ما بالتعلل بالأوطان أوطار

ولا على البعد يشفي داءك الدار

Finding solace in homelands fulfills no desires.

Nor, at a distance, will a home cure your ailment.

ولا يفيدك تذكار الأولى رحلوا

وطالما ضر بالمشتاق تذكار

Nor does remembering those who departed benefit you;

often remembrance has harmed the yearning lover.

هبك افتديت المغاني هل بهن غنى

عن الغواني التي عن سرحها ساروا

Suppose you ransomed the dwellings: can they suffice

for the beauties who departed from their pasture?

لها من العذر ما ترضاه انفسنا

ان تألف الخدر غزلان واقمار

They have an excuse our souls accept:

that gazelles and moons should love the curtained chamber.

لا كان يوم النوى من موقف حرج

لم يلق عاري الهوى في ضمنه عار

May the day of parting never have been—what a grievous scene!

There, the lover laid bare by passion met no disgrace.

ما غرني فيه الاكثر مقتحمي

ضنكا واني على العلات صبار

Nothing misled me about it but my many plunges

into hardship, and my unfailing patience through afflictions.

حتى انثنينا ولا الباب تجمعنا

نخفي الهوي والهوي إخفاه اظهار

Until we turned away, with no wits to hold us together,

hiding our love—yet hiding love reveals it.

نئن من حرق منا بلا رمق

كأننا فيه تنوين واضمار

We moan from burning pangs within us, with no spark of life,

as though, in that state, we were nunation and ellipsis.

جيراننا بعذيب مر جوركم

والجور اقبح ما يلقى به الجار

Our neighbors at ʿUdhayb, bitter is your injustice;

injustice is the ugliest treatment a neighbor can receive.

سقيا لأيامنا اللاتي هو اجرها

اصائل ولياليهن اسحار

May rain bless our days, whose noontime heats were

late afternoons, and whose nights were the hours before dawn.

واليوم بدلت عنها بالنعيم شقا

وغال عيشي بعد اليسر اعسار

Today, in their place, I have been given misery for bliss;

hardship, after ease, has ravaged my life.

حتام تطمح آمالي ويعقلها

ضمن الجديدين اقبال واعسار

How long will my hopes soar, only to be tethered

amid day and night by good fortune and poverty?

والدهر اخبث مأمول وثقت به

فأنه ضد ما تختار يختار

Time is the foulest object of hope I have trusted;

for it chooses the opposite of what you choose.

كالبحر كرها عبرناه وقد حملت

سحائب الجفن منه فهي مدرار

Like a sea, we crossed it unwillingly; already laden

from it were the eyelid's clouds, pouring down rain.

ان تكشف لجة منها تتابعها

اخرى وان تأتمنه فهو غدار

If one of its deep surges clears, it is followed

by another; and if you trust it, it is treacherous.

ولست اضجر من صبر بحيث يرى

لكل أمر من الحالين مقدار

I do not chafe at patience, since it is plain

that every matter in either state has its measure.

لكنني عفت ايامي وموردها

طام فكيف ورودي وهي آسار

Yet I loathed my days when their watering place was

overflowing—how then can I drink when only dregs remain?

ولم اخل قبل رؤياي الأمير يُري

في القوم نصر ولا في الأرض امصار

Before I saw the emir, I never imagined one could see

Nasr among men, or cities upon the earth,

حتى نزلت بعكار فكان بها

قوم هم الأهل في ارض هي الدار

until I alighted at Akkar, and there were

people who were kin, in a land that was home.

وقلدتني أيادي فضله نعما

إقلالها عند أهل العصر إكثار

The hands of his bounty garlanded me with blessings,

whose least counts as lavishness among the people of this age.

الواهب الكاسب الحمد الجزيل على

فعل الجميل فمرباح ومخسار

The giver, who earns abundant praise for

doing good—gaining greatly, and spending greatly.

الواجد الماجد الدنيا وان عظمت

لطالبيها كضرع فيه اغبار

The wealthy, noble one: the world, however great it seems

to its seekers, is like an udder with scant milk.

سحاب جود على الغاوين سرن به

صواعق وعلى العافين امطار

A cloud of bounty: through it, against the wayward, sweep

thunderbolts, and upon petitioners, rains.

غيث وما قطبت وجها سحائبه

ليث ولم تك انياب واظفار

Rain, whose clouds have never worn a frown;

a lion, though without fangs or claws.

توقد العزم منه والندى غدقا

كالصارم العضب فيه الماء والنار

His resolve blazes, and his bounty flows abundantly,

like a keen-edged sword, holding water and fire.

ظن الذي رام اصماداً لذروته

في المجد سهلا وطرق المجد اوعار

Whoever sought to reach his summit thought it

easy in glory—yet glory's paths are rugged.

حتى انثنت عن معاليه بصائرهم

كما انثنت عن شعاع الشمس ابصار

Until their inner vision turned away from his heights,

as eyes turn away from the sun's rays.

اراحنا بعطاياه واتعبنا

في عدها الدهر احصاء واحصار

He gave us ease with his gifts, yet wore us out

in counting them forever, tallying and trying to encompass them.

فما اكرر مدحي في مواهبه

الا ومنه على التكرار تكرار

Never do I repeat my praise of his gifts

without his repeating his gifts in response to my repetition.

يا من أياديه للراجي نداه وفي

الداجي محياه انواء وانوار

O you whose favors, for those hoping for your bounty, and

whose face, in darkness, are rain-bearing stars and lights:

قد كنت أحسب آمالي مخيبة

واليوم قيراط ما املت قنطار

I had thought my hopes doomed to disappointment;

today, a qirat of what I hoped for is a qintar.

فاسلم لتمحو من الدنيا لساءتها

ان الكرام لذنب الدهر اعذار

So live in safety, to wipe the world's wrongs away;

for the noble are excuses for Time's sin.

ودم فبقيا اهيل المجد مانعة

ان تستمن عبيد الناس احرار

And live on, for the survival of the noble few prevents

free men from seeking favors from the people's slaves.

فالمرتجى أنت والأيام ما وضحت

بها معاليك والبلدان عكار

You are the one to hope in; days are those in which

your lofty virtues have shone, and all lands are Akkar.