ته ما استطعت فغيرك المملول

يا من به كل الانام عذول

If you cannot help me, then others are helpless

O you to whom all people are submissive

أما هواك فآخذ بقلوبنا

فكأنه الآيات والتنزيل

Indeed, your love has taken our hearts

As if it were verses and revelation

ولنا بخدك آية لا تنحني

حسنا كما للصبح فيه دليل

And your cheek is a sign that does not bend

Beautiful as the morning has evidence

فكأن وردا أو كأن بنفسجا

يمسى ويصبح بالحيا مطلول

As if it were a rose or violet

That spends the night and morning free and loose

وبكاس ياقوت الشفاء مدامة

صحبته من صرف الجدان شمول

And a chalice of healing ruby wine

Its companionship purifies minds

في حفظ نجلا وبن حد ظباهما

كل النفوس به دم مطلول

To protect a tender sapling and a wild doe

All souls for it have spilled blood

آجالنا فيه الفرتد كأنه

المرآة شكلا وهو فيه شكول

Our lifespans compared to it are short

As if it were a mirror, its image and its shadow

صنم لبست الغي فيه وبزتي

أثواب هافيتي ضنى ونحول

An idol I wore with pride and dressed

In my finest clothes, stingy and thin

عجبا أحل دمي وما جنس الدما

من شأنه التحريم والتحليل

Strangely, my blood became lawful

Though its nature is forbidden and allowed

يجنى فارضي وهو ممتنع الرضى

فكأنني بجناية معفول

It sins, so pardon it, though it is unpardonable

As if I have immunity for the crime

سلب الحياة وملني متفرا

وثناه عني كاشح وعذول

It robbed life from me and evaded

Turning from me, aloof and averse

لا يستميل الود غصن قوامه

فكما يميل اليك عنك يميل

The bough of its stature does not bend to affection

As it leans away, so does it lean toward you

يهوى التصابي والدلال برده

وبرده خط العذار كفيل

It desires harmony and flirtation in its coldness

And in its coldness lies the cure for passion’s wounds

في كل يوم لي اليه صبابة

ورسائل ووسائل ورسول

Each day it has new youthful charms for me

And messages and means and a messenger

وأميل نحو محدثي لحديثه

فكأنه ماء وفي غليل

And I incline toward my conversant for his speech

As if it were water and I were thirsty

فالقلب صب ان دنا مذهول

والصب قلب ان نأى متبول

So the heart melts when love draws near

And the melt becomes a heart when love moves away

والعقل شيء لا لديه ولا معي

والسمع باب بعده مقفول

Reason is nothing I possess or know

Hearing is a door beyond which is locked

أذكى نواه السهد فاحترق الكرى

فرماده بمدامعي مجبول

Love's pangs made the planets burn

Its ashes with my tears are mixed

فلذاك دمعي كالجماد مجسد

من مقلة قرحي عليه تسيل

So my tears like solids take form

From my wounded eyelids they pour

أنا والنهار عليه أن عز اللقا

طرف ولكن بالقذى مكحول

I and the day vie for the pleasure of his company

My eyes hurt from the sparks

والليل حجب مثلها دون المنى

يفنى المحب وذيلها مسدول

The night veils them like my eyes from my beloved

Destroying the lover while its tail trails

والداء اقتله الرقيب وانه

في الحب كالحرمان فيه دخيل

The illness, let the spy kill it, for in love

It is like deprivation, an intruder

جهل الغرام وحازكن نتيجة

ياليت مثلي في هواك جهول

Ignorant of love, yet you gained experience

Would that I in your love were ignorant

أوليت عشقي وهو اخطر علة

لو ان عاذلنا بها معلول

Would that my passion were a lighter sickness

Than what makes the critic ill

أوليت من نصر الوشة وملني

لا ذبت عشقا فيه وهو ملول

Would that I had never tasted the sweetness of love

And never been left craving more

افنيت ايام الشهيبة حسرة

وبلاه لا ضم ولا تقبيل

I wasted my days pining in sorrow

With no embrace or kiss to be had

وكأنما الايام لم تسمح لنا

فأبى يطوق ساعدي تليل

As if the days did not allow

My arm to cradle his head

وكأن للايام عهدا عندنا

وكأنني وحدي به المسؤل

As if the days had a pact with me

And I alone was held responsible

وتعذر المأمول اوجب قصدنا

قاضي القضاة فعنده المأمول

The failure of hopes necessitated our quest

To the Judge of judges, for with Him is hope

المصدر العافين قبل ورودهم

غرقى كأن براحتيه سيول

The source of healers before they come

I drowned, as if floods were in my hands

والمفرغ السحر الحلال قوافيا

تزدان منه الغادة العطبول

The master of permitted magic in poetry

With which the unfinished poem is adorned

قاض بسوق له الغريم غريمه

حقدا ويرجع عنه وهو خليل

A judge in whose court the opponent is his opponent

Out of hatred, yet he returns to him in amity

يقضي فيرضي الجانبين فراسة

فكأنما اوحى له التخييل

Judging, satisfying both parties out of insight

As if revelation inspired his thoughts

وفد الشريعة روضة زهيت به

والروض ان وفد الغمام خضيل

The envoys of Sacred Law a garden I flourished

And a garden when cloud envoys are fertile

وعلى الحقيقة فالشريعة محرم

ولها الجناب المولوي بعول

