فقل وراحته للوفد مدار

If you say his court is a resort for fire,

then say, too, that his palm is the pivot of delegations.

كأن راحلهم عنها ونازلهم

فيها مدى العمر حجاج وعمار

As though those departing from it and those alighting

there, throughout life, were pilgrims of Hajj and Umrah.

ولكما حط رحل في أباطحها

حطت به من ذنوب الفقر أوزار

And how often, when a pack was set down in its gravelly valleys,

were burdens of poverty's sins shed along with it.

عالي السجية لا ينأى لطارقه

من اليسار ولا يدنيه إعسار

Noble in nature, he does not withdraw from his caller

because of wealth, nor does poverty draw him near.

لو أثرت قبل الأفواه في يده

لبان منها على كفيه آثار

If mouths' kisses left marks upon his hand,

their traces would show upon both his palms.

أنامل تبذل الدينار واهبة

ولا يباشرها للمس دينار

Fingertips that give away the dinar as a gift,

yet no dinar comes into direct contact with them.

ترجي وتردي وفي صفح المهند

تدري وتعلم وهو الماء والنار

They give hope and bring ruin; on the flat of the Indian sword

you perceive and understand: it is water and fire.

إذا تأملت أو أملت طلعته

تهللت لك أنواء وأنوار

When you contemplate, or hope for, his countenance,

rain-bearing stars and lights beam for you.

أغر لا يمتري ظن ولا أمل

إن الغنى من ندى كفيه يمتار

Radiant—neither conjecture nor hope doubts:

indeed, wealth draws its provisions from the bounty of his palms.

يلوي حبال الليالي منه فوق يد

بنانها لبقاع الأرض أمطار

He winds the ropes of the nights over a hand of his,

whose fingertips are rains upon the tracts of earth.

جود الحوادث موتور بصولته

لكن له عند بيت المال أوتار

Fortune's bounty is bereaved by his onslaught,

yet he has claims for vengeance against the treasury.

يهفو رجال فيعفو وهو مقتدر

حتى تبين العطايا وهي أعمار

Men err, and he pardons, though he has the power,

until his gifts are seen to be lifetimes.

لا يرتضي واحد الآلاف في صلة

حتى يكون مع الآحاد أعشار

He will not settle for a single thousand in a gift

until tens accompany the units.

دعوى شهودي عليها غير غائبة

والقابضون ألوف المال حضار

A claim for which my witnesses are not absent;

and those receiving the thousands in money are present.

تأتي إليهم عطاياه مكررة

حسن العوارف ترداد وتكرار

His gifts come to them repeatedly;

the beauty of favors is reiteration and repetition.

يبتاع بالجود أحرار الرجال فهم

عبيد نعمته والقوم أحرار

He buys free men with generosity, so they are

slaves to his favor, though the men are free.

لا فخر إلا لفخر الدين وانقطعت

عرى الدعاوى فلا يغررك إكثار

Glory belongs only to Fakhr al-Din; severed are

the bonds of claims, so let no profusion of words deceive you.

سلني به فلساني فيه يحفظ ما

أقول وهي تواريخ وأخبار

Ask me about him, for my tongue preserves, concerning him, what

I say—and these are histories and accounts.

قيدتها وهي في الآفاق مطلقة

سيارة وحديث المجد سيار

I bound them in writing, while across the horizons they are free,

traveling—and the tale of glory travels.

أقول والقول مأثور وأشرفه

ما عبرت خطب عنه وأشعار

I speak, and speech is handed down; its noblest part

is what orations and poems have expressed.

لا تخدعن فتورنشاه أكرم من

حطت سروج بناديه وأكوار

Do not be deceived, for Turanshah is the most generous of those

in whose assembly saddles and camel-saddles are laid down.

أما وشمس بني أيوب ضامنة

هدايتي فنجوم السعد أقمار

Now, while the sun of Ayyub's sons guarantees

my guidance, the stars of good fortune are moons.

إن الليالي أساءت غير عالمة

أن ابن أيوب لي من جورها جار

Indeed, the nights have done wrong, not knowing

that Ayyub's son is my protector against their tyranny.

أما الزمان فقد وافى في رحابك بي

مهاجراً فليكن لي منك أنصار

As for time, it has brought me into your spacious courts

as an emigrant—so let me have helpers from you.

وابخل بمعدن هذا الدر وهو فمي

فالبخل بي كرم محض وإيثار

And hoard the mine of these pearls, which is my mouth,

for hoarding me is pure generosity and favor.

واطرب على خطراتي فهي مطربة

لا بل على قطراتي فهي أنهار

And be enraptured by my passing thoughts, for they enchant;

no, rather by my drops, for they are rivers.

إن شئت وداً فسلمان و عمار

أو رمت حمداً فبشار ومهيار

If you desire affection, then Salman and Ammar;

or seek praise, then Bashshar and Mihyar.

لبحتري وديعي وهو أسبق من

يضمه في رهان الفضل مضمار

My entrusted treasure is indeed a Buhturi, and he is foremost of those

whom a racecourse gathers in the contest of excellence.

أنت فوق ابن خاقان ندى ويدا

تبنى على قطرها المنهل أقطار

You surpass Ibn Khaqan in bounty, with a hand

on whose pouring rain regions are built.

فامنن علي بنصف الألف راتبةً

فقدر ودك لا يحويه مقدار

So favor me with half a thousand as a regular stipend,

for no measure can contain the measure of your affection.

مقسومة في شهور العام تحمل لي

أقساطها كل شهر وهي أدوار

Apportioned among the year's months, with delivery to me

of its installments every month, in recurring cycles.

وإن عزمت على تسيير مكرمة

فهذه الكلمات الغر أطيار

And if you resolve to dispatch a generous gift,

then these radiant words are birds.