أشارد يا غزال أم وارد

وعابث بالنفوس أم عابد

Are you straying, O gazelle, or coming to water?

And do you trifle with souls, or are you a worshipper?

أعند عينيك ان أنفسنا

حبس على سبل نبلها الصارد

Do your eyes know that our souls

Are captive in the paths of their piercing arrows?

بل كثرة العاشقين توهمه

بأن ماضي نفوسهم عائد

Rather, the multitude of lovers makes him imagine

That their departed souls are returning.

مهلا أبا الحسن لا فجعت به

واستبق منا داع له حامد

Gently, Abu al-Hasan—may I never be bereft of him;

And spare among us one who prays for him and praises him.

نحن بني نجدة الهوى ولنا

فيه فخار الطريف والتالد

We, the sons of valor in love, possess

Glory in it, both newly won and inherited.

وكم لنا غارة على ثغر

نصدر عنها بالمغنم البارد

And how many a raid we have made upon lips,

From which we return with cool, effortless spoils.

تلك عهود قد كان لا بعدت

طرف الليالي عنا بها راقد

Those were times—may they never grow distant—when

The eye of the nights slept, oblivious to us.

ومأسها الدهر عن تفرقا

بل ظننا لا لتئامنا واحد

And Time ... concerning separation [text unclear].

Rather, it thought us one through our union [wording uncertain].

ليت دري القاطنون في حلب

حالي وما حال من لهم فاقد

Would that those dwelling in Aleppo knew

My state—and what is the state of one bereft of them?

يرقب وفد الشآم ذا قلق

عسى يراهم بناظر الراقد

He anxiously awaits the party from al-Sham,

Hoping to see them with a sleeper's eye.

فارقت منه مثواي في رضا زمن

على ذوي الفضل لم يزال واجد

I left my dwelling there, to the delight of an age

That has never ceased resenting men of merit.

خرجت منه مع البزاة عسى

تصفو الليالي ويصلح الفاسد

I left it with the falcons, hoping

The nights would clear and what was corrupt be mended.

إلى قرار العلا ومصدره

ورد الأماني وبغية القاصد

For the abode of eminence and its source,

The watering place of hopes and the seeker's desire.

قرة عين الإسلام مهجته

ومن لدين الهدى غدا عاضد

The delight of Islam's eye, its very lifeblood,

And the man who has become a support to the faith of guidance.

يحي حياة العلوم بهجتها

فرصة ذي الفضل غصة الحاسد

Yahya, the life of learning, its splendor,

The worthy man's opportunity, the envier's choking grief.

لذت به والفؤاد منصدع

بالضيم من ريب دهري السامد

I sought refuge with him, my heart split apart

By oppression from the vicissitudes of my heedless age.

فعلت يا دهر ما فعلت فما العذر

لدى اعدل الورى الماجد

You did, O Time, what you did; what excuse have you

Before the most just of mortals, the noble one?

الحكم العدل من عزائمه

قامت على الدهر فاكتفى القاعد

The just arbiter—some of his firm resolves

Rose against Time, so even the seated man had enough.

وأصبحت حيرة حواسده

كأنها العمى ما لها قائد

And his enviers' bewilderment became

Like blindness, with no guide to lead it.

رب القوافي التي لآلئها

تود لو قلدت بها الناهد

Master of the rhymes whose pearls

The budding maiden longs to wear as a necklace.

إذا تأملتها وجدت فتى

شهب الدياجي بفكره الصائد

When you contemplate them, you find a young man

Hunting the shooting stars of dark nights with his thought.

يسبق منه الأنعام سائله

فلا يرى ممطلا ولا واعد

His bounty precedes the one who asks him,

And he is never seen stalling or merely promising.

حاشاه وهو البحر الخضم بأن

يصدر عنه بالغلة الوارد

Far be it from him—he is the vast sea—that

One who comes to drink should leave him thirsty.

خلق كروض الربيع باكره

نوء من الحلم فاغتدى مائد

A character like a spring meadow, visited at dawn

By a shower of forbearance, until it swayed.

حدث بما شئت عن مكارمه

عجائب البحر ما لها جاحد

Say what you will of his noble deeds:

The wonders of the sea have no denier.

فرع أصول مضوا ومجدهم

باق وغابوا وفضلهم شاهد

A scion of forebears who passed away, while their glory

Remains; they are gone, yet their merit bears witness.

إليك شيخ الإسلام قد وفدت

ركائب تحمل الثنا الخالد

To you, Shaykh al-Islam, have come

Riding camels bearing everlasting praise.

يتبعها خالص الدعاء شج

هابط حظ وهمه صاعد

A sorrowing man follows them with sincere prayer,

His fortune falling, his aspiration rising.

ألقى عليه الزمان كلكله

ونال منه بالكف والساعد

Time has laid its breast upon him

And assailed him with palm and forearm.

عسى التفات إليه من طرف الط

طرف يرى زند جده الصالد

May a glance turn toward him from the corner of the [incomplete word],

An eye that sees the sparkless firestick of his fortune.

واسلم لأهل الآداب مستنداً

عوناً على صرف دهرهم عاضد

And remain safe, a support for men of letters,

A help against the blows of their age, a steadfast ally.