أراحمة قلبي وقد شفني الصبر

فدنياك لولا الصبر ما عرف الحر

O you who pity my heart, patience has worn me thin.

For in your world, without patience, the freeborn man would not be known.

اجدَّك لا تضحين إلا جذوعة

عليَّ وهل يخفي لجازعة سر

In earnest, must you spend each morning distraught

over me? Can a grieving woman conceal a secret?

يشرك ان الفى خليا من العنا

ودون ابتغاء النفع يحتمل الضر

It pleases you to find me free of hardship,

yet on the way to seeking gain, harm must be borne.

همومي على نيل المعالي كهمتي

وان ابت الدنيا فقد وضح العذر

My cares in attaining high honors match my ambition;

and if the world refuses, my excuse is plain.

ولو عقلت القت الي زمامها

ولكنها الخرقاء ليس لها حجر

Had she any sense, she would yield her reins to me,

but she is foolish, with no judgment.

ذريني أجوب البيد حتى ابيدها

فقد طال بي عزمي وان قصر العمر

Let me roam the deserts until I wear them away;

for my resolve has carried me far, though life is short.

على متن موار الأعنة اشقر

كشعلة لون التبران سبك التبر

On the back of a chestnut steed tossing its reins,

like a flame the color of gold when gold is smelted.

له شية بيضاء تزهو كأنها

على وجهه الوردي في شفق بدر

He has a gleaming white marking, as though it were,

on his rosy face, a full moon in the twilight glow.

كاني والأطلال عين وعبرة

ومس الهوى والقلب أيديه والقفر

As though I and the ruins were an eye and a tear,

and passion's touch, the heart, its hands, and the wilderness [wording unclear].

اجول بهاتيك الديار مسلما

ويبدي اضطرابا عند وثبته الصخر

I roam those dwellings, offering greetings,

and the rock trembles when he leaps.

كأن السري وتركأني ارومة

كأن النوى نون كأن الفلابحر

As though night travel were a bowstring, as though I were a tree's root;

as though separation were a whale, as though the desert were a sea.

كأن هجير البيد والآل ضمنه

ضمائر ذي حقد يفر بها المكر

As though the desert's midday heat and the mirage within it were

the secret thoughts of a spiteful man, through which cunning flees.

كأن الدجى روض اصم نباته

واغصانه حو وازهاره الزهر

As though the darkness were a garden thick with growth,

its branches dark green, its flowers the bright stars.

كان امتداد الأفق ارض لقايس

بكف الثريا مد في درعها شبر

As though the horizon's expanse were land for a surveyor,

who, with the Pleiades' palm, stretches a handspan across her robe.

كأن الهلال المستدير حنية

من العاج يرمينا بأسهمها الدهر

As though the curving crescent were a bow

of ivory, with whose arrows Time shoots at us.

كأن سنا المريخ وجنة غادة

يغطى سوى حافات حمرتها الحمر

As though Mars's glow were the cheek of a lovely maiden,

veiled except for the crimson edges of her blush.

كأن ضياء المشتري غرة جلا

محاسنها فرع وجال بها البشر

As though Jupiter's radiance were a bright forehead, its beauty revealed

by hair, with gladness playing across it.

كأن افتراقاً في بنيات نعشها

وقد ضلهن السير في مهمهٍ سفر

As though its scattered little Daughters of the Bier

were travelers led astray by their journey in a trackless waste.

كأن سهيلاً في طلائع جيشه

أخو فتكات همه القتل والأسر

As though Suhayl, among his army's vanguard,

were a man of deadly assaults, bent on killing and capture.

كأنسماكيه جبان ومقدم

يدجج ذا عزم ويسلب ذا ذعر

As though its two Simaks were a coward and a bold man:

it arms the resolute and strips the fearful.

كأن السها صب للقيا ذكائه

وقد هجرت ليلا فأنحله الهجر

As though Suha were a lover longing to meet his sun, Dhuka',

who has forsaken him at night, so separation has wasted him.

كأن قرأن الفرقدين لناظر

تملاهما عسر يقارنه يسر

As though the pairing of the two Farqads, to an observer

who studies them, were hardship accompanied by ease.

كأن به متن المجرة جدول

من الماء والشعري العبور به عبر

As though, within it, the Milky Way's broad back were a stream

of water, and Sirius, the Crossing Star, had crossed it.

كأن امتداد النسر فيها جناحه

يروم به عوناً لواقعه جسر

As though the Eagle's outspread wing within it

were a bridge by which it seeks to aid its Falling Eagle.

كأن به الجوزا أثافي فضة

عليها لرسل الفجر من ذهب قدر

As though al-Jawza, within it, were silver hearthstones,

with a golden pot upon them for the messengers of dawn.

كأن ابتلاج الصبح في حالك الدجى

لناظره معنى تخيله الفكر

As though dawn's breaking through pitch-dark night

were, to its beholder, an idea conjured by thought.

