سُؤالُكِ هذا الربعَ أين جَوابُهُ

ومن لا يعي للقول كيف خطابُهُ

Your question, where is its answer in this land?

Who does not understand speech, how can he respond?

وقفتِ وما يغنيكِ في الدار وقفة

سقى الدار غيث مستهل سحابُهُ

You stood still, but standing avails you nothing in this abode,

The rain of early clouds watered this house.

غناؤكِ في تلك المنازل ناظر

بدمع توالى غربُه وانسكابه

Your singing in those dwellings, onlooker,

With tears that kept flowing copiously.

إلى طلل أقوى فلم يك بعدها

بمغنيك شيئاً قربه واجتنابه

To shadows stronger, yet after them

Nothing of your companion remained, his nearness or avoidance.

ذكرتِ كأيام الشبيبة عهده

وهل راجع بعد المشيب شبابه

You recalled the days of youth, that era,

But can youth return after old age?

وقد كانَ ذاك العيش والغصن ناعم

يروق ويصفو كالرحيق شرابه

That life and tender branch once

Pleased and purified like pure drink.

وجدت لقلبي غير ما تجدينه

أسىً في فؤادي قد أناخ ركابه

I found for my heart, not what you find,

Sorrow in my chest that parked its steeds.

يفض ختام الدمع يا ميَّ حسرة

ذهاب شباب لا يرجّى إيابه

The seal of tears flows, O Mayya, regrets,

The passing of youth that will not return.

ودهرٍ أعاني كل يوم خطوبه

وذلك دأبي يا أميم ودأبه

And a lifetime whose calamities I suffer daily,

That is my wont, O Umayma, and its habit.

مسوقٌ إلى ذي اللب في الناس رزؤه

ووقفٌ على الحر الكريم مصابه

Led to the one with a gap tooth among the people his humiliation,

And standing by the free man in them his affliction.

وحسبك مني صبر أروع ماجد

بمستوطن ضاقت بمثلي رحابه

It suffices you from me a patience most glorious,

When dwelling narrowed for my like its expanses.

يبيتُ نجيَّ الهم في كل ليلة

يطول مع الأيام فيها عتابه

He spends the night sighing worries every night,

With days prolonging for him blame.

قضى عجباً منه الزمان تجلُّداً

وما ينقضي هذا الزمان عجابه

Strangely determined he spent his life persevering,

And this life will not end its wonders.

تزاد عن الماء النمير أسوده

وقد تلغ العذب الفرات كلابه

The black of water exceeds his clearness

And the Euphrates eliminates its pure dogs.

ألم يحزن الآبي رؤوس تطامنت

وفاخر رأس القوم فيها ذنابه

Did not the brilliant heads bow down

As the leader of the people among them bent his tail?

وأعظِمْ بها دهياء وهي عظيمة

إذا اكتنف الضرغامَ بالذل غابه

And magnify through it the lowly, as it is great,

When the darkness enshrouded the shining its veil.

متى ينجلي هذا الظلام الَّذي أرى

ويكشف عن وجه الصباح نقابه

When will this darkness I see disperse

And the face of dawn uncover its mask?

وتلمع بعد اليأس بارقة المنى

ويصدق من وعد الرجاء كذابه

And after despair shine the glimmer of hope

And he who promised hope prove his lies?

ومن لي بدهر لا يزال محاربي

تُفلُّ مواضيه وتنبو حِرابُهُ

Who can I have, a lifetime that does not keep fighting me

Whose valleys collapse and whose wars flare up?

عقور على شِلوي يعضُ بنابه

وتعدو علينا بالعوادي ذئابه

Disloyal, biting its fingers,

Its wolves raiding the meadows against us.

رمته الروامي بالسباب مذمَّة

وما ضرّ في عِرضِ اللئيم سبابُه

It threw insults and blame,

But its blame does not harm the villain’s honor.

تصفحت إخواني فلم أر فيهمُ

قويماً على نهج الوفاء اصطحابه

I reviewed my brethren but did not see among them

One straight on the path of loyalty, accompanying.

أفي الناس لا والله من في إخائه

تُشدُّ على العظم المهيض عصابه

Is there not, by Allah, among people one whose brotherhood

Ties the slings on the cracked bone?

يساورني كأس الهموم كأنّما

يمجُّ بها السمَّ الزعاف لعابه

The cup of worries keeps my company as if

Its pure poison moistened its lips.

وأبعد ما حاولت حرًّا دنوُّه

دنوك مما يرتضي واقترابه

The furthest I tried freely nearing it

Was your nearing of what pleases and its approach.

نصيبك منه شهده دون صابه

إذا كانَ ممزوجاً مع الشهد صابه

Your share of it is its honey without bees,

If it is mixed with honey is its bees.

يريك الرضا والدهر غضبان معرض

وترجوه للأمر الَّذي قد تهابه

It shows you contentment while fate is averse

And you hope for the matter you dread.

ورأيك ليست في المشارع شرعة

ولا منهل عذب يسوغ شرابه

Your view is not law in the streets

Nor a fresh spring suitable for drinking.

وما الناس إلاَّ مثلما أنت عارف

فلا تطلبنَّ الشيء عز طلابه

People are only as you know them,

So do not seek what is dear in its quest.

بَلَوتُ بهم حلوَ الزمان ومرَّه

فسيّان عندي عذبه وعذابه

I tested the sweet and bitter of fate,

To me they are equal, its sweetness and punishment.

