نقل الغرام حديث دمعي مرسلا

وحكاه عن جفني القريح مسلسلا

Love transmitted the tale of my tears without a chain,

And related it from my wounded eyelid, link by link.

وروى النسيم حديث ذياك الحمى

وسألت منه متى اللقا فتعللا

The breeze recounted the tale of yonder sanctuary,

And I asked it when we would meet, but it made excuses.

يا ليته لي كان حملا طيبا

وشذا حماه إل المشوق تحملا

Ah, would that it had been a fragrant burden for me,

And carried its sanctuary's scent to the yearning lover.

ارض اذا الوسمي باكرها ربت

وشممت منها عنبرا وقرنفلا

A land that swells when autumn rain visits it at dawn,

And from it I breathed ambergris and cloves.

واذا غريب الدار حل بها غدا

من اهلها في رفعة وتأهلا

When a stranger far from home settles there, he becomes

One of its people, honored and at home.

وبها منازله فليس يشوقه

من بعدها ذكرى حبيب لا ولا

His dwellings are there; he is not stirred

Thereafter by a beloved's memory—no, never.

بلد بها طفلا نشأت ولم ازل

ابدا على ابياتها متطفلا

A town where I grew up as a child, and have remained

Forever an unbidden guest at its houses.

في ذكر عاصيها يروق اذا جرى

ويزيد في الدولاب فيه تغزلا

Recalling its Asi is delightful when it flows,

And one sings still more ardently of its waterwheel.

لله ما احلاه دولابا لقد

ابدى لنا دورا به وتسلسلا

God be praised—what a lovely waterwheel! It has indeed

Shown us turning and linked succession within it.

سقيا لهاتيك النواعير التي

في كل روض قد ارتنا جدولا

May rain bless those waterwheels which

Have shown us a stream in every garden.

واها لايام لنا مرت بها

من بعدها والله عيشي ما حلا

Ah, for the days of ours that passed there!

Since then, by God, my life has had no sweetness.

قسما بما قضيت بين شطوطها

لا ملت يوما عن شريعتها إلى

I swear by the time I spent between its banks:

Never have I turned from its watering-place toward...

كلا ولا من بعد كوثر مائها

يشتاق قلبي في الموارد منهلا

No indeed; nor, after the Kawthar of its waters,

Does my heart crave a drinking-place among the springs.

لولا بقاياه وحقك في فمي

ما قلت شعرا بعدها وترسلا

Were not its lingering traces in my mouth—by your honor—

I would have uttered neither verse nor epistolary prose thereafter.

يا ساكني مغنى حماة نعمتم

وليهنكم دار السعادة منزلا

O inhabitants of Hama's abode, may you live in bliss!

May the abode of happiness delight you as your home.

لا تحسبوا عنكم تبدل في الهوى

قلبي وحاشا ان اقول تبدلا

Do not think that it has turned from you in love—

My heart; far be it from me to say it has changed.

او غبتم عن ناظري فخيالكم

ابدا بقلبي لا يزال مخيلا

Or, should you be absent from my sight, your image

Remains forever pictured within my heart.

لكن عليّ الدهر اخنى واعتدى

ظلما وبالغ في البعاد وطولا

But Time has ravaged and wronged me,

Unjustly, pressing separation to extremes and prolonging it.

وشربت كأس البين منه منزعا

صبرا لعل الدهر ان ينتقلا

And I drank from it the cup of parting, torn away,

With patience, in hope that Time might change.

ما ضر لو جاد الزمان بها كما

قد كنت قبل اليوم فيها اولا

What harm if Time were generous with it, as

I once lived there before this day?

وعلى اليسير جعلت ما ملكت يدي

عند التلاقي مجملا ومفصلا

I would reckon all my hand possessed a trifle,

At reunion, both as a whole and in every part.

والعين كنت لها بذلت دماءها

ذهبا جرى وعلى الخدود تسلسلا

And for it I would have offered my eye's blood,

Gold that flowed and streamed in chains down my cheeks.

وارى الربوع المشرقات وبدرها

وبها جلال الدين مشكاة العلا

And see the radiant dwellings and their full moon,

And there is Jalal al-Din, the lamp-niche of eminence:

قاضي القضاة وواحد العصر الذي

كم غامض ابدى وأوضح مشكلا

The chief judge, the peerless man of the age, who

Has brought many an obscurity to light and clarified difficulties.

نجل الكرام الطيبين ومن حوى

نسبا ومجدا عاليا ومؤثلا

Scion of noble, virtuous men, and one who possesses

Lineage and glory, lofty and firmly rooted.

بحر سريع الجود الا انه

طابت مصادره ومورده حلا

A sea, swift in generosity—except that

His outflows are pleasant and his drinking-place is sweet.

لا عيب فيه غير ان يمينه

تولي النوال سجية وتفضلا

He has no fault, except that his right hand

Bestows bounty by nature and as a gracious favor.

واذا اتى يوما اليه سائل

ابدى سرورا وجهه وتهللا

And when a petitioner comes to him one day,

His face shows joy and lights up.

اوفى واوفر في الندى من حاتم

جودا وفي الامثال اضحى امثلا

More unstinting and abundant in largesse than Hatim,

In giving; among exemplars he has become the most exemplary.

واذا تلا وعظ فقسٌ فصاحة

وتراه من سحابن ابلغ مقولا

When he recites an admonition, he is a Quss in eloquence,

And you find him more eloquent in speech than Sahban.

ان قلت ليث فهو اعظم سطوة

او قلت غيث فهو منه اجزلا

If you call him a lion, he is mightier still;

Or call him rain, he is more abundant than it.

ايامه اضحت ربيا كلها

فلذاك طاب زمانها وتعدلا

His days have all become springtime;

So their season has grown pleasant and temperate.

هو روضة العليا وبهجة دوحها

لمن اجتنى روض المعالي واجتلى

He is the garden of eminence, the splendor of its spreading trees,

For whoever gathers from the garden of noble deeds and beholds it.

نالت به آل النصيبي رفعة

وسمت به شرفا إلى درج العلا

Through him the al-Nasibi family has gained eminence,

And through him risen in honor to the steps of greatness.

مولاي دعوة تخلص وافى بها

يرجو ويسأل ان تجاب وتقبلا

My lord, he has come bearing a plea for deliverance,

Hoping and asking that it be answered and accepted.

فلقد جنى دهري علي وخانني

يا ليته مما جناه تنصلا

For my Time has indeed wronged me and betrayed me;

Ah, would that it renounced the wrong it wrought!

وأضر بي مر السؤال وقبله

قد كان حالي حاليا فتعطلا

The bitterness of begging has hurt me; before it,

My state had been adorned, then was stripped bare.

وغدوت من بعد الموالي لا ارى

بيضا ولا صفرا لديّ ولا ولا

And since my patrons were gone, I have come to see

Neither white silver nor yellow gold with me—no, none.

فامدد إلى نحوي يمينا طالما

جادت علي تفضلا وتطولا

So stretch toward me a right hand that has so often

Given to me with gracious favor and bounty.

فلعل صبح نداح تشرق شمسه

وارى ظلام الفقر ولى وانجلى

So perhaps the sun of a bountiful dawn will rise,

And I may see poverty's darkness depart and clear.

لا زال ذكرك بالمحامد نشره

مسكا يضوع لنا شذاه ومندلا

May the fragrance of your name, in praises, ever remain

Musk whose scent wafts to us, and aloeswood.

وإلى سما العلياء ترقى صاعدا

والضد يهبط نازلا يهوي إلى

And may you rise, ascending, to the sky of eminence,

While the adversary sinks, descending, plunging toward...