ألم يخاليني جلاء مجرب

على أنه حقاً بي العالم الطب

Has not a discerning, seasoned man befriended me,

though he is truly a skilled judge who knows me?

أعيذك إن ترتاب في أني الذي

أتى سابقاً والكل ينحر أو يحبو

I seek protection for you, should you doubt that I am the one

who came first, while all the rest were slaughtering [unclear in context] or crawling.

أمثلك يعشو عن مكاني ويمتري

بأني من أفلاك ذا الأدب القطب

Can someone like you be blind to my standing and doubt

that I am the pole of the celestial spheres of this literature?

أيخفني عليك البرد ليلة تمه

ولم يستتر عنك النيازك والشهب

Could the full moon be hidden from you on the night of its fullness [uncertain wording],

when meteors and shooting stars have not been hidden from you?

وحاشاي أن يمتد زهو بمنطق

وأن يستفز الحلم من تولي العجب

Far be it from me that pride should swell in my speech,

or that conceit's sway should unsettle my composure.

ولكن لي في يوسف خير أسوة

وليس على من بالنبي انتسى ذنب

But in Joseph I have the finest example,

and no sin falls on one who follows the prophet's example [uncertain reading].

يقول وقال الحق والصدق أنني

حفيظ عليم ما على صادق عتب

He says—and spoke rightly and truthfully—‘I am

a watchful guardian, well informed.’ No truthful person deserves reproach.

فلو كُسِيَ الفولاذ حدة خاطري

تساوى لديه اللحم والحجر الصلب

If steel were clothed in the sharpness of my mind,

flesh and hard stone would be alike to it.

ولو كان للنيران بعض ذكائه

وفاض عليها لجة البحر لم يخب

And if fires had some of its brilliance,

and the sea's depths surged over them, that brilliance would not die.

وما اختص علم دون علم بوجهتي

بل مسرحي في كلها الواسع الخصب

No branch of knowledge, to the exclusion of another, claims my attention;

rather, my field in all of them is broad and fertile.

وما لي عميمٌ لست أخشى نفاده

بإنفاقه لا بل يزيد وينصب

What I possess is abundant; I do not fear its exhaustion

through spending it—no, rather it grows and pours forth.

سموت بنفسي لا بمجد هوت به

من الزمن الغدار آلاته الحدب

I rose by my own merit, not by glory brought low

by the crooked instruments of treacherous Time.

وأن شئت أخبار الدهور فإنني

أنا جامع التاريخ مذ نبت الهضب

And if you desire the chronicles of the ages, I—

I am history's compiler, from when the hills first sprang up.

يسافر علمي حيث سافرت ظاعناً

ويصحبني حيث استقلت بي النجب

My knowledge travels wherever I set out on a journey,

and accompanies me wherever fine-bred camels bear me.

أنا الشمس في جو العلوم منيرةً

ولكنّ عيبي أنّ مطلعِيَ الغرب

I am the sun, shining in the sky of the sciences,

but my flaw is that my rising-place is the West.

ولو أنني من جانب الشرق طالعُ

لجدُ على ما ضاع من ذكري النهب

If I were rising from the eastern quarter,

there would be a scramble for the renown of mine now lost.

ولي نحو أكناف العراق صبابةٌ

ولا غرو أن يستوحش الكلف الصب

I have a yearning for the regions of Iraq,

and no wonder that a passionate, lovesick lover feels lonely.

فإن ينزل الرحمن رحلي بينهم

فحينئذ يبدو التأسف والكزب

If the All-Merciful sets down my baggage among them,

then regret and anguish [uncertain reading] will appear.

فكم قائل أغفلته وهو حاضر

وأطلب ما عنه تجيء به الكتب

How many will say, ‘I neglected him while he was present,

yet I seek what books convey from him.’

هنالك يدري أن للعبد قصة

وإن كساد العلم آفته القرب

Then he will know that this servant has a story,

and that nearness is the blight that leaves knowledge unsought.

فيا عجباً من غاب عنهم تشوقوا

له ودنؤ المرء من دراهم ذنب

How strange! Whoever is absent from them, they yearn

for him; yet a man's nearness to their home is a sin [uncertain wording].

وأنت مكاناً ضاق عني لضيقٌ

على أنه فيحٌ مهامهه سهب

And you, a place too narrow for me, are indeed narrow,

although it is spacious, its wildernesses broad plains.

وإن رجالاً ضيعوني لضيعٌ

وإن زماناً لم أنل خصبه جدب

Indeed, men who neglected me are themselves worthless,

and an age whose bounty I have not gained is barren.