أحيت قتيل الحب عين حياتها

ورنت فاودي الصب من لحظاتها

She revived the slain lover with her life,

And the valleys of morning rang with her moments.

وتلفتت بين الظباء بجيدها

تعطو فاغضى الريم من لفتاتها

She wandered among the gazelles with her neck,

Giving the bending branch some of her glances.

سكرى الجفون سقتك من أجفانها

أضعاف ما تسقيك من طاساتها

The drunkenness of her eyelids gave you to drink,

Double what her cups give you from their draughts.

فكأن في الكاسات ما في عينها

وكأن ما في العين في كاساتها

As if in the cups is what is in her eyes,

And as if what's in the eyes is in her cups.

ميلاء قد دار المدام براسها

فهوت ترد الراح في راحتها

Mīlā’ turned the wine around with her head,

So she fell to ease the wind in her rest.

عاداتها المشي الرخاء تكفيّاً

فجرت على ما مرَّ من عاداتها

Her habit of walking slowly was enough,

She went along as her habits passed her by.

عدَّت جنايات الهوى وجنايتي

أني جنيت الورد من وجناتها

I counted the sins of love and my sin:

That I plucked roses from her gardens.

أن تعبد النار المجوس بخدها

فمواقد النيران منشأ ذاتها

That the Magi worship the flame with their cheeks,

So the braziers of fire are its essence.

موهت حين حمت بنجد بيتها

فسألت بالغورين عن أبياتها

She confused when she protected her home in Nejd,

So I asked about her verses in al-Ghurain.

دين وماطلة الديون لوت به

وقضت عليَّ بعذَّلي وقضاتها

A debt and procrastinating debts twist him,

And she finished me off with her rebuke and judges.

ولقد خلوت بها بعف سريرة

لم أقترف بالذنب في خلواتها

I was alone with her with some privacy,

I didn’t sin in her seclusions.

نظرت فبيض الهند من أجفانها

وخطت فسمر الخط من قاماتها

She looked - the whiteness of India was her eyelids,

And she walked - the redness of the line was her figure.

يا أخت معتنق السيوف ألية

لولاك طاح أخوك في لهواتها

O sister of the one who hugs swords,

If not for you, your brother would have fallen in her ravines.

وقناة معتنق الرماح قوامها

بالصف يطعن لا طويل قناتها

The canal of the one who hugs spears is its pillar,

Stabbing with the spear - not long are its reaches.

حملت ولولا أن أراوغ دونها

قدَّت عليَّ الدرع في حملاتها

I carried - and if I hadn't dodged under her -

She extended the coat of mail at me in her onslaughts.

وتنكبت من حاجب قوساً لها

يرمي سهام الغنج من تلاتها

She turned aside from an eyebrow an arc for her

That shoots the arrows of youth from its twists.

بدوية حضرية قمرية

قمرية شتى صنوف لغاتها

Nomadic, sedentary, moonlike,

Moonlike, diverse languages in her conversation.

عرضت تشوب حضرة ببداوة

فأبان عن لغطين لغط قطاتها

She introduced nomadism into the sedentary,

Revealing two accents in the sound of her mewing.

وشمائل للخمر من نشواتها

ومخائل للروض من نشآتها

Forms of drunkenness from her entertainment,

And forms of meadows from her upbringing.

تروي صباح الجوهري مكرراً

من ثغرها درراً ثقاة رواتها

She relates the pure early morning pearls

Repeated from her mouth, certified by transmitters.

ورخيمة لألفاظ ودَّ مخارق

يروي رقيق غناه عن نغماتها

Melodious in diction, closing the distance,

Relating the delicate singing without melodies.

قد قام سواس الحلي مرجعاً

فوق المطي يضجع في لباتها

The necklaces of adornment stood up

Lying above the camel litter in her smoothness.

حتى كأن ريني رجع حليها

في عجز في السير رجع حداتها

Until it was as though her anklets returned

In weakness, her steps returned in their termination.

تمش قصير الخطو بين لداتها

إن أسرعت مشي القطا بأناتها

She walks with short steps among her gentleness,

Moaning if she quickens her walk like a wild cat.

عيناء أن عنَّت لعينك خلتها

نشأت مع الآرام في غابتها

Languishing, if you blamed her eyes for their deprivation,

She grew up with gazelles in their thickets.

بالقاعة الوعساء من رمل الحمى

بين الظباء العفر من ظبياتها

In the gloomy hall of the sands of fever,

Among the dust-colored gazelles from her young ones.

وسرى بها أرج الهنا فتضوعت

منه الرياض الجو في جنباتها

The scent of glory passed through her, so she swayed

The meadows waved in her sides.

وبها أكاويب المسرة أترعت

وشدت عنادلها في أثلاتها

By her the bands of joy were adorned

And she fastened its nestlings in their collections.

في عرس شبلي غابتين لدى اللقا

زجراً أسود الغاب عن وثباتها

At the marriage feast of Shiblī two wild cows

Roared, driving away the wild cows from their leaping.

