1. قد أحرز السبق مولانا الحريزي

    وهو الحري بفضل لا الحريريّ

    Our master al-Harizi has secured the lead.

    And he—not al-Hariri—is worthy of distinction.

  2. واحسن السبك في لفظ يطابقه

    عليه في طبقات الحمد سبكي

    And the finest phrasing, in words befitting him,

    Is my composition about him in the ranks of praise.

  3. وحل مشكل علم حل ذروته

    بمنطق اصله الدري دري

    He solved the difficulty of a science whose summit he attained,

    Through speech whose essence is pearly and radiant.

  4. له بصيرة كاف في بديهته

    تعطيك ما قال بصري وكوفي

    His spontaneous wit possesses ample insight,

    Giving you what a Basran and a Kufan have said.

  5. وكل معني غريب في الطروس له

    مغنى على كل ما يغنيك مبني

    Every rare meaning in the written pages has

    A dwelling built upon all that suffices you.

  6. والعلم والحلم في حكم وفي حكطم

    فما ابن قيس وما المولى الجناني

    And learning and forbearance in judgment and in [unclear text]—

    What, then, are Ibn Qays and the master al-Janani beside him?

  7. والأصمعي إذا ما قيس منه به

    فهو الأصم وفي تركيبه عي

    And al-Asma‘i, when his work is measured against his,

    Is deaf and tongue-tied in his composition.

  8. اثنى علي بما يثني العزائم عن

    ادراكه وهو في مسراه علوي

    He praised me with what turns determination away

    From attaining him; he is lofty in his course.

  9. شعر علا هامة الشعري وأشعرنا

    بما طواه عن الأوهام طائي

    Poetry rose above Sirius's crown and made us aware

    Of what a Ta’i had concealed from the imagination.

  10. اذكي واعطر من نشر الصبا سحراً

    كأنما شعره السحري شحري

    More fragrant, more perfumed than the east wind's scent before dawn,

    As though his spellbinding poetry were ambergris from al-Shihr.

  11. حلا مذاقاً فلم يصفو الصفي لنا

    من بعد ورداً ولم يحل النباتي

    It tasted sweet; al-Safi no longer ran clear for us

    As a draught thereafter, nor did al-Nabati taste sweet.

  12. برقة قد غدا في حوز قبضتها

    الرقي طوعاً وبالطبع الحويزي

    With a delicacy whose grasp now holds

    Al-Raqqi willingly, and al-Huwayzi by nature.

  13. يستوقف السمع إنساً من عذوبته

    ان مر في سمعه والسمع وحشي

    Its sweetness halts the sim‘-beast and makes it tame,

    If it reaches its hearing, though the sim‘ is wild.

  14. كأنما كل بيت من قصائده

    مثوى على وسمع الخلق شيعي

    As though every verse of his odes

    Were Ali's abode, and creation's hearing Shi‘i.

  15. قرظته بقريضي وهة يقرضني

    قوافياً لم ينلها قبل كندي

    I commended him in my verse, while he lent me

    Rhymes no Kindi had attained before.

  16. كما تبرع ذو نعمى بمأكلة

    وحثه لقمةً منها الطفيلي

    As a man of bounty freely offered a meal,

    And a gatecrasher urged him for a morsel of it.

  17. ولست أبلغ جزء من بلاغته

    إن القطاة ليعبيها القطامي

    And I do not attain a fraction of his eloquence:

    Indeed, the falcon surely exhausts the sandgrouse.

  18. وان أتيت بمعنى من بدائعه

    فإن ذاك حديث عنه مروي

    And if I bring a meaning from his marvels,

    Then it is a report transmitted from him.

  19. وان توهمني أني اشابهه

    نظماً ونثراً فليس الأمر مخفي

    And if he imagines that I resemble him

    In verse and prose, the truth is not hidden:

  20. قد يشبه الماء آل في تشكله

    وليس فيه لظمآن الحشاري

    A mirage may resemble water in its appearance,

    Yet it offers no quenching to a thirsty heart.

