بحياتكمْ ما عندكمْ بَعْدي

فسِوَى الأَسَى ما بعدكُمْ عندي

By your lives, without you I have nothing left

Except sorrow - after you, what joy remains?

جُودوا برِفْدٍ من خيالكمُ

فخيالكمْ لي غايةُ الرِّفدِ

Bestow on me some fantasy from your minds

For your fantasies are my wish fulfilled

اسْدُوا إليَّ يداً لأَشْكُرَها

فالشُّكرُ لا يعدو يدَ المُسْدِي

Lend me a hand that I may thank it

For gratitude ends not with the hand outstretched

ما لي مجبرٌ غيرُ طيفكُمُ

يُهدي إليَّ القربَ في البعدِ

I have no consolation but your ghost

That brings me closeness in the distance

والعينُ قد دَميَتْ وليس لها

إلاّ مَعينُ الدَّمعِ منْ وِرْدِ

My eye has wept until it sees no more

Save the spring of tears still flowing

والسَّمعُ في وَقْرٍ لعاذِلهِ

فيكمْ ونارُ الشّوقِ في وَقد

My hearing is deafened by the reproacher

Of you - while my passion burns hot

مَنْ غَيْركم للوصلِ أَستَدعي

أو مَن على الهجْرانِ استَعْدي

Who but you can I summon for union?

Who but you can I call to break off?

ما كنتُ أَعلمُ قبلَ فرقتنا

أَنَّ الهوى يومَ النّوى يُردِي

I did not know before we parted

That love on the day of intent wreaks havoc

سَقمي شفائي في مودَّتكمْ

وضلالتي في حُبّكم رُشْدي

My sickness and my health lie in your affection

My ruin in your love, my guidance

بالرُّوحِ يفديكم مُحبُّكُمُ

والرُّوحُ أكرمُ ما بهِ يَفْدِي

With my soul would your lover ransom you

And the soul is the noblest thing with which to pay

يا مالكي رِقِّي أَما لكمُ

من رِقةٍ يا حافظي وُدِّي

My masters, have you no tenderness for me?

My keepers, do you not guard my love?

يا جاحدي حقَّ الودادِ وهل

حقُّ الودادِ يضيعُ بالجَحْدِ

O you who deny the rights of love - can

The rights of love be lost through denial?

يا دمعُ لا تتركْ مساعدتي

فقد استقالَ الصبرُ من وجدي

My tears, do not stop helping me

For patience has abandoned my fervor

طلبَ التّصبُّرَ جاهداً فأبى

قلبٌ مِن الأشواقِ في جَهْدِ

I struggled to be patient but my heart

Refused, consumed by longing's fire

وتكحّلتْ ليلاً بإئمدهِ

عينٌ له مِرهَتْ من السُّهدِ

My eyes lined themselves with kohl in the night

A eye that Kohl disfigured from wakefulness

مُتَفَرِّدٌ بتَجَرُّعِ الأسفِ ال

مُظمي لشوقِ الأجرعِ الفرْدِ

Alone drinking the bitterness -

No sympathizer for my overflowing grief

شَهدَ الوداعَ فزادَهُ أَلماً

لمّا أَصابَ الصابَ في الشّهْد

Parting witnessed increased his pain

When the lover obtained his sweet

إنْ أَنتَ لم تُهْدِ الشّفاءَ له

وهواكَ ممرضُهُ فمنْ يُهْدِي

If you do not guide healing to him

While your love makes him sick, who can guide?

أَمَلْتُ نجحكَ لا تُخبْ أَملي

وقصدتُ حِفْظَكَ لا تُضعْ قصدِي

I hoped for your success - do not disappoint my hope

I sought your protection - do not forfeit my quest

رحَلُوا وقلبي في رحالهمُ

يشكو صدىً ويُشاكُ من صَدِّ

They left while my heart among their mounts

Complains of solitude and suffers isolation

أَلقيتُ عند مثارِ عيسهمُ

نفسي وقلتُ خِدِي على خَدِّي

I cast myself at the place they dismounted

Saying "Lay my cheek upon my cheek!"

ناديتُ حاديهمْ بعيشكَ قفْ

للبينِ من حَدْوٍ على حدِّ

I called to their guide: "For their lives stop!"

"Is there no limit to separation's barrier?"

رفقاً بعيشِهم أَما لهُمُ

ممّا بدا للبينِ من بُدِّ

Gently, gently with their lives! Have they not

Departed from making joy in asceticism?

فاهدأ هُديتَ فمذ حدوتَ رَموا

جَلَدي الضعيفَ الأُسَّ بالهَدِّ

Or are my loved ones not people of my time

If they do not keep their vows to me?

