أيملك طرفي دمع عينيه قانيا

وقد حلت الأشواق منه العزاليا

Can my gaze restrain the blood-red tears of its eyes,

When longings have unloosed its waterskin-spouts?

فهلا كففتم عن رحا كف أدمعي

أما قد علمتم أن فيه الدواليا

Then why not desist from the mill of restraining my tears?

Have you not learned that it holds waterwheels?

كاني وقد أهدت لي الروح أدمعي

أنادم من تلك الجواري سواقيا

It is as though, now my tears have brought me relief,

I carouse with cupbearers among those flowing maidens.

رضيت ببذل المال والروح في الهوى

فما لكم والروح روحي وماليا

I have consented to spend wealth and soul in love;

So what is it to you? The soul is mine, and so is the wealth.

فيا منزلا أقواه من أهله النوى

إلى أن غدا من ضعف جدى خاليا

O abode, which separation has emptied of its people,

Until, through my failing fortune, it stood deserted.

أبي الله لي السلوان عنك وعنهم

أمثلي يسلوكم إذاً لا أباليا

God has denied me forgetfulness of you and them.

Could one like me forget you? Then may I be fatherless!

وعندي لكم ما تعلمون من الوفا

ووجد جديد لا يفارق باليا

I hold for you the faithfulness you know,

And fresh longing that never leaves my mind.

يشاهدكم طرفي كأني حاضر

وإن كنت معكم في المودة باديا

My gaze beholds you as though I were present,

Though, with you in love, I dwell far afield.

أبيع رخيصاً إن سرى البرق مدمعي

ليسكن جأش بعدما كان غالياً

I sell my tears cheaply when lightning journeys through the night,

To still a heart that had been boiling.

لئن كان إسماعيل بالشوق قد رمى

فإن أبن إبراهيم قد كان رامياً

If Isma'il has indeed shot with longing,

Then Ibrahim's son was indeed an archer.

إمام هدى يروي أسانيد فضله

فينشقها نشق الكعوب عواليا

An imam of guidance who recounts the chains of his excellence,

And arrays them like the joints of lofty spears [wording uncertain].

هو الرأس والهادي لآل محمد

فلا زال للسرب الرسول هاديا

He is the head and guide of Muhammad's kin;

May he ever guide the gentle-paced herd.

مجالسه تشفى الصدور فمن يزغ

يرى الذل في هجرانه والدواهيا

His gatherings heal hearts; whoever strays

Finds humiliation and calamities in forsaking him.

له فطن تعدى الجليس فكم جلت

لذى حيره ذهنا وروته صاديا

His insights pass to his companions; how often they have cleared

A bewildered man's mind, and quenched him when thirsty.

وكم من سقيم فهمه قد شحذنه

فاصبح ماض في الضريبة باريا

How many a man of sickly understanding they have sharpened,

Till he became keen in striking, cutting cleanly through.

لقد زارني مشياً على بعد داره

فكيف تراني كنت لو كان جارياً

He visited me on foot, though his home was far away;

How, then, do you think I would have been, had he been my neighbor?

ولما أتى بالكتب منه رسوله

تناولت منها باليمين كتابياً

When his messenger brought letters from him,

I took my letter from them with my right hand.

وضيعت رشدي إن تضوع ريحه

وما خلت أن المسك تهدى الغواليا

I lost my reason when its fragrance wafted;

I never thought musk could bestow such precious perfumes.

كتاب كريم منه أصبحت سامعاً

مقالا به يكبو الحسود ورائياً

A noble letter, through which I came to hear

Words that make the envious stumble behind me.

أكرره درساً لا نقع غلتي

وأرويه ف يالنادى وما كنت راويا

I repeat it in study, yet my burning thirst is not quenched,

And recite it in the gathering, though I was no narrator.

ثنى لي على ملك يهزك مدحه

كأنك منه تستعيد المثانيا

He praised to me a king whose praise stirs you,

As though asking him to sound the paired strings again.

لبوس لأخلاق الكرام جديدة

وملبسها حسنا وليست عواريا

He wears the virtues of noble men, fresh and new,

And clothes them in beauty; they are not borrowed.

هزبر سريع الأخذ ينصف سيفه

فتى جاءه يوم الكريهة شاكياً

A lion, swift to seize; his sword cuts in half

A youth who comes to him fully armed on battle's day.

ولم ير في قتلي مواضيه ثائراً

ولا في دم بالسيف أجراه واديا

He has seen no avenger for those his sharp blades slew,

Nor a payer of blood-money for blood his sword made flow.

فأن ابن إسماعيل بالفضل إن رمى

كمثل أبيه ليس يخطي مراميا

For Isma'il's son, when he shoots with bounty,

Like his father, never misses a target.

وما زال يعطيني وما زلت باسطا

يميني إليه قابضاً ليساريا

He kept giving me, while I kept extending

My right hand toward him, holding my left closed,

إلى أن ملا بالمال كفى ولم يزل

نداه لكفي بعد ما فاض ماليا

Until he filled my palm with wealth; and still

His bounty reached my hand after my wealth overflowed.

وأصلح حالا ذقت منه مرارة

بعيشي إِلى أن عاد كالعهد حالياً

He mended a condition whose bitterness I had tasted

In my life, till it grew sweet again, as of old.

فليت الفلا حتى بدا لي وجهه

فأسعد فال يوم ألقاه فاليا

I scoured the wastes until his face appeared to me;

The happiest omen is the day I meet him in my quest.

فنحن لديه في رياض قد إعتدى

على النفس من لم يدن منهن جانيا

With him we dwell in gardens; he has wronged

His own soul who does not draw near to gather their fruit.

فمن لم يجد للمدح سوقا وأَمه

يجد برق جود للمدائح شاريا

Whoever finds no market for praise and seeks him

Finds a flash of bounty buying poems of praise.

أبا المرتضى خذها قواف جلوتها

لكم بل على الآعداء حقاً قواضيا

O Abu al-Murtada, take these rhymes I have polished

For you—nay, truly doom-dealers against the enemies.

ترق معانيها ويجزل لفظها

ويلهى بمعناها الغريب الملاهيا

Their meanings are subtle and their diction weighty,

And their rare meaning engrosses even the entertainer.