لا زِلتَ حِلفَ سَعادَةٍ وَبَقاءِ
مَوصُولَتَينِ بِرِفعَةٍ وَعَلاءِ
You still swear to happiness and permanence
Both connected to nobility and supremacy
تَجني الحَياةَ حَمِيدَةَ الإِيرادِ
وَالإِصدارِ وَالإِصباحِ وَالإِمساءِ
Life yields praiseworthy revenue
And expenditure, dawn and dusk
يا أَفصَحَ الفُصَحاءِ بَل يا أَرجَحَ
الرُجَحاءِ بَل يا أَسمَحَ السُمَحاءِ
O most eloquent of the eloquent, nay the most
Persuasive of the reasonable, nay the most generous of the generous
لا شَيءَ أَعشَقُ مِن حُسامِكَ لِلطُلى
إِلّا يَداكَ لِنائِلٍ وَسَخاءِ
I love nothing of your sharp swords for seekers except
Your hands for a receiver and generosity
طُلتَ الأَنامَ فَما تَرَكتَ فَضِيلَةً
إِلّا وَفُقتَ بِها عَلى الفَضلاءِ
You excelled all people so you left no merit
Without surpassing others who possess merit
أَنتَ السَخِيُّ فَلِم بَخِلتَ عَلى الوَرى
أَن يُشبِهُوكَ وَلَستَ في البُخَلاءِ
You are generous so why are you stingy with people
To resemble you, while you are not among the stingy?
طَلَبُوا لَحاقَكَ في العَلاءِ فَقَصَّرُوا
وَسَبَقتَ سَبقَهُمُ إِلى العَلياءِ
They sought to catch up with you in supremacy but fell short
While you surpassed them, reaching the most high
قَعَدُوا وَقُمتَ بِما حَمَلتَ مِنَ العُلى
وَقَعَدتَ فَوقَ كَواكِبِ الجَوزاءِ
They sat while you rose with what you carried of greatness
And sat above the stars of Gemini
رُوحِي فِدا مَلِكِ لِسُنَّةِ وَجههِ
مَآءانَ ماءُ حَيّاً وَماءُ حَياءِ
My soul is ransom to the king with a blessed face
A flowing spring of life and a flowing spring of shyness
ما ضَرَّ خَلقاً شامَ بارِقَ كَفِّهِ
أَن لا يَشِيمَ بَوارِقَ الأَنواءِ
No creation that met the shining of his palm was harmed
By not partaking of the lights of stars
يا خَيرَ مَن سَمِعَ الثَناءَ وَخَيرَ مَن
أَودَعتُ مَسمَعَهُ الكَرِيمَ نِدائِي
O best of those who heard praise and best of those
Whose generous hearing I made hear my call!
لا وَدَّعَتكَ المَكرُوماتُ وَلا العُلى
كَوَداعِنا لِسُلافَةِ الصهباءِ
The sublime did not bid you farewell, nor our farewell
To the zealous high-minded ones
عُمرُ الجَفاءِ لَنا قَصِيرٌ طُولُهُ
شَهرٌ كَعُمرِ طَوائِفِ الأَعداءِ
The life of estrangement from us is short, as long as
The life of enemies' alliances, a month
فَاشرَب هَنِيئاً لا عَدِمتَ مَسَرَّةً
أَبَداً وَلا عاداكَ يَومُ هَناءِ
So drink happily - may you never lose pleasure
Or be restored to a day of happiness!
في مَنزِلٍ أَلبَستَ سائِرَ أَهلِهِ
بِحُلُولِهِ حُلَلاً مِنَ النَعماءِ
In a house whose people you clothed, by arriving,
In garments of bounty from the Benefactor
لَو أَنَّهُم بَسَطُوا الخُدُودَ كَرامَةً
لَكَ ما جَزَتكَ خُدُودُهُم بِجَزاءِ
If they had offered their cheeks generously
Their cheeks would not have repaid you enough
نِعمَ العَبِيدُ أَتَوا لِيَرفَعَ مِنهُمُ
مَولىً كَثِيرُ صَنائِعِ الآلآءِ
Blessed are the servants who came to raise from them
A master of abundant fine works
شَكَرُوا وَما اِقتَنَعُوا بِأَلسُنِ شُكرِهِم
حَتّى اِستَعارُوا أَلسُنَ الشُعَراءِ
They gave thanks but were not satisfied with the tongues of their thanks
Until they borrowed the tongues of poets
فَشَكَرتُ أَنعُمَكَ الجَسِيمَةَ عَنهُمُ
وَعَنِ الوَرى شُكرَ الثَرى لِلماءِ
So I thanked the great favors you bestowed
Both for them and for people, like the land's thanking of water
إِنّي لَأَرحَمُ مَن يَقُولُ وَقَد رَأى
ذا الفَضلَ إِنَّ الفَضلَ لِلقُدَماءِ
Truly, I pity whoever saw this merit and yet says
"Merit belongs to the ancients!"
لَيسُوا بِأَنظارِ الأَمِيرِ وَلا الأُلى
نَطَقُوا بِحُسنِ صِفاتِهِم نُظَرائِي
They are not equal to the Emir‘s judgments or intimates—
My peers spoke well in their fine traits
تَرَكَ المُلوكَ بَنِي المُلوكِ وَراءَهُ
وَتَرَكتُ أَربابَ القَريضِ وَرائِي
He left behind him the kings, the sons of kings,
And I left behind the poetry masters
أُثنِي عَلَيهِ وَمَن لِخارِقَةِ الصَبا
لَو أَنَّها سارَت مَسِيرَ ثَنائِي
I praise him—and who to the wondrous early
Youth, if it marched the march of my praise!
هُوَ عِطرُ سُكّانِ العَمُودِ وَإِن أَتى
بَلَداً فَعِطرُ مَجالِسِ الأُدَباءِ
He is the fragrance of the pillar's dwellers, but if he came
To a land, he‘d be the fragrance of literary gatherings