وجدي بمصرَ يَهيجُ ساكنَهُ

شَغَفي بذكرى ساكني نجدِ

If they do not fulfill, the generous one has fulfilled

Abdul Rahim with the charge of glory

والوجدُ في الأحزانِ كامنةً

عندي خلافُ النّارِ في الزَّندِ

The virtuous elevated one, the noble pure one

Giver of dew, the magnificent glorifier

ما للأَحبَّةِ لا عَدِمْتُهُمُ

رَغِبُوا عن الإسعادِ في الزُّهْدِ

One who hopes does not lose his way

Rather he is assured of guidance

أو ليس أحبابي بنو زمني

لا غَرْوَ إنْ لم يحفظوا عَهدي

He bestows on me the bright light of his favors

While the illumination of his praise gives light, as I bestow

إن لم يَفوا فلقد وفى كَرَماً

عبدُ الرحيم بذمّةِ المجدِ

Of customary nature his manner

In it you see him uncompromising

الفاضلُ المفضالُ والنَّدِسُ ال

مُسْدي النّدى والماجدُ المُجدي

Through his presence the fruits of my hopes approach

My distant aspirations and rest for my weary soul

ما إنْ يضلُّ بقاصدٍ أَمَل

إلاّ ويضمنُ أَنه يَهْدي

Forever from his gentleness continues

An eye turned towards us in new birth

يُسدي إِليَّ منيرَ انعُمه

وأنيرُ مِدْحَتَهُ كما أُسدي

And my hopes see in his nobilities

Eyes that do not turn away in success

العُرفُ معتاد له خلقٌ

وبه تراه غيرَ مُعتدِّ

Zaki the carpenter, brother of the potter

Possessor of the shining immaculate lineage

بجنابهِ يدنو جَنَى أَملي ال

نّائي وراحةُ حظيَ المُكدِي

Of lofty rank and noble glory

Of high lineage and ancestral nobility

أَبداً تَوالَى مِنْ عوارفه

طُرفٌ تُضافُ لنا إلى تُلْدِ

All people are his followers

While fate is as a slave to him

ويرى رجائي مِن مكارمهِ

في النُّجحِ طَرْفٌ غيرُ مُرتَد

The sea has ebbs but its serenity

Is an eternal sea in its flow

زاكي النِّجارِ أَخو الفخارِ وذو ال

مجدِ الأثيرِ الطاهرِ البُرْدِ

For him are the meadows, and his guardian forever

He is nurtured by him, and he nurtures the hateful

ذو الرتبةِ الشّماءِ والشّرفِ ال

عالي السّنا والسؤْددِ العد

How the sea of his rhetoric raged chaotic, then emerged

As prose pearls threaded in a necklace

النّاسُ كلهمُ له تَبَعٌ

في فضلهِ والدَّهرُ كالعَبْدِ

If he darkened the white, he whitened

Every dark cloth of the nights

والبحرُ ذو جَزْرٍ وراحتُهُ

بحرٌ مدَى الأيام في مَدِّ

A pen whose realms are cities

And their borders controlled and constrained

وله اليراعُ وليُّه أَبداً

يُرْعَى به ويُراعُ ذو الحقْدِ

By its slenderness the robustness of ascension fattened

And in jest with it emerges the essence of seriousness

كم غاضَ بحرُ بنانهِ فغدا

دُرُّ البيانِ يُساقُ في العقْدِ

For his tongue are arguments by which

He forcefully refutes the firm cases of barbed tongues

إن سوَّدَ البيضاءَ بيّضَ منْ

ثوبِ اللّيالي كلَّ مُسْوَد

A thirsty one who ruins any with thirst

So wonder at one with a bouquet though bouquetless

قَلَمٌ أَقاليمُ البلادِ به

وثغورُها في الضّبْطِ والشّدِ

A king whose army is his writing

A unique one with the army of victory in soldiers

بهُزالهِ سمَنُ العُلا وكذا

في الهَزْلِ منه حقيقةُ الجد

The brown calligrapher who follows him

In his judgment, and the white Hindi

للسانهِ حُجَجٌ يَرُدُّ بها

جزماً قضايا الألسنِ اللُّدِ

Misfortunes are constantly cursed through him

Handcuffed, fettered in chains

ظمآن يُردي كلَّ ذي ظمإٍ

فاعجبْ لذي وِرْدٍ بلا وِرْدِ

How many perils has the coward been saved

From fear of eyelid and scabbard by him

مَلكٌ كتيبتُهُ كتابتُهُ

فَرْدٌ بجيشِ النّصرِ في جُنْدِ

By him the censures penetrated striking

The cohorts of warty cane shoots

الأسمرُ الخطيُّ تابعُهُ

