آيات حسنك قد أبدت لنا عجبا

وكم لمرسل دمعي في هواك نبا

The signs of your beauty have shown us wonders.

And how many tidings the messenger of my tears bears in loving you!

يا تاركي مثلا من غير فاصلة

لا تجعل العتب يوما للجفا سببا

O you who leave me a byword without a final pause,

Never make reproach a cause of estrangement.

رفقاً بصبّ قضى يوم النوى اسفا

وما قضى من وصال في الهوى اربا

Be gentle with a lover who died sorrowfully on separation's day,

Without fulfilling his desire for union in love.

واعطف لمضنى لغير الوجد فيك هوى

ما مال يوما ولو أفنيته وصبا

And be kind to a wasted lover, who toward any love but passion for you

Has never turned, though you destroy him with suffering.

من لي به بابلي الطرف مقلته

هاروت منها استفاد السحر واكتسبا

Who will bring me that Babylonian-gazed one? His eye—

From it Harut learned and acquired sorcery.

ما زال يبسم منه الثغر عن برد

وطيب عرف عبير مازج الضربا

His mouth never ceases to smile, revealing hailstones

And the sweet scent of perfume mingled with white honey,

حتى اغتدى الدر في سلاكه صدفا

والمندل الرطب في اوطانه حطبا

Until pearls upon their strings became mere shells,

And moist aloeswood in its native lands mere firewood.

ساق عليه سمات البشر قد ظهرت

اما تراه غدا بالراح مختضبا

A cupbearer upon whom signs of gladness have appeared—

Do you not see how he has become stained with wine?

وقام يسعى بها واليس معتكر

فأطلعت من سماكاساتها شهبا

And he rose to carry it round while the [night] was murky,

And it brought forth shooting stars from the heaven of its cups.

راح اذا مسها بالماء لامسُها

تخاله بشعاع لمزج ملتهبا

Wine: when its handler touches it with water,

You think him aflame with the radiance of mixing.

ولست ادري اذا ما الماء لامسها

أأنجما اطلعت في الكأس أم حببا

And I do not know, when water touches it,

Whether it brings forth stars in the cup, or bubbles.

في ليلة شهبها امست تراقبنا

فليس تخلو بها من اعين الرقبا

In a night whose stars have begun to watch us,

You are never free in it from the eyes of watchers.

يديرها طيب الالحان معربها

ظبي من الترك لكن جانس العربا

Sweet in song and eloquently voicing its melodies, he passes it round—

A gazelle of the Turks, yet akin to the Arabs.

اخو هلال ويعزى للنظير معا

بدر اذا ما بد غصنٌ اذا انتسبا

A brother to a crescent, ascribed to a peer as well—

A full moon when he appears, a bough when his lineage is traced.

حلو المراشف الا انه شنب

كأنما الدر في فيه جرى شنبا

Sweet of lips, save that his teeth are cool and fine,

As though pearls flowed in his mouth as cool white teeth.

بخده في الحواشي خط عارضه

لاما فأبدع بالريحان ما كتبا

At the edges of his cheek, his beard traced

A lam—how wondrous the writing it made in basil!

ما شام طرفي برقا من ثنيته

الا وانشأت من دمعي له سحبا

Never did my eye glimpse lightning from his front tooth

Without my raising clouds for it from my tears.

أتعبت روحي على راح بمرشفه

وربما فاز بالراحات من تعبا

I wearied my soul seeking wine upon his lip,

And often the one who toils gains repose.

اني رضيت بما يرضيه من تلفي

فما علي اذا ما عاذلي غضبا

I am content with whatever pleases him of my destruction;

What does it matter to me if my censurer grows angry?

والله لا حال قلبي عن محبته

يوما ولا ام لي ان عقني وابا

By God, my heart shall never turn from loving him,

For even a day—may I have no mother!—if he spurns me and refuses.

ولا الفت الكرى ان قلت مقتفيا

ردوا على طرفي النوم الذي سلبا

Nor may I ever know sleep if, in imitation, I say:

“Give back to my eye the sleep that was stolen!”

ولا أطعت لشيطان السلو ولي

على هواه شهاب قد سما رتبا

Nor have I obeyed the devil of forgetting; I have

Against its prompting Shihab, a shooting star exalted in rank:

قاضي القضاة الذي ما رمت نائله

الا وفقري مني حاول الهربا

The chief judge, whose bounty I never sought

Without my poverty trying to flee from me.