صقرين طارا للعلاء فحلقا

حتى إذا وقفا على غاياتها

Two falcons flew high

Until when they stood at the peak of their limit,

قذفاً على سرب المكارم عزمة

بهويها بزّت فراخ بزاتها

They threw their resolve on the flock of glories

With their swooping - the chicks fluttered their wings.

صلّين تحترق الربى أن نضنضا

بشواظ سمهما بحرِّ صفاتها

Asking that the ruins burn, they crackled

With their beaks - the expanse of their range.

طرفين يكبو الطرف عن شأوٍ به

سبقا جياد العزم في كتباتها

Two gazes that disdain to vie with him,

They surpassed the steeds of resolve in their writing.

جالا بمضمار العلاء فجليا

سبقاً فكلٌّ حائز قصباتها

They raced in the hippodrome of glory, so they were sublime

Each winning its rod from its rods.

جنيا جني العز حيث بنو الورى

بالوهن تجني الذل من ثمراتها

They gathered the glory's harvest wherever mankind

Reap humiliation through weakness from its fruits.

ونماهما للمجد خير أبٍ له

قد دالت الدنيا بست جهاتها

He raised them to glory - the best father for one

Whose world points to its six directions.

عقد الثناء عليه أرفع راية

يرخي ظلال العز من عذباتها

The necklace of praise upon him the highest flag

That casts the shade of glory from its sweet meadow.

وأغر أن بزغت مناقب علمه

زانت سما العليا بحسن سماتها

And it seems when the virtues of his knowledge shine

They adorn the heavenly sphere with the beauty of its traits.

فكأنما الأقمار من حسادها

والنيرات البيض من ضراتها

As though the moon envied it

And the shining stars from its harm.

ذو راحة دفقت بخمس أنامل

أجرى البحار السبع في غمراتها

One whose hand poured with five fingers

And flowed the seven seas in its abundance.

لو قد تعلق أصبع من حاتم

فيها لناط هباته بهباتها

If Hātim's finger had clung to it

He would have tied his gifts with its gifts.

ما فاه فوه بغير أصدق لفظة

بين الورى هي هاكها لا هاتها

He never uttered a word except the most truthful speech

Among mankind - it alone speaks, not another.

دانت له الأشراف من أشرافها

وعنت له السادات من ساداتها

The nobles submitted to him from their nobles

And the masters submitted to him from their masters.

ما أن نأت من حاجة أو أن دنت

إلا به قضت الورى حاجاتها

When any need came or drew near

Except through him the world fulfilled its needs.

محيي الورى بحياته ومن الذي

من دونه لحياتها ومماتها

Reviver of the world through his life - and who

Other than him is for its life and death?

من عصبة مضرية علوية

عقدت عصابتها أكف سراتها

From a Mudari Umayyad clan,

Their elite clasped the palms of the elite.

نزلت بمستن البطاح وقبل ذا

ركبت إلى العيا شبا عزماتها

It descended at Mistan's sands, and before that

It rode to al-'Irā' as youths of resolve.

بيض الوجوه تهللت بعوارض

كأهلَّةٍ تستن في هالاتها

White of face, they glittered with cheeks

Like crescents waxing in their new moons.

أقمار غاشية الدجي بوجوهها

فكأنما قسمت على قسماتها

Moons covering the darkness with their faces

As though they divided themselves upon their divisions.

كشف الدجى أما ببيض وجوهها

أو بالجفان البيض من جفناتها

The darkness uncovered either by their white faces

Or by the white eyelids from their eyelids.

الناهبين من المغيرة خيلها

والواهبين كرامها لعفاتها

Seizing from the raiders their horses

And giving generously their generosity to the virtuous.

والفارضين على الأنام صلاتها

والقائمين لها بفرض صلاتها

Obligating people to their prayers

And standing to obligate their prayers.

والحاقنين دم النفوس إذا ارعوت

وإذا التوت هدر النفوس ديانها

Staunching the blood of souls when they were perturbed

And when souls spilled, avenging them.

ومحصنين خيولهم أكفالها

ومعرضين إلى الطعان طلاتها

Preparing their horses, their leader mares

And exposing their vanguards to the spears.

عرب تحمحم بالصهيل عتاقها

ويبين عتق الخيل في صهلاتها

Arabs snorting with the whinnying of their racers,

Clarifying thereby the freedom of their racers.

فكأنما تدعو الصريخ بصوتها

حيث الرجال تغض من أصواتها

As though urging on the battle cry with their voices

Where the men muffle their voices.

غر محجلة إذا استقبلتها

شمخت بعزتها وحجل شواتها

Scowling when they face it,

Disdaining with their might and frowning faces.

فكأنما الجوزاء في أرساغها

والكوكب الدري في جبهاتها

As though the knotted rope in their horse halters

And the bright star on their foreheads.

أبني الغطاريف الذين ببيضهم

جدعوا من الدنيا أنوف طغاتها

Sons of Ghaṭrīf whose whiteness

Lopped off the noses of tyranny.

دمتم بني العلياء ما غنّت على ال

أفنان ذات الطوق في فقراتها

May you last, O sons of glory, as long as the eulogist

Sings in the passages of her circumambulations.