سهلت حزونة وجده وغرامه

من بعد شرة شوقه وعرامه

The ruggedness of his passion and love grew smooth,

After the vehemence of his longing and his wild impetuosity.

صب تحامته الصبابة بعدما

ملكت يد الأشواق فضل زمامه

A lovesick man whom passion shunned, after

The hand of longings had seized the loose end of his rein.

وإذا انطوى برد الشباب عن الفتى

لم ترع غانية عهود ذمامه

And when the mantle of youth is folded away from a man,

No beauty keeps the pledges of his covenant.

خلق من الأيام أن أخا الصبا

من عمره في يقظة كمنامه

It is the way of the days that the companion of youth

In his waking life is as he is in sleep.

والدهر لا يسقيك حلو رضاعه

إلا ويعقبه بمر فطامه

And time never gives you the sweetness of its nursing

Without following it with the bitterness of its weaning.

فإذا دجا الليل البهيم ولم تجد

لك ملجأ من ظلمه وظلامه

So when the pitch-black night grows dark, and you find

No refuge for yourself from its injustice and darkness,

فتلق بادرة الزمان ببدره

واصرف هموم صروفه بهمامه

Then meet time's sudden onslaught with its full moon, Badr,

And turn aside the sorrows of its reversals with its valiant lord.

بمؤيد تسري الجيوش وراءه

ويسير جيش الرعب من قدامه

With one granted aid, behind whom the armies march by night,

While the army of terror marches before him.

والنصر يلمع من ظبى أسيافه

والفتح يعلم من ذرى أعلامه

And victory gleams from the edges of his swords,

And conquest is signaled from the heights of his banners.

ملك ترى الأملاك تسجد خيفة

منه وترغم عند لثم رغامه

A king: you see kings prostrate themselves in fear

Of him, their noses pressed into the earth as they kiss his dust.

ذلت لعز متوج من يعرب

تتصاغر العظماء من إعظامه

They bowed to the might of a crowned descendant of Ya'rub;

The great make themselves small out of reverence for him.

يجري القضاء بمقتضى إيثاره

في نقضه طوراً وفي إبرامه

Fate runs according to his choice,

In his undoing at one time and his binding at another.

يفتر يغر الدست حين يحله

عن أبلج طلق الندى بسامه

The throne's mouth parts in a smile when he occupies it,

Revealing its radiant, openhanded, ever-smiling lord.

هو عمدة الملك العقيم وذخره ال

باقي وجامع شمله ونظامه

He is the mainstay of barren kingship, and its treasure—

Everlasting, the uniter of its ranks and its ordering bond.

وكأن در التاج حول جبينه

زهر تحف البدر عنه تمامه

It is as though the crown's pearls around his brow

Are bright stars circling the full moon, whose fullness comes from him.

وحسامه الماضي وهضبة عزه

العليا وذروة مجده وسنامه

And its keen sword, and the mountain of its might,

Lofty, and the summit of its glory and its pinnacle.

وإذا طرا خطب فليس معول

إلا على تشميره وقيامه

And when a crisis arises, there is no reliance

Except on his girding himself and rising to the task.

ملك سمت غسان بالشرفين من

أجداده قدماً ومن أعمامه

A king: Ghassan rose with the twofold honor of

His ancestors of old, and of his paternal uncles.

حازت به قصب الرهان وأحرزت

حظ المعلى من قداح سهامه

Through him it won the race's prize-reeds and secured

The share of al-Mu'alla among his lot-drawing arrows.

أضحت صحائف كتبه كصفاحه

فتكاً وغرب لسانه كحسامه

The pages of his letters became like his sword-blades

In deadly force, and his tongue's edge like his sword.

كتب تراع بها الكتائب كلما

صدرت إلى الإقليم عن أقلامه

Letters that terrify battalions whenever

They issue from his pens to the province.

ومهابة أغناه شائع ذكرها

وكفاه يوم الروع جر لهامه

And an awe whose widespread fame has sufficed for him,

And spared him, on the day of dread, from leading out his vast host.

ومواقف وقف الحمام مخبراً

عن كره فيها وعن إقدامه

And stands in battle where Death stood recounting

His charges there and his daring advance.

يلقى المدرع في الكريهة حاسراً

متلثماً بالنقع فوق لثامه

He meets the armored warrior in battle unarmored,

Veiled in battle-dust over his own face-veil.

وكتائب التأييد محدقة به

أنى أتى من خلفه وأمامه

And battalions of aid encircle him,

Wherever he comes, behind him and before him.

