لك أن تقول إذا أردت وتفعلا

ولمن سعى في ذا المدى أن يخجلا

You may speak, when you wish, and act.

And anyone who strove in this arena may well feel ashamed.

لم يبق غير أبيك خلد ملكه

أحد تقر له بقاصية العلى

None remains, save your father—may his reign endure—

whose claim to the farthest heights you acknowledge.

أصبحت للإسلام مجداً باذخاً

وذخيرة ترجى وباعاً أطولا

You have become a towering glory for Islam,

a hoped-for reserve and a farther-reaching arm.

خلفت خلفك كل سابق حلبة

يسعى وجئت أمامه متمهلا

You left behind you every leader of the race,

running hard, while you came before him at your ease.

مسحت بنو رزيك غرتك التي

جعلتك عزتها أغر محجلا

The sons of Ruzzik stroked the blaze upon your brow,

whose glory made you white-blazed and white-socked.

فإذا عددنا أولاً أو آخراً

في البأس والإحسان كنت الأولا

Whether we count the first or the last,

in prowess and generosity, you were the first.

جملت قومك واصطنعت سواهم

لا زلت دهرك مجملاً ومجملا

You adorned your people and patronized others;

may you ever adorn and be adorned throughout your life.

واستسعدوا بجبين وجهك فاغتدوا

يستفتحون بك الرجاء المقفلا

They sought good fortune in your brow, and came

to open through you the locked door of hope.

وتيقنوا بحميد سعيك أنهم

ولدوا معماً في المعالي مخولا

Your praiseworthy endeavors assured them that they

had begotten one noble in both paternal and maternal kin.

ما أنجب الوزراء قلبك فاضلاً

إلا غدوت أجل منه وأفضلا

The ministers never produced a worthy man [apparently: before you],

but you became greater and better than he.

أبدى كمالك نقصهم فاستوجب

حسنات فعلك أن تكون الأكملا

Your perfection exposed their shortcomings and made it fitting,

through your good deeds, that you should be the most perfect.

قد أدركوا شرف الحياة وشيدوا

مجداً فأما مثل مجدك ذا فلا

They attained life's honor and built

a glory—but a glory like this of yours, no.

بين الثريا والثرى بون إذا

عاينته أغناك أن تتأملا

Between the Pleiades and the earth lies a gulf which,

once seen, leaves you no need to ponder.

لو شاهدوا الهمم التي لك أيقنوا

أن قد خلا عن مثلها عصر خلا

Had they seen the aspirations that are yours, they would know

that no bygone age possessed their like.

أمسيت في قمم الرؤوس محكماً

وغدوت في همم النفوس مبجلا

You have become sovereign above the crowns of heads,

and revered among the aspirations of souls.

فلذاك أثقال الوزارة لا ترى

لمحطها إلا عليك معولا

Hence the burdens of the vizierate find

no support but you on which to settle.

ما زلت يا عضد الإمام لنيلها

أهلاً وللشرف الرفيع مؤهلا

You have always, O support of the Imam, been

worthy to attain it and fitted for exalted honor.

ربتك في حجراتها بل حجرها

ولبست حلة فخرها متسربلا

It reared you in its chambers—rather, in its lap—

and you wore its robe of pride, wrapped in it.

فنشأت يا شبل المظفر مثله

متخمطاً عبل السواعد أفتلا

So you grew, O cub of al-Muzaffar, to be like him,

fierce, thick-forearmed, and powerfully sinewed.

فتركت دار عداك قاعاً صفصفاً

وجعلت خيس الملك خيساً مشبلا

You left your enemies' abode a bare, level plain,

and made the royal lair a lair teeming with cubs.

ونصرت دين الله بالعزم الذي

أمن الهدى من بعده أن يخذلا

You championed God's religion with a resolve

after which guidance was safe from being forsaken.

ونشرت من حسن الطوية ما انطوى

وجلوت ديجور الدياجر فانجلى

You unfolded the goodness concealed in your inward intent,

and dispelled the gloom of glooms, until it cleared.

