إليك فقد حملت قلبي من الهوي

على عجزه ما ليس يحمله رضوى

Enough! You have burdened my heart with love,

despite its weakness, with what even Mount Radwa cannot bear.

فلو قست ما بي بالمحبين جملة

وجدت الذي بي منك مما بهم أقوى

Had you measured my suffering against all lovers together,

you would find what I suffer from you stronger than theirs.

تمادت ليالي الهجر والعمر بينها

على غير عطف منك أيامه تطوى

The nights of separation drag on, and life, amid them,

has its days folded away without tenderness from you.

شكوت وحسن الظن فيك يحثني

على أنني أشكو وقد تنفع الشكوى

I complained, and my good opinion of you urges me

to complain, for complaint may yet do some good.

رمتني فاصمتني فلما رميتها

وشددت سهمي مثلما شددت اسوى

She shot at me and struck me down; then, when I shot at her

and drew my arrow as she had drawn hers, I missed.

وكم أنا باق مع سهام تصيبني

وإن ارم لم أبلغ لصاحبها شاوا

How long I remain alive despite arrows striking me!

Yet if I shoot, I cannot reach their wielder's range.

احبتنا ما للوشاة امانة

فتصغون اسماعا لما عنهم يروى

Our beloved ones, slanderers have no trustworthiness,

yet you lend your ears to what is reported from them.

ومن يصغ يعلم انما نطقوا به

من الإثم لم يصدره دين ولا تقوى

Whoever listens knows that what they uttered

in sin was prompted by neither religion nor piety.

ويا عاذلي هل جئت بدعا بما ترى

أليس الهوى مما تعم به البلوى

O my reproacher, have I done anything unheard-of in what you see?

Is love not an affliction that befalls everyone?

تحاول أن اسلو وما ذاك في يدي

ولو كان فيها ما ارتضيت يدي عضوا

You try to make me forget my love, but that is not in my hands;

were it in my hand, I would not accept that hand as a limb.

ومن لي أن أعدى بحبي أحبتي

فنصحي سواء فيه لكن لا عدوى

Who will grant me the power to infect my loved ones with my love?

My counsel is all the same in this, but there is no contagion.

إذا كان غيا حب ليلى فدونكم

رشادي فهاتوا لي به كلما اغوى

If loving Layla is error, then take

my good sense, and give me in exchange all that leads astray.

وشاة وعذال فأما الذي وشا

فكله إلى من يعلم السر والنجوى

Slanderers and reproachers—as for the one who slanders,

leave him to the One who knows secrets and whispered talk.

وما عذولي لو رآك بمقلتي

لما بات من شجوي ومن لوعتي خلوا

My reproacher, if he saw you through my eyes,

would not spend the night free of my grief and burning longing.

عذرت وشاتي فيك دون عواذلي

فما منكر فيك التنافس والأهوا

I excuse my slanderers over you, but not my reproachers:

rivalry and passion for you are nothing strange.

وما كنت لولا أنت للضيم حاملا

أقر على هون وأغضي على الأسوا

But for you, I would not bear humiliation,

submit to degradation, and overlook the worst.

ألم ترني فارقت مسقط هامتي

بميسم ذل خفت يوما به أكوى

Did you not see me leave my birthplace,

fearing that one day I would be seared with a brand of humiliation?

وجاورت للعلياء من أنا جاره

وبلغني منها إلى الغاية القصوى

For lofty honor I settled beside the man whose neighbor I am,

and he brought me to its furthest goal.

وقطعت خفض العيش أحسب ما مضى

من العمر مثل اليوم من ظنه سهوى

I lived in ease, reckoning all that had passed

of life as a single day—a heedless supposition.

أخال لياليه لفرط انطوائها

وقد ظهرت للعين مضمرة تنوى

I imagine its nights, so swiftly do they fold away,

though visible to the eye, as hidden things merely conceived.

ولو قيل قوم أى ملك تريده

بظفر ابن إسمعيل ما خلته يسوى

If I were told, 'Value whichever king you wish

against Ibn Isma'il's fingernail,' I would not think him its equal.

وفي الأرض أملاك ولكن بينه

وبينهم مالا يحد ولا يحوى

There are kings on earth, but between him

and them lies a distance neither bounded nor encompassed.

يحب المعالي والمعالي تحبه

وبالحب منها ما ناله عفوا

He loves high honor, and high honor loves him;

through love he gained from her what came without effort.

دعته فلباها ونادى فأقبلت

وصادف كل عند صاحبه شجوا

She called him, and he answered her; he called, and she came;

each found yearning in the other.

فها هي لا ترضى سواه لنفسها

حبيبا ولا يرضى سواها له مأوى

So she accepts none but him for herself

as a beloved, and he accepts none but her as his refuge.

خليلان كل هائم بخليله

يدير عليه الوصل كأسا فما يروى

Two loving friends, each enamored of the other,

Union passes him a cup, yet his thirst is never quenched.

بنى قللا في المجد لو تصعد العلا

لها دونه يوما أوشك أن تقوى

He built peaks of glory which, if high honor climbed

toward them without him one day, it would soon be exhausted.

اذ أتاه في الهم الوفود لفاقة

وأموه ألفوا عندن المن والسلوى

When delegations came to him in distress from poverty,

and sought him out, they found manna and quails with him.

على قدر ما يدنيك تنأى عن الاسا

ومقداره ما يقصيك تدنو من اللأوى

The nearer he draws you, the farther you move from sorrow,

and as far as he keeps you away, you draw near to hardship.

حليم يرى مخطي رضاه ابتسامه

فيحسبه قد جاء بالذي يهوى

Forbearing: even one who fails to please him sees his smile,

and thinks he has brought what pleases him.

له في الأعادي غارة بعد غارة

وللجود في أمواله الغارة الشعوى

Against his enemies he launches raid after raid,

and generosity makes a sweeping raid upon his wealth.

منزهة عن لو ولولا خصا له

فما خصلة فيها بلولا ولو دعوى

His virtues are free of 'if' and 'were it not';

not one admits a claim of 'were it not' or 'if.'

فلو مازجت أخلاقه البحر طعمه

أجاج لاضحى من عذوبتها حلوا

If his virtues mingled with the sea, whose taste

is bitterly salt, their sweetness would make it sweet.

فيا ماضيا في أمره عن بصيرة

إذا بات في الأمر امرء يخبط العشوى

O you who proceed in your affairs with clear insight,

when another man spends the night stumbling blindly through them,

أما الملك سلك تم في نظامه

إذا ما آب ولى تولى ابنه تلوا

As for kingship, it is a thread in perfect order:

whenever a father departs, his son succeeds him in turn.

فبالناصر ابن الأشرف الملك ينتمي

إلى الأفضل السامي إلى الملك الأقوى

Through al-Nasir, son of al-Ashraf, kingship traces its lineage

to al-Afdal, whose line ascends to the mightiest king,

على بن داود المليك ابن يوسف

خلائف لا بغياً تولوا ولا عدوى

Ali son of Dawud, the sovereign, son of Yusuf:

successors who ruled through neither usurpation nor aggression.

عريقون في الملك العقيم فلا ترى

إصالتهم في الملك عن أحد تروى

Deep-rooted in barren kingship, you will not find

their royal pedigree traced to anyone else.

بقيت بقاء الدهر للدهر مصلحاً

وللناس بالسيف المحكم والجدوى

May you endure as long as time, setting the age aright,

and the people, with the decisive sword and bounty.

فترشد إن ضلوا وتعطي إذا رجوا

وتضرب أعناقا إذا تركوا التقوى

You guide them if they stray, and give when they hope,

and strike necks when they abandon piety.