1. هل في مَودَّةِ ناكثٍ من راغبِ

    أم هل على فقدانها من نادبِ

    Is anyone eager for an oath-breaker's affection?

    Or does anyone lament its loss?

  2. أم هَل يُفيدُكَ أن تُعاتِبَ مُولعاً

    بتَتَبُّعِ العثراتِ غير مُراقبِ

    Or does it benefit you to reproach one obsessed

    with hunting down missteps, without restraint?

  3. جعل اعتراضك للسَّفاهَةِ ديدناً

    والذئبُ ديدنهُ اعتراضُ الراكبِ

    He has made accosting you with insolence his habit,

    and the wolf's habit is to waylay the rider.

  4. نفرٌ تُعاقبُهم بعفوكَ عنهمُ

    كم بالغٍ بالعَفو فِعلَ مُعاقبِ

    There are men whom you punish by pardoning them;

    how many through pardon achieve a punisher's effect!

  5. ولربَّما صادفتَ أعصَى مُذنبٍ

    مُتَبَختِراً في ثوب أطوعِ تائبِ

    And often you encounter the most disobedient sinner

    strutting in the garb of the most obedient penitent.

  6. يُوليك نُصحاً من لسان مُسالمٍ

    وًَيُسِرٌّ كيداً في ضمير مُحاربِ

    He offers you counsel with a peaceable man's tongue,

    and conceals a plot in a belligerent's heart.

  7. والحزمُ تصديقُ العدوّ المدّعي

    وُدّاً وإرضاءُ الصديق العائب

    And prudence is to believe the enemy who professes

    affection, and to appease the fault-finding friend.

  8. إنَّ الفتوَّةَ علَّمتني شيمةً

    تُهدي الضياءَ الى الشهاب الثاقبِ

    Indeed, chivalry has taught me a noble trait

    that gives light to the piercing meteor.

  9. أرعى ذمامَ موافقي ومخالفي

    وأصونُ غيبَ مُعاشِري ومُجانبي

    I honor the bonds of those who agree with me and those who oppose me,

    and protect, in their absence, my companions and those who shun me.

  10. وتعلّلي بحديث أيّامِ الصِّبا

    من عُظم لذّاتي وجُلّ أطايبي

    And consoling myself with talk of youthful days

    is among my greatest pleasures and choicest delights.

  11. ما زال يسلبُ كلَّ من حمل الظُّبا

    قلمي وأحداقُ الظِّباءِ سوالبي

    Ever despoiling all who bear blades

    is my pen; while gazelles' eyes despoil me.

  12. فهوى التصرُّفِ والتصرفُ في الهوى

    دفنا شبابي في قذالي الشائب

    So love of managing affairs, and my dealings in love,

    have buried my youth in my gray-haired nape.

  13. فتظلّمي من ناظرٍ أو ناظرٍ

    وتألُّمي من حاجبٍ أو حاجبِ

    So my grievance is against an overseer or an eye,

    and my pain is from a chamberlain or an eyebrow.

  14. تالله لم يخطر ببالك أن ترى

    ذا الجدِّ يخطر في شمائل لاعبِ

    By God, it never crossed your mind that you would see

    an earnest man strutting with a playful man's manners.

  15. وعزيمةُ البطل المُعانقِ قرنَهُ

    تَصدى فيجلُوها عناقُ الكاعبِ

    And the resolve of the hero embracing his rival

    rusts, then a budding maiden's embrace polishes it.

  16. مارَستُ هذا الدهرِ حتّى انَّه

    لضرائرٌ أحداثهُ وتجاربي

    I have grappled with this age until indeed

    its events and my experiences are rival co-wives.

  17. ووجدتُه كالسيفِ ليس بفارقٍ

    بين الأُلى ضربوا بهِ والضاربِ

    And I found it like a sword, making no distinction

    between those struck with it and the striker.