كأن ابن سيفاضم جوداً يمينه

واطلعها بيضاء فانصدع الفقر

As though Ibn Sayfa had clasped generosity in his right hand,

then brought it forth white, so poverty shattered.

كأن اماني معتفيها على ظما

وانعامها الارض الجديبة والقطر

As though the thirsty hopes of those seeking its bounty

and its favors were parched earth and rain.

غدا ناظراً للمجد من غير حاجب

وليس سوى اللألاء من دونه ستر

He gazes upon glory, with no chamberlain between,

and no veil before it save radiance.

وسار إلى الأعداء يأتمه العلا

وتخدمه الدنيا ويقدمه النصر

He marched toward his foes, with high honor following his lead,

the world serving him, and victory preceding him.

فتى الحرب تلقاه الكماة عبوسة

فتثنى بواك وهو وضاح يؤفتر

War's young champion: armored warriors meet him grim-faced,

then turn back weeping, while he beams and smiles.

كان المنى والأمن يصطحبانه

وتصطحب الأعدا المخافة والخسر

As though wishes and safety accompany him,

while fear and loss accompany his enemies.

وصرف الردي يقفو مواقع طرفه

فأن غضه كرواوان حده فروا

Death's assaults track where his gaze falls;

so if he lowers it, they charge; if he sharpens it, they flee.

أمن بعدما اظهرت آلاءك التي

بكتمانها غي واجحادها وزر

Is it after you have displayed your favors, which—

to conceal is error, and to deny is a sin—

تروم العدا إضمار بأسك فيهم

وفي مقتضى الأعراب لا يضمر الأمر

your foes seek to hide your might among them?

Yet by the requirements of grammar, a command is not left implicit.

لحا اللَه من لم يرع عهدك قلبه

ومن لم يطل في فيه حمدك والشكر

May God curse whoever's heart does not honor your covenant,

and whoever's mouth does not dwell on your praise and thanks,

ومن ينثني والغدر حشو إهابه

ويا طالما استكفي بصاحبه الغدر

and whoever turns away with treachery filling his skin.

Oh, how often protection from treachery is sought from its own perpetrator!

لك الخير اني ناظر لك رتبة

تناط بها العليا ويرقي لها الفخر

May good be yours! I foresee for you a rank

on which eminence hangs, and toward which glory climbs.

وإن الذي يرجو معاليك زائل

وأي ظلام ما أضاء به فجر

And anyone aspiring to your heights will vanish;

and what darkness has not been lit by dawn?

فيا بن الهمام الندب والذاهب الذي

بأوصافه تبقى المحامد والذكر

O son of the valiant, resourceful man, the departed one whose

qualities preserve praise and remembrance;

ومن مجده حي ومن جوده حيا

ومن سره ميت ومن صدره قبر

whose glory lives, whose generosity is life-giving rain,

whose secret is dead, whose breast is a tomb;

ومن كلما كررت طيب حديثه

تحلت به دارين واشتاقه الشحر

and whenever I repeat his tale's sweet fragrance,

Darin adorns itself with it, and al-Shihr yearns for it.

تهن بهذا العام وابق لغيره

وعش ابد الأيام والعيش مخضر

Enjoy this year, and live on for others;

live for all time, with life ever green.

ودم حالياً من منطقي بقلائد

من الشعر يستزري بمنظمومها الدر

Remain adorned with necklaces from my utterance,

of poetry, beside whose strung words pearls are scorned.

بها من ربا نجد إذا نشدت شذا

ومن عانةٍ خمر ومن بابل سحر

In them, when recited, is fragrance from Najd's highlands,

and wine from Anah, and magic from Babylon.

يعز على الطائي وشاحها

وتغز وحشا الكندي الفاظها الغر

Their sash is beyond al-Ta'i's reach,

and their radiant words assail al-Kindi's heart.

ولا زلت لي ذخراً فما خاب امرؤ

له منك في أقصى مراداته ذخر

May you ever remain my reserve, for no man has failed

who has from you a reserve for his utmost desires.

أنا ابن أياديك التي طال عدها

عليّ فلن تحصى ولم يمكن الحصر

I am the son of your favors, whose count has grown long

upon me: they cannot be numbered, nor is a full tally possible.

وما أنا بالراضي لرقيَّ مالكا

سواك وهل يغني عن الذهب الصفر

I will not consent to any master of my bondage

other than you; can brass serve in place of gold?

وقبلك حاربت الورى مذ خبرتهم

واقصيتهم عني فقالوا به كبر

Before you, I fought mankind ever since I knew them by experience,

and drove them away from me, so they said, 'He is arrogant.'

يريهم فعلي على انه النهي

كما ارتاب موسى حين صاحبه الخضر

My conduct gives them that impression, though it is wisdom,

just as Moses doubted when al-Khidr accompanied him.