إلى كم عتاب دائم وعتاب

ورسل وما يبدو إلي جواب

How long this endless reproach, and more reproach,

and messengers, yet no reply reaches me?

على غير ذنب كان مني هجركم

ولو كان ذنب كان منه متاب

You forsook me for no fault I had committed;

and had there been a fault, there could have been repentance.

هبوا لي لوجه الله مافي نفوسكم

عليى ففي جبر القلوب ثواب

Forgive me, for God's sake, whatever you harbor

against me: there is reward in mending hearts.

ولا تسمعوا قول الوشاة فإنه

وحاشا كم أن تسمعوه كذاب

And do not heed the slanderers' talk, for it—

far be it from you to heed it—is falsehood.

أرادوا عذابي في هواكم وفتنتي

وما الحب إلا فتنة وعذاب

They sought my torment and my trial in loving you;

and love is nothing but trial and torment.

بحقكم يا هاجرين تداركوا

عمارة جسمي اليوم فهو خراب

By your worth, you who forsake me, restore

my body's structure today, for it lies in ruins.

ولا تشمتوا بي عاذلين هجرتهم

على كونهم ذموا الغرام وعابوا

Do not let the censurers I shunned gloat over me

because they condemned and disparaged passionate love.

راوا ما أقاسي فيه فاستقبحو الهوى

لاجلي وقالوا الزهد فيه صواب

They saw what I suffer in it, so deemed love ugly

for my sake, and said renouncing it was right.

فيا من لصب لا تزال جفونه

تصب دموعا بالدماء تشاب

Who, then, will help a lovesick man whose eyelids never cease

pouring tears mingled with blood,

وذى لوعة لا يعرف النوم جفنه

ولا اقتلعت للدمع منه سحاب

and one burning with anguish, whose eyelid knows no sleep,

nor have his clouds of tears ever dispersed?

يسائل عنكم وهو يبدى تجلداً

وتصرعه الاشواق حين يجاب

He asks about you while showing fortitude,

and yearnings strike him down when he is answered.

فيا ليت شعري كيف يملك عقله

إذا جاءه ممن يحب كتاب

Would that I knew how he keeps his reason

when a letter comes to him from the one he loves!

مساكين أهل الحب حتى عقولهم

يخاف عليها ضيعة وذهاب

Poor lovers! Even their minds,

one fears, may go to ruin and be lost.

محبتهم في كل يوم جديدة

وأحبابهم طول الزمان غضاب

Their love is new each day,

while their beloveds remain angry all the while.

وما حسبوه في الهوى جاء ناقصا

فليس يفي للعاشقين حساب

Whatever they reckoned in love fell short;

for no reckoning suffices for lovers.

فلو ألهموا رشدا ولا ذوا بأحمد

لذل لهم صعب ولذ جناب

Had they been inspired with good sense and sought refuge in Ahmad,

hardship would have yielded to them, and his court proved sweet.

بذي الفتكات البيض والضيغم الذي

له البيض ظفر والعواسل ناب

In the man of glorious onslaughts, the lion who

has gleaming swords for claws and swaying spears for fangs:

صلاح البرايا الناصر الحق أحمد

إذا خذل الحق المبين صحاب

Ahmad, the welfare of creation, the champion of truth,

when companions forsake the manifest truth.

جواد إذا انهلت سحائب جوده

بدا لك شيء من نداه عجاب

A generous man: when the clouds of his bounty pour,

something wondrous of his largesse appears to you.

ففي كل جزء من أنامل كفه

بحار من الاندا لهن عباب

For in every part of the fingertips of his hand

are seas of bounty with surging waves.

أخو عزمة لا تتقى سطواتها

يصيب إذا ثارت وليس يصاب

A man of resolve whose assaults cannot be warded off:

he strikes home when it rises, and is not struck.

وذو سطوات لا يبالى إذا عدا

ازمجر ليث أم أطن ذباب

And a man of fierce assaults who, when he charges, cares not

whether a lion roars or a fly buzzes.

خفى بذب الكيد يعمل رايه

فيمضى وهل يخطى الرمى شهاب

Subtle in repelling plots, he puts his judgment to work,

and it takes effect—does a shooting star ever miss its mark?

له فكر بين الغيوب يديرها

فيرفع ستر دونها وحجاب

He turns his thoughts among things unseen,

and lifts the screen and veil that hide them.

له الراية البيضا يسير أمامها

من النصر والفتح المبين نصاب

His is the white banner, before which marches

a full measure of triumph and manifest victory.

له هزة عند المديح وضحكة

تباشيرها قبل الرعاب رعاب

He thrills at praise and gives a laugh,

whose first glad signs are gifts before the gifts themselves.

فيا باسط المعروف يا من نواله

مناديه من أقصى المكان يجاب

O spreader of kindness, you whose bounty

answers its caller from the farthest place:

إذا سد عن راجيك باب بداله

بفضلك باب لا يسد وباب

if a door is shut against one who hopes in you, there appears to him,

through your bounty, a door that is never shut—and another.

وعادتكم أن تجبروا من كسرتم

فيعتاض من معروفكم ويثاب

And it is your custom to mend those you have broken,

so each gains recompense from your kindness and is rewarded.

ولي فيك عما فوتوه إعاضة

وأنت لمثلي موئل ومآب

And in you I have recompense for what they denied me,

and you are refuge and homecoming for one like me.

فكم حادث وافا دعوتكم له

ولانت خطوب منه وهي صعاب

For many a calamity came, and I called on you against it,

and its hardships softened, harsh though they were.

فعش سالما مادامت الأرض غانما

لباسك فيها صحة وشباب

So live safe and prosperous as long as the earth endures,

with health and youth your clothing upon it.