طوى الليلَ راكبُ أخطارِهِ

على شَحْط دارِيَ من داره

The night rider folded up dangers

At the edge of my abode from his abode

خيالٌ وفَى بضمان الهوى

فجاء رسولاً لغدّارِهِ

An imagination that kept the promise of passion

So he came as a messenger for the treacherous one

سَرى من ضنينٍ بمعروفه

تَعرَّضَ فيّ لإنكارِهِ

He walked with good manners from pining

He was exposed to me for denial

حبيبٌ جبانٌ بغير الوصال

شجاعٌ بإهداء آثارِهِ

A cowardly lover without union

Brave in presenting his effects

طُرِقتُ بما زار من طيفه

كأني طرِقتُ بعطَّارِهِ

I was perfumed with what his apparition brought

As if I was perfumed with his incense

تطلّعَ يُقصِرُ ليل التمام

طلوعَ كواكبِ أسحارِهِ

He looked forward, the night shortened to reach perfection

Rising like the stars of dawn

بأشنبَ يسمحُ للراشفين

بنهب ودائعِ خمَّارِهِ

With unripe fruits he allows the sucklers

To loot the deposits of his vines

إذا أسكرتْ دائراتُ الكؤوسِ

صحا الشاربونَ بأدوارهِ

When the cycles of cups intoxicate

The drinkers wake up sober in turns

أقام فوافى وجلَّى به

من الصبح أخبثُ أطيارِهِ

A loved one who came and removed the veil

The evilest of the morning birds from him

وبرقُ خشوعيَ من طيفه

وماءُ جفونيَ من نارِهِ

And the lightning of my devotion from his apparition

And the water of my eyelids from his fire

تَعرَّض لي شفق الأتحمي

يِ تنزو الرياحُ بأشطارِهِ

He was exposed to me, the afterglow of sunset

Which the winds distribute in parts

فطارحني من حديث العُذَيبِ

وفاكهني طيبَ أخبارِهِ

So he distracted me from the talk of passion

And provided me with the good news of his reports

أراني مَواقدَ نيرانه

بعيداً ومجلسَ سُمّارِهِ

He showed me the flames of his fire

From afar and the session of his narrator

وذكَّرني زمناً ما شربتُ

دموعيَ إلا لتَذكارِهِ

And reminded me of a time when I did not shed

My tears except for his remembrance

وليلاً عدمتُ ضياءَ السرو

رِ منذ فُجعتُ بأقمارِهِ

And a night when I lost the light of the cypress

Since I was anguished by its moons

وهِيفاً غَذاهنّ وادي النعيمِ

بجنّاته وبأنهارِهِ

And a meadow its valleys fed

With its gardens and rivers

ملَكن الهوى فأعرن القلو

بَ ماشئن منه سوى عارِهِ

They possessed passion so they exposed the hearts

To what they wanted from it except its shame

فهنّ ظواهرُ ما غابَ منه

وهنّ بواطنُ أسرارِهِ

For they are the externals of what was absent from it

And its inner secrets

وأبله لا تجد العينُ في

ه نهجاً يُقَصُّ بآثارهِ

And its surroundings where the eye does not find

A path it can specify its traces

يقلّ عليه انتفاعُ الدليل

بتجريبه وبتَكرارِهِ

The benefit of evidence decreases on it

By verifying it and repeating it

ندَبتُ له يدَ طَبِّ الحسابِ

بأخماسه وبأعشارِهِ

I summoned the hand of numerical accounting

With its fives and its tenths

غنيٌّ عن النجم أن يَستدلَّ

بواقعه وبطيَّارِهِ

Rich from the star to deduce

Its occurrence and its flight

ونبّهتُ ذا رقدةٍ حُلوةٍ

فقام لأمري وإمرارِهِ

And I alerted one in a sweet slumber

So he stood up to my order and passage

يُخال بخُبرته بالفضا

ء أُعطِيَ قِسمةَ أقطارِهِ

He imagines with his experience in space

That he was given the division of its regions

يدارِي إلى السوط جفناً خيوطُ ال

كرى ممسكاتٌ لأشفارِهِ

The threads of recollection lead to the whip

Holding its eyelashes

فملنا إلى جنح ليلٍ يضيع

بياضُ الكواكب في قارِهِ

So we inclined to the wings of a night that loses

The whiteness of the stars in its burial

