1. لا أَسأَلُ الربعَ وأَطلالَهْ

    ولا ضنيناً باللها مالَهْ

    I do not question the dwelling-site and its ruins,

    nor ask a miser, grudging with gifts, for his wealth.

  2. أَرفعُ همى وأَصون المُنى

    عن طمعٍ أَنفُضُ غِربالَهْ

    I raise my ambition and safeguard my hopes

    from greed whose sieve I shake out.

  3. فما أُرى الاَّ على موردٍ

    أُناجِذُ المجدَ وأَشغالَهْ

    So I am seen only at a watering place,

    grappling with glory and its labors.

  4. كأَنما كُوري وأَنساعُه

    صُبَّ على خنساء ذيالَهْ

    It is as though my camel-saddle and its girths

    were cast upon a snub-nosed, long-tailed wild cow,

  5. أَو ناشط ضَمَّتْ الى حوزهِ

    بوارحُ الجوزاءِ أَطَّالَهْ

    or a roaming wild bull, into whose refuge

    Gemini's scorching winds have driven his flanks.

  6. فَظلَّ بالصمدِ على مربأٍ

    يُراصدُ الليلَ وأهْوالَهْ

    Then he stayed on firm high ground, at a lookout,

    watching the night and its terrors,

  7. كيما يُراميه بمرقومةٍ

    مثل شريج النبلِ والضالَهْ

    to shoot back at it with a marked leg,

    like matching arrow-shafts and a wild-lote bough.

  8. من يصحبِ الدنيا يكن طامعاً

    في الماءِ ان يقنصَ تمثالَهْ

    Whoever keeps company with this world is hoping

    to catch his own reflection in water.

  9. مثلُ هُيامِ الرملِ مُنهالهُ

    لا يملِك الجفنُ لها حَالَهْ

    Its outpouring is like loose sand;

    no eye can hold it in a single state.

  10. تُميتُ بالزاد وتُحيي به

    فهي على الأَنفسِ مُحتالَهْ

    It kills with sustenance and gives life through it;

    so it schemes against souls.

  11. بدَّلَ صرفُ الدهر أَبدالَه

    واستقبل العاملُ أَعمالَهْ

    Time's course has changed its substitutes,

    and the worker has taken up his labors anew.

  12. يَنبا الفتى منه على حالةٍ

    اِذْ صُرِفَتْ عن وجهها الحالَهْ

    A young man recoils from it in a certain condition,

    when that condition is diverted from its course.

  13. فتارةً يشرَبُ أَكدَارَه

    وتارةً يشرَب سَلسَالَهْ

    So at times he drinks its murky waters,

    and at times he drinks its sweet, flowing water.

  14. هذا هلالٌ بعدما غالَه

    من حدثانِ الدهر ما غالَهْ

    Here is Hilal, after he was struck

    by the calamities of time that struck him.

  15. أصبح يَبرى للعدى نبلَه

    قد جمع اللهُ له بَالَهْ

    He now fashions his arrows for his foes;

    God has set his affairs in order.

  16. وصارتِ الدرع التي ضُوعنَتْ

    بَعدَ لباسٍ القِدِّ سِربالَهْ

    And the closely interlinked coat of mail has become

    his tunic, after his garb of leather thongs.

  17. فقل لذا المبدعِ في عفوه

    طوبى لِمأسُورِكَ طوبى لَهْ

    So say to this man, wondrous in his pardon:

    Blessed is your captive—blessed is he!

  18. أَشليتَ منه أَسداً ضارياً

    عَوَّدَ مضغَ اللحم أَشبالَهْ

    From him you have unleashed a ravening lion,

    who has accustomed his cubs to chewing flesh.

  19. أَصيدَ لا يرهبُ من بأسه

    عجارفَ الدهرِ وأوجالَهْ

    Proud-necked, in his strength he does not fear

    time's brutalities and its terrors.