In reality, Sacred Law is a sanctuary

And its guard is my Lord

يا من تقاد له الفضائل عسكرا

والجهل جيش دونها مقتول

O you who leads processions of virtues

While ignorance's army is slain

حزت المحامد والمناصب يافعاً

وسعى لبابك شيب وكهول

You have harvested praise and positions, youth

And old and mature strive toward your door

تمتاز في الفضلاء قدرا مثلما

يمتاز دون الفاضل المفضول

You are distinguished among the virtuous

As the virtuous is distinguished from the less so

ان باحثوك فبحث قدرك مشكل

ما غير مولانا له التأويل

Those who seek you, seeking your worth, are perplexed

None but our Master can interpret

او شبهوك فصبح فضلك شاهد

ان ليس بوجد للصباح مثيل

Or likened you, so your merit shone as witness

That the morning has no match or peer

انثت عليك المشكلات وعقدها

من قيد ألسنة الورى محلول

Difficulties attached themselves to you and their knots

Were loosened from the leash of tongues

وسللت عزمك فالعلا صمصامة

يرتد عنها الدهر وهو كليل

They tested your resolve, and the high principles are swords

From which fate recoils, exhausted

فاغمده حظي ما استطعت فأنه

جفن لعضب ليس فيه فلول

So sheathe it, my fortune, as much as you can

An eyelid for a blinking eye has no substitute

أنت الكريم وجد مثلي عاثر

فاقل عثاري فالكريم مقيل

You are generous, and one who errs like me

So reduce my sins, for the generous forgives

انا من اباح له النجوم قوافيا

طبع له ماضي الغرار صقيل

I am one whose stars allowed poetry

Inscribing my past errors as polished

انا بدر آفاق القريض من الصبا

وشموس فضلى في البلاد تجول

I am the full moon of poetry's horizons since youth

Its suns wandering through countries

انا وارث الكلمات عن هاروميها

ولديك منه شواهد وعدول

I inherited words from Harun Al-Rashid's era

And with you are examples and verified accounts

انا من رأيت الناس ثم رأيته

فامتاز عن ماء الحياة النيل

I am the one who saw people and then saw him

And he was distinguished from the Nile of life

فانقده نقدك للرجال فإنه

الا بريز لكن جللته وحول

So appraise him in your appraisal of men, for he

Is no ingot, though you have refined him

ولقد اجلك ان تكون ولم أكن

في موقف للشعر فيه دخول

You have revered me to be, though I have not been

In a position for poetry to enter

والعشق حزن لا يجاب وانما

مثلي له كل الحزون سهول

Passion is sorrow that cannot be answered, and one like me

To it all the sorrowful have ease of access

ركب المنايا اينقا ورمى بها

في مهمه فيه الغدو قفول

It rode fate's she-camels and threw them

Into an abyss where tomorrow wanders lost

لا يترك اللذات وهي مذلة

ومتى تعز النفس وهو ذليل

It does not leave pleasures though they are disgraceful

And when does the soul find dignity while humiliated?

خشن الثياب واروع في حليها

فاعجب لليث والثياب الغل

Coarse clothes but finest in their adornment

So the lion is a wonder, and the clothes a puzzle

مل الزمان وكل من أملته

ان لم يفدك صنيعه مملول

Time is bored with all those it has bored

Unless his deeds have not cease to entertain

ينحك في طمريه مثل الدر في

الأصداف لكن في الثرى مبذول

It carves them like pearls in oyster shells

Though left scattered on the ground

وكفى بمثلي ان بين ضلوعه

نفسا لها مرقى النفوس نزول

It is enough for the likes of me that among its pursuits

Is a soul rising through the ranks of souls

ولئن تكن شقت جيوب ملابسي

لتجر لي في العاشقين ذيول

Even if my clothes have ripped pockets

To drag behind me the train of lovers' gowns

لا يعلم العضب الثمين نجاده

ما لم يكن من غمده مسلول

Priceless sabers know not their value

Unless drawn from the sheath and put to use

واليكها غراء ملء فم المنى

جاءتك في حلل العفاف تذيل

To you it earnestly comes, mouth full of purpose

Arriving in modesty's garb and trailing robe

في منعة عن ان تماشي ظلها الاطما

ع او يقتادها التطفيل

Too delicate to walk under the very clouds

Or be led on by greed

تشتاق رؤيتها العيون كأنها

رقم الخدود محبب وجميل

Eyes long to see it as if it were

Cheeks' marks, beloved and beautiful

ومقالها عند الكرام كأنه

عتب الحبيب على الرضى محمول

Its words to the generous are like

The reproach of a beloved tactfully voiced

فاستجلها زهرا علاك سماؤها

والبدر أنت فلا لقيك افول

So draw it forth as the flower of your sky

While you are the moon, so never set

اما وسؤددك المجسد فضله

قسما ومجدك فيه وهو اثيل

Were it not for your embodied merit

I would not in odes its honor hail

ما كنت لولا انت اهل قائلا

شعراً وإني ان ترد لفؤول

I would not, were it not for you

Have been worthy to say poetry, though now I spout it

فالمجد انت وكلهم لك طالب

والفضل انت وما عداك فضول

Glory is you, and all seek you

Merit is you, and all else are superfluous