اقرت رؤسا في الطلا هذه الرسل — Ibn Al Maqri

اقرت رؤساً في الطلا هذه الرسل

وهذي الهدايا والتلطف والبذل

These envoys have kept heads upon their necks,

and so have these gifts, this courtesy, and this giving.

وما لمليك منك درع يصونه

ولا مغفر إلا التضرع والبذل

And no king has armor to protect him from you,

nor a helmet but supplication and giving.

وليس لأسد دون أسد مزية

إذا لم يدبر أمر احداهما عقل

No lion has an advantage over another lion

if reason does not direct the affairs of one of them.

فقل لابن قطب الدين أنت الذي جنا

على نفسه هذا واوقعه الجهل

So tell Ibn Qutb al-Din: You are the one who brought

this upon himself, and ignorance brought him down.

بدات بحرب لم تكن من رجالها

ولا لك خيل عنك تجنى ولا رجل

You began a war, though you were not one of its men,

nor had you cavalry to defend you, nor infantry.

وحذرك العذال ما يعرفونه

وسمعك مسدود فما نفع العذل

The reprovers warned you of what they knew,

but your hearing was blocked, so rebuke did no good.

فلما استبنت الأمر أرسلت تبتغي

من الصلح امرا كان موضعه قبل

When you understood the matter, you sent to seek

a peace settlement whose proper time had been earlier.

فساومكم فيه واعلاه أحمد

وحملكم ما لا يطاق له حمل

Ahmad bargained with you over it and raised its price,

and loaded you with a burden beyond endurance.

فقلتم على كره رضينا بحكمه

ففقر يقاسي في الحيوة ولا القتل

Unwillingly you said: 'We accept his judgment—

poverty endured in life, rather than being killed.'

أما كان في حال بن عجلان عبرة

لمن غره منه التفرفق والمهل

Was there no lesson in Ibn Ajlan's plight

for one beguiled by his gentleness and forbearance?

تعدا عليه مستجيرا بمكة

وما جارها في دين ملك الورى حل

He transgressed against him while seeking sanctuary in Mecca,

and its protected guest is not lawful prey in the faith of the king of humankind.

فخلاه حتى عم كلا بشره

ولا حرم لم يشك منه ولا حل

So he left him alone until his evil reached everyone,

and neither sanctuary nor land outside it failed to complain of him.

فلم ير إلا أن يقيم مكانه

رميتة لما كان شيمته العدل

He saw no course but to install in his place

Rumayta, since justice was his nature.

فذا حسن في مكة ليس عنده

بعلم الورى في الأمر عقد ولا حل

Here is Hasan in Mecca, with no power,

as everyone knows, to bind or loose in affairs.

ورد على موسى بن عيسى بلاده

وقد خربت حلى وقد شتت الشمل

He restored Musa ibn Isa's lands to him,

when Hali had been ruined and its people scattered.

فما هو ذا في بابه وخراجها

يساق إليه ما على ظهرها ثقل

So this man is not at his gate, while its revenues

are conveyed to him, with no burden upon its back.

وشعبة في أقصى البلاد وانها

لتستام خوفا أن يضام لها كفل

Shu'ba lies in the farthest reaches of the land, and it

indeed seeks a price, fearing that its haunch might be wronged.

إلى بابه تنهى الحكومة بينهم

فيقضى على الباغي قضاء هو الفصل

The dispute between them is referred to his gate,

and judgment is passed against the aggressor—a decisive judgment.

وما در ديب إذ عصاه وسالم

فليس لأم قبل أمهما ثكل

Dib did not prosper when he and Salim disobeyed him;

no mother before their mother had known such bereavement.

وسل حرضا أن شئت عن شرفاتها

وعن من شكت منه الرعية والسبل

Ask Harad, if you wish, about its battlements,

and about those of whom the subjects and roads complained.

أبادهم قتلا وأسرا ولم يدع

بها من له رمح مضر ولا نصل

He wiped them out by killing and capture, and left

no one there with a deadly spear or a blade.

وعن عبس والجنثا سلوا كيف قرتا

كما قرت الأنثى ليعسفها الفحل

Ask how Abs and al-Jantha grew still,

as a female stays still for the breeding male to overpower her.

وصير أرض الواعظات وواسطا

مواعظ تنهى من تزل به الرجل

He made the land of al-Wa'izat and Wasit

warnings to restrain anyone whose foot might slip.

وقد كانت القواد فيما علمتم

ملوكا لها في أرضنا القول والفعل

The commanders, as you know, had been

kings who held sway in word and deed in our land.

يجيرون من خاف الملوك لجهلهم

ويبدون نصحا دونه العذر والختل

In their ignorance they sheltered whoever feared kings,

and offered counsel, beneath which lay excuses and deceit.

وظنوا ابن إسماعيل ممن إذا حما

عليه الفيافي ساقه الماء والظل

They thought Ibn Isma'il one who, when scorched

by the deserts, would be led by water and shade.

فالفوه يسمو الضب صبرا على الظما

ويهدى القطا في البيد إن ضلت السبل

But they found him outdoing the desert lizard in enduring thirst,

and guiding sandgrouse in the wastes if the paths were lost.

فالحقهم ذكرا بعاد وجرهم

واخلى ديارا منهم لم نقل تخلو

So he joined them in memory to Ad and Jurhum,

and cleared them from homes we never said would stand empty.

ووأهى قوى العربان من أرض سردد

وأرض سهام فهي ممدودة أكل

He weakened the strength of the Arab tribesmen from the land of Surdud

and the land of Siham, now spread out as a feast.

وصير قحرا ثم غنما وعافقا

ترابا وطينا لا تشاك بها رجل

He turned Qahr, then Ghanm and Afiq,

into dust and mud, where no foot could be pricked.

إذا طار عصور تناكس أرؤس

ومن عضه الثعبان روعه الحبل

When a sparrow takes flight, heads bow down;

and whoever has been bitten by a snake is frightened by a rope.

وصنعاء في ملك الإمام وماله

بذاك يد تحميك عنها ولا رجل

Sana'a is in the Imam's dominion, but he has no

hand there to protect you from it, nor a foot.

فها هو إن صالحتموه أخذتم

مكاناً وقلتم ما تضمنه السجل

Here he is: if you make peace with him, you take

a place, and state what the written record contains.

فيحسبه نقصا عليكم بجهله

فيعقد صلحا ثانيا ولك الفضل

In his ignorance, he counts it a fault on your part,

and concludes a second peace, while the advantage is yours.

فتأخذ حصنا بعده فإذا اشتكى

أجبتم بإن الأخذ قد كان من قبل

You then take a fortress afterward, and when he complains,

you answer that the taking had already happened before.

ففي الصلح لم يسلم وفي الحرب هكذا

ولو سلمت صنعا ما انصدع الشمل

So he was not safe in peace, and in war it was the same;

had Sana'a remained safe, their unity would not have shattered.

ففعلك في ثغر الزمان تبسم

وفي وجهه حسن وفي عينه كحل

Thus your deed is a smile on the mouth of Time,

and beauty on its face, and kohl in its eye.