أعامر أنت عندي خير صاحب

وأنت فتى عددتك للنوائب

O Amir, you are to me the best of companions,

And you are a young man I have counted on in adversity.

أترحل عن أخيك على اختيار

وتتركني بلا قار وكاتب

Will you depart from your brother of your own accord,

And leave me without a reader or a writer?

لقد ضاق الفضاء على خليل

غدا بعد الأحبة دون صاحب

The wide world has indeed grown narrow for a friend

Left companionless after his loved ones are gone.

لئن لم تأتني في كل يوم

لاعتمد الرحيل على النجائب

If you do not come to me every day,

I shall surely undertake a journey on noble riding camels,

وأضرب في نواحي الأرض شرقا

وغربا والجنوب وكل جانب

And travel through the earth's regions eastward,

And westward, and southward, and in every direction.

على أي الخصال تقر عيني

بعيد الصالحين من الأقارب

On what grounds can my eyes find comfort,

Soon after the righteous among my kin are gone,

وبعد الراشدي وبعد من قد

علمت من الحجاحجة الثواقب

And after al-Rashidi, and after those you have

Known among the brilliant, mighty chiefs?

وكم سليت نفسي عن نواهم

بصحبتك المطهرة الجوانب

And how often I consoled myself for their absence

Through your companionship, pure in every aspect.

فأما اليوم فالأحزان أمت

جنابي والهموم مع النوائب

But today sorrows have come to

My side, with cares and calamities.

فأعجب كيف لم يبيض شعري

على أني بذي الأهوال شائب

So I marvel that my hair has not turned white,

Although these terrors have made me gray.

مصيبة صالح يبيض منها

سواد الحالكات من الذوائب

The calamity of Salih whitens

The blackness of the darkest locks.

لعمرك هل رأيت لها نظيرا

على الأيام مع عدد المصائب

By your life, have you seen its like

Through the ages, for all their many calamities?

وهل لسليله في المجد شبه

إذا عظمت لذي المجد المتاعب

And does his son have any peer in glory,

When hardships grow great for a man of honor?

وإن لم يدر وجه الرأي قوم

فعبد الله ذاك الوجه صائب

And if some men cannot discern the right course,

Then Abd Allah finds that course unerringly.

وإن وقفت عن الهيجا رجال

فعبد الله في الهيجاء واثب

And if men hold back from battle,

Then Abd Allah leaps into the fray.

وهل كالراشدي سعيد جد

حليف الخير في كل المطالب

And is there one like al-Rashidi, fortunate in his lot,

An ally of goodness in every pursuit?

إذا ما مشكل ألقاه حبر

تيمم حله بين العصائب

Whenever a scholar puts forward a problem,

He seeks its solution amid the assembled groups.

وأما صالح قد جل عن أن

يحيط بوصفه منش وكاتب

And as for Salih, he is too exalted for

Any author or writer to describe him fully.

فها من قد فقدت فهل تراهم

شموسا والورى طرا كواكب

Behold those I have lost: do you see them

As suns, while all mankind are stars?

عذيري من أخي عذل تعاطى

عتابي عند هاتيك المصائب

Who will defend me from a faultfinder who took to

Rebuking me amid those very calamities?

يعاتبني على أن سح دمعي

كسح الماطرات من السواكب

He reproaches me because my tears poured down

Like the downpour of streaming rainclouds.

أأعتبه وكان من العجائب

قبول العذل في حكم النوائب

Shall I appease him, when it is a marvel

To accept reproach under calamities' sway?

رزايا قد تجلى الدهر عنها

فأودعت الحشا حر اللواهب

Calamities that time has laid bare

Have thus lodged the heat of flames within my heart.

ولو قد أنصف العذال يوما

على حال لما شمت المعاتب

And had the reproachers shown fairness for a day,

In any circumstance, the reproacher would not have gloated.

سأطلق مقولي ليزيح عني

من الأحزان شيئا أو يقارب

I shall set my tongue free, that it may lift from me

Some of my sorrows, or at least come close.