غير جفاء الحسان يحتمل

وفي سوى الهجر يحسن الأمل

Anything but the coldness of beautiful ones can be borne.

And hope is fitting in anything but abandonment.

فخل ما القلب فيه مضطرب

لبعده والمزاج منفعل

So leave aside what troubles the heart

by its distance and unsettles the temperament.

وعد عن نظرة رميت بها

فغير جرح اللحاظ يندمل

And turn away from a glance that struck you,

for any wound but the wound of glances heals.

سمعت بالوصل ثم همت به

اكل صب قبل الهوى غفل

I heard of union, then became infatuated with it.

Was every lover heedless before love?

دنوت من منهل على ظمأ

ودونه البيض دونه الاسل

Thirsting, I drew near a watering place,

but before it stood bright swords, before it spears.

فمن زلال الوصال خذ بدلا

فما لمثلي إذا قضى بدل

So take a substitute for union's clear water,

for one like me, once dead, has no replacement.

هم الظباء الذين ان بعدوا

قتلت شوقا وان دنوا قتلوا

They are gazelles who, if they go far away,

leave me slain by longing; if they approach, they kill.

السالبون البقاء ان رحموا

السافكون الدماء ان عدلوا

They rob one of life if they show mercy,

and spill blood if they act justly.

لا هون لا يستخفهم حزن

عليك يستحسنون ما فعلوا

Heedless, they are not stirred by grief

for you; they approve of what they have done.

ولا لقتلى لحاظهم عدد

ولا لاطراف بيضها فلل

Those slain by their glances have no number,

and the edges of their bright swords have no notches.

هم احرمونا الخدود نلثهما

وكل وقت يمسها الخجل

They denied us their cheeks to kiss,

though blushing touches them at every moment.

وحرموا العطف قسوة وهم

الغصون والغصن شأنه الميل

They withheld tenderness in cruelty, though they are

branches—and a branch's nature is to bend.

اولو الثنايا البرود سلسلها

والمقل المنتمى لها النجل

Those whose teeth have cool, limpid moisture,

and whose eyes are marked by breadth.

من فرق السحر فيهم اجتمعت

اسماء منها الرضاب والكحل

From magic's various kinds, there gathered in them

names including sweet saliva and kohl.

من جعلوا الورد يستظل به

الطلع واعلاه نرجس خضل

Those who made the rose a shade for

palm blossom, with a dewy narcissus above it.

هي الاماني المبيد موردها

ورب ورد من دونه الاجل

These are hopes whose watering place destroys,

and many a watering place has death before it.

ولي فؤاد اطاع ناظره

كلاهما بالمشيب مشتعل

I have a heart that obeyed its eye;

both are ablaze with gray-haired age.

فالطرف يما عناه مهمر

وذا بما يعنيه مشتغل

The eye pours tears for what has troubled it,

and the other is occupied with what concerns it.

وذبت عشقا لم أدر ام سقما

بل في الذي اعظي له سبل

I melted away—was it love, I knew not, or sickness?

Rather, in that which [unclear], there are paths to it.

فكل عضو اذا وضعت يدي

بصدها من صبابتي شعل

For every limb, when I lay my hand on it,

is aflame with my longing at her rejection.

أودّ آها وليس تنفعني

وكتبها فوق علتي علل

I long for an 'Ah,' yet it does not help me;

and writing it adds afflictions to my affliction.

انا الذي في الانام حيره

الحب فما الاهتداء ما الحيل

I am he whom, among mankind, bewildered

love—what guidance is there, what resource?

لا الرشد عندي ولا الفؤاد

ولا العقل ولا الصبر لي ولا الحول

I have neither good judgment nor a heart,

nor reason, nor patience, nor strength.

فمن لطرفي ومن لقلبي في

الحب وذا هائم وذا ثمل

Who will aid my eye, and who my heart, in

love, when one is distraught and the other drunk?

خلقت صبا كأنما خلقت

له العيون الفواتك النجل

I was created a lover, as though there were created

for him the wide, deadly eyes.

تودع احشاه من كنائنها

ودائعا ما اهتدى لها ثعل

They lodge in his entrails, from their quivers,

deposits to which Thuʿal never found his way.

كمكرمات الاستاذ تودعه

الجود ولا يهتدي لها البخل

Like the master's noble deeds, which instill in him

generosity, and which stinginess cannot reach.

الحرم المطمئن طائفه

ومن ستسعى لركنه الدول

The sanctuary whose circling pilgrim is secure,

and he to whose corner states will hasten.

حاول من قبله العلا امم

والشعر قبلي وطالما عجلوا

Nations sought eminence before him,

and poetry before me; how often they hastened!

فجاء كل منا وجاوزهم

والعجر مسبوقة وهم اول

Then each of us came and surpassed them,

and the blemishes were outstripped [reading uncertain], though they were first.

لمن قواف مثلي مسيرة

إلى الذي فيه يضرب المثل

Whose rhymes, like mine, are sent forth

to him who is held up as an example?

إلى الذي ينسج القريض له

فيحسن المدح فيه والغزل

To him for whom poetry is woven,

in whom both praise and love-song find beauty.

إلى الذي انقادت العلوم له

وكم اناس بفضله فضلوا

To him to whom the sciences submit,

and how many people have excelled through his favor!

إلى مقيل الكرام ان عثروا

إلى مجيب العفاة ان سألوا

To him who lifts the noble when they stumble,

to him who answers petitioners when they ask.

منير افق العلا بطلعته

نجم ولكن على العدا زحل

Who lights the horizon of eminence with his appearance:

a star, but Saturn to his foes.

كمله العلم ثم هذبه

الحلم فسيان القول والعمل

Learning perfected him; then refined him

forbearance, making his word and deed alike.

اطلعه الفضل شمس معرفة

تكل عن درك ضوئها المقل

Merit raised him as a sun of knowledge,

whose light eyes tire of trying to grasp.

مدحته والفؤاد منصدع

وبي من الدهر حادث جلل

I praised him with a shattered heart,

stricken by a grievous blow of fate.

والطبع قد جف حيث لا نهل

من فيض دمعي وحيث لا علل

My poetic nature has dried, with no first draught

from the flood of my tears, and no second draught.

والطبع راض مع طول فقدها

وطول جهدي لو يسعف الامل

Yet my poetic nature is content, despite its long deprivation,

and my long toil, if only hope would lend aid.

فما انتفاعي بالشعر احسنه

كأنه الورد والندى جعل

What use is poetry to me? I perfect it

as though it were a rose, while bounty is a dung beetle.

ولي حظوظ في همتي قصر

من مقتضاها وفي يدي شلل

My fortunes leave my ambition curtailed—

a consequence of them—and my hand paralyzed.

احاول الامر وهي تحجبه

كأنما حال دوننا جبل

I attempt a thing, but they obstruct it,

as though a mountain stood between us.

ومن عنائي هوى تكنفني

في طرفيه النحول والخبل

Part of my suffering is a love that surrounds me,

at whose two ends are wasting and madness.

ومن شقائي سكناي في بلد

ينبت نبتا في ارضها الدغل

Part of my misery is dwelling in a land

where deceit grows like vegetation in its soil.

اضاعني الاهل والصديق بها

ولم يضعني الحرمان والملل

There my kin and friend forsook me,

but deprivation and weariness never forsook me.

صحبت قوما وما صحبت سوى

ثياب عجب من تحتها عضل

I kept company with people, yet with nothing but

robes of vanity, with vexations underneath.

ودادهم في الشفاه ان ضحكوا

وبغضهم في اللهاة انس علوا

Their affection is on their lips when they laugh,

and their hatred in their throats when they cough [reading uncertain].

ينتشر الحقد في محاجرهم

كأنهم بالضغائن اكتحلوا

Spite spreads through their eye sockets,

as though they had lined their eyes with grudges.

فخل بحث الصديق قد طويت

صحائف الود وانتهى الجدل

So abandon the search for a friend; folded are

the pages of affection, and argument is over.

فكل خل علقت صحبته

نصلت منه وكله خلل

Every friend whose companionship I clung to,

I broke away from, for he was all flaws.

اطيعه الدهر وهو يعتبني

كأنما طاعتي له زلل

I obey him all my days, while he reproaches me,

as though my obedience to him were a fault.

يظن كتمي حديث فرقته

له اضطرار لامه الهبل

He takes my silence about leaving him

as dependence on him—may his mother be bereft!

اما ولولا الهوى ومجهلة الصب

وة والناس كم بها جهلوا

Indeed, were it not for love and the folly of youthful

passion—how often people have been foolish through it!—

لما على مثل صحبتي حصلوا

ولا بحبلي حبالهم وصلوا

they would never have gained companionship such as mine,

nor joined their ropes to mine.

ان يبغضوني فليس يبغضني

روض يراعي ولا الذكا الهطل

If they hate me, I am not hated by

the garden of my pen, nor my rain-pouring wit,

ولا العقود التي تقلدها

الدهر عليها الاحقاب تشتمل

nor the necklaces worn by

Time; the ages enfold them.

اما ومن صاغ منطقي دررا

على اجل الاسماع تنهمل

Indeed, by Him who fashioned my speech into pearls,

pouring upon the noblest ears,

والحكم السائرات من كلمي

اقلها ان تذكروا جمل

and the far-traveling maxims of my words,

the least of them, if you recall, is beautiful [reading uncertain]:

لكل نقل عني اساء به

اضيع عندي ممن له نقلوا

Every report about me used to cause harm

matters less to me than those to whom they carried it.

وكل شعر يلهيك رونقه

فهو لشعري الطراز والخلل

Every poem whose brilliance delights you

is but the embroidery and interstices of my poetry.

سلبت ملك القريض خرده

واخبر القوم بعدي الطلل

I stripped poetry's realm of its maidens,

and the ruined dwelling told the people after me.

فكن حكيما فيما ترى حكما

لا يسبق السيف عندك العذل

So be wise in what you deem a judgment;

let not the sword, with you, precede reproach.

انا الذي ان مشى مشى ملكا

وللقوافي من حوله زجل

I am he who, when he walks, walks as a king,

with rhymes clamoring all around him.

انا الذي لا يطيل وحشته

الا جهول او باخل رذل

I am he whose loneliness none prolongs

save an ignoramus or a vile miser.

انا الذي لا تمل صحبته

ولا باسرار صحبه مذل

I am he whose company never wearies,

nor is indiscreet with his companions' secrets.

ولا مضيع لهم اذا حفظوا

ولا حفيظ لهم اذا ختلوا

I do not forsake them when they keep faith,

nor protect them when they deceive.

مجرد من سوى قناعته

واكثر الناس همه الخول

Stripped of all but my contentment,

while most people's concern is retainers.

انا الحسام الجراز حليته

اذا انتضاه السميدع البطل

I am the keen, cleaving sword, his adornment

when the noble hero draws it.

وانت ذاك السميدع البطل

يا ذرب يا همام يا رجال

And you are that noble hero,

O keen one, O valiant one, O man of men [reading uncertain]!

فلا تلمني اذا طرحتهم

فكل ما لا يفيد مبتذل

So do not blame me if I cast them aside,

for whatever gives no benefit is held cheap.

وما لامثالنا سواك فتى

عليه بعد الاله نتكل

For the likes of us, there is no noble man but you

on whom, after God, we rely.

اليك استاذنا قد انبعثت

اناة خطو يزجها الامل

To you, our master, have set forth

measured footsteps, propelled by hope.

تبثك الشوق عن فؤاد شح

اشفى ولكن في ضمنها الغلل

They convey longing to you from a heart grown miserly [reading uncertain],

near death, yet with burning thirsts within them.

طبت فطابت والشعر جملته

كالتاس فيه الصواب والخطل

You are good, so it became good; poetry as a whole

is like people, containing both soundness and folly.

واحسن الشعر ما امتدحت به

مولى اقرت بفضله المال

The finest poetry is that with which you praise

a lord whose excellence wealth has acknowledged.

فدم مكيد العدو ما بكر

الغراء مدت ساعاتها الاصل

So live on, outwitting the enemy, as long as mornings

of radiance have their hours prolonged by late afternoons,

وما حبتك الايام رونقها

وانت مستبشر بها جذل

and as long as the days bestow their splendor on you,

with you rejoicing in them, full of gladness.