  18. وقبلتُ عُذرَ بني الزمان لانَّهم

    سلكوا طريقَ بني الزمان الذاهبِ

    And I accepted the excuse of the sons of the age, for they

    followed the path of the sons of the bygone age.

  19. جُبلُوا على رفض الوفاء لغيرهم

    وتَمسَّكوا بالغَدرِ ضربةَ لازبِ

    They were fashioned to refuse fidelity to others,

    and held fast to treachery as an inescapable necessity.

  20. ومركّبٌ في طبع كلّ مُكلَّفٍ

    حمل الرجاء طلابُ فوقِ الواجب

    And ingrained in the nature of every accountable person

    is hope's burden: seeking more than is due.

  21. والرزقُ يطلع من رفاهة قاعدٍ

    لطلوعه من سعي آخر طالبِ

    And livelihood arises from the ease of one who sits idle,

    owing to its arising from another seeker's toil.

  22. وسجيَّةُ الأيّام ستر فضائلي

    عن عَينِ رامقِها وبثّ مثالبي

    And it is the nature of the days to conceal my virtues

    from the eye that observes them, and spread my faults.

  23. أيّامُ عمري في تلوّن جريها

    تحكي الرياح فهل لها من عاتب

    The days of my life, in their shifting course,

    resemble the winds—who, then, can reproach them?

  24. الحال تهزل بين جذب شمائلٍ

    منها وتَسمَنُ بينَ خضب جنائب

    My fortunes grow lean under their north winds' parching pull,

    and grow fat under their south winds' lush coloring.

  25. قُسِمَت وتلك غنيمةٌ بحظوظهم

    ورموا وراءَهُمُ بحظِّ الغائبِ

    It was apportioned—that booty—according to their lots,

    and they flung the absent man's share behind them.

  26. لو نلتُ عزَّ متوّجٍ في توّج

    لم أخل من دلّ وظنٍ كاذب

    Even if I gained a crowned ruler's glory in Tawwaj,

    I would not be free of presumption and false surmise.

  27. ما إن أسأتُ الاختيار وإنَّما

    قاد الضّلالُ الى اللئام ركائبي

    I did not make a poor choice; rather,

    error drove my mounts toward the ignoble.

  28. نَهبوا ولجوّا في اقتضاء مديحهم

    وقضيَّةٌ شنعاء مَدحُ الناهب

    They plundered, and persisted in demanding praise of themselves;

    and praising a plunderer is an outrageous affair.

  29. من دأبهم منع الحقوق فهل لهم

    منع اللسان عن الملام الذاهب

    It is their habit to withhold what is due; but can they

    restrain the tongue from reproach that travels far?

  30. الآن ما بيني وبين بصيرتي

    رُفع الحجابُ فالنجاح مآربي

    Now, between me and my insight,

    the veil has been lifted; success is what I seek.

  31. أكفى المؤنةَ في مذمَّةِ مانعٍ

    نفسي وفي لمنَّةِ واهب

    The trouble of censuring a withholder I spare

    myself, and likewise the debt of a giver's favor.

  32. ها انّ أرضَ عمانَ أنفَسُ بقعَةٍ

    ومؤيَّدُ السلطان أكرم صاحبِ

    Lo, the land of Oman is the most precious tract,

    and Mu'ayyad al-Sultan the noblest companion.

  33. ما زال إمّا في صدور مجالسٍ

    يبني العُلا وفي قلوب مواكبِ

    He is ever either at the head of assemblies,

    building glory, or at the heart of cavalcades.

  34. والى أياديه صرفتُ مطامعي

    وعلى مَعاليه وقفتُ مطالبي

    And toward his benefactions I have turned my hopes,

    and upon his lofty virtues I have fixed my petitions.

  35. أأُعاتبُ الأخوان في استبدادهم

    دوني بها فأكون شرّ معاتبِ

    Should I reproach my brothers for their monopoly,

    excluding me from it, and become the worst reproacher?