فهو الجواد الذي فاق الجياد وقد

اعيا السوابق في شأو العلا طلبا

For he is the generous steed who surpassed all steeds, and has

Wearied the front-runners pursuing the course of glory.

اقلامه بعطاياه لها طرب

فهل سمعتم بشيء يطرب القضبا

His pens exult in his gifts;

Have you heard of anything that makes reed-stalks rejoice?

ما حاتم واياس في ندا وذكا

ما قيس في الراي ما قسٌّ اذا خطبا

What are Hatim and Iyas in generosity and intelligence?

What is Qays in judgment, or Quss when he speaks?

وفي البلاغة ما سحبانها فلكم

من ذيل فخر على سحبان قد سحبا

And in eloquence, what is its Sahban? How many

Trains of glory he has trailed over Sahban!

ان قلت بحر نوال لم اقل شططا

او قلت حبر علوم لم اقل كذبا

If I call him an ocean of bounty, I speak no exaggeration,

Or call him a scholar of the sciences, I tell no lie.

سامي الذرى ترفع الاثقال راحته

ولم تجد تعبا كلا ولا نصبا

Lofty of summits, his palm lifts burdens,

Yet it feels no fatigue—no, nor weariness.

بظلها قد أمدتنا ونائلها

يوم الندا فحمدنا الروض والسحبا

With its shade and bounty it has sustained us

On the day of generosity, so we praised the gardens and clouds.

افديه واري زناد الفضل ادبني

بمدحه فاقتبست العلم والادبا

I would ransom him, whose flints of excellence spark: he schooled me

Through praising him, and I gained learning and refinement.

لم لا اقول لقد جاد الزمان به

ولا اقول استرد اليوم ما وهبا

Why should I not say, “Time has indeed bestowed him,”

And not say, “Today it reclaimed what it gave”?

ان كان دهري نبل اليوم يسلب ما

يعطي فتاب وها قد رد ما سلبا

If my fortune, [before] today, used to snatch away what

It gave, it has repented—behold, it has restored what it took.

متى بشركي اقضي حق واجبه

ومن بمدحك يقضي بعض ما وجبا

When can my [thanks] discharge the rightful debt I owe him?

And who can pay, by praising you, even part of what is due?

ياذا الذي رفع المجد الاثيل له

بيتا ومدت به العليا له طنبا

O you for whom deep-rooted glory raised

A house, and high honor stretched a tent-rope for him.

منحتني مذ اتاح الفقر بي نعما

من النوال فما لي لم اقل ذهبا

You granted me, since poverty befell me, blessings

Of bounty—why did I not call them gold?

فامدد يمينا لغير البذل ما صحبت

من اجل ذاك لها الدينار ما صحبا

Then extend a right hand that has accompanied nothing but giving;

For that reason, no dinar has kept it company.

واستجلها مدحة لولاك شاعرها

ما كان فيك اجاد الشعر واقتضبا

And behold it unveiled, a praise-poem whose poet, but for you,

Would not have excelled in verse about you or improvised it.

لو ابصر المتنبي فضل معجزها

لقال عندي لهذا المدح أي نبا

Had al-Mutanabbi seen the excellence of its wondrous art,

He would say, “What tidings I have of this praise!”

او النباتي لو جارىبرقته

ما رشحت لأرته القطر منسكبا

Or al-Nabati, had he matched, with his delicacy,

What it exuded, it would have shown him rain pouring down.

او ابن حجة لو رام الوقوف بها

لطاف يسعى الى ابياتها عجبا

Or Ibn Hijjah, had he sought to stop before it,

He would have circled about, hastening toward its verses in wonder.

قصيدة بطرب الاسماع قائلها

يهتز عطف السخا من حسنها طربا

A poem whose reciter delights the ears;

Generosity's side sways with rapture at its beauty.

فاسلم ودم وابق في امن وفي دعة

يا خير مولى كفيت الشر والنوبا

Be safe, endure, and remain in security and ease,

O best of patrons, may you be spared evil and calamities.

لا زال مدحي يتلى فيك مجمله

مفصلا يملأ الاسفار والكتبا

May the whole of my praise of you forever be recited,

In full detail, filling volumes and books,

ما طاب نشر الثنا يوما لمنتشق

وفاح عطر وهبت في الصباح صبا

As long as praise's fragrance is sweet to one who breathes it,

And perfume wafts, and an east breeze blows at dawn.