غدرت فيا باني الغزال الغادر

هيفاء منها كل شيء ساحرُ

She proved faithless—O maker of the faithless gazelle!

Slender-waisted, everything about her is enchanting.

تسقى بعينيها المحب من الهوى

خمراً تراوحه بها وتباكر

With her eyes she pours the lover passion's

wine, serving him with it at evening and at dawn.

أمسى يلوم على احتمال نفورها

غرٌّ نسي أَن الظباءَ نوافر

Now he reproaches me for enduring her aversion—

a naïf who forgot that gazelles are skittish.

قدٌّ كمثلِ الغصنِ يثنيه الصبا

ومقبل عذب وطرف فاتر

A figure like a bough bent by the east wind,

a sweet mouth, and a languid gaze.

تكفي عشيرتها السلاح فقدُّها

للطعْنِ رمحٌ واللحاظُ بواترُ

She spares her clan the need for weapons: her figure

is a spear for thrusting, her glances cutting blades.

غلب الهيامُ بها عليَّ فخلنِي

أَمضى فما أنا عن هواها صابرُ

Passionate longing for her has overcome me; let me

go on, for I cannot abstain from loving her.

حكمَ الهوى أَني أظل بشادنٍ

يقتاد أُسد الغاب وهي صواغر

Love decreed that I remain with a young gazelle

who leads the forest's lions, humbled.

متقاربٌ حالي لديه فتارةً

أشكو جفاهُ وتاره أنا شاكرُ

My state with him is closely balanced: sometimes

I complain of his coldness, and sometimes I am grateful.

لا شيء أطوع منه عطفاً إِن جرى

وصل ولا أقسى عداه يهاجر

Nothing is more yielding in affection than he when there is

union; nor is anyone harsher than he when he keeps away.

أُصغي إِلى الواشي وقد حذرتٌه

منه وبنيان المودة عامر

I listen to the tale-bearer, though I had warned him

against him, while the edifice of affection flourished.

فبدا يخربه فقلت وقد بدا

ويل لمنتصر رماه الناصر

Then he appeared, demolishing it; I said, when he appeared:

Woe to a victor struck by al-Nasir!

لم يرمه لكن رمته سعوده

بسهامها وهي الحمام الحاضر

He did not shoot him; his lucky stars shot him

with their arrows: they are death at hand.

اذ كان يبطن وهو يأكل فضله

غير الذي يبديه منه الظاهر

For, while feeding on his bounty, he concealed

something other than what his outward appearance revealed of him.

يبدى نصيحته ويضمر غيرها

والله لا تخفى عليه سرائر

He displays good counsel but harbors something else;

and no secrets are hidden from God.

فالحق لا يسعُ الورى انكارهُ

وحديثهُ مَثَلٌ لديهم سائر

The truth cannot be denied by humankind,

and his story is a proverb current among them.

أحسِنْ وإن ساؤوا الورى انكارهُ

نعماء قابلها بجحد كافر

Do good, even if they do ill—mankind, its denial [text unclear].

A blessing that an ingrate answered with denial.

واخذل بأنعمك الكفور فكلما

في بيته منها عدو ظافر

Thwart the ingrate with your favors, for everything

of them within his house is a triumphant enemy.

قد كان في صنعاء يؤمل صنعة

إِن ينتهى فيها إِليه الطائر

In Sana'a he had hoped to devise a scheme,

if the bird should reach him there.

فدعاه سعدك للبروز إِلى الردى

فأجابه والملجئات مقادر

Your good fortune called him forth to his doom,

and he answered it; the compelling forces are decrees of fate.

من كانت الأقدار من أنصاره

فعدوه يوم الكريهة خاسر

Whoever has the decrees of fate among his helpers—

his enemy loses on the day of battle.

هذى مصارع من يخادع أحمدا

يا من يخادع أحمدا ويماكر

Such are the downfalls of those who deceive Ahmad,

O you who deceive Ahmad and scheme!

الناصر الملك الذي ما عنده

الا العلى والمكرمات ذخائر

Al-Nasir, the king who possesses

no treasures but eminence and noble deeds;

المرتقى في الملك مالا يرتقى

أبداً ولا يسمو إِليه ناظر

who ascended in kingship where none can ascend

ever, nor can any beholder's gaze rise to him.

يستقرب الأمد البعيد فيستوي

نار تلوح له ونجم زاهر

He finds the distant goal near, so to him alike are

a fire gleaming before him and a shining star.

طلق يضيئ البشر قبل نواله

والسحب من بعد البروق مواطر

Bright-faced, his cheer shines before his bounty;

and clouds rain down after their lightning.