فأضف إلى هبة الجرائم هيبة

مجدية يملا وقائعها الملا

So add to your remission of crimes a fearsome majesty,

glorious, whose battles fill the open land.

واجعل من الصفح الجميل عقوبة

حمراء جمرة نارها لا تصطلى

And make of gracious pardon a punishment,

crimson, whose fiery ember none can warm himself beside.

لتكون مثل الدهر في أحواله

إن مر في إحدى مواطنه حلا

So you may be like time in its changing ways:

if bitter in one of its moments, sweet in another.

فالشهد لا يزداد موقع قدره

عند الورى حتى تذوق الحنظلا

For honey's worth is not more keenly felt

among people until you taste colocynth.

وابذل لمن أصفاك محض ولائه

بشراً تحسن عنده حسن الولا

Offer to him who gives you his pure loyalty

a cheerful welcome that makes loyalty fairer in his eyes.

ما خاب مصطنع الرجال فإنهم

أبداً بهم يسمو ويعلو من علا

The patron of men never fails: it is they

through whom whoever rises always soars and ascends.

وهم الذين لو اشترى إخلاصهم

ملك بما تحوي يداه ما إلا

They are those whose sincere devotion, if purchased

by a king with all his hands possess—[unclear ending: 'not ... except'].

وبفقدهم خرج النبي محمد

من مكة واختار يثرب منزلا

Lacking them, the Prophet Muhammad departed

from Mecca and chose Yathrib as his abode,

حتى إذا ملك الرجال وقادهم

بلغوا له من فتحها ما أملا

until, when he commanded men and led them,

they won for him the conquest of it that he hoped for.

فاعمر قلوب الأولياء تجدهم

حصناً إذا ناب الزمان ومعقلا

So cultivate your allies' hearts, and you will find them

a fortress and a refuge when time brings calamity.

وتخير الأحرار دون سواهم

فالحر يبلي العذر ساعة يبتلى

Choose the freeborn above all others,

for the freeborn man leaves no room for blame when tested.

وامهد لهم أكناف هيبتك التي

جعلت تذللهم عليك تدللا

Spread for them the sheltering folds of your majesty,

which has made their humility toward you a fond familiarity.

واخفض جناح العز فهو تحية

أمر الإله بها النبي المرسلا

Lower the wing of might, for it is a greeting

God commanded the sent Prophet to offer.

وقد الجياد الأعوجية شزباً

وأثر بها في كل أرض قسطلا

Lead the lean steeds of A'waj's line,

and stir up with them a dust cloud in every land.

وانشر بعثيرها رداء داكناً

يضحي بزرق السمهرية مخملا

Spread with their flying dust a dark cloak,

made velvet-piled by the blue points of the Samhari lances.

واجعل رواقك كلما منع الضحى

نفقاً يرد الصبح ليلاً أليلا

Make your canopy, whenever it blocks the daylight,

a tunnel that turns dawn into deepest night.

نقع ترى الفرسان فيه كأنما

رفعت ذوابلها ذبالاً مشعلا

Dust in which you see the horsemen as though

their slender lances were raised as blazing wicks.

خيل إذا طلعت عليك وجوهها

قابلت وجه النصر منها مقبلا

Horses: when their faces appear before you,

you meet in them the face of victory approaching.

ومن كل منتصب القذال كأنه

لولا السكون إليه من وحش الفلا

And every steed with upright poll seems,

but for the ease one feels with it, a beast of the wasteland.

يحملن فوق متونهن فوارساً

مجدية عاداتها ضرب الطلى

They bear upon their backs horsemen,

glorious, whose custom is to strike at necks.

قوم إذا ظمئت شفار سيوفهم

جعلوا لها مهج الأعادي منهلا

Men who, when the edges of their swords thirst,

make their enemies' lifeblood a watering place for them.

فإذا الرماح أردن منهم نجعة

لم يرتضوا كلأ لها غير الكلى

And when their spears seek fresh pasture from them,

they accept no forage for them but kidneys.

