ماذا لقينا من القاطول لا هطلت

فيه السحاب ولا سقته تهتانا

What we have suffered from al-Qāṭūl! May no rain fall

from clouds upon it, nor may they soak it with ceaseless downpours.

فقد سددناه وارتدت غواديه

حسرى ولم نأل أحكاما واتقانا

We blocked it, and its onrushing waters recoiled,

exhausted; we spared no effort in soundness and precision.

وقد دعمنا له سكرا سما وطما

حتى توهمه راؤوه ثهلانا

We buttressed against it a dam that towered and swelled,

until those who saw it mistook it for Thahlān.

واستفرغ الوسع حتى طم خا

دمك المهلبي وقاسى فيه أشجانا

Every last effort was spent, until it engulfed your ser—

—vant, al-Muhallabi, who surely suffered sorrows in it.

نجاه منه بآراء مثقفة

تخالها في ظلام الليل نيرانا

He was saved from it by keen, well-honed counsels

that you would take, in the darkness of night, for fires.

رميت بحرا بطود فاستكان له

كرها وأيقظت فيما بات يقظانا

You hurled a mountain against a sea, and it yielded before it

against its will; and you roused what had lain awake all night.

وما تقابل بالإقبال ممتنعا

إلا تبدل بالعصيان إذعانا

Whenever you meet a resisting thing with forward resolve,

it cannot but change, through yielding, into submission.