من ناشد لي جؤذر الرمل فقد

صاد بأشراك الهوى قلبي وصد

Who will seek for me the young oryx of the sands? For he has

caught my heart in love's snares, then turned away.

علام يا ريم قتلت عامداً

بطرفك الصب ولم تعط القود

Why, O gazelle, did you deliberately kill

the lovesick one with your gaze, without yielding to blood-requital?

يا مالكاً قلبي ونار حسنه

ما بين أحشائي لهيبها اتقد

O master of my heart, whose beauty's fire

has kindled its flame within my entrails.

لو كان قسيس النصارى شاهداً

شعلة خديك سواها ما عبد

If a Christian priest had witnessed

the blaze of your cheeks, he would have worshipped nothing else.

صورك الحسن لدي قبلةً

صلى لها قلبي غراماً وسجد

Beauty fashioned you as my direction of prayer;

my heart prayed toward it in passion and prostrated itself.

فرحت في غرامه فرداً كما

بحسنه بين الورى قد إنفرد

So I became alone in loving him, just as

he stood alone among humankind in beauty.

حل عزى صبري في لواحظ

نفاثة السحر لقلبي بالعقد

He loosened the bonds of my patience with glances

that breathe sorcery over the knots of my heart.

سلطه الحسن علينا مذ علا

وفرته تاجاً من الشعر عقد

Beauty gave him dominion over us, since above

his locks it bound a crown of hair.

أقام جسمي غرضاً فمذ رمى

سهام عينيه سواي ما قصد

He set my body up as a target; since he loosed

the arrows of his eyes, he has aimed at none but me.

أن أينع الروض بخديه من

عذب لماه السلسبيل قد ورد

If the garden has blossomed on his cheeks, from

the sweet Salsabil of his dark lips it has drunk.

وعقرب الصدغ بروض خده

لمجتني الورد أقامها رصد

And the scorpion of his temple-lock, in his cheek's garden,

he stationed to watch for the rose-gatherer.

يبسم عن طلع منضد ومن

لا لبن ومن أقاح وبرد

He smiles to reveal clustered palm buds, and

[unclear wording: 'not milk'], and daisies and hailstones.

لا البيض منضاة ولا سمر القنا

مشرعة تحكي له لحظاً وقد

Neither drawn white blades nor brown spears,

when leveled, can match his gaze and stature.

ذا فعل ماضي لحظه في كدي

أمضى من العضب الجراز وأحد

This is the work of his keen gaze in tormenting me:

more piercing and sharper than a keen, cleaving sword.

إن جرحت عيني أديم خده

فقد تقاضى تارةً من الكيد

If my eye has wounded the skin of his cheek,

he has, in turn, exacted repayment through guile.

لو قابل الشمس فمنه خجلا

تسترت من الغمام في لبد

If he faced the sun, then, ashamed before him,

it would veil itself in dense masses of cloud.

كالشمس نور وجهه لكنه

قد لاح للصب بدارة الأسد

His face shines like the sun, but

it has appeared to the lovesick one in the circle of the Lion.

كم أوعد الصب بلقياه فما

أنجز في وعد التلاقي ما وعد

How often he promised the lover a meeting with him, yet never

fulfilled what he promised of their reunion.

يا ناكص الصدغ على الخد به

رسم دموعي فوق خدي المرد

O you whose temple-lock curls back upon your cheek—in it is

the tracing of my tears upon my smooth cheeks.

وعاطل الجيد عن الحلي ومن

علن النضار قد تحلى بالجيد

And you whose neck is bare of jewels, and whose

gold [wording unclear] has adorned itself with your neck.

وكاحل الطرف علام بالجفا

كحلت أجفاني عليك بالسهد

And you with kohl-dark eyes, why, by shunning me,

have you kohled my eyelids with sleeplessness over you?

أمال منك الدل خوط بانةٍ

كالصعدة السمراء زانها الميد

Your coquetry has inclined a slender bān-tree shoot,

like a tawny spear, adorned by its sway.

ومالكي في مذهب الحب أرى

من جعفر المذهب أهداني الرشد

And I see my master in the school of love

has given me right guidance from Ja'far's school.

