نعم هذه الزوراء لاحت قصورها

فمن لك ان تجلى لعينيك حورها

Yes, this is al-Zawra: her palaces have appeared.

But who can grant that her houris stand unveiled before your eyes?

ارتك سماء الحسن تبدو بروجها

جهاراً ولا تبدو جهاراً بدورها

She has shown you a heaven of beauty, its constellations visible

openly, though its full moons do not appear openly.

تنم سناً بالاكتنان سناؤها

وتكمل حاشاها السرار سرورها

Its splendor reveals a radiance even through concealment;

its joy waxes full—may the moon's dark phase spare it.

عقائل يعقلن القلوب بنظرة

يعز على هاروت فينا نظيرها

Noble ladies who fetter hearts with a glance,

whose like even Harut could scarcely work upon us.

بقومي وبي منهن خوداً أبية

وليس إباء الغانيات نصيرها

My people and I be ransom for one proud young beauty among them;

the disdain of other beauties is no ally of hers.

محجبة إلا عن الفكر والكرى

فإما بوهم أو بطيف أزورها

Veiled from all but thought and sleep,

I visit her either through fancy or through a dream-vision.

أما علمت والآسرات لحاظها

أسيرة حجليها بأني أسيرها

Does she not know—her glances taking captives—

herself captive to her anklets, that I am her captive?

كأني ما ابقيت بالجفن ملعباً

يجر به أذيالها وشعورها

As though I had left no playground on my eyelid

for her hems and tresses to trail across,

ولا ظهرته العين فيضا بعبرتي

فضمخه من اخميصها عبيرها

nor had my eye [washed] it in a flood of tears,

and her fragrance, from her foot's arch, perfumed it;

ولم تضرم الأشواق بين اضالعي

سعير صبابات عسير يسيرها

nor had longing kindled between my ribs

a blaze of passions whose slightest touch is hard to bear.

اشعتها في وجنتيها ووقدها

بقلبي وفي الأنفاس مني زفيرها

Its rays are in her cheeks, its burning

in my heart, and its roar in the breaths I exhale.

افيك الردى لم يبق مني سوى ردا

على رسم اعضاء خفي ظهورها

Is it for you that death has left of me only a cloak

over the outline of limbs whose forms are scarcely seen?

كأني من الأفعال في النحو مضمر

وان خص نصباً مصدرياً ضميرها

As though I were a verb left implicit in grammar,

though her pronoun singles out an infinitival accusative.

وصبري كشك واليقين بقوله

وشوقي كنارٍ والهواء تثيرها

My patience is like doubt, with certainty in its utterance;

my longing is like a fire stirred by the wind.

ووصلك كالأصغاء فيك بمسمعي

للائمة ليس ليس يحلو مريرها

Union with you is like my listening, concerning you,

to reproach: no, no—its bitterness never grows sweet.

وحظي كيوم حجب الدجن صحوه

وليلة قمر لا ينير منيرها

My fortune is like a day whose brightness clouds conceal,

and a moonlit night whose shining moon sheds no light.

ويأسي ان ارجو الأمير ابن منجك

على أمر آمالي والا أميرها

Can I despair if I hope in the emir Ibn Manjak,

to govern my hopes—who else could be their emir?

أخو الجود ان ضن السحاب بجوده

على الدهر أو عضت كراماً دهورها

Brother of generosity, when clouds begrudge their bounty

to the world, or noble men are bitten by their times.

ورب المعالي الزاهرات كأنها

نجوم ولكن لا يغيب سفورها

Lord of radiant heights of honor, which resemble

stars, though their unveiled splendor never sets.

ففي النفع والأضرار يصدع أمرها

وفي الصبح والأمساء يسطع نورها

Their command speaks decisively in benefit and harm,

and their light shines morning and evening.

وخير اخير جاء في الفضل اولاً

كذلك خير الأنبياء اخيرها

The best of the latest, yet first in excellence;

so too the best of prophets was the last of them.

