منهل دمع المحب من دمه

فارفق بمغرى الفؤاد مغرمه

The wellspring of the lover's tears is his blood.

So be gentle with him, his heart enthralled by his passion.

ابكيته والبكاء شاهد ما

يذوب من لحمه واعظمه

You made him weep, and his weeping bears witness to what

melts away of his flesh and bones.

كأنه في الفراش من سقم

معنى رفيق يجول في فمه

As though, from sickness, he were upon his bed

a gentle meaning wandering within his mouth.

يا قمرا فرعه الظلام على

غصن نقا باسماً بأنجمه

O moon whose tresses are darkness, upon

a sand-dune bough, smiling with its stars.

أي ظلوم سواك يبصره

لم يخف اللَه من تظلمه

What oppressor other than you could see him

and not fear God at his complaint of wrong?

والصب يبدي اليم صبوته

للحب في الحب من تألمه

The lovesick lover reveals his painful longing

to the beloved, through his suffering in love.

وحرقة القلب ليس يطفئها

الحبيب إلا يبرد مبسمه

The burning of the heart is not quenched

by the beloved except with the coolness of his smiling mouth.

فاعطف على من سلبت مهجته

لا خير في الكف دو معصمه

So take pity on the one whose lifeblood you have stolen:

there is no good in a hand without its wrist.

وان عبء الهوى على كبدي

اثقل في القلب من تكتمه

Indeed, the burden of passion upon my liver

grows heavier in the heart through its concealment.

والدهر ما يومه بلا غده

وموجد الحسن مثل معدمه

Time's today is never without its tomorrow,

and beauty's maker is like its destroyer.

عل الليالي تكف اسهمها

عن ذي غرام قتيل اسهمه

Perhaps the nights will withhold their arrows

from a man of passion, slain by its arrows.

اشكو الهوى والهوان من زمن

اسرع في الختل من تصرمه

I lament love and humiliation at the hands of an age

swifter in deception than in passing away.

دهر غبي ابر فاجره

وخص ابراره بصيلمه

A foolish age that favors its wicked man

and singles out its righteous men for its crushing calamity.

منكس هامه يقل على

سنامه من علا بمنسمه

With its head turned downward, it carries upon

its hump whoever rises by its hoof.

ويمنح العذب من موارده

من حقه دون شرب علقمه

It grants the sweet waters of its springs

to one whose due is less than a draught of its bitter colocynth.

وهذه الطيبات فيه لمن

ليس يساوي خبيث مطعمه

These good things within it are for one

not worth even the foul food he eats.

قد يرزق النذل في تأخره

ما يحرم الندب في تقدمه

The base man, despite lagging behind, may receive

what the noble man is denied despite his advancement.

ولن ترى الغمد في طلاوته

امضى من العضب مع تكهمه

Never will you see the scabbard, for all its sheen,

sharper than the keen sword, even when blunted.

فاصبر لأقدار حكمه ابدا

صبر قوي الجنان محكمه

So forever endure the decrees of its judgment,

with the patience of one strong of heart and master of it.

فأن نيل النجوم اقرب للأيدي

منالاً من نقض مبرمه

For reaching the stars is nearer to our hands

than undoing what it has firmly bound.

وان صبر الكرام يسفر في

اللأواء عنه وعن تكرمه

The patience of noble men reveals, amid

hardship, the man himself and his nobility,

مثل يراع اللبيب يوضح للأفهام

في العلم حل مبهمه

like the wise man's reed pen, which makes plain to minds

in learning the solution to its obscurities.

رب الأيادي رحب الفضائل

إبراهيم في علمه ومعلمه

Master of favors, ample in virtues—

Ibrahim, in his knowledge and his guiding example,

الملوي الذي يؤرقه

جمع المعالي وبذل أنعمه

al-Mallawi, kept wakeful by

gathering noble achievements and bestowing his favors.

انجح منه في نيل مكرمة

طالب ديناره ودرهمه

More successful than he in winning a noble favor

is the seeker of his dinar and his dirham.

تسنم المجد في ذراه

وما المجد بسام بلا تسنمه

He has scaled glory at its summits,

and glory is not lofty without his scaling it.

يرقى المعالي على الرؤوس علاً

إذا سواه رقى بسلمه

He climbs to lofty honors over men's heads,

while another climbs with his ladder.

يا حرم المعتفين طاف به

رجاؤنا وارداً لزمزمه

O sanctuary of those seeking bounty, about which has circled

our hope, coming to its Zamzam.