  20. فارمِ به ان طَرقتْ موئدٌ

    مشاعرَ الروع وأبطالَهْ

    Hurl him, if a deadly calamity comes by night,

    against the fields of terror and its champions,

  21. وكل نعَّارِ الى فتنَةٍ

    شَمَّرَ للوثبةِ أَذيالَهْ

    and every clamorous caller to sedition

    who has tucked up his skirts for the leap.

  22. لعلَّه ان شَطَنَتْ داره

    وصارتِ الاحبالُ آجالَهْ

    Perhaps, if his dwelling grows distant,

    and the cords become his appointed ends,

  23. واستولتِ الخمرُ على لُبِّهِ

    في سكرة تبسط آمالَهْ

    and wine masters his mind,

    in an intoxication that stretches out his hopes,

  24. انْ يذكر الجهدَ وما ناله

    فيشكرُ الطولَ الذي طالَهْ

    he will remember hardship and what befell him,

    and give thanks for the bounty that reached him.

  25. أَسرفَ فخرُ الملكِ في جودِه

    حتى تحامى الناسُ اِفضالَهْ

    Fakhr al-Mulk went to excess in his generosity,

    until people shrank from his bounty.

  26. له قاراتِ الصُّوى رجفةٌ

    زلزل فيها الرعبُ زلزالَهْ

    The cairn-marked hills tremble before him,

    where terror has unleashed its own earthquake.

  27. لم تَكدِ الأرضُ بأَقطارِها

    تحمِلها والأرضُ حمَّالَهْ

    The earth, throughout its expanses, could scarcely

    bear it, though the earth is a mighty bearer.

  28. وموقفٌ بالامسِ في واسطٍ

    هالَ الصناديدَ وما هالَهْ

    And a stand yesterday at Wasit

    terrified the champions, but did not terrify him,

  29. اِذْ نَغِلَ الملكُ ودبتْ له

    رَبداء بالأبرةِ شَوَّالَهُ

    when the realm festered, and toward it crept

    a dusky scorpion, its stinger held high.

  30. لا يَهتدي الناسُ لبزلائِها

    والشر قد أَبهم أَقفالَهْ

    People found no way through its grave dilemma,

    and evil had made its locks inscrutable.

  31. طبقَ بالرأي أَبو غالب

    مفاصلَ الأَمرِ وأَوصالَهْ

    With his judgment, Abu Ghalib struck precisely

    at the affair's joints and articulations.

  32. اذا مليكٌ زُجِرَتْ طيرُه

    كانت له كنيتُه فالَهْ

    When a sovereign's birds are driven for augury,

    his byname is his good omen.

  33. لا يسلمُ الجارَ لما جرَّه

    والطودُ لا يُسلم أَوعالَهْ

    He does not surrender his neighbor to what has dragged him down,

    and the mountain does not surrender its ibex.

  34. ولا تَراه هامداً همَّه

    يفرح بالخيرِ اذا نالَهْ

    Nor do you see him with his resolve extinguished;

    he rejoices in good fortune when it reaches him.

  35. كأَنما أَجرى على خَدِّهِ

    سُلافَ حوَّارينَ جِريالَهْ

    It is as though he has let flow upon his cheek

    the crimson hue of Hawwarin's choice wine.

  36. من سُنّةِ البدر له سُدفَةٌ

    وطلعةُ الشمسِ له هَالَهْ

    From the full moon's face he has a gleam,

    and the rising sun is his halo.

  37. مُقابلُ الاطرافِ في مَنصَبٍ

    حيثُ يناصي عَمُّهُ خَالَهْ

    He is nobly descended on every side, in a lineage

    where his paternal uncle rivals his maternal uncle.

  38. لم يَخلقِ اللهُ فتىً مثلَه

    هيهاتَ أَنْ يخلقَ أَمثالَهْ

    God has never created a young man like him;

    how remote the prospect of His creating his equals!