وابن ابٍ أو في زماما من الظبا

واوفر عزماً من جياد يغيرها

Son of a father truer to his bonds than sword-blades,

and firmer in resolve than the noble steeds he sends raiding.

إذا جردت تلك الأكف بفيلقٍ

وغار يهدي المقربات مغيرها

When those hands bare their blades amid an army,

and its raider charges, leading the chosen steeds,

توهم عمرو ان صمصامه عصا

وقصر وصفاً في عصاه نصيرها

Amr imagines his keen sword to be a staff,

and Nusayr falls short in describing his staff.

هم القوم ان عانى الهموم اعتنى بهم

فعما قليل عنه تجلى كثيرها

They are the people to whom a man beset with cares turns;

soon afterward, most of those cares clear away.

صدور المعالي رفعةً وصدورهم

لمستودع الأسرار فيها قبورها

Foremost in lofty honor, their breasts

are storehouses of secrets, where those secrets lie buried.

لهم في الخطوب المدلهمات همة

يهم مسير العاصفات مسيرها

Amid dark calamities they possess a resolve

whose advance daunts the onward rush of storm winds.

وبذل ندى يأتيك قبل ندائه

سريعاً كما يأتي الوكون طيورها

Their bounty reaches you before the call for it,

swift as birds come to their nests.

على هضبات الأرض من مجدهم سنا

يكاد به ان تستنير سبيرها

Their glory sheds a radiance over the earth's highlands,

so bright that even its depths almost shine.

ولو نظرت أحلامهم بعد نظرة

دعى بثبور في الرواسي ثبيرها

Were their forbearance viewed, glance after glance,

Thabir among the rooted mountains would cry for ruin.

قد افترعوا العلياء بكراً وباكروا

إليها المساعي فاستحب بكورها

They deflowered virgin glory, and hastened early

to strive toward it; welcome was that early striving.

ولولاهم لا زورت الشام جانبا

عن الحق واستولى على الخلق زورها

Without them, Syria would have turned aside

from truth, and its falsehood would have mastered the people.

فأن وجود الأكرمين من الورى

معاقل أرباب العقول وسورها

For the presence of the noblest among humankind

is the stronghold and rampart of those endowed with reason.

عفاء على حسادهم قدر عفوهم

فختام في الأمعاء تغلى قدورها

Oblivion on their enviers, as boundless as their pardon!

[How long, then,] must its cauldrons boil within their bowels?

يرومون ما يغشى بصائرهم سناً

كما ارتد عن شمس النهار بصيرها

They seek what veils their inner sight with radiance,

as a gazer recoils from the sun of day.

ويرمون أرباب المعالي بوصمة

غروراً ومن شر النفوس غرورها

They cast a slur upon the lords of lofty honor,

in delusion; among the soul's worst evils is its delusion.

وقد يمقت السمع الأصم لعلة

ويكره اعطاف الحسان ضريرها

The deaf may hate hearing because of an affliction,

and one blind to beauties may hate their graceful forms.

ولا عيب فيهم غير ان صلاتهم

تفرق آمال العفاة بحورها

They have no fault, except that their gifts—

their oceans scatter the hopes of those seeking bounty;

وان سيوف الهند في كل معرك

بأيمانهم حاضت دماءً ذكورها

and that the swords of India, in every battle,

their male blades menstruate blood in those right hands.

أبا منجك السامي المسمى بجده

تعداك من حد الكرام غيورها

O exalted Abu Manjak, named after his grandfather,

may the jealous edge aimed at the noble pass you by.

إليك طويت البيد طي صحائف

تنمق من وخد المطي سطورها

To reach you, I folded the deserts like pages,

their lines adorned by the brisk strides of riding beasts.

بيوم تخال الأرض ترمي من السما

سهام عذاب من لظى تستعيرها

On a day when you think the earth is being shot from the sky

with arrows of torment borrowed from blazing fire.

وتحسبها من آلها في مفاضة

مضاعفة بيض النعام قتيرها

Its mirage makes you think it wears a flowing coat of mail,

double-woven, with ostrich eggs for rivets;

وان خيال الشمس فيها أسنة

بها طعنت أعطافها وتحورها

and that the sun's image there is spearheads

that have pierced its flanks and [breasts].

