علي سدّت صفاتك الطرقا

فما يقول اللسان لو نطقا

Your virtues have blocked all paths,

So what can the tongue say if it spoke?

وصلتني بالوفا تفصل لي

يا خازن الدر لؤلؤا نسقا

You have reached me with loyalty though you separate from me,

O keeper of pearls, strung evenly.

قلدت مني وكنت مجتهدا

بمثله ان تقلد العنقا

You have imitated me while striving

To imitate the necklace with its like.

وقد شرعت الكمال في كلم

حق به كل باطل محقا

You have set out perfection in every word,

With which every falsehood is made true.

ارسلت آياته تكلمني

فخرّ قلبي لذكرها صعقا

You have sent its signs speaking to me,

So my heart leapt at the mention - shocked.

قواقياً كالرياض مونقة

أرعيت منها أحداقي الورقا

Canal banks like gardens, flourishing,

From which I have grazed my leafy eyes.

وجئتني بالبديع موئتنقا

طرازه والبيان متسقا

And you have come to me with eloquence, woven seamlessly,

Its composition and rhetoric composed.

وبالمعاني التي إذا مدحوا

معنى فمنها نراه مسترقا

With meanings, which if they praise

A meaning, we see it stolen from them.

لابدع يا مطلق المقال إذا

قيدت فكري وكان منطلقا

No eloquence, O you who speaks freely, if

My thoughts were restricted though unconfined.

باحرف فيا الطروس مسكها

طيبك حتى احالها عبقا

With letters - so gently handle them -

Until your sweetness has scented them.

وفطنة يبرق الذكاء بها

فلو بها البرق مرّ لاحترقا

And wit which intelligence flashes through,

If lightning possessed it, it would have burned.

ومقول لا تزال شفرته

تستل في القيل صارماً ذلقا

And speech whose blade

Continually strips bare folly, sharp and smooth.

كل ملوك الكلام خاضعة

منك لملك يعدّها سوقا

All the kings of speech are subjected

By you to a king who marshals them as troops.

قد جهد البرق ان بياريه

على أناة الحجى فما لحقا

The lightning has striven though its flashes

Against the patience of the clouds, but could not reach it.

وقائل هكذا تخلقه

قدماً له قلت هكذا خلقا

And I said thus has He created

A speaker, I said "Thus has He created."