أسد تغادر أسد كل كريهة

إن لم تعاقرها نعاماً جفلا

Lions who leave the lions of every fierce battle—

unless they slaughter them—as ostriches fleeing in panic.

يرمي بها الثغر المخوف جنابه

فيسد مفتوحاً ويفتح مقفلا

He hurls them against the frontier whose approaches inspire fear,

sealing what is open and opening what is barred.

ويزينها ملك أغر متوج

أبداً يشرف محفلا أو جحفلا

A radiant, crowned king adorns them,

forever ennobling an assembly or a mighty host.

ما خاب من يرجو نداه وإنما

أمسى على الراجي به متطفلا

None who hopes for his bounty is disappointed; rather,

he visits the hopeful unbidden with his gifts.

والشمس لو لم يعترف بجميله

ما ظل منها بالقنا متظللا

And had the sun not acknowledged his kindness,

he would not have stayed shaded from it beneath the spears;

ولقابلتها من أسرة وجهه

شمس تكلف وجهها أن يخجلا

and from the radiant lines of his face there would have met it

a sun that would make the sun itself blush.

للناصر بن الصالح الشرف الذي

طالت ذوائبه السماك الأعزلا

Al-Nasir, son of al-Salih, possesses the honor whose

tresses rise beyond al-Simak al-A'zal.

ملك تظل يمينه منهلة

يوم الندى وجبينه متهللا

A king whose right hand keeps pouring forth

on the day of bounty, while his brow beams.

لو جاز أن يهب الحياة رأيته

لا راجعاً فيها ولا متأولا

Were it permitted to give life, you would see him

neither taking it back nor explaining it away.

هاجر إلى ساحاته ورحابه

إن خفت قلاً من زمانك أو قلى

Migrate to his courts and spacious precincts

if you fear want or hatred from your age.

ملك جعلت المدح فيه فريضة

وجعلته فيمن سواه تنفلا

A king whose praise I have made an obligation,

while praise of all others I have made a voluntary offering.

واستنطقتني في علاه صنائع

صانت لسان المدح أن يتقولا

His benefactions made me speak of his exalted rank,

keeping the tongue of praise from speaking falsely.

منن كأن وجوهن من الحيا

يسألن وافدهن أن لا يسألا

Benefactions whose faces seem, in their modesty,

to ask whoever comes to them not to ask.

خفت على يد جوده ولقد غدت

عندي من الجودي أثقل محملا

They weighed lightly upon his generous hand, yet have become

to me a burden heavier than al-Judi.

فشكرت منه جملة تفصيلها

كرم أتاني مجملاً ومفصلا

So I gave thanks for the sum of his gifts, whose details were

generosity that reached me in sum and in detail.

متتابع كالغيث إلا أنه

يهمي ولا ينسى أخير أولا

Unceasing, like rain—except that it

streams down, and no later gift forgets an earlier one.

يا من إذا وعد المثوبة عجلا

وإذا توعد بالعقوبة أجلا

O you who hasten the reward whenever you promise it,

and delay punishment whenever you threaten it:

إن الصيام مضى وقد أودعته

عملاً كما شاء التقى متقبلا

The fasting has passed, and you have placed within it

deeds accepted, as piety willed.

أجزلت حظ صلاته وصلاته

فغدا يسر لك الثواب الأجزلا

You made ample its share of prayer and charitable gifts,

so it now prepares the richest reward for you.

وقضيت حق صيامه وقيامه

ورعيت من حرماته ما أهملا

You fulfilled the due of its fasting and nightly vigils,

and guarded those sanctities of it that were neglected.

فاسعد بعيد آذنتك سعوده

بدوام ملك لا يزال مؤثلا

So rejoice in a feast whose good omens announce to you

the endurance of a reign ever firmly founded.

وتمل في ظل السعادة دولة

مدت على الأيام ستراً مرسلا

Long enjoy, beneath the shade of happiness, a dominion

that has spread an unfurled veil across the days.