وقد قامت الحرباء ترقبها ومن

جيادتها بالحرب جاء نذيرها

The chameleon stands watching it, and from

its noble steeds a herald has come with warning of war.

وآن بأن يحمي الوطيس على المنى

ويضرم من جيش المنايا سعيرها

The hour has come for battle's furnace to rage against hopes,

and for its blaze to be kindled by the army of death.

فما راعني من صدق عزمي مخوفها

ولا رابني أهوالها وهجيرها

Yet its terrors did not frighten me, so true was my resolve,

nor did its horrors or noonday heat disquiet me.

وظلت كأني بالمفاوز فائز

قريب رقاد المقلتين قريرها

I went on as though triumphant in those wastes,

my eyes tranquil and close to sleep.

وما الشوق إلا ما اعان على العنا

وهان به في النائبات عسيرها

Longing is only that which helps one bear hardship,

and makes adversity's hardships easy.

على اعوجيات كأن مهادنا

إذا قلقلتنا للهدو ظهورها

On steeds of A'waj's line, as though our cradles—

when they rocked us into repose—were their backs.

معودة ان تشرأب إلى السرى

كأني من جور الرباط اجيرها

Accustomed to crane their necks toward night travel,

as though I rescued them from the injustice of tethering.

هي الخيل إما للمنايا أو المنى

بأنفسنا في النائبات مصيرها

They are horses, bound either for death or desire;

in adversity, their journey carries our very lives.

وقد ادركت بي من ذراك نعيمه

فمنهن أنصاري ومنك نصيرها

They have brought me to bliss beneath your shelter;

from them come my helpers, and from you their helper.

فإن يك يأس الناس من قبل ساءني

ومر من الأوقات فيه مريرها

If disappointment in people once distressed me,

and bitter hours passed amid it,

فقد تعقب الأيام فينا لياليا

تسرك والأعوام يصفو شهورها

days may yet bring us nights in their wake

that delight you, and years whose months grow clear.

ولو أبقت الدنيا على الناس حالة

لما اختلفت بعد القياس أمورها

Had the world kept people in a single state,

its affairs would not, upon comparison, have differed.

فأن تكن النعمى فأني شكورها

وان تكن الأخرى فأني صبورها

If prosperity comes, I am grateful for it;

and if the other state comes, I am patient with it.

بقيت بقاء الفضل منك على الورى

فتلك الأيادي ليس يطوي نشورها

May you endure as long as your bounty to humankind;

those benefactions have a renown that cannot be folded away.

وحاك رياضا من ثناك سحائب

فلا غرو ان قد صاك عرف عطيرها

Clouds have woven gardens from your praise,

so no wonder their fragrant scent has assailed you.

ودمت توفي الشعر فيك حقوقه

فرب حقوق لا توفي عشورها

May you always pay poetry about you its dues;

many dues are not paid even a tenth.

فجل الورى الاك من ينكرونه

كما نكرت لطف القبول دبورها

Most people, except you, are among those who deny it,

as the west wind rejects the east wind's gentleness.

ومن خطل الأيام اخطلها ومن

جرائرها في القوم عد جريرها

Among the age's follies is its Akhtal, and among

its offenses against mankind, count its Jarir.

أظن القوافي لا قوى في حظوظها

كأن سمير الناعيات سميرها

I think rhyme has no strength in its fortunes,

as though the companion of mourning women were its companion.

اواغتصبت منها الغواني جواهرا

وها هي مما تحتويه ثغورها

Or have beauties stolen jewels from it?

Here they are, among what their mouths contain.

فقد وهيت حتى توهمت انها

لرقتها اجفانها وخصورها

It has grown so frail that I imagined it,

in its delicacy, to be their eyelids and their waists.

وحسبك يا ابن الأكرمين جلالة

بأنترتضي مني لديك حقيرها

Sufficient glory for you, O son of the noblest,

is to accept from me its humblest offering before you.