جد لنيل المكرمات فانتقى

لئالئ العلم ومن جد وجد

He strove to attain noble virtues, and selected

the pearls of knowledge; whoever strives finds.

بجده وجده نال المنى

فساد كل الخلق في جد وجد

Through his diligence and good fortune he attained his wishes,

and surpassed all mankind in diligence and fortune.

خلفك عنه يا مباريه فقد

أصبح عنك مالكاً أقصى الأمد

Fall back from him, O rival, for he

now holds the farthest goal, beyond your reach,

معوذاً بقل هو اللضه أحد

من شر كل حاسد إذا حسد

protected by 'Say: He is Allah, One,'

from the evil of every envier when he envies.

ثبت يدا حاسده وقد لوت

بجيده اللوماء حبل من مسد

May his envier's hands perish! And she has wound

round his neck a palm-fiber rope—the reproachful woman.

لا عجب أن فاخر الخلق فمن

بحر العلوم علمه قد استمد

No wonder he vies with mankind in glory, for from

the ocean of the sciences he has drawn his knowledge.

اقر عين المكرمات أمه

وقلما تقر عيناً في ولد

He gladdened the eye of Nobility, his mother,

and seldom does her eye find joy in a child.

أصعده اللَه لأعلى رتبةٍ

لو رام أدناه الهلال ما صعد

God raised him to the highest rank;

if the crescent sought his lowest station, it could not ascend.

قد ورث العلياء عن أكارمٍ

تسالموها بينهم يداً بيد

He inherited high honor from noble forebears

who passed it among themselves, hand to hand.

نماك للمجد الأثيل معشر

فلا يدانيهم إلى المجد أحد

A clan has raised you to deeply rooted glory;

no one can rival them in attaining glory.

يا أسرة المجد ضفت عليكم

مطارف ينسجها البشر جدد

O family of glory, you are draped in

fresh mantles woven by gladness.

فناؤكم لدى الوفود كعبةً

على سواها الوفد قط ما وفد

Your courtyard is a Kaaba in the eyes of delegations;

no delegation has ever journeyed to another.

سحب أيادي فضلكم على الورى

تصوب لكن صوبها إلى الأبد

The clouds of your generous favors over humankind

pour down, but their downpour lasts forever.

تخير اللَه علا محمد

خير عمادٍ لكم ومعتمد

God chose Muhammad's lofty glory

as your finest pillar and support.

فاستمسكوا منه بأقوى حجةٍ

تفحم في بيانها الخصم الألد

So hold fast to the strongest proof from him,

whose exposition silences the fiercest disputant.

من قاسه في غيره علماً فقد

قاس ندى البحر المحيط بالثمد

Whoever compares him with another in learning has

compared the bounty of the encircling ocean to a scant pool.

وذو يراع درر العلم به

تنظمت من عبد ما كانت بدد

And he has a pen by which the pearls of knowledge

were strung after they had lain scattered.

يراعة بالعلم قط قدها

فللعدا يشتمها قد وقد

A reed pen whose shaft was trimmed through learning;

for foes who smell it, it is cutting and flame.

تمسك الطرس بمسك لفظها

كأنها تكتب في مسك وند

It perfumes the page with the musk of its words,

as though it writes in musk and fragrant incense.

قومها الفكر وكانت خوناً

لا عوجاً فيها ولا فيها أود

Thought straightened it, though it had been treacherous:

neither crookedness nor bending remains in it.

أيا مقيم راية العلم علاً

فذاك من عن نصرة الدين قعد

O you who raise the banner of knowledge on high,

may whoever shirked defending the faith be your ransom.

جريت للعلم جواداً وكبا

كما انتبهت للمعالي ورقد

You raced toward knowledge like a noble steed, while he stumbled,

just as you awoke to lofty aims while he slept.

مسالك العلم إذا ما درست

شرحت في الدين مسالكاً جدد

Whenever the paths of knowledge faded,

you expounded new paths in religion.

في علمك الناس سواء شرع فكل

صادٍ من معانيه ورد

In your knowledge all people share equally; so every

thirsty one has drunk from its meanings.

دوموا بعيش ناعمٍ مقبل

مدى الزمان لم يدنسه أحد

Live on in a life of ease and good fortune,

throughout time, unsullied by anyone.