هل المجد إلا دوحة أنت فرعها

أو الجد إلا خلة فيك طبعها

Is glory anything but a great tree whose branch you are?

Or earnestness but a trait ingrained in you?

أو الجود إلا انعم قد تفرقت

فلم يلف إلا من نوالك جمعها

Or generosity but blessings scattered abroad,

whose gathering was found only in your bounty?

علوت افتخاراً إذ تواضعت المورى

ونفس الكريم الأصل يحسن وضعها

You rose in honor when you humbled yourself before humankind [reading uncertain].

And humbling a soul of noble stock is fitting.

فما كنت إلا الشمس تعشى نواظراً

فيترك مرآها ويطلب نفعها

You were nothing but the sun, dazzling gazing eyes,

whose sight is shunned while its benefit is sought.

عفاء بقوم أظهروا لك وصمةً

بحرب لعين الشمس أرمد نقعها

May ruin befall those who brought a blemish upon you

through a war whose dust inflamed the sun's eye.

هم الجند كانوا والمشيرون فيكم

وأيديهم الوسطى فلم ساء صنعها

They were the troops and the advisers among you,

and their hands held the central role—why did their work go wrong?

رموا بك في قلب العدا وتأخروا

ارامو بوتر منك يؤخذ شفعها

They hurled you into the enemy's heart and fell back.

Did they hope, with you alone, to take the enemy in pairs?

وما علموا ان الأعادي مهالك

تعذر مع سوء التدابير قطعها

They did not know that enemies are deadly perils

that cannot be crossed with ill-laid plans,

وانك كالمرنان لا عيب عندها

وعار على الرامي إذا طاش نبعها

and that you are like a resonant bow, free of fault:

the shame is the archer's when its wooden bow misses.

رأيناك والأيام ذا الأيدي سطوها

بسفع نواصيها وقد ساء سفعها

We saw you strong of hand amid the days' assaults,

seizing their forelocks, though their own grip was cruel.

ونحن صوادٍ نطلب الري سغبا

وغلة صادى القلب يعيبك نقعها

We were parched, seeking drink, and hungry;

and would quenching a parched heart's burning thirst shame you?

فكنت لنا ماءً نميراً ونخلة

تسافط مجناها وما هز جذعها

So you were sweet, wholesome water for us, and a palm

shedding its fruit without its trunk being shaken.

لذاك صحبت الدهر بعد شماسه

ويافعت آمالي وقد شاب فرعها

Thus I befriended time after its unruliness,

and my hopes grew youthful, though their bough had turned gray.

والفيت حظي في ذراك مواسيا

أماني نفس طالما ضاق ذرعها

I found my fortune in your shelter, supporting

the wishes of a soul so often at the end of its endurance.

ففارقت صحبي والأقارب والحما

وكم انعمٍ يمرى على البعد ضرعها

So I left my companions, my kin, and my home grounds;

how many blessings have their udders milked from afar!

وجبت إليك البيدا قطعها سرى

وسير الدياجي حين يسود قطعها

I crossed the deserts toward you, traversing them by night,

journeying through deep darkness when its stretches turned black.

ولا زلت ارميها بجمع كأسهم

ركبنا الحنايا أو تمزق درعها

And I kept shooting through them with a band like arrows;

we rode the bows, or its armor was torn apart.

ضوامر تطوي لقاء أضالعا

على سغب والبيد يطويه ظلعها

Lean mounts, folding their ribs together [wording uncertain],

from hunger, while their limping folded the desert away.

ولليل اشراق بزهر نجومه

كليلة اعراس توقد شمعها

Night glowed with the brightness of its stars,

like a wedding night with its candles lit.

وما كنت بالسالي العواصم مسكناً

وهل سكن لي غير ما ضم ربعها

I was not one to forget al-‘Awasim as my home:

what home have I beyond what its grounds embrace?

وكنت لما القى ولا شي مثله

بأجزع من عين تبادر دمعها

Because of what I endured—nothing was like it—I was

more distraught than an eye hastening its tears.

