أحيت قتيل الحب عين حياتها

ورنت فاودي الصب من لحظاتها

Her life-giving eye revived the one slain by love.

And she gazed; the lovesick man perished from her glances.

وتلفتت بين الظباء بجيدها

تعطو فاغضى الريم من لفتاتها

And she turned her neck amid the gazelles,

reaching upward; the gazelle lowered its gaze before her turns.

سكرى الجفون سقتك من أجفانها

أضعاف ما تسقيك من طاساتها

Drunken-lidded, she gave you from her eyelids

many times the draught she gives you from her drinking bowls.

فكأن في الكاسات ما في عينها

وكأن ما في العين في كاساتها

As though the cups held what is in her eye,

and what is in the eye were in her cups.

ميلاء قد دار المدام براسها

فهوت ترد الراح في راحتها

Swaying, with wine whirling in her head,

she sank down, returning the wine to her palm.

عاداتها المشي الرخاء تكفيّاً

فجرت على ما مرَّ من عاداتها

Her habit is to walk at ease, swaying,

so she followed her accustomed ways.

عدَّت جنايات الهوى وجنايتي

أني جنيت الورد من وجناتها

She counted love's offenses, and my offense was

that I plucked the roses from her cheeks.

أن تعبد النار المجوس بخدها

فمواقد النيران منشأ ذاتها

If the Magians worship the fire in her cheek,

then the hearths of fire are the origin of her being.

موهت حين حمت بنجد بيتها

فسألت بالغورين عن أبياتها

She misled me when she guarded her home in Najd,

so I asked in al-Ghawrayn about her dwellings.

دين وماطلة الديون لوت به

وقضت عليَّ بعذَّلي وقضاتها

A debt—and she who delays debts put it off,

and judged against me through my reproachers and her judges.

ولقد خلوت بها بعف سريرة

لم أقترف بالذنب في خلواتها

Indeed, I was alone with her, with a chaste heart;

I committed no sin when secluded with her.

نظرت فبيض الهند من أجفانها

وخطت فسمر الخط من قاماتها

She looked: the white swords of India came from her eyelids;

she stepped: al-Khatt's brown spears came from her stately forms.

يا أخت معتنق السيوف ألية

لولاك طاح أخوك في لهواتها

O sister of the swords' embracer, I swear:

but for you, your brother would have fallen into their jaws.

وقناة معتنق الرماح قوامها

بالصف يطعن لا طويل قناتها

Her stature is the spear of the man who embraces lances;

he thrusts in the battle-line—not her spear's long shaft.

حملت ولولا أن أراوغ دونها

قدَّت عليَّ الدرع في حملاتها

She charged; had I not dodged before her,

she would have split the armor upon me in her charges.

وتنكبت من حاجب قوساً لها

يرمي سهام الغنج من تلاتها

And she shouldered her bow, fashioned from an eyebrow,

which shoots coquettish arrows from her hillocks.

بدوية حضرية قمرية

قمرية شتى صنوف لغاتها

Bedouin, city-bred, moonlike,

dove-like—manifold are the kinds of her speech.

عرضت تشوب حضرة ببداوة

فأبان عن لغطين لغط قطاتها

She appeared, blending town life with desert life,

and her sandgrouse's cry revealed two kinds of speech.

وشمائل للخمر من نشواتها

ومخائل للروض من نشآتها

Wine takes its qualities from her raptures,

and the garden its charms from her growth.

تروي صباح الجوهري مكرراً

من ثغرها درراً ثقاة رواتها

Al-Jawhari's morning is recounted again and again,

as pearls from her mouth, by her trusted transmitters.

ورخيمة لألفاظ ودَّ مخارق

يروي رقيق غناه عن نغماتها

And mellow in words—Mukhāriq wished

to derive his delicate singing from her notes.

قد قام سواس الحلي مرجعاً

فوق المطي يضجع في لباتها

The jingle of the jewels rose in a refrain,

above the mounts, resting in her breast hollows.

حتى كأن ريني رجع حليها

في عجز في السير رجع حداتها

Until the ringing echo of her jewels seemed,

amid slow travel, the refrain of her camel-drivers.

تمش قصير الخطو بين لداتها

إن أسرعت مشي القطا بأناتها

She walks with short steps among her peers;

even when she hastens, hers is the sandgrouse's measured gait.

عيناء أن عنَّت لعينك خلتها

نشأت مع الآرام في غابتها

Wide-eyed—if she appears before your eye, you imagine her

raised among the white gazelles in their woodland,

بالقاعة الوعساء من رمل الحمى

بين الظباء العفر من ظبياتها

on the soft, sandy plain of the sanctuary's sands,

among the tawny gazelles, one of its does.

وسرى بها أرج الهنا فتضوعت

منه الرياض الجو في جنباتها

And the fragrance of joy spread through it, until

the gardens and air along its sides grew fragrant with it.

وبها أكاويب المسرة أترعت

وشدت عنادلها في أثلاتها

And there the cups of gladness were filled,

and its nightingales sang in its tamarisks.

في عرس شبلي غابتين لدى اللقا

زجراً أسود الغاب عن وثباتها

At the wedding of two lion-cubs of two forests, who at encounter

drive the forest's lions back from their leaps.

