متى يستفيق الدهر من غفلانه

ويصحو نزيف الخمر من سكراته

When will Time awaken from its heedlessness

and the wine-besotted one sober from his drunken fits?

وادرك آمالي وقد بعد المدا

على طرف عزم لج في كبواته

And when will I attain my hopes, though the distance has grown long,

astride a steed of resolve that persists in stumbling?

تقمص حظى الليل ثوبا فليته

نضى عنه ثوبي طوله وثباته

My fortune donned the night as a robe; if only it

would strip off the two robes of its length and persistence.

وحالف طرفي سهد طرف نجومه

وما منهما من ذاق طعم سناته

And my eye has allied itself with the sleepless gaze of its stars,

and neither of the two has tasted its drowsiness.

لقد طال هذا الليل عمراً كأنما

اوائل يوم الحشر في أخرياته

This night has lasted a lifetime, as though

the beginning of Resurrection Day lay in its final moments.

والى فقدت الصبر فيه ولا فتى

من الدهر صبار على فتكاته

It drags on; I have lost patience through it, and no man

can patiently endure Time's deadly assaults.

هوى وزمان ما ظبات صروفه

بأقطع في الأحشاء من ظبياته

Love and Time—the blades of Time's vicissitudes

cut no deeper into the entrails than love's gazelles.

ويوم نوى فيه حسبت فرائصي

فؤاد جبان الحرب بين كماته

And on a day of parting I imagined my trembling flesh

to be a battle-coward's heart amid its armored warriors.

وقد غص جفني بالدماء كأنه

إناء مدام في أكف سقاته

My eyelid choked with blood, as though it were

a wine vessel in the palms of its cupbearers.

وما خيط ما حاك الخد رنق في الفلا

وإحصاء رمل الخبت في فلواته

Neither the thread that the spider wove in the wilderness

nor the tally of the sandy lowland's sands in its deserts

بأوهن من قلب المحب على النوى

وأكثر في الأعداد من حسراته

is frailer than the lover's heart at parting,

or greater in number than his regrets.

له شبح خافٍ عليك وان ترى

خيال غريق غاص في عبراته

He has a form hidden from you, even if you see

the shadow of a drowning man sunk in his tears.

ولست ضمينا ان يراك لعظم ما

بران على عينيه من زفراته

And I cannot guarantee that he sees you, so great is what

his burning sighs have laid as a veil upon his eyes.

فمالي وللأيام تخفي مطالبي

كفى الصب ان يخفي نحولاً بذاته

What have I to do with days that hide my wishes?

It is enough that the lover is hidden by his own wasting.

يغص بي الدهر الذي هو نابذي

كأني شجي في منتهى لهواته

Time, which casts me off, chokes on me,

as though I were a bone lodged deep in its throat.

ويضجر ما لم يلقني من ضميره

كما ضجر المصدور من نفثاته

It frets until it casts me out of its inner self,

as a chest-sick man frets over his sputum.

محا اللَه عنه السيآت بما نرى

بعدل الكريم العدل من حسناته

May God erase its sins for what we see

of its good deeds in the justice of the noble, just man.

واقسم ما اشراق وجه ذكائه

بأبهر للرائين من قسماته

I swear, the radiance of its sun's face

is no more dazzling to onlookers than his features.

إمام إذا جلبت ثوب أمانه

سلبت زمان الغدر من نائباته

An imam—if you obtain the robe of his protection,

you strip treacherous Time of its calamities.

ومولى إذا واليت صوب بنانه

أغاثك والأقطار من قطراته

And a lord—if you keep close to the downpour of his fingertips,

he succors you and the lands with his drops.

وذو كرم بين الأكارم مبتدا

وجملتهم عطف على مكرماته

A man of bounty, the subject among the generous,

with their whole company conjoined to his noble deeds.

ترى الناس أفواجاً لبذل صلاته

يؤمهم فضلا كوقت صلاته

You see people in crowds for the bestowal of his gifts;

he leads them in bounty, as he does at prayer.

ومن لي بأن أحصي مكارم فضله

إذا كان يعي حصر بعض عفاته

Who can enable me to count the noble deeds of his bounty,

when counting even some of his petitioners proves too much?

