دانت لأمرك طاعة الأقدار

وتواضعت لك عزة الأقدار

The fates have submitted obediently to your command,

And the pride of the fates has humbled itself before you.

وسما على الشعري محلك في الورى

فسمت بذكرك همة الأشعار

And your station among mankind has risen above Sirius,

So poetry's ambition has soared through mention of you.

وملكت ناصية الزمان وأهله

فجرى بما تهوى القضاء الجاري

And you have seized the forelock of time and its people,

So the coursing decree has run according to your desire.

فاصرف وصرف من تشاء من الورى

بأعنة الإيراد والإصدار

So dismiss and direct whomever you wish among mankind,

With the reins of bringing in and sending forth.

وامدد يديك أبا الشجاع مثوبة

وعقوبة بالسيف والدينار

And stretch out your two hands, Abu al-Shuja, in reward

And punishment, with the sword and the dinar.

فهما ذريعة عزة وكرامة

وهما ذريعة ذلة وصغار

For these two are means to might and honor,

And these two are means to abasement and humiliation.

النائبان عن المنية والمنى

في قسمة الأرزاق والأعمار

The two deputies of death and wishes,

In apportioning livelihoods and lifespans;

والمصلحان فساد كل طوية

مرتابة بالعرف والإنكار

And the two that mend the corruption of every inward heart

Beset by doubt, through kindness and rebuke;

والقائمان إذا تطاول ناكث

بحراسة الأوطان والأوطار

And the two that rise, when a covenant-breaker grows insolent,

To guard homelands and cherished aims;

والحاملان على الممالك ثقل ما

تحتاج من نقض ومن إمرار

And the two that lay upon kingdoms the burden of what

They require of undoing and making firm;

والرافعان غداة كل كريهة

خطر الملوك على القنا الخطار

And the two that raise, on the morning of every battle,

The stature of kings upon swaying spears;

والموقدان لهم بكل ثنية

نار العلى في رأس كل منار

And the two that kindle for them, at every mountain pass,

The fire of glory atop every beacon.

ولقد جمعت أبا الشجاع إليهما

خفض الجناح ورفعة المقدار

And you have indeed joined to these two, Abu al-Shuja,

A lowered wing and an exalted station.

وذعرت ساهية القلوب بهيبة

سكنتها بسكينة ووقار

And you have frightened heedless hearts with awe,

You calmed them with serenity and dignity.

ووفيت هذا الدين واجب حقه

فصفت مشاربه من الأكدار

And you have rendered this faith its full rightful due,

So its drinking-sources have cleared of all murk.

ولكل عصر دولة وسياسة

تجري الأمور بها على الإيثار

And every age has a dynasty and a policy

By which affairs proceed according to preference.

وإذا بدا لك جالساً في دسته

فحذار من ليث العرين حذار

And when he appears to you, seated upon his dais,

Beware the lion of the lair—beware!

واقصر خطاك وكف عن وجه الثرى

ما طال من ذيل وفضل إزار

Shorten your steps, and keep off the face of the earth

The trailing length of your hem and the surplus of your waistcloth.

واحصر مقالك إن نطقت فربما

وعظ المقل بعثرة المكثار

And limit your speech if you speak, for often

The sparing speaker is warned by the talkative one's stumble.

عندي لك الخبر اليقين يثق بما

ينهي إليك جهينة الأخبار

I have certain news for you; one trusts what

The Juhayna of tidings conveys to you.

أصبحت منه وقد علمت فصاحتي

في كل ناد استقيل عثاري

Because of him, though you know my eloquence, I have come,

In every gathering, to seek pardon for my stumbles.

أقسمت بالملك الذي ألفاظه

سحر العقود ونفحة الأسحار

I swore by the king whose words are

The enchantment of necklaces and the fragrant breath of dawns;

ذخر الأئمة كافل الخلفاء من

نسل الهداة الخمسة الأطهار

The treasure of the imams, guardian of the caliphs, of

The lineage of the five pure guides.

لقد اعتراني الشك هل في تاجه

وجه صبيح أم صباح نهار

Doubt has indeed overtaken me: within his crown, is there

A radiant face, or the dawn of day?

وجه به تقذى عيون عداته

كمداً وتجلى أعين النظار

A face that makes his enemies' eyes smart

With grief, yet clears the eyes of onlookers.