لعزٍّ تركنا غراماً به

سروجَ الطريق لأكوارِهِ

For honorable pride we left a love in it

The lamps of the road for its epochs

وأحرَى به أن يُجَلَّى دجاه

بوجهِ الوزير وإسفارِهِ

And it was more worthy for it to clear its darkness

With the face of the minister and its pages

وأن يضعَ السيرُ أثقالَهُ

إذا رُفِعتْ حُجْبُ أستارِهِ

And for travel to put down its burdens

When the veils of its screens are lifted

إذا شُرُف الدين حَطَّت به

قَدَرْنا سراها بمقدارِهِ

When the honor of religion settled in it

We made its new moon set to its limit

فطاب المُقامُ لقُطَّانه

وقرَّ المطيّ بسُفَّارِهِ

So the stay was good for its cotton

And the rain settled with its messenger

إليك افتضضنا عذارَى السهوبِ

بعُونِ الرجاءِ وأبكارِهِ

To you we drove the virgins of the plains

With the help of hope and its brides

إلى خير من حلَّ شوقاً إليه

ركابُ المطيّ لأسيارِهِ

To better than who a passion settled for him

The mounts of the rain for its cars

فحرَّمها أن تشمَّ الهوانَ

فتىً لا يُجارُ على جارِهِ

So it forbade them to smell disgrace

A young man whose neighbor is not contended upon

كريمٌ يعدُّك أغنيتَهُ

إذا أنت جئت لإفقارِهِ

Generous, he counts you his songs

When you come to impoverish him

كأنك أوّل أحبابه

إذا كنتَ آخرَ زوّارِهِ

As if you were his first loved ones

If you were the last of his visitors

دع الناسَ واعكف على بيته

فدَرُّ الندى تحت أحجارِهِ

Leave the people and stick to his home

For the rain of dew is under its stones

رِواقٌ ترى المجد في صدره

ورزقَك ما بين أكسارِهِ

A porch you see glory in its chest

And your provision is between its bits

وهَبْ عُشُبَ الأرضِ للرائدين

إذا ما وليتَ بأقطارِهِ

And grant the grass of earth to the seekers

If you turned away in its regions

حَمَى اللّهُ أبلجَ بدرُ التما

م يطلُعُ ما بين أزرارِهِ

May God protect the full moon from rising

Between its buttons

وحيَّا على رغم زُهر النجو

م وجهاً يعمُّ بأنوارِهِ

And greet despite the blossoms of the stars

A face that spreads with its lights

وأعدى أعاديه من ماله

إذا جاد قلّةُ أعمارِهِ

And restore his enemies from his money

If the scarcity of his lifetimes is petty

همامٌ ظواهرُ أسْد الشرَى

تَلاوَذُ في الغابِ من زارِهِ

Ambitious, the lions of drinking company

Play in the forest from his visitor

يُهيب بها بعد إصحاره

وتَرهَبُه قبل إصحارِهِ

He threatens them after his drought

And they fear him before his drought

حليم السطا ينزل الذنب منه

بواهبه وبغفَّارِهِ

Forbearing, he drops sins from him

With his forgiver and pardoner

تنام على الفُرُطات العظا

م عيناه إلا على ثارِهِ

His eyes sleep upon major sins

Except upon avenging them

نهيتُ عدوَّك لو أنه

بوعظيَ تاركُ إصرارِهِ

I forbade your enemy even if he

Abandoned insistence with my advice

وقلتُ حذارَك لا تغترر

بصلّ الحَمَاطةِ في غارِهِ

And I said beware do not be fooled

By the mixing of quietness in his cave

فبعد سكينةِ مجموعهِ

تسوءك وثبة ثَوَّارِهِ

For after the tranquility of his assembly

Rushing him would trouble you

فلم ينتصحني ولم يعنني

وقد حان كثرةُ إنذارِهِ

And when you gained victory with your sufficient evidence

He felt the defeat of his supporters

ومرّ يجاري على الاغترا

ر من ليس من خيلِ مِضمارِهِ

You won and here he is under coercion

Eating the excess of his fingernails

أراد ليغمزَ صُمَّ القنا

بجُوفِ اليراع وخُوَّارِهِ

You forgive sins by his abstinence

And erase wrongdoings by his admission

وشاور في البغي شيطانَهُ

فأطغتْه طاعةُ أمّارِهِ

