كَتَبتَ فَهَجَّنتَ الَّذينَ تَقَدَّموا

وَأَعلَمتَنا أَنَّ التأَخُّرَ في السَّبقِ

You wrote—and made all those before you seem inferior;

And taught us that lateness can take the lead in the race.

وَأَغضَيتَ عَن نَظمِ القَريضِ سَماحَةً

بِهِ فَظَننا أَنَّ ذَلِكَ عَن حَقِّ

You had magnanimously held back from fashioning verse,

So we supposed that this abstention had good cause.

فَإِن عُدتَ تَهدي مِنهُ كُلَّ عَجيبَةٍ

إِلَينا فَكَم مِن مُعجِزٍ لَكَ في السَّبقِ

But if you return to offering us every marvel from it,

How many an inimitable feat is yours in taking the lead!

وَمَن لي بِأَن أَلقى بِعَينيَ كُلَّما

شَكَوتُ وَما يَرتابُ مِثلُكَ في صِدقي

And whom have I to see with my own eyes whenever

I complain—when one like you never doubts my truth?

وَوَاللَّهِ لَو شاطَرتُكَ العُمرَ ما وَفَت

حَياتي بِأَدنى مِنَّةً لَكَ في عُنقي

By God, even if I gave you half my span of life, it would not suffice—

My life—to repay the least favor of yours resting upon my neck.