في حكمه والأبيضُ الهندي

And the bitterness - its critiques

Like the overtures of mischief in sleepy eyes

والنائباتُ بحدِّهِ أَبداً

مثلومةٌ مغلولهُ الحَدِّ

You relieved it with restorative jokes

And the hardness was softened with roses

كم مأزقٍ نَقّى الغرارُ به

للرُّعبِ من جَفنٍ ومن غمْدِ

With gentle management that gladdens

For its purity the heart of sincere loyalty

نَفَذَتْ به اللاماتُ طاعنةً

أَلفاتِ خُرْصانِ القنا المُلْدِ

A custom that replaces despair for us

In adversity with the rejection of Chronic blight

والسُّمْرُ داميةٌ مطاعنُها

كمراودٍ في أَعيُنٍ رُمْدِ

I call you from the source of dew, O you

Whose splendor outshines the source!

فرَّجْتَهُ بشَبا مُلَطِّفَةٍ

وَرَدَتْ بقَسْرِ القَسْوَرِ الوَرْدِ

From the captivity of your captivity is every praise

For you are truly the possessor of praise

بلطيفِ تدبيرٍ يَرِقُّ له

لصفائهِ قلبُ الصّفا الصَّلْدِ

And you repeat what you initiate, and double it

And who is the repeater but you, and the initiator?

عُرْفٌ يُبّدلُ بالرَّجاء لنا

في الأزْمِ نُكْرَ الأزمُنِ النُّكْدِ

O you in whom I found my eloquence limited

In confining what he grants and reckoning

ناديكَ من نَدِّ النّدَى عَطرٌ

يا مَنْ يَجلُّ نَداهُ عن ندِّ

Of all who have tied the tribulations from

My fortune, strong unbreakable ties

من سَبْي سَبْيك كلُّ مَحْمَدَةٍ

فَلأَنْتَ حَقّاً مالكُ الحمدِ

You scattered my enemies when they

Gathered for evil, assembled for harm

وتعيدُ ما تُبدي وتُضعفُهُ

ومَنِ المعيدُ سواكَ والمُبدي

And raised me above the lofty summit though if

You had not enriched me I would have stayed in the valley

يا مَنْ وجدتُ بلاغتي حَصَراً

في حَصْرِ ما يُوليهِ والعَدِّ

My superiority is fate's outcast

While its fortunes have completely departed

من كلِّ مَنْ عقدَ النوائبَ عن

حَظِّي عُرىً مُوثَوقَةَ الشَّدِّ

Fate betrayed every worthy soul

Refusing faithful conduct with blissful life

فَرَّقتَ أعدائي غداةَ هُمُ

للشرِّ في حشرٍ وفي حَشْدِ

Increase the cultivation of your meadow - it has

Become far removed from keeping its vow

ورفعتّني فوقَ اليّفاعِ ولو

لم تُسْمني لمكثتُ في الوَهْدِ

Your enemy's enemy is easiest dealt with

As long as you remain my defender against him

فَضْلي طرادُ الدَّهرِ غادره

وحظوظُهُ كلَّتْ من الطَّرْدِ

And thorns cannot complain of their crime

When one's purpose is plucking roses!

غدرَ الزَّمانُ بكلِّ ذي حَسَبٍ

يأبى الوفاءَ بعيشهِ الرَّغْدِ

The sons of my time concealed his virtues

While my mother's reproach was with me alone

زِدْ غَرْسَ رِيِّكَ ريّهُ فلقد

أَضحى بعيدَ العَهْدِ بالعَهْدِ

This is the time to fulfill your promise to me

The generous one fulfills his vow

عَدْوُ العدوِّ يهونُ أَصعبُهُ

ما دمتَ دمتَ عليه لي مُعدي

One who braces his back with hope in you - can he

Remain in any state but fully supported?

والشوكُ لا يشكو جنايتَهُ

من كانَ مطلبَهُ جَنَى الوردِ

Can the essence of my expectations be

Unrealized, not yielding essence?

أَخفى بنو زمني محاسنَهُ

وعتابُ أمي معي وَحْدي

Through your grace I subdue the antithesis

For your grace remains subduer of opposites

هذا أَوانُ نجازِ وعدِكَ لي

إنَّ الكريمَ لمُنْجزُ الوعدِ

Aid me seriously with your commitment - you remain

Despite enemies, ascending in resolve

من شَدَّ ظهرَ رجائهِ بكَ هل

يبقى بأَمرٍ غيرِ مُشتّدِ

أَيكونُ زبدةُ ما أُؤَمِّلُهُ

عدمَ التمخُّضِ فيه عن زُبْدِ

أَرِغْم بفضلكَ ضدَّ مَنْقَبتي

لا زالَ فضلُكَ مُرِغمَ الضّدِ

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