You were pleased with your paucity until you are mighty

And he is pleased with disgrace by its abundance

وعارَض معجز آياتكم

بكذّابه وبسحّارِهِ

So a qintar of your money is below harm

And his mind before his dinar

توغّل يدرُس آثارَكم

فأنغض من دون آثارِهِ

By your good fortune its clouds cleared

So the morning stopped by its pages

ومدّ ليحملَ ما تحملون

صليفاً ضعيفاً بأوقارِهِ

And the one who missed was indebted in the judgment of fate

And the preceder of its foreordains

وكان يلام فلما لجا

إلى العجز قام بأعذارِهِ

And time has spared benefit from him

Who insisted on its rope

ألم يكفِهِ غدرُ كرَّاته

به وتقلّبُ أطوارِهِ

His liberation will come suddenly

So it dawns in the fortune of his burdens

وتجريبُه معَكم نفسَه

فيُنهي اللجاجَ بإقصارِهِ

And a jar below the bee nest is

Difficult for the hand of its extractor

ولما انتصرتَ بكافي المهمّ

أحسَّ بخذلانِ أنصارِهِ

You remained for a kingdom if you were in it

For its enrichment with your poverty

ظَفِرتَ وها هو تحت الإسا

ر يأكل زائدَ أظفارِهِ

And oh Lord of the house of dew, I am not harmed

By its master, the builder

تُعفِّي الخطايا بإقلاعهِ

وتمحو الذنوبَ بإقرارِهِ

And the planet of the stars turns

Given the fortune of its cycles

رضيتَ بقُلِّك حتى تعزَّ

ويرضَى الهوانَ بإكثارِهِ

And this spring visited your side

With its bursting dripping rear

فقنطارُ مالك دون الأذى

ومهجتُه قبلَ دينارِهِ

Your generosity races its rivulets

And your manners the blossom of its lights

تجلَّتْ بسعدك غُمّاؤها

فتوقَ الصباح بإسفارِهِ

Its Nayrouz sends you greetings

To its fasting then breakfast

وغُرم الذي فات في ذمّة ال

قضاء وسابق أقدارِهِ

And you remained a responsibility that does not shower my clouds

Except with its storm

وقد جَنبَ الدهرُ من نفعه

منائحَ في حبل إصرارِهِ

For a persecuted one, your capacity makes him happy

And your narrowness is a sign of his inability

سيأتي تنصُّلهُ آنفاً

فيسفر في حظّ أوزارِهِ

My time threw at me what avoided you

So I drowned in removing its strings

ودون جنا النحل وخَّازَةٌ

تشقّ على يد مشتارِهِ

And it deepened, its wound heals what cannot be reached

Like the doctor's lancet with its needle

بقيتَ لملكٍ إذا كنت فيه

فإثراؤه مع إصفارِهِ

So from the talk of my heart and its burning

To the poverty of my place and its barrenness

ويا ربَّ بيتِ الندى لا أصي

بَ منك بسيّد عُمّارِهِ

So may a drink for you not be absent

In a sweet lifetime and its passage

ودارَ بما شئتَ قطبُ النجو

م تُعطَى سعادةَ أدوارِهِ

Fine clothes upon your affection

If the abundance of its nudity increased

وزار جنابَك هذا الربيعُ

بمنخرق الخِلفِ درَّارِهِ

It provides you with what praise can

With its resident and its traveler

تجارِي سماحَك أنواؤُه

وخُلْقَك زُهرةُ أنوارِهِ

If it did not find a beloved in wealth

It loved you in the elite of its thoughts

يؤديك نيروزُهُ سالماً

إلى صومه ثم إفطارِهِ

So if supporting you evaded it

Your support in its poetry covered you

وبُقِّيتَ لي وَزَراً لا تَدرُّ

سحابيَ إلاّ بإعصارِهِ

لمضطَهدٍ يُسرُهُ ما اتسعتَ

وضيقُك آيةُ إعسارِهِ

رَماني زماني بما نابكم

فأغرق في نزع أوتارِهِ

وعمّق يجرحُ ما لا تنا

ل كفُّ الطبيب بمسبارِهِ

فمن كَلْم قلبي وإحراقِهِ

إلى فقر ربعي وإقفارِهِ

فلا يعدمنْكم شريبٌ لكم

على حلو دهرٍ وإمرارِهِ

سليم الأديم على ودِّكم

إذا راب كثرةُ عوّارِهِ

يمدُّكُم ما استطاع الثناءَ

بقاطنه وبسيَّارِهِ

إذا لم يجد حبوةً بالثراء

حباكم بصفوة أفكاره

فإن فاته بيدٍ نصركُم

أظلَّكُمُ نصرُ أشعاره