علا طبقات المجد علماً على الذي

رقا بهم السبكي في طبقاته

He rose in learning through glory's ranks, above those

whom al-Subki raised in his Tabaqat.

وهل قصبات السبق إلا صحائف

منمقة بالفضل من قصباته

And are the reeds of victory anything but pages

embellished with excellence by his reed-pens?

إذا كنت ظمآنا وكررت وصفه

شربت نميرا من صفاء صفاته

If you are thirsty and repeat his description,

you drink pure, sweet water from the clarity of his qualities.

محا عدله عنا مظالم عصرنا

وألف بين الذئب أمناً وشاته

His justice has erased our age's oppressions from us

and brought the wolf and its ewe together in safety.

وغادر أنف الغدر بالحق راغما

وأوضح وجه العذر في سطواته

Through truth he left treachery's nose in the dust

and unveiled justification's face in his mighty blows.

ولم يبق للشهباء في الدهر حاجة

فقد ظفرت منه بأقصى قضاته

And al-Shahba has no need left in all of Time,

for through him it has won Time's most exalted judge.

أمصباحنا والدهر داج ولا أرى

مصابيح هذا الدهر غير هداته

O our lamp, while Time is dark! I do not see

lamps in this age other than its guides.

وواحد أهل الفضل والفضل فذه

ينوف على الآلاف مثل هباته

And unique among the people of merit! Merit's lone exemplar

surpasses thousands, as do his gifts.

علمت وكل من علومك آخذ

تعسف هذا الدهر في حركاته

You know—and everyone draws from your learning—

the injustice of this age in its workings.

به الداء لا بالأكرمين فإننا

نرى أعضل الأدواء داء أساته

The illness lies in it, not in the noble, for we

see that the hardest illness to cure is that of its healers.

وما يومه فيما يسوء كرامه

بأعجب مما مر في سنواته

Nor is its present day, in what afflicts its noble men,

more astonishing than what passed in its years.

وإن المعالي لا يزال حليفها

حليف الأسى في الدهر من حادثاته

And the ally of lofty virtues is ever

an ally of sorrow in Time, through its calamities.

ينال البدور المشرفات سراره

ويخفي محيا الشمس في ظلماته

Its moonless darkness reaches the lofty full moons

and hides the sun's countenance in its shadows.

ولكن على العلات تزداد رونقا

كما جرب الياقوت في جمراته

Yet despite afflictions they gain in luster,

as the ruby is tested in its glowing coals.

لك الخير أرجو أن أنال بك المنى

منال نسيم الروض من زهراته

May good be yours! I hope through you to attain my wishes,

as the garden breeze receives its share from its blossoms.

فربما كان البعير مناله

بأقرب للمشتاق من لحظاته

For sometimes a camel's reach

is nearer to the yearning one than his own glances.

وأصحب قلبي الأمن صحبة ذي ظما

رأي بعد خمس عذب ماء فراته

And grant my heart the company of safety, like a thirsty man

who sees, after five days, the sweet water of his Euphrates.

فعظم اغتباط المرء في جمع شمله

يكون على مقدار عظم شتاته

For the measure of a man's joy at reunion

matches the measure of his dispersal.

إليك بما يغني عن السحر لفظه

وتعرف عرف الشحر من نفحاته

To you I offer what, in wording, makes magic needless,

and whose wafts reveal to you the fragrance of al-Shihr.

تود الدراري نظم در عقوده

ويفتقر الراجي إلى فقرانه

The bright stars long for the stringing of pearls in its necklaces,

and the hopeful one stands in need of its passages.

ثناء قريض لا يزال مخلداً

وكل من الدنيا رهين مماته

Praise in verse that will remain immortal,

while everyone in this world is hostage to his death.

كروض به الحان شاد مغرد

والا هديل الورق في ورقاته

Like a garden filled with the melodies of a warbling singer

who keeps up the doves' cooing among its leaves.

وليست طيوراً في فروع غصونه

تمتعت الدنيا بطول حياته

Yet they are not birds in the branches of its boughs.

May the world enjoy his long life.