لو أعطي الدست لسانا فنطق — Ibn Al Habariya

لو أُعطيَ الدّستُ لِسانا فنطَق

لقال تاجُ الملكِ بي منك أحق

If the seat of honor were given a tongue and spoke,

it would say, 'Taj al-Mulk has more right to me than you.'

الآن قرَّت عينهُ ولم تزل

مقسومةً بين البكاءِ والأرقَ

Now his eye is gladdened—it had never ceased to be

divided between weeping and sleeplessness—

بعَودِ مولانا وهل من نعمةٍ

أكثرُ من خلاصهِ مما طَرَق

by our lord's return; and is there any blessing

greater than his deliverance from what befell him?

جلا ظلامَ الخطبِ نورُ رأيهِ

ووجهه كما جلا البدرُ الغَسَق

The light of his judgment dispelled calamity's darkness,

and his face too, as the full moon dispels night's gloom.

وكان في بحرِ الخطوبِ عائما

لا يختَشي كالدّرّ لا يخشى الغَرقَ

He was afloat in a sea of calamities,

unafraid, like pearls that do not fear drowning.

كأنّه الدينارُ في النارِ إذا

زادت لَظىً زادَ صفاءً وبَرَق

He is like a dinar in the fire: whenever

the blaze grows fiercer, it grows purer and gleams.

والعودُ بالإحراقِ يبدو عَرفُه

والمِسك أذكى عبَقا إذا سُحِق

And aloeswood reveals its fragrance when burned,

and musk grows more fragrant when crushed.

والسيفُ لولا مِدوَسُ الصيقلِ ما

جّذَّ الرقابَ حدُّه ولا ذَلَق

And the sword—without the polisher's whetstone, never

would its edge sever necks or grow keen.

ما كان حبساً ذاكَ بل صِيانة

والصَّونُ للشيِ النَفيسِ مُستَحق

That was not imprisonment, but safekeeping;

and what is precious deserves protection.

أمُنكرٌ صَونَ الضلوعِ القلبَ أم

مُستبدَعٌ صَونُ الجفونِ للحدَق

Is the ribs' guarding of the heart objectionable, or

the eyelids' guarding of the pupils thought strange?

لولا سِرارُ البدرِ ما تمَّ فهل

يُؤيَسُ من تمامه إذا امّحَق

Without the full moon's dark phase, it would not wax full—so should

one despair of its fullness when it wanes away?

وقد يُصانُ السيفُ بالغمدِ وقد

يَغيبُ عُلويُّ النجومِ في الشفق

And sometimes a sword is kept safe in its sheath, and sometimes

the high stars disappear in the twilight.