لم أدر هل نصبت مراتب دسته

بمقر ملكك أم بدار قرار

I could not tell whether the tiers of his dais were set

At the seat of your kingdom, or in the everlasting abode.

دار غدت يا شمسها وغمامها

فلكاً ولكن ليس بالدوار

An abode that has become, O its sun and its cloud,

A celestial sphere, yet not a revolving one.

وكأنما هي جنة أغنيتها

يا بحرها عن منة الأنهار

And it is as though it were a paradise you have freed,

O its sea, from needing the bounty of rivers.

وجعلتها دار السلام فبوركت

دار السلام وكعبة الزوار

And you have made it the Abode of Peace; so blessed be

The Abode of Peace and the Kaaba of visitors.

لو لم يكن بيتاً يمينك ركنه

ما كان مستوراً بذي الأستار

Were it not a House whose cornerstone is your right hand,

It would not be veiled with these curtains.

أهدت لنا تنيس ما لم يفتخر

بنظيره عصر من الأعصار

Tinnis has given us something whose like

No age among all the ages has ever boasted of.

وأمدها حسن اقتراحك بالذي

لم تقترحه خواطر الأفكار

And your fine conception furnished it with what

The promptings of thought had never proposed.

فتنزهت أبصارنا في حسنها

إن الحدائق نزهة الأبصار

So our eyes strolled through its beauty;

Gardens are indeed a delight for the eyes.

يستأنس الحيوان بين مروجها

فوحوشها ليست بذات نفار

Animals feel at ease among its meadows,

So its wild beasts are not prone to flight.

طير على الأشجار إلا أنها

ليست مغردة على الأشجار

Birds upon the trees, except that they

Do not sing upon the trees.

وجناة أثمار وما حصلوا بها

أبداً على شيء من الأثمار

And gatherers of fruit, yet there they have gained

No fruit at all, ever.

وقفوا بها متعلقين تعلقي

بذمام عدلك من وقوف الجاري

They stand there clinging, as I cling

To your justice's protection against my stipend's stoppage.

قطع من الروض الأنيق كسوتها

فوراً ولم يك جسمها بالعار

You clothed it in pieces of the graceful garden,

At once, though its body was not bare.

شبهت لونيها سبائك فضة

قد زخرفت حافاتها بنضار

I likened its two colors to ingots of silver

Whose edges had been embellished with gold.

خدم الربيع به المصيف كرامة

لأجل مخدوم وأكرم دار

With it, spring served summer, as a mark of honor

For a master and a most noble abode.

حياك حسن رياضها وبياضها

بلطائف الأنواء والأنوار

The beauty of its gardens and its whiteness greeted you

With delicate gifts of rain-bearing stars and blossoms.

نوعان من نور ونور ألفا

بين النجوم الزهر والأزهار

Two kinds, light and blossom, have joined

The shining stars and the flowers.

فتمل دولتك التي افتخرت بها

مصر على الأعصار والأمصار

So may you long enjoy your reign, in which

Egypt has gloried above all ages and cities.

غبرت في وجه الملوك بسيرة

لم يكتحل أحد لها بغبار

You have cast dust in kings' faces by a way of life

With whose dust no one has ever lined his eyes.

وغدت علاك صحيفة عنوانها

أمنت رعية من يخاف الباري

And your eminence has become a page whose heading reads:

Safe are the subjects of one who fears the Creator.

وبنيت بعد أبيك شامخ رتبة

يغني البيان لها عن الإخبار

And after your father, you have built a towering station;

Its plain evidence leaves no need for reports.

أعلمتنا لما طلعت ببرجها

أن البروج مطالع الأقمار

You taught us, when you rose in its tower,

That towers are the rising-places of moons.

يا خابط العشواء بعد طلائع

هذا الشهاب ضرام تلك النار

O you who grope like a night-blind camel, after the first gleams

Of this meteor, the blaze of that fire!

يا ظامئ الآمال إنك نازل

بغدير ذاك العارض المدرار

O you thirsting for hopes, you are alighting

At the pool of that copiously raining cloud.

يا خائف الضاري نصحتك فاتئد

واحذر فهذا شبل ذاك الضاري

O you afraid of the fierce beast, I have counseled you: take care,

And beware: this is the cub of that fierce beast.

واسلم لأيام غدا بك أهلها

من جورها في ذمة وجوار

And live unharmed through days whose people, thanks to you, have come

Into protection and sanctuary from those days' oppression.