صدَّتْ بنعمانَ على طول الصدَى
دعها فليس كلُّ ماءٍ مَوردا
She passed by Nu'man, her echo lingering long,
Let her be, not every water is meant for drinking,
لحاجةٍ أمسَّ من حاجاتها
تخطَّأتْ أرزاقَها تعمُّدا
Out of some urgent need,
She stepped over his blessings intentionally.
ترى وفي شروعها ضراعةٌ
حرارةً على الكبودِ أبردا
You see her setting out worried
With burning coals on her chest made cool.
عادةُ عزٍّ جَذَبَتْ بخَطْمِها
وكلُّ ذي عزٍّ وما تعوَّدا
The habit of glory pulled her by the nose,
And every glorious one is accustomed to this.
لا حَمَلَتْ ظهورُها إن حَمَلَتْ
رِجْلاً على الضيم تقَرُّ أو يدا
She never carried on her back, if she carried,
A foot over injustice or a hand over wrongdoing.
إن لم يلِقْها جانبٌ مقاربٌ
فارمِ بها الجنبَ العريضَ الأبعدا
If an equal side does not meet her,
Then aim for the farthest, widest side.
خاطرْ ولَو أردى الخِطارُ إنه
لا يأمن الذلَّةَ مَن خاف الردَى
Be careful even if dangers threaten,
Who fears humiliation will not be safe from degradation.
لا يُحرزُ الغايةَ إلا بائعٌ
بغِلظةِ العيش الرقيقَ الرَّغَدا
None attains the goal except the seller
Of soft, plentiful living through hardy life.
يَطوي الفلا لا يستضيفُ مؤنساً
والليلَ لا يسأل نجماً مرشدا
He folds up wealth, hosts no companion,
Does not ask the night for a guiding star.
إذا رأى مَطعمةً خافضةً
عوَّذَ بالله ومالَ الحَيَدا
When he sees a shielded prey,
He seeks God's refuge and inclines away.
يُعطي جِذابَ الشهواتِ عُنُقاً
شمساءَ لا تَعرف إلا الصَّيَدا
He gives the pulls of passions his neck
A smooth one who knows only hunting.
تمارسُ الأيّامُ منه كلّما
حارنَ أو لجّ غلاماً نَكِدا
The days try him every time
A lad is confused or a boy is moody.
يعزِفُ إلا عن فُكاهاتِ الهوى
وقد رأى فيه الحبيبَ المسعِدا
He abstains from the joys of love
When he sees in it a fortunate lover.
أَقسمَ بالعِفّةِ لا تيَّمهُ
ظبيٌ رنا أو غُصُنٌ تأوَّدا
He swore by chastity, no gazelle called him
Or a bending branch solicited him.
ولا قَرَى صَبابةً فؤادَه
إلا السلوَّ حاضراً والجَلَدا
His youthful heart never saw a young beauty
Except sober, self-controlled, and firm.
شأنَك ياابنَ الصَّبَواتِ فالتمسْ
غيري أخاً لستُ لهنَّ وَلَدا
Your way, O son of pleasures, so seek
Another brother - I am not your son.
مولاك من لا يخلقُ الشوقُ له
وجداً ولا طولُ البعاد كمدا
Your master is one whose love creates
No fervor, whose long absence induces no longing.
كأنما يَشهدُ من عَفافه
على المشيبِ يافعاً وأمردا
It is as if his chastity witnessed for him
Despite gray hair, as a youth and a flower.
موقَّراً متَّعظاً شبابهُ
كأنما كان مَشيباً أَسْودا
His youth revered, learned a lesson
As if it had been black-haired old age.
تحسبه نزاهةً وكرماً
ومجدَ نفسٍ بابن أيوبَ اقتدَى
You would think him innocence and generosity
And the glory of a soul that emulated Son of Ayyub.
فِدَى عميدِ الرؤساء مُصفِرٌ
لو طاب لا يصلُح إلا للفِدَى
The protector of chiefs' foreheads is ransomed -
If sound he is fit only for ransom.
يرضَى بما ساق إليه غَلطُ ال
حظّ ولم يسعَ له مجتهدا
He accepts what the wrong of fate brings him
And does not strive for it deliberately.
يعجَبُ من جهالةِ الأيّام في
وِجدانه ما لم يكن لينشُدا
He wonders at the ignorance of days in
His essence that he never meant to sing of.
تحسبه جاء يريد غيره
فضلَّ عن طريقِهِ وما اهتدى
You would think he came wanting something else
So turned from his path, not guided.
وحاسدٍ فخارُه معْ نقصِهِ
في الناس أن عادى العلا وحسَدا
And an envier whose pride despite his flaws
Among people is to hate heights and envy.
