جَسَدٌ ذاب نحولاً وسَقاما

وفؤادٌ زِيدَ وجداً وغراما

A body melted away in emaciation and illness,

and a heart made fuller in longing and passion.

دَنِفٌ لولا تباريح الجوى

جَعَلَ اللائمَ في الحبّ إماما

One love-sick—were it not for passion’s searing pangs—

would have made the censor an imam in love.

ما الَّذي أوْجَبَ ما جئتم به

من صدود وعلاما وإلاما

What has brought about what you have come with—

this turning away? Why, and until when?

يا أباة الضَّيم ما لي ولكم

أفترضون بمثلي أن يُضاما

O you who refuse humiliation, what have I to do with you?

Would you consent that one like me be wronged?

أُظهِرُ الصَّبرَ وعندي غيره

غير أنِّي أَكتُمُ الوجد اكتتاما

I make a show of patience, though within me lies its opposite;

yet I conceal my ardor utterly.

وأراني جَلِداً فيما أرى

من أمور أَعْرَقَتْ مني العظاما

I see myself steadfast before all I see,

before trials that have made my very bones sweat.

إنَّ برقاً شِمتُه من جانب العا

رض الوسميّ أبكاني ابتساما

A lightning flash I glimpsed from the quarter of the

rain-cloud of the wasmi season made me weep at its smile.

ويح قلب الصّبّ لِمْ لا ينثني

فإذا قلت اسْتفق يا قلب هاما

Woe to the lover’s heart! Why will it not turn back?

Whenever I say, “Awake, O heart,” it wanders madly.

ما بكى المغرم إلاَّ بدمٍ

بلَّ كُمَّيْهِ وما بلَّ أواما

The enamored one wept nothing but blood;

it soaked his sleeves, yet never quenched his thirst.

قوَّض الرّكبُ وأبقى لي الأَسى

لا الجوى ولَّى ولا الصَّبر أقاما

The caravan struck camp and left me sorrow,

neither passion departing nor patience staying.

ونَأَتْ سَلمى فهلْ من مبلغٍ

منكما عنِّي إلى سَلمى سلاما

Salma has gone far—will one of you two carry

a greeting from me to Salma?

خفرت من عاشقٍ ذَمَّته

إنَّ للعشَّاق في الحبّ ذماما

She broke the covenant owed to a lover,

though lovers have a sacred covenant in love.

لستُ أنسى السّرب أشكو بَعْدَه

كَبِداً حرَّى ويُدميني قواما

I shall not forget that bevy; I lament its distance

with my innards burning, while its grace makes me bleed.

أيُّها الرَّامي قلبي عَبَثاً

بُؤْتَ بالوزر وقُلّدت أثاما

O you who shoot my heart in sport,

you return bearing guilt, laden with sins.

ما لِمَنْ حَلَّلَ قتلي في الهوى

حَرَّم الوصل وما كانَ حراما

How can one who declared my killing lawful in love

forbid union, though union was never forbidden?

أَرأَيتم أَنَّني من بعدكم

في عذابٍ لم يكن إلاَّ غراما

Do you think that after your departure I am

in any torment other than passion?

إنْ يُلاقِ الصُّبحُ ما لاقيته

أَصبحَ الصُّبحُ لما يلقى ظلاما

If dawn were to suffer what I have suffered,

the dawn would turn to darkness from what it met.

بَرَزَتْ أَسماءُ أَو أَترابها

يُوقِرَنَّ السَّمْعَ عذلاً وملاما

Asma appeared—or else her peers—

filling the ear with censure and blame.

يتناجَين بإيلام فتًى

ضَيَّعَ الحزم فلم يشدد حزاما

They whispered together of tormenting a youth

who squandered prudence and failed to tighten his belt.

قلنَ لو رام وما في باعه

قِصَرٌ أدركَ بالسَّعي المراما

They said: Had he sought his aim, with no

shortness in his reach, striving would have won desire.

يا نساءَ الحَيِّ خاصَمْتُنَّني

حَسْبُكُنَّ الدَّهرَ منكنَّ خصاما

O women of the tribe, you have made me your adversary;

may Time itself suffice you as an adversary.

لو تنبَّهتُ لها مجتهداً

كيف بالحظِّ إذا ما الحظُّ ناما

Even had I roused myself and striven for her,

what can be done with fortune when fortune sleeps?

أو رأى المقدور فينا رأيه

ما تكَلَّفْتُ نهوضاً وقياما

Or if fate had pronounced its verdict upon us,

I would not have troubled myself to rise and stand.

أبرح الدَّهر على ما لم أَرِدْ

ورزاياه اصطكاكاً واضطراما

I never cease to learn from Time what I never sought,

from its calamities—collision and conflagration.

لم يَلِنْ للدَّهر منِّي جانب

حيث لم أستعطف القومَ اللّئاما

No side of me has yielded to Time,

for I have never begged favor of ignoble men.

وعناءٍ كلّها أُمنيتي

في زمانٍ أنْ أرى النَّاس كراما

All my toil is for this one wish:

in such an age, to see people noble.

