مَن راكبٌ تنجو به ممسوسةٌ

ترمِي سُهولَ طريقها بُحزونِهِ

Who rides carried by a docile she-camel

That casts her plains with her sorrow

تغشَى الفَلا من رأسها وفَقارِها

بقويِّه تحت السُّرَى وأمينهِ

She covers wastelands from her head to her spine

With her strength, under the Pleiades and its keeper

وَرهاءُ يحلَم ذو السَّفاهِ من الونى

ومراحُها في غيِّه وجنونه

While the male camel dreams, the ignorant one from passion

And her rests are in her ignorance and madness

مما تنَّخل وافتلاها داعر

من سِرِّ ما صفَّى ومن مكنونهِ

From what it produces and rends it torn

From the secret of what it strained and its hidden

فأتى بها المقدارُ نخبةَ نفسهِ

ما بين بازلهِ وبنت لبونهِ

So fate brought her, the elite of its soul

Between Bazla and the daughter of Labuna

كفَلَتْ لراكبها بآخرِ سَوقِهِ

في السير أو ضمنت صلاح شئونهِ

She guaranteed for her rider at the end of her market

In travel or secured the soundness of his affairs

بلِّغْ بلغتَ المجدَ في أبياته

والعزَّ بين عِراصهِ وقَطينهِ

Communicate, you have reached glory in his verses

And honor between Irass and Qatinah

عنّى بني عوف على إعراضهم

إنّ الحديثَ معلَّقٌ بشجونهِ

He meant the sons of Auf in their aloofness

That talk is suspended with its passions

عتباً يروّح نفثُهُ ثِقلَ الجوى

إن العليل مروَّحٌ بأنينهِ

A reproach that the breath of its heaviness cools the atmosphere

That the sick is comforted by his moan

إما عموما أو فعج من بينهم

لأبي العلا وأخي الندى وقرينهِ

Either in general or specifically between them

For Abi Al-Alaa and the brother of Nud and his companion

اُحطط ببيت أبي قوامٍ فالتبس

بالليث في أشباله وعرينهِ

I resided in the house of Abi Qawam, so it was confused

With the lion among his cubs and in his den

بيت يضمّ البدرَ في إشراقه

والغصنَ في حركاته وسكونهِ

A house that contains the full moon in its rise

And the branch in its movements and stillness

ريّان يُجنَى الوردُ من أطنابهِ

خِصبا ويُعتصَر الندى من طينهِ

Flowing, roses are harvested from its clusters

Lush, and dew squeezed from its mud

يبنيه أروعُ قاطبٌ متبسّمٌ

غيرانُ يؤخذ صعبُه من لينهِ

The most handsome of all builds it smiling

Capricious, his difficulty taken from his softness

متلثّم والشمسُ تحت لثامهِ

أو سافرٌ والنجمُ تحت جبينهِ

Veiled, and the sun is under his wraps

Or traveling, and the star is below his forehead

وجهُ العشيرة غائرا في حصنهِ

أو ثائرا غضبانَ دون حصونهِ

The face of the clan sunken in its fortress

Or raging, angrily without its fortresses

أكل العدا سَرفا وأطعمَ مُشبِعا

فجفانُه ملأَى بكسب جفونهِ

He ate excess food and fed satiated

So his eyelids filled with the earnings of his eyelids

فالموت بين قناته وحسامه

والرزق بين شماله ويمينهِ

So death is between his lance and his sword

And sustenance between his left and his right

خلَّى بنو أسدٍ عليه شوطَهُ

حَسْرَى ففاز بخصله ورهونهِ

The sons of Asad gave up their wagers to him

Regrettably, so he won his share and their pawns

بَلّغهُ عنّي مُخلِصا من دونهم

شَكوى ومالك مَخلَصٌ من دونهِ

Convey to him from me, sincerely without them

A complaint, and you have no loyal except Him

ما للفراتِ وردتُ منه أُجَاجَه ال

مملوحَ بعد زُلاله ومَعينهِ

Why have I gotten nothing back from the Euphrates except

Its bitter waters after its freshness and spring

والغيثِ كيف تغيّرت أخلاقه

فبُليت بعد جواده بضنينهِ

And how has the rain changed its ways

So I suffered after its generosity with its stinginess

ما بال وجهِ البدر يُشرق ليلَهُ

للمدلجين ولي ظلامُ دُجونهِ

Why does the face of the full moon shine its night

To the affectionate, while I have the darkness of its shelters