ما اسرع الدهر في تقلبه

واظلم العبد في تحكمه

How swiftly time changes,

and how unjust the slave is in his tyranny!

أنا إلى اللَه من سواسية

في الشر كالجمر في تضرمه

I appeal to God against people all alike

in evil, like coals in their blazing.

يوهن اسماعنا خطابهم

ما يوهن الساق ثقل ادهمه

Their speech weakens our ears

as a leg is weakened by the weight of its black fetter.

والعبد سيان في أوامره

لسانه أو لسان أرقمه

With the slave, it is all the same in his commands:

his own tongue or his speckled serpent's tongue.

أفٍ على منزل به نفر

فصيحنا خادم لأعجمه

Fie upon a dwelling inhabited by men

where our eloquent man serves its foreign-tongued one.

يقدم تيها فنستوي ادبا

ليت حمامي قبيل مقدمه

He arrives in arrogance, and we stand upright out of courtesy;

would that my death came just before his arrival!

ويضمر الحقد في ضمائره

ويظهر الود من تبسمه

He harbors malice within his innermost thoughts

and displays affection through his smile.

وليس يخفي عليك لفظ فتى

تفصح عيناه عن تجمجمه

Nor is the speech of a young man hidden from you

whose two eyes make his faltering words plain.

وان ذا اللب في تصوره

اصدق في القول من منجمه

Indeed, the man of intellect, in his discernment,

speaks more truly than his astrologer.

يريك قلب المريب ناظره

وتعرف الغمر من تكلمه

The suspect man's eye shows you his heart,

and you recognize the fool from his speech.

ولست ترضى نوكى الزمان

ولو فضلت في الزهد ابن ادهمه

Nor do you approve of the fools of the age,

even if in asceticism you surpassed its Ibn Adham.

وكل من ساء في طبائعه

ظن بك السوء من توهمه

Everyone whose nature is corrupt

suspects evil of you through his own imaginings.

اواه من غصة اجرعها

تسفع قلبي كسفع ميسمه

Alas for the choking anguish I swallow,

scorching my heart like the searing of its branding iron!

لا يحرم الناطق البليغ منى

في الدهر إلا بقصد ابكمه

The eloquent speaker is not denied his wishes

in this world except by the design of its mute man.

وضيق عيش الكرام أيسره

عند لئام الورى كأعظمه

For noble men, even the slightest straitness of livelihood

in the company of the world's base is like its worst hardship.

وعادة الدهر لست أنكرها

من عاده في الورى وجرهمه

I do not deny this custom of time,

since the days of its ʿAd and its Jurhum among mankind:

ان يبتلى باللئيم اكرمه

ظلما وعشاقه بلومه

that its noblest is tried by the base,

unjustly, and its lovers by its reproach.

فررت منهم إليك قاطبة

فرار من غنمه كمغرمة

I fled from all of them to you,

the flight of one whose gain is like a loss.

اقرع سنى ندامة ومتى

ينتفع المرء من تندمه

I strike my tooth in remorse; and when

does a man benefit from his regret?

واصحب اليأس عنهم طمعا

ان رجائي شفيع محرمه

I keep despair of them as my companion, in hope

that my hope may intercede for what is barred to it.

والدهر فيما يروم منجده

من غير جد له كمتهمه

And with time, its highland traveler, whatever he seeks,

without good fortune fares like its lowland traveler.

تثني مقاديره الشجاع لقاً

وطالما فل حد مخذمه

Its decrees bend the brave man down, cast aside,

and often blunt the edge of his cleaving sword.

والغمر مع جهله مآربه

تقضى بلا عضبه ولهذمه

Yet the fool, despite his ignorance, has his desires

fulfilled without his keen sword or his sharp spear.

فأسلم بدهر عصمت منه به

وعش بعلياك عمر اعصمه

So live safely in an age, protected from it by it,

and live in your exalted rank the lifespan of its white-footed raven.

نأسو برؤياك ما اساء بنا

لا يصلح القرح غير مرهمه

At the sight of you we heal what has harmed us;

nothing heals a wound but its salve.

وما بنوه وان شقيت بهم

حالاً سوى طالبي تنعمه

Its sons, though I have suffered through them,

are now only seekers of its pleasures.

فأن هذا الزمان محسنه

كفارة عن ذنوب مجرمه

For the benefactor of this age

is an atonement for the sins of its evildoer.