كأنّي أرى عبد الغني بأهله

غريب من الأشراف طال اغترابه

It is as if I see Abdel Ghani with his family

Strange from nobles, prolonged his estrangement.

يميّزه عنهم سجايا منوطة

بأروع من زهر النجوم سخابه

Distinguishes him from them composed manners

In the finest of the arrangement of stars and his aura.

ثمين لئالي العقد حالية به

من الفضل أعناق الحجى ورقابه

Precious for the nights of the necklaces his state in it

Of superiority, necks of destinations and their napes.

إذا ناب عن صرب الغمام فإنه

إذا لم يصب صوب الغمام منابه

If he turns from enduring sorrows, he

Turns to sorrows if he does not turn to them.

تألق فانهلّت عزاليه وارتوى

به حزن راجيه وسالت شعابه

He shone so his loftiness drank full and quenched

By it the sorrow of his hopeful one and its valleys flooded.

أتعرف إلاَّ ذلك القرم آبياً

على الدهر يقسو أو تلينُ صلابه

Do you know other than that stubborn hero

Defiant of fate whether it hardens or softens?

تسربل فضفاض الأبوة كلَّها

وزُرَّت على الليث الهصور ثيابه

He wore flowing robes of fatherhood entire

And the lion-like was clad in garments.

ولم ينزل الأرض الَّتي قد تطامنت

ولو أن ذاك الربع مسكاً ترابه

He did not alight on the ground that submitted

Even if that land was musk in its soil.

لقد ضربت فوق الرواسي وطنَّبَتْ

على قُلَل المجد الأثيل قبابه

He struck above the lofty heights and stomped

Upon the peaks of eternal glory his domes.

فأصبحتِ الشُّم العرانين دونه

وحلَّق في جوّ الفخار عُقابه

The radiant suns became beneath him

And his eagle soared in the atmosphere of pride.

أبى الله والنفس الأبيَّة أن يُرى

بغير المعالي همُّه واكتئابُه

God refused and the defiant soul that his concerns

Be seen as other than the lofty and his gloom.

فدانت له الأخطار بعد عتوِّها

وذلّت له من كل خطب صعابه

So dangers submitted to him after defiance

And those of every hardship bowed to him in hardness.

ولو شاء كشف الضرّ فرّق جمعه

وما فارق العضبَ اليماني قرابه

Had he willed he would have removed the harm and scattered its sum

And the Yemeni sword never left its sheath.

ومجتهدٍ في كلّ علم أبيّةٍ

فلا يتعداها لعمري صوابه

And exerting in every science of defiance

None exceeds it, by my life, in judgment.

بفكرٍ يرى ما لا يرى فكر غيره

يشقّ جلابيب الظلام شهابه

With a reason that sees what no other reason sees

His meteors splitting the darkness of night.

مقيم على أنْ لا يزال قطاره

يصوب وهذا صوبه وانصبابه

Intent on his convoy never swerving

Aiming it and that is its aim and pouring.

وإمّا خلا ذاك الغمام فمقلع

وعمّا قليل يضمحل ضبابه

While had that cloud gone barren then a refuge

In a little time its mist would fade.

وناهيك بالندب الَّذي إنْ ندبته

كفاك مهمّات الأمور انتدابه

As for elegy, if I were to elegize him

Suffices you the tribulations of matters elegizing him.

ذباب حسام البأس جوهر عضبه

وما الصارم الهندي لولا ذبابه

The weapon of might, essence of his wrath

As the Indian sword but for its flies.

عليم بما يقني الثناء وعامل

وداعٍ إلى الخير العظيم مجابه

Knowledgeable of what poetry necessitates and one

Who calls to great good, responding.

إذا انتسب الفعل الجميل فإنَّما

يكون إلى رب الجميل انتسابه

When a good deed pertains, it pertains

To the Lord of good, its pertinence.

هل الفضل والإحسان إلاَّ صنيعة

أمْ الحمد والشكران إلاَّ اكتسابه

Are favor and benevolence anything but His making?

Or praise and gratitude anything but its gain?

وإنّي متى أخليتُ من ثروة الغنى

وأغلق من دون المطامع بابه

And I, whenever I am devoid of wealth

And the doors of hopes are shut to me,

بدا لي أن أعشو إلى ضوء ناره

وأصبو إلى ذاك المريع جنابه

It appears to me I should incline to the light of his fire

And lean toward that brilliant side.

فأصدرني عنه مصادر وارد

من اليمّ زخّار النوال عبابه

So he drove me from it with diversions

Of bliss, bubbles of bounty its clouds.

وأصبحُ مرموق السعادة بعدما

خَلَتْ ثُمَّ لا زالت ملاءً وطابه

And I became lofty in fortune after

Emptiness, then never ceased, fulfillment and its sweetness.

إذا ذهب المعروف في كل مذهب

إليك برغم الحادثات مآبه

Whenever goodwill takes every course

To you despite misfortunes, its destination,

فلست تراني ما حييت مؤملاً

سواك ولم يعلق بي النذل عابه

You will never see me, alive, hopeful

Of other than you, nor has baseness attached its blame to me.

ولا مستثيباً من دنيٍّ مثوبةً

حرام على الحرِّ الأبيّ ثوابه

Nor seeking from a lowly a rewarded

Forbidden to the free, its reward.

وغيرك لم أرفع إلى شيم برقه

ولا غرّني في الظامئين سرابه

And none else have I raised to it the lightning of glory

Nor did a mirage in the thirsty deceive me.