بأَبي محمود ينبوع النَّدى

أُبْصِرُ الأَعلام أطلالاً ركاما

May my father ransom Mahmud, fountain of generosity!

Beside him I see the great as ruins, heaps of rubble.

وأرى كلَّ عليٍّ دونه

فتعالى ذلك القرم الهماما

Every lofty man I see beneath him;

exalted is that noble, heroic lord.

أُنْفِقُ العُمرَ جميلاً فليَدُمْ

وجميل الصّنع أنَّى دام داما

May he spend his life in beauty, and may it endure;

his beautiful works, so long as he lasts, endure.

ويميناً إنَّه لوْ لمْ يَجدْ

في منام لم يذق قطّ مناما

By my oath, if he did not find

even in a dream someone to aid, he would never taste sleep.

فَسلُوه هلْ خلا ممَّا به

يصنَعُ البرَّ فيوليه الأَناما

Ask him: has he ever been free of that

with which he does good and bestows it upon mankind?

أَمْ تَخلَّى من جميل ساعة

من زمان غير ما صلَّى وصاما

Or has he ever set aside a beautiful deed for an hour

of his days, except while praying and fasting?

كم له من نظرةٍ في رأفَةٍ

أَيقَظَتْ لي أَعْيُناً كنَّ نياما

How many a compassionate glance of his

has awakened eyes of mine that had been sleeping.

ذُلِّلَتْ مستصعبات لم يكَدْ

يملك القائد منهنَّ زماما

Hardships were made tractable that scarcely

let their leader take their reins.

أُسْتَقِلُّ الأَنجمَ الزّهرَ له

أَنْ تُرى فيه نثاراً ونظاما

I count the bright stars too slight for him,

whether scattered as prose or strung as verse in his praise.

ولو أن كلَّمْتُه في لؤلؤٍ

ومن اللؤلؤ ما كانَ كلاما

Even if I were to speak of him in pearls—

and what pearl could ever become speech?

تجتلي قَرماً إماماً بالنَّدى

بأَبي ذيَّالك القرم الإِماما

You behold a prince, an imam in generosity;

my father be ransom for that prince, that imam.

وحسام باترٍ لا سيَّما

إنْ هَزَزْناه على الخطب حساما

And a keen, severing sword—most of all

when we brandish him as a sword against calamity.

فنوال ناب عن وبل الحيا

وجمال يخجل البدر التماما

A bounty that stands in for the downpour of rain,

and beauty that shames the full moon.

رفعةٌ قد شَهِدَ الخصمُ لها

قَعَدَ الغاربُ منها والسّناما

A loftiness to which even the foe bears witness;

before it, withers and hump alike sit low.

وإليه وإلى عليائه

أَنيق الرَّاجين أمست تترامى

Toward him and toward his heights

the choicest hopes of seekers stretch and reach.

وكأنِّي وكأن شعري له

مستميح حين شام البرق شاما

It is as though I—and my verse addressed to him—

were a rain-seeker who, seeing lightning toward Syria, went there.

بالطَّويل الباع بالسَّامي الذّرى

عرف المعروف شيخاً وغلاما

Through one of far-reaching hand and peaks held high,

beneficence became known to old and young.

وعلى ما هو فيه لم يزلْ

أو يقال التّبر قد عادَ رغاما

Despite all that is his, he has never ceased—

until one might say that gold itself has turned to dust.

والكريم النَّفس لا عن غرض

أيُّها أَزكى شراباً وطعاما

Noble of soul, with no ulterior aim—

O purest of all in drink and food.

هكذا النَّاس إذا قيل النَّدى

سحب تنشا جهاماً وركاما

Such are people when generosity is named:

clouds arise, rainless and piled high.

من سوى أَيديه في فرط الظّما

لا أراني الله أَسْتَسْقي الغماما

Except for his hands—in the extremity of thirst,

may God never make me beg rain from the clouds.

كلَّما اعْوجَّتْ أُموري والْتوَتْ

قوَّم المعوَجَّ منها فاستقاما

Whenever my affairs grow crooked and twisted,

he straightens their crookedness, and they stand straight.

يا أبا محمود يا من لم يزلْ

رحمةً للخلق برًّا باليتامى

O Abu Mahmud, you who have never ceased

to be mercy to creation, goodness to orphans;

غير ما خَوَّلْتَني من نِعمةٍ

أنا لا أملك في الدُّنيا حطاما

apart from the blessings you have bestowed on me,

I own no scrap of worldly goods.

أَفْطَرَ النَّاس جميعاً غيرنا

وبَقينا نحن في النَّاس صياما

All people have broken their fast except us;

among them, we remain fasting.

فلقد هُنِّيت بها

غُرَّة الأَعياد والشّهر الحراما

May you indeed be congratulated upon it—

the first splendor of festivals and the sacred month.

وابقَ للإِسلام ركناً سالماً

مُنْعِماً يا عيدنا عاماً فعاما

Remain for Islam a sound and steadfast pillar,

blessed, O our feast, year after year.