ينسى خطايا المذنبين وعهدهم

دانٍ ويعفو والذنوب كبائر

He forgets offenders' sins though their memory

is fresh, and forgives though the sins are grave.

حلمٌ وعلمٌ بُلغاهُ من العلى

ما ليس يبلغه بقلب خاطر

Forbearance and knowledge have brought him to heights

that no passing thought within a heart can reach.

ووراء ذاك الحلم ليثُ مهابةٍ

تخشى وتؤمن من سطاه بوادر

Behind that forbearance stands a lion of awe,

whose sudden bursts of might are feared, yet trusted.

كالسيف يأمن صفحتيه ماسح

ويميل عن حديهما ويحاذر

Like a sword: one stroking it trusts its two flat faces,

but turns away from their two edges in caution.

تمت محاسن أحمدٍ بغرائب

سبق الأوائل نحوهن أواخرُ

Ahmad's virtues were perfected by marvels

in attaining which the later outstripped the earlier.

إن قال قلت القول فعل قد مضى

لو صال قلت الموت خصم ثائر

If he speaks, I say: his word is a deed already done.

Were he to charge, I would say: death is a raging foe.

وإذا ملا بجيوشه عرض الفضا

للحرب قلت البر بحر زاخر

And when he fills the breadth of open space with his armies

for war, I say: the land is a surging sea.

والنقع ليل والرماح نجومه

والخيل عقبان لديه كواسر

The dust is night, and the spears its stars;

and the horses at his side are swooping eagles.

والركض رعد والسيوف بروقه

والنبل وبل في الأعادي ماطر

The galloping is thunder, and the swords its lightning;

and the arrows a downpour raining upon enemies.

فهنالك الأَجساد من أَرواحها

تخلو فها هي كالربوع دوائر

There bodies are left without their souls,

empty—behold them, like dwellings fallen into ruin.

إِن أَخربت تلك السيوف ديارهم

أَعنى الأَعادي فالقبور عوامر

If those swords have laid their dwellings waste—

I mean the enemies'—then the graves are well inhabited.

إِن ابن إسماعيل فياضُ الندى

والسيف والآلاء فهي مآثرُ

The son of Isma'il overflows with bounty,

and with the sword and blessings—these are glorious deeds.

كلماته زادت على ما قدرت

أفهامنا في الفضل حين يحاور

His words surpass all that

our minds have conceived of excellence, when he converses.

فإذا نطقنا قال رمحي ناظمٌ

وإِذا نظمنا قال سيفي باترُ

When we speak, he says: my spear composes verse.

And when we compose verse, he says: my sword severs.

وله معانٍ في المعالي افحمت

فيها يحاجي ذو الحجا ويحاصر

He has meanings in high achievements that leave one speechless,

in which the wise man is challenged with riddles and hemmed in.

يا أَيها الملك الذي لزمانه

فضلٌ تمناه الزمانُ الغابرُ

O king whose age possesses

an excellence that bygone ages longed for,

وقّع وأوقع واغز واقن فهاهنا

مالٌ ملا الدينا وسيفُ باترُ

sign decrees, strike, wage war, and acquire—for here are

wealth that fills the world and a cutting sword.

خذها معانٍ كان يظلمني بها

من أطربته فقال إِني شاعرُ

Take these meanings, through which I was wronged

by one whom I delighted, who said I was a poet.

ما الشعر مقصور عليه فضيلتي

في كل جو لي عقاب طائرُ

My excellence is not confined to poetry;

in every sky I have an eagle flying.

أنا بين قوم غاظهم ربُّ السما

بظهور فضلي والمليك الناصر

I live among people whom the Lord of heaven has enraged

by displaying my excellence—as has King al-Nasir.

إن أبصروا لي عورة طاروا بها

فرحاً وان شهدوا الفضيلة ساتروا

If they spy a fault in me, they fly off with it

in glee; if they witness virtue, they conceal it.

يا ساتراً شمس النهار بكفهِ

اقصر فكفُّك عن مداها قاصر

O you who veil the daytime sun with your palm,

desist: your palm falls short of its reach.

الله لي وابن الممهد منهم

جار عليه لا يجير الجائر

God is on my side; the son of al-Mumahhad is, against them,

a protector against whom no oppressor can offer refuge.

هوّنتَ عني شرَّهم فأذاهُمُ

كأذى التراب أثارَ منه الحافرُ

You have lightened their evil for me, so their harm

is like the nuisance of dust kicked up by a hoof.

ولقد جبرتَ وما لجبرك كاسرٌ

ولقد كَسرتَ وما لكسرِك جابرِ

You have indeed restored, and none can break what you restore;

and you have indeed broken, and none can restore what you break.