ولم اذكر البقيا بها ولياليا

تقضت عسى يلتام بالذكر صدعها

And why recall lingering there, and nights

gone by—perhaps remembrance might mend their breach?

ويوم على شاطي فويق وقد جلا

لعيني مرآة تزايد لمعها

And a day upon Fuwayq's shore, which revealed

to my eyes a mirror whose gleam kept growing.

وللورق في الأوراق لحن مرجع

واعذب من لحن الأغاريد رجعها

The gray doves among the leaves had a lilting melody,

and their refrain was sweeter than the melody of birdsong.

وروض إذا مرت بأغصانه الصبا

فمنهن اعطاء الفتاة ومنعها

And a garden: when the east wind passed its boughs,

they offered and withheld like a maiden.

وان نقلت اخبار اسرار نوره

توهمتها حيث العذيب وسلمها

And if it carried tidings of its blossoms' secrets,

I imagined it at al-‘Udhayb, among its acacias.

وبالجوشن الأعلى وبالسفح دونه

مشاهد من يبكي السموات فجعها

At upper al-Jawshan and on the slope below it

lie shrines of one whose loss makes the heavens weep.

عهدنا بهالآرام بالعشب رتعا

وما رعيها غير الفؤاد ورتعها

We knew gazelles there, grazing on the grass,

yet they grazed and fed upon nothing but the heart.

ألم أهجر الجمع أنا ذاكر

كما هجر العين السخينة هجعها

Did I not forsake company, remembering,

as slumber forsook the eye burning with grief?

وأرضى بأن الفى المنايا أو المنى

لديك وآمالي يضيقك وسعها

And accept meeting death or my heart's desire

at your side, though my hopes' breadth constrains you?

فإن أك قد فارقت بابك راحلاً

فكم من مضرات تعذر دفعها

If I have departed from your door,

how many harms cannot be warded off!

وكم نازلات ضاق ذرعاً بها الفتى

ولا يرتجي إلا من اللَه رفعها

How many calamities overwhelm a young man's endurance,

whose removal he hopes for from God alone.

ورب أمور تردع النفس والهوى

ولو قبحت للطبع يحسن ردعها

Many things restrain the soul and desire;

though repugnant to one's nature, their restraint is good.

فإن سعت الحساد بي لست جاهلاً

إذاها ومن طبع العقارب لسعها

If the envious have schemed against me, I am not unaware

of their harm: it is in scorpions' nature to sting.

وكم ناطح صماء من غير حاجة

يزعزع روقيه ويعييه قلعها

Many a one butts a solid rock without need,

loosening his two horns, exhausted by trying to uproot it.

وان تلك ما احرمتنيه وهبتهم

فأضحى هشيما غرس ارضي وزرعها

And if you gave them what you denied me,

leaving my land's plantings and crops dry and broken,

فرب غوادٍ مثقلات بحملها

على الجدب لا تهمي وفي الخصب همعها

many a morning cloud, heavy with its burden,

does not pour on barren land, but showers on fertile ground.

لك الخير للنعماء ما كنت كافرا

وملة خير الخلق فينا وشرعها

Good be yours! I have not been ungrateful for favors,

by the faith of the best of creation among us and its law.

ولست اساويك السوى ولذي النهى

انتقاد إذا داني عقيقك جزعها

I do not rank you with others; the discerning have

judgment when their onyx draws near your agate.

وكل وحوش القفر تدعى بواحد

وأين من القرد المماجن سبعها

All beasts of the wilderness are called by one name,

yet how far their lion is from the impudent monkey!

وإنك في عيني نور أرى به

هداي وفي أذني وإن غبت سمعها

You are a light in my eye, by which I see

my way; and in my ear, even absent, you are its hearing.

فدونكها تشدو بألحان معبد

ويبدي الشذا بالطرس والنفس سجعها

So take this poem: it sings to the melodies of Ma‘bad,

and its rhymed song releases fragrance on the page and in the breath.

ودم ابداً عمر الليالي فأنها

كباسقة تجني وجودك طلعها

May you endure forever, as long as nights last, for they

are like a towering palm that is harvested, your bounty its fruit.