كم للمظفر من مقام أبيض

يجلو صباح النصر ليل قتامه

How many a shining stand belongs to al-Muzaffar,

Whose night of battle-dust the dawn of victory dispels.

ومنافق شمخ النفاق بأنفه

وسرت رقى الشيطان في أوهامه

And a hypocrite whose nose hypocrisy lifted in pride,

And Satan's spells crept into his delusions.

رامت عزائمه العلى واعتاقه

عزم المظفر عن بلوغ مرامه

His resolves sought the heights, but he was held back

By al-Muzaffar's resolve from attaining his aim.

ليث حبيك السابري عرينه

ومثقفات السمر من آجامه

A lion whose lair is closely woven Sabiri mail,

And straightened dusky lances are among his thickets.

قسم الندى والبأس قسمة عادل

لم يرض حكم الجور في أحكامه

He apportioned bounty and valor as a just man apportions,

Who would not accept an unjust judgment in his rulings.

فيصول في العزمات حد حسامه

ويصوب في الزمات وبل غمامه

So in resolute undertakings the edge of his sword strikes,

And in times of want his raincloud's downpour descends.

والحرب يشقى أسدها بطعانه

والسلم ينعم وفدها بطعامه

And war's lions suffer from his spear-thrusts,

While peace's guests delight in his food.

تردى الجياد القب حول قبابه

وتخيم الآمال عند خيامه

Lean steeds gallop around his domed pavilions,

And hopes encamp beside his tents.

حرم أقام الجود أركان الندى

ما بين ركنيه وبين مقامه

A sanctuary where generosity raised the pillars of bounty

Between its two corners and its station.

يرعى سوام الظن نبت جميمه

الأمرى ويكرع من نمير جمامه

The herd of hope grazes the shoots of his lush pasture—

Most wholesome—and drinks deep from the sweet water of his pools.

لا ذنب عندي للزمان وقد غدا

بدر بن رزيك كريم كرامه

Time is blameless in my eyes, now that

Badr ibn Ruzzik has become the noblest of its nobles.

لمت الزمان فلم تزل أقدامه

حتى غفرت به ذنوب لئامه

I blamed time, yet its feet did not falter,

Until, for his sake, I forgave the sins of its base men.

أنكرت معنى البخل منذ عرفته

وعرفت معنى الجود من إنعامه

I ceased to know the meaning of stinginess once I knew him,

And learned the meaning of generosity from his favors.

أملت قاصية الغنى فبلغتها

وخدمت حين غدوت من خدامه

I hoped for wealth's farthest reach, and attained it,

And was served when I became one of his servants.

وتيقنت نوب الليالي أنني

لا أتقي الأيام في أيامه

And the calamities of the nights knew for certain that I

Do not fear the days throughout his days.

وأنالني الشرف الرفيع وجاوز ال

أمل الذي حاولت من إكرامه

And he granted me exalted honor, surpassing the

Hope I had sought from his gracious favor.

أغنى ابتداء نداء عن قولي له

ما أحوج البادي إلى إتمامه

The beginning of his bounty spared me from saying to him,

“How greatly the beginning needs completion!”

وسقى غليل الحظ بعد أوامه

وشفى عليل المدح بعد سقامه

And he quenched fortune's craving after its burning thirst,

And healed ailing praise after its sickness.

وحللت منه بذروة العز الذي

يعلو الحلول به علي مقامه

And through him I settled on the summit of might,

Where dwelling is exalted, its station lofty.

فرأيت رب الملك حين رأيته

وسمعت ما يملي شريف كلامه

Thus I saw the lord of kingship when I saw him,

And heard what his noble speech dictated.

يا فارس الإسلام دعوة خادم

أعدمته الموجود من إعدامه

O knight of Islam, the prayer of a servant

Whom you stripped of the poverty he possessed.

هنيت من رجب قدوم سعادة

قدمت بأجر صيامه وقيامه

May you be blessed with happiness arriving from Rajab,

Which has come with the reward of fasting and night vigil in it.

شهر أطعت الله في حراماته

ورعيت حق حلاله وحرامه

A month in whose sacred limits you obeyed God,

And observed the due of its lawful and forbidden things.

لازلت في المولى العماد مبلغاً

ما ترجيه ممتعاً بدوامه

May you ever see fulfilled in the lord al-Imad

What you hope for, blessed with his lasting presence.

تستقبل العمر السعيد مجدداً

بالسعد ما أبليت من أعوامه

May you greet a happy life, renewing

With good fortune the years of it you have worn away.