  36. لبسوا بخدمتهم لديه مواهباً

    لا كالمواهبِ طُرِّزَت بمراتبِ

    Through their service to him they have donned gifts

    unlike other gifts, embroidered with ranks.

  37. فاذا آمالهم بصِلاتِه

    فصِفِ التقاء أجنَّةٍ بجنائب

    Then when their hopes meet his gifts,

    describe embryos meeting led steeds.

  38. قمرّ سرادقُه لِلَحظِك بُرجهُ

    يرمي العداء بعزائمٍ ككواكبِ

    A moon whose pavilion, to your gaze, is his celestial mansion,

    he pelts foes with resolves like stars.

  39. فَلَهُ المنابرُ والمحاربُ حَبَّذا

    من كان رَبَّ مآثرٍ ومَحاربِ

    His are the pulpits and the battlefields—how excellent

    is one who is master of noble deeds and battlefields!

  40. وأهلّه الرايات تطلع تحتها

    أبَداً نجومُ أَسِنَّةٍ وقواضبِ

    And beneath the banners' crescents rise

    forever the stars of spearheads and cutting swords.

  41. والخيل مازالت تشبّهُ والعدا

    بالليل أن طلبتهمُ والهارب

    And the horses and the foes are ever likened

    to the night and the fugitive, if you pursue them.

  42. فالأرض تشكو ركضَها من جانبٍ

    والجوّ يشكو نقعها من جانبِ

    So the earth complains of their galloping on one side,

    and the air complains of their dust on the other.

  43. وسرى السرايا تحت كلّ دجُنَّةٍ

    كُسِيَ الخيالُ هناك ثوبَ الهائب

    And at the squadrons' night-march beneath every darkness,

    the imagination there was clothed in the fearful one's garb.

  44. من كلّ أروع للحياة مُطَلِّقٍ

    تحت العجاج وللحميَّةِ خاطبِ

    Their ranks hold every gallant man who divorces life

    beneath the dust-cloud and woos chivalric pride.

  45. ما زال يجمعُ بين بأسٍ صادقٍ

    يجلى به الجُلّى ورأيٍ صائبِ

    He has ever united true valor,

    by which dire calamity is dispelled, with sound judgment.

  46. والمشرفيّاتُ التي بشفارها

    هلكت ملوكُ أعاجمٍ وأعارب

    And the Mashrafi swords, by whose edges

    kings of non-Arabs and Arabs have perished,

  47. طُبعَت شُموساً فَهيَ في أغمادها

    والهام بين مشارقٍ ومغاربِ

    were forged as suns: in their scabbards

    and in skulls, they pass between rising and setting.

  48. تنقادُ أبكار البلاد لحدِّها

    بعد النشوز وبعد منع الجانب

    The virgin lands yield to their edge,

    after defiance and after guarding their flanks.

  49. ومناقبٌ ودَّت مَصابيحُ الدُّجى

    حَسَداً لها لو لُقِّبَت بمناقبِ

    And virtues: the lamps of darkness wished,

    envying them, that they too might be named virtues.

  50. وغرائب الكَرَم التي إن فتشت

    في آل مُكرم فَهيِ غيرُ غرائب

    And marvels of generosity which, if you searched

    among the house of Mukram, would be no marvels.

  51. والملك يشهد انّهم بولائهم

    يكفون شرَّ الخالع المتشاغب

    And the king bears witness that, through their loyalty,

    they ward off the harm of the seditious rebel.

  52. أنصارُهُ في كُلّ خطبٍ فادحٍ

    وحُماتُه في كُلّ أمرٍ حازبِ

    His supporters in every grievous calamity,

    and his defenders in every pressing crisis.

  53. هذا العُلى حقاً فهل من شاعرٍ

    يصف العُلى وصفي لها أم كاتب

    This is glory indeed; is there a poet

    who describes glory as I describe it—or a writer?