شد المناطق يثني عطف مخمور

ظبؤٌ من الترك في الحاظ يعفور

The tightening of sashes bends the flank of a tipsy one—

a gazelle of the Turks, with a young antelope's eyes.

ولاح تحت ظلال الشعر مبتسما

فخلت صبحا اضا في جنح ريجور

He appeared, smiling, beneath the shadows of his hair,

and I thought a dawn had shone in the folds of pitch-black night.

من فيه بات يعاطيني وريقته

راحا محببة في كأس بلور

All night he offered me drink from his mouth, and his saliva was

delightful wine in a crystal goblet.

تذهبت وجنتاه حين مازجها

من ذوب كأس حمياه باكسير

His cheeks turned golden when he blended them

with an elixir from the liquid in his heady wine-cup.

هواه لي مطلب غارت موانعه

لأن من خصرة لي باب تغوير

His love is my goal; its barriers have sunk away,

for his waist gives me a gateway into the depths.

والجسم والشعر لي ابدى مطابقة

فهمت ما بين ممدود ومقصور

His body and hair revealed an antithesis to me,

so I was lovestruck between the long and the short.

اسال دمعي وقد ابدى تبسمه

فرقّ شعري بمنظوم ومنثور

He made my tears flow as he revealed his smile,

so my poetry grew tender, in verse and prose.

يجرّ ذبل الصبا المرفوع من مرح

واحيرتا بين مرفوع ومجرور

In merriment he trails youth's uplifted train—

oh, my bewilderment between the uplifted and the dragged!

يحكي جنى النحل بالريق الرحيق وبال

خصر المهفهف او ساط الزنابير

In his nectar-sweet saliva he recalls the bees' harvest, and in his

slender waist, the middles of wasps.

الله اكبر اذ يبدو ولا عجب

يا صاح من رؤية الاقمار تكبيري

'God is greatest!' when he appears—and no wonder,

O friend, my cry of God's greatness comes from seeing moons.

مبقل الخد قد راعيت عارضه

بعارض من سما الاجفان ممطور

His cheek sprouts down; I have tended his side-whiskers

with a rain-drenched cloud from the sky of my eyelids.

رشا تجمع من غصن ومن قمر

وصيغ رباه من مسك وكافور

A fawn formed from a bough and a moon,

and his mounds were fashioned from musk and camphor.

تضيء غرته من تحت طرته

كما تضيء الليالي بابن فرفور

His brow shines beneath his forelock,

as the nights shine through Ibn Farfur.

قاضي القضاة الذي عين الزمان به

قرّت ومن فعله لي أي تقرير

The chief judge, through whom the eye of Time

finds delight—what assurance his deeds give me!

مولى به لا يزال الفضل منحصرا

طول المدى ونداه غير محصور

A patron in whom excellence is ever contained,

throughout time, while his bounty knows no bounds.

قالوا هو الغيث والتفريق بينهما

اضوا واشهر من نار ومن نور

They said, 'He is the rain'; yet the difference between them

is brighter and clearer than fire and light.

الغيث ان شح او ان شح وابله

نزر وهذا عطاه غير منزور

Rain, if it is sparing, or if its downpour is sparing,

is meager, but this man's bounty is never meager.

يراعه قد حوى سر الفصاحة مع

حسن الترسل في تحرير تحبير

His reed pen has held the secret of eloquence, together with

the beauty of letter-writing in polished, embellished composition.

اعراب يمناه بل اعراب نائله

يجل في الحد عن نقص وتغيير

His right hand's eloquence—rather, his bounty's eloquence—

is, by definition, above deficiency and change.

وليس اعرابه في الفضل يلحقه

ما يلحق النحو من حذف وتقدير

And his expression of excellence is untouched

by the omissions and implied elements that affect grammar.

ملء نحو راحته ان رمت نائلها

فانها لتري صرف الدنانير

Turn toward his palm if you seek its bounty,

for it shows you dinars being dispensed.

واحجج الى حرم بالبر معتمر

تفز يجج حميد السعى مبرور

And make pilgrimage to a sanctuary filled with goodness;

you will gain an accepted pilgrimage, praiseworthy in its striving.

ساد الورى ولقد شاد العلا رتبا

افديه من حرم بالمجد معمور

He is mankind's master and has built glory tier upon tier;

I would ransom him—what a sanctuary, filled with glory!

منه تهلل وجه الدهر من فرح

والناس ما بين تهليل وتكبير

Because of him, Time's face has beamed with joy,

and people alternate between 'No god but God' and 'God is greatest.'

والارض قد كسيت من سندس حللا

مفوّقات بانواع الازاهير

The earth has been clothed in robes of fine silk,

patterned with every kind of blossom.

وبالسرور رباها قد زهت وربت

والبشر أعان فيها بالتباشير

With joy her hills have flourished and swelled,

and gladness has lent its aid there with good tidings.

وجلقٌ قد حلت انهارها وصفت

وزال ما كان من هم وتكدير

Jilliq's rivers have grown sweet and clear,

and all the former worry and distress have vanished.

أعدت بدي يوم اسداء الندا يده

وللكواكب قالوا أي تاثير

His hand [opening words unclear] on the day of bestowing bounty;

yet they say, 'What influence the stars have!'

يا ناظر الجيش يا قاضي القضاة ومن

ىياته الغر تتلى في الاساطير

O army overseer, O chief judge, you whose

radiant signs are recited in the chronicles,

خذها اليك قصيدا لا نظير لها

حسب اتفاقي وايرادي وتخييري

accept this poem, which has no equal,

in keeping with my inspiration, my expression, and my choice.

ما لابن برد على منوالها نسق

ولم يحك مثلها من عهد سابور

Ibn Burd has no verse woven on its loom,

nor has its like been woven since the age of Sabur.

رقيقة ذات اغزال محررة

نقحتها بعد تهذيب وتحرير

Delicate, with love lyrics, carefully crafted,

I polished it after refinement and careful composition.

تقدمت ببسيط القول من ادبي

تبث عذري عن افراط تأخيري

It came forth in the plain speech of my art,

offering my excuse for my overlong delay.

طالت لتظهر من سر البلاغة ما

اودعت في صدرها في ضمن تقصيري

It grew long to reveal, from the secret of eloquence, what

I lodged in its opening, within my own shortcomings.

خذ من ثنائي ما اسطيع اذكره

لا تلزمني فهذا حسب تيسيري

Take of my praise what I can utter;

do not press me: this is as much as I can manage.