صقرين طارا للعلاء فحلقا

حتى إذا وقفا على غاياتها

Two falcons flew toward eminence and soared,

until, once they had reached its furthest bounds,

قذفاً على سرب المكارم عزمة

بهويها بزّت فراخ بزاتها

they hurled a resolve upon the flock of noble deeds;

its swoop outstripped the fledglings of their hawks.

صلّين تحترق الربى أن نضنضا

بشواظ سمهما بحرِّ صفاتها

Two vipers—the hills burn when they flick their tongues,

with their venom's blaze, amid the heat of the hills' rocky slabs.

طرفين يكبو الطرف عن شأوٍ به

سبقا جياد العزم في كتباتها

Two steeds—sight falters short of the course on which

they outran the steeds of resolve in their squadrons.

جالا بمضمار العلاء فجليا

سبقاً فكلٌّ حائز قصباتها

They raced on the course of eminence and won

first place; each claims its victory reeds.

جنيا جني العز حيث بنو الورى

بالوهن تجني الذل من ثمراتها

They gathered honor's harvest, where mankind's sons

in weakness reap humiliation from its fruits.

ونماهما للمجد خير أبٍ له

قد دالت الدنيا بست جهاتها

The finest father raised them for glory; to him

the world has yielded in all six directions.

عقد الثناء عليه أرفع راية

يرخي ظلال العز من عذباتها

Praise raised over him the loftiest banner,

letting honor's shade fall from its tassels.

وأغر أن بزغت مناقب علمه

زانت سما العليا بحسن سماتها

And a radiant man—when the virtues of his learning dawn,

they adorn the sky of eminence with their beautiful marks.

فكأنما الأقمار من حسادها

والنيرات البيض من ضراتها

As though the moons were among their enviers,

and the white luminaries among their rival wives.

ذو راحة دفقت بخمس أنامل

أجرى البحار السبع في غمراتها

His palm gushes through five fingers;

he made the seven seas flow within its depths.

لو قد تعلق أصبع من حاتم

فيها لناط هباته بهباتها

Had one of Hatim's fingers clung

to it, he would have hung his gifts upon its gifts.

ما فاه فوه بغير أصدق لفظة

بين الورى هي هاكها لا هاتها

His mouth has uttered only the truest word

among mankind: 'Take it,' not 'Bring it here.'

دانت له الأشراف من أشرافها

وعنت له السادات من ساداتها

The nobles among mankind's nobles have submitted to him,

and the lords among its lords have bowed before him.

ما أن نأت من حاجة أو أن دنت

إلا به قضت الورى حاجاتها

Whether a need lies far away or close,

mankind fulfills its needs only through him.

محيي الورى بحياته ومن الذي

من دونه لحياتها ومماتها

He gives mankind life by his own life; and who

apart from him is there for it in life and death?

من عصبة مضرية علوية

عقدت عصابتها أكف سراتها

From a Muḍarite, Alid clan,

whose chiefs' hands have tied its headband.

نزلت بمستن البطاح وقبل ذا

ركبت إلى العيا شبا عزماتها

It settled on the open course of the broad plains; before that,

it rode toward exhaustion on the keen points of its resolve.

بيض الوجوه تهللت بعوارض

كأهلَّةٍ تستن في هالاتها

Fair-faced, they beamed with smiling teeth

like crescent moons coursing within their haloes.

أقمار غاشية الدجي بوجوهها

فكأنما قسمت على قسماتها

Moons that overspread the darkness with their faces,

as though they had apportioned among their features

كشف الدجى أما ببيض وجوهها

أو بالجفان البيض من جفناتها

the dispelling of darkness, either by their bright faces,

or by the white serving bowls among their bowls.

الناهبين من المغيرة خيلها

والواهبين كرامها لعفاتها

Who plunder the raiding host of its horses,

and give the finest of them to those seeking their bounty.

والفارضين على الأنام صلاتها

والقائمين لها بفرض صلاتها

Who make blessings upon them a duty for mankind,

and uphold for it the duty of its prayer.

والحاقنين دم النفوس إذا ارعوت

وإذا التوت هدر النفوس ديانها

Who spare souls' blood when they desist,

but when they turn crooked, their judge declares their lives forfeit.

ومحصنين خيولهم أكفالها

ومعرضين إلى الطعان طلاتها

Protecting their horses' hindquarters,

and exposing their necks to spear-thrusts.

عرب تحمحم بالصهيل عتاقها

ويبين عتق الخيل في صهلاتها

Arabian horses—their purebreds whicker and neigh,

their noble breeding evident in their neighs.

فكأنما تدعو الصريخ بصوتها

حيث الرجال تغض من أصواتها

As though their voices summoned the rescuer,

where men lower their voices.

غر محجلة إذا استقبلتها

شمخت بعزتها وحجل شواتها

White-blazed and white-socked—when you face them,

they rise proudly, with white anklets on their limbs.

فكأنما الجوزاء في أرساغها

والكوكب الدري في جبهاتها

As though al-Jawzāʾ were in their pasterns,

and the brilliant star upon their foreheads.

أبني الغطاريف الذين ببيضهم

جدعوا من الدنيا أنوف طغاتها

O sons of the noble chiefs, who with their bright swords

cut off the noses of this world's tyrants,

دمتم بني العلياء ما غنّت على ال

أفنان ذات الطوق في فقراتها

may you endure, sons of eminence, as long as there sings upon the

boughs the collared dove, in the phrases of her song.