تُلهِبُ نارُ الغيظ في ضلوعه
جمراً يقول حرُّها لا بَرَدا
The fire of rage kindles embers in his chest
Saying its heat feels no cold.
زال بنصرِ مجدِهِ غيران ما
نازلَ إلا ظافراً مؤيَّدا
With the victory of his glory he vanished any rancor
He engaged except victoriously supported.
مدّ إلى أخذِ العلا فنالها
يداً تبوعُ ساعداً وعَضُدا
He stretched out to seize heights and attained them
With a hand that captures and an arm that upholds.
تَقضِي له الأقلامُ من حاجاتها
ما استقضت الذابلَ والمهنَّدا
Pens fulfill for him from their needs
What revived the withered and propped up the bent.
ما زال يرقَى في سماواتِ العلا
بروجَها الأسعدَ ثمَّ الأسعدا
He kept ascending in the firmaments of heights
Its happiest then happiest mansions.
مصاعداً نجومها حتى إذا
تطاولتْ خلَّفَها وصعِدا
Climbing their stars until when
He surpassed them and ascended.
رأى المعالي بالمساعي تُقتضَى
والشرفَ المحرَزَ من كسبِ الندَى
He saw heights attained through efforts
And honor kept safe from gaining favors.
فصاعبَ الأُسودَ في أغيالها
صرامةً وجاودَ الغيثَ جَدَا
He challenged lions in their thickets
With firmness and struggled with rain insistently.
وكلّما قيل له قِفْ تسترحْ
جزتَ المدَى قال وهل نلتُ المدَى
And whenever he was told, stop and rest
You have traveled the distance, he would say, "But have I attained the distance?"
ناهضَ ثِقلَ الدولتين فكفى ال
مُلكَ الطريفَ ما كفاه المتلَدا
Bearing the burden of two states was enough,
The gracious kingdom sufficed not the slow.
وكان للأمريْن منه جُنَّةً
مسرودةً وصارماً مجرّدا
The Prince had in him a breastplate,
Extended and a sharp sword bared.
فاغترسَ القادرُ يومَ نصرهِ
واستثمرَ القائمُ بالأمر غدا
The Capable took root the day of his victory
And the Excellent in Command produced fruit the next day.
قام بأمرٍ جامع صلاحَهُ
فضمَّه بنفسه منفردا
He took up a comprehensive, correcting affair
So he shouldered it alone, singled out.
فلستُ أدري أَلِوَحيٍ هابط
أم اختياراً لقَّباه الأوحدا
I know not was it an angel's inspiration
Or his choice that titled him the Unique?
وزارةٌ وفَّرها لدَستِهِ
أنَّ أباه قبلُ فيه استندا
An administration he prepared for his grasp
For before, his father in it took support.
دبَّرها مستبصراً فلم يكن
مفوِّضاً فيها ولا مقلِّدا
He managed it with insight so he was not
In it deputized or conforming.
يُسنِد عن آبائه أخبارَها
صادقةً إذا اتهمتَ المُسنِدا
He relates its events, true ones,
When you accuse the relatee.
وأعتقُ الناس بها من لم يزل
مكرَّراً في بيتِها مردَّدا
And people through it he frees from one
Still repeated in its abode and echoed.
يا من مخضتُ الناسَ فاستخلصتهُ
بعدَ اجتهادي فالياً منتقدا
O you who birthed people and then extracted him,
After my striving, sublime, flawless.
والبازلُ العَوْدُ وقد نبذتُهم
بَكِيّةً معرورةً أو نَقَدا
The spurious, the fraudulent, I rejected,
Weeping or in coins or ingots.
ذلّلتَ أياميَ واستقربتَ لي
غُلُبَّةً وفاءها المستبعَدا
You made my days submissive and brought near for me
A submission, true to its covenant.
هوّنْتَ عندي الصعبَ من صروفها
فخلتُ أفعاها الوَثُوبَ مَسَدا
You eased through your pact the difficulties of its turns
So I found its actions gentle, smooth.
أعديتَها بحفظك العهدَ فقد
صارت صديقاً بعد أن كانت عِدا
You restored it by keeping the covenant so it is now
A friend after it had been an enemy.
ولم تضيِّع حُرَماً أحكمها
قديمُ حقّي فيكُمُ وأكَّدا
And you did not neglect a sanctumsecured
By my longstanding right to you and confirmed.
أنتَ كما كنتَ أخاً مُخالِلاً
بحيثُ قد زدتَ فصرتَ سيّدا
You are as you were, a breaching brother
Where you have increased, becoming supreme.
فاسمعْ أقايضْك بها قواطناً
سوائراً معقَّلاتٍ شُرَّدا
So listen, