أجل هو ريع قد عفته الروامس

فهل أنت فيه ويب غيرك حابس

Yes, it is a rise effaced by the sweeping winds.

Will you linger there—may the woe be another's, not yours?

لقل له أن تحبس العيس ساعةً

عليك فتبكيك الرسوم الطوامس

It is little enough for it that you detain the pale camels an hour

for your own sake, so the vanished traces make you weep,

على أربع قد كان دهراً بطوله

للهوك فيه مريع ومجالس

at dwellings where, for an age in all its length,

your pleasure had fertile ground and gathering places.

عسى يستجيب الربع إذ أنا سائل

وهل ترجع اللفظ الطلول الدوارس

Perhaps the dwelling will answer when I question it;

but can worn-away ruins return speech?

فعجت عليه ناقتي وهو سبسب

سقته وجادته الغمام الرواجس

I turned my she-camel toward it—a barren plain

watered and drenched by the rumbling clouds.

وقتل ودمعي ساكب متحدر

وإنسان عيني في هواميه غامس

And [I said], my tears pouring and streaming down,

and my eye's pupil immersed in their torrents:

لقد كان عيشي فيك لو دام منقاً

ولكن أبت ذاك الحظوظ الأباخس

Indeed, my life in you was delightful—if only it had lasted;

but niggardly fortunes refused that.

ليالي من أهواه يمسي كأنه

من العفر ظبي بالصريمة كانس

In nights when the one I love seemed, at evening,

a tawny gazelle sheltering in a thicket,

وإذ مشلنا باقٍ جميع محسد

ولم تقتطع ذاك الدهور الدهارس

and when our [union] still endured, intact and envied,

and the grinding ages had not severed it.

فكان جواب الربع إذ أنا سائل

وهل تفهم القول الربوع الأخارس

The dwelling's answer, when I questioned it, was—

yet do mute dwellings understand speech?—

كذلك حكم الدهر آب وذاهب

وفي الدهر أصناف مدوس ودابس

Such is time's decree: one returns, another departs;

and time holds many kinds: the trampled and the dark-faced.

فعرجت عنه موجع القلب ثاكلاً

وبين الحشا لذع من الحون ناخس

I turned away from it, heartsore and bereaved,

with a piercing sting of [grief] deep within my breast.

وفي طي مثني الصفيح على الثرى

للشكل والحسن لابس

And within the folds of doubled stone slabs upon the earth

lies one clothed in shapeliness and beauty.

غريب صفات الحسن أن تبغ حسنه

فأمنع معدوم هناك المجانس

Unique in beauty's qualities—if you seek his beauty,

it is most elusive; nowhere is there his peer.

إذا حد لم تحو الحدود جهاته

وإن قيس يوماً ضل فيه المقايبس

If defined, no limits encompass his dimensions;

and if ever measured, the [measures] stray within him.

فديناه من ظبي يلوح ضياؤه

على مثله حقاً أصاب المنافس

We would ransom him—a gazelle whose radiance gleams;

whoever vies for one like him truly aims aright.

عجبت لدهر لا يني وهو طالبي

بثأرٍ ولا ينفك دأباً يمارس

I marvel at time, which never tires and pursues me

for vengeance, never ceasing its constant struggle.

إذا ما اصطرعنا فالتداول بيننا

عراك فمنهوس هناك وناهس

Whenever we wrestle, the advantage passes between us

in combat: here one is bitten and one bites.

فتسع وعشرون أتيحت سهامها

لرأسي فغضت منه فالرأس هارس

Then twenty-nine had their arrows assigned

to my head; they wore it down, leaving it battered.

كأن بياض الرأس ينفي سواده

صباح تعرى عنه ليل عكامس

As though the head's whiteness, banishing its blackness,

were a dawn stripped of a pitch-black night.

فأهلاً بوفد الشيب إذ جاء وافداً

وكنت وقلبي قبل ذا منه واجس

Welcome to gray hair's delegation, now arriving,

though beforehand my heart and I were wary of it.

ولما أتى ردت نفوس بغيظها

ولم تنبسط نحوي اللحاظ النواعس

When it arrived, hearts recoiled in their resentment,

and languid glances no longer welcomed me.

ولم أر مثل الشيب أوفى وفيةً

ليذعره بازي النهار المؤانس

I have seen nothing like gray hair, so steadfast in [fidelity],

only for the familiar hawk of daylight to frighten it.

وكنا نجوماً طالعاتٍ مضيئةً

تنير بأدناها الخطوب الخنادس

We once were stars, rising and radiant,

even the least of them illuminating pitch-dark calamities.

لقد كان لي في بعض ذلك واعظ

وما اختلستنيه الصروف الخوالس

Indeed, in some of that there was an admonition for me,

and in what the thieving vicissitudes snatched from me.

تناءين عني كالغصون وأعرضت

ضواحك أقمارٍ وهن عوابس

They drew far from me like boughs, and turned away

the smiling faces of moons, those moons now frowning.

وقد طالما ارتاحت وهزت غصونها

بقربي أحقاف الرمال الأواعس

How often before they had rejoiced and shaken their boughs

near me—those soft dunes of sand.

ظباء إذا قيس الظباء بحسنها

فإن يعافير الظباء خنافس

Gazelles—when gazelles are compared with their beauty,

even the gazelles' fawns are beetles.

زمان يسود المرء فيه محقد

ولا كزمانٍ ساد فيه الفلافس

A time when a man held sway, arousing resentment,

unlike a time when worthless men ruled.

زعيمون أن يقضي لنا دون غيرنا

إذا ازدحمت عند الملوك القلانس

We stand assured that judgment will favor us over others

whenever caps throng before kings.

سمونا فما في دهرنا غير حاسد

وطلنا فلم ندرك فما ثم نابس

We rose high: in our age there was none but an envier;

and towered beyond reach: not a soul there spoke.

إذا ما تراميني مفاخر معشر

فأيسر فخري للمفاخر هارس

Whenever a people's glories are hurled against me,

the least of my glory crushes those glories.

وإني بعرضي دون ديني متقٍ

وإني بعرضي دون روحي متارس

I make my honor a shield for my faith,

and with my honor I shield my life.

سما بي ساسان ودارا وبعدهم

قريش العلى أعياصها والعنابس

Sasan and Dara raised me high, and after them

lofty Quraysh—its Aʿyāṣ and ʿAnābis.

فما أخرت حرب مراتب سؤددي

ولا قعدت بي عن ذرى المجد فارس

War did not set back the ranks of my nobility,

nor did Persia keep me from glory's summits.

هنالك مجد الدهر طالت فروعه

فهن مواضٍ صعد لا نواكس

There is the glory of time, its branches stretching high;

they press onward and upward, never bowing.

ملكنا ملوك الأرض في كل جانب

فحد مناوينا الحدود الأواكس

We ruled the kings of earth in every quarter,

and our adversaries' reach was confined to the lowest bounds.

إذا شبت الحرب العوان فبأسنا

لكل منيع النيل في الناس فراس

When the oft-renewed war flares up, our might

preys upon every man otherwise beyond reach.

أباحوا بيوت النار كل ذخيرةٍ

حمتها شياطين الردى والأبالس

They plundered the fire-temples of every treasure

guarded by demons of destruction and devils.

فلما أتى الإسلام بالحق والهدى

أقروا لنورٍ خولته الأحامس

Then, when Islam came with truth and guidance,

they yielded to a light that the valiant had bestowed.

فشدت عرى الإسلام فيهم وعطلت

بأسيافهم للمشاركين مدارس

Islam's bonds were strengthened among them, and closed

by their swords were the [polytheists'] schools.

وأعلن دين اللَه في الأرض بأسهم

وذلت بهم للمسلمين الكنائس

Their might proclaimed God's religion throughout the earth,

and through them churches were humbled before the Muslims.

فسائل بسلمانٍ وبالحسن الرضى

وزارا وفيروز هداة أشاوس

Ask, then, about Salman and al-Hasan al-Rida,

and Zara and Firuz—intrepid guides.