  21. يا من يعري ويكسي من ملابسه

    إذا رآك بثوبيك المعري

    O you whose garments strip him bare and clothe him,

    When al-Ma‘arri sees you in your two robes.

  22. وكان اول من قد قال ليس يفي

    بفص خاتمه هذا الفصيصي

    And the first to say he could not match

    His ring's bezel was this al-Fusaysi.

  23. ومن فضائله ترضي الرضي وللرازي

    الأمام كلام فيه مرضي

    His virtues please al-Radi; and al-Razi,

    The imam, has approving words about him.

  24. كفاك قرب الجناب الأحمدي

    علا فأنه الدهر محمود ومرعي

    Closeness to the Ahmadi presence suffices you

    For eminence; he is forever praised and esteemed.

  25. والمرء من شرف الأقران مكتسب

    لولا التهامي لم يعلوك تيمي

    A man acquires honor from the nobility of his peers;

    Were it not for al-Tihami, no Taymi would rise above you.

  26. وهاك يا ناظم المجدين في نسق

    ذا دنيوي وهذا منك ديني

    Take this, O you who string both glories in one order—

    One worldly, the other, from you, religious—

  27. منظومة بنت فكر ان اضاء له

    صبح المنى غاله بأس دجوجي

    A poem, daughter of a mind: if there dawns upon it

    The morning of hopes, dark affliction strikes it down.

  28. من ذي فؤاد به المشوق مفتئد

    ومقلة دمعها النوحي نوحي

    From one whose yearning heart is sorely stricken,

    And an eye whose Noah-like tears are my lament.

  29. لا يستقر له جفن على سنة

    كأنه فلكي الطرف فلكي

    His eyelid finds no rest in slumber,

    As though, celestial of gaze, he were an astronomer.

  30. اشكو هوان هوي ظبي عذرت به

    كأناصل غرامي فيه عذري

    I lament the abasement of loving a gazelle, for whose sake I am excused,

    As though the root of my passion for him were ‘Udhri.

  31. إحدى مصائب أيامي لواحظه

    كأنما هي سيفي وهو سيفي

    One of my days' calamities is his sidelong glances,

    As though they were my sword, and he were Sayfi.

  32. وكيف أحصر بعضاً من حوادثها

    وكل ما تحدث الأيام كلي

    How could I encompass even some of their calamities,

    When all that the days bring about is all-encompassing?

  33. صبراً وان عفت من صبري مذاقته

    فما حمى عن صروف الدهر محمي

    Patience, though I loathe the taste of my endurance;

    For no sheltered one is shielded from time's reversals.

  34. ثوي الحجازي مظلوماً بأسرته

    ولم يدم بعد مثواه العراقي

    Al-Hijazi was laid to rest, wronged, among his family,

    And al-‘Iraqi did not long outlive his passing.

  35. والدهر سيان منا في تصرفه الندب

    القريشي والنذل الزيادي

    In Time's dealings with us, alike are the noble

    Qurashi and the base Ziyadi.

  36. ومن سخافة عقل المرء تغضبه

    فيه المنايا وترضيه الأماني

    Among the follies of a man's mind is that he is angered

    By deaths within it, while hopes delight him.

  37. عساك تمزج متنيها القبول فأن

    قبلتها فبها التركيب مزجي

    May you mingle acceptance with its two halves; for if

    You accept it, its composition becomes a blended compound.

  38. وقلما يرتضيها العقل شاردة

    ولو حباني بها فيك العقيلي

    And seldom does reason approve this wayward poem,

    Even if al-‘Uqayli gifted it to me about you.

  39. فأنت من اخمصاه في الثرى وله

    فوق الثريا لواء الحمد ملوي

    For you are one whose soles are in the dust, yet whose

    Banner of praise is fastened above the Pleiades.

  40. قد اعتصمت بمصرٍ واؤتمنت بها

    فكل من في رشيد منك مهدي

    You have sought refuge in Egypt and been trusted there,

    So everyone in Rashid is guided through you.

  41. وليس تخلف ارضا جزت مجدبةً

    بها سمي نبي اللَه وسمي

    Nor do you leave any land you traverse barren:

    There, God's Prophet's namesake is the first autumn rain.