من بعد ما غَلَّستُ في أنواره

وسرَحتُ في فلواته وحضونهِ

After I wallowed in its lights

And roamed through its expanses and bosoms

وإليك يشكو الشعر نقضَك عهدَه

ويصيح في أبكاره أو عُونهِ

And to you my poetry complains of your violating your vow

And screams during its vigils or its wells

أنت المليّ فكم تَلِطُّ وعودَه

مطلا وتقعُد عن قضاء ديونهِ

You, who procrastinates, how you delay your promises

Stalling and abstain from repaying its debts

وتقومُ تدفعُ في صدور حقوقهِ

بالعذرِ بين خفيِّه ومُبينهِ

And you stand to cast into the chests of its rights

With excuses, between its hidden and its evident

يا صاحب الوجه الرقيق سمحتَ في

مطلي ببذل كريمه ومصونهِ

O owner of the delicate face, you were forgiving in

Delaying the generous donations of your protected

ماء الحياء عليه كيف منعتني

بجفائك المبذولَ من ماعونه

The water of modesty, how could you prevent me

With your coldness from its stored rain

أوَما خجلت لخُرَّدٍ زوَّجتُها

إياك من حُورِ الكلام وعِينهِ

Or were you not ashamed of a deaf woman you married

To you from the maidens of words and its essence

يجلو عليكم كلَّ يوم وفدُها

وجها يصيح العذر من عِرنينهِ

A delegation of her comes to you every day

A face screaming excuses from its burrows

يسرِي بها الساري ويُصبح فيكم ال

شادي يطرّبها على تلحينهِ

It moves about her, and your morning is not

Joyful with its melodies and its compositions

منكوحة ومهورُها منسيَّةٌ

والمَهرُ حقٌّ واجبٌ في حينهِ

Married and her dowry forgotten

While the dowry is a duty at its time

ما كان قدرُ ثوابها لي عندكم

مما يعود بثَلمهِ ووُهونهِ

What was the worth of her reward to me in your view

Of what returns with its defects and lowness

عذرٌ تحسّنه لكم أهواؤكم

والمجدُ يعذلكُم على تحسينهِ

An excuse you beautify for yourselves

And glory blames you for its beautification

لَوْ جدتُمُ لشكرتُ نزرَ عطائكم

ووهبتُ غَثَّ نوالكم لسمينهِ

If you were benevolent I would have thanked the bit of your gifts

And donated the little of your bestowals to its fat

ولقد حلفتُ فلا أخاف تحرُّجا

بالبيت عن بطحائه وحُجونهِ

And I have sworn I have no fear of shyness

Of the house from its plains and its valleys

والخاضعاتِ يقودهنَّ إلى مِنىً

للنحر باذلُ نَضوهِ وبَدينهِ

And the obedient, he leads them to the place

Of slaughter, sacrificing its thin and white

ما طولُ هزّي من عطائك عادةٌ

لي في ابتذال الشعر أو تهوينهِ

My long begging from your gifts is not

A habit for me in debasing poetry or belittling it

ولقد أتيتُ بعزّتي متعزّزا

في جنب ممتنع الجناب حصينهِ

And I have come with my honor glorified

Next to the abstinent of loins, fortified

وأرى وفور العرض عند خميصه

كرما وذل العيش عند بطنيه

And I see the abundance of supply with the stingy

As generosity and the humiliation of living with the glutton

وأخاف إن نشز القريضُ عليكُمُ

من فرط نفرته إزاءَ سكونهِ

And I fear that if poetry rebels against you

From the excess of its estrangement towards its calmness

وإذا رأى إنصافَه في غيره

أشفقتُ أن يحمِي حمى مغبونهِ

And when it sees its justice in another

I worry it will protect the protection of its oppressed

والماءُ يُشرَب تارةً من منهلٍ

صافٍ ويُشرَق تارةً بأجونهِ

And water is drunk sometimes from a

Pure spring, and sometimes from its sediments

والجودُ دِينٌ فيكم متوارَثٌ

والحرُّ ليس براجع عن دينهِ

And generosity is an inherited religion in you

And the free is not returning from his religion

حاشا لمجدك أن يقال بدا له

في المكرمات وشكَّ بعد يقينهِ

Far from your glory to say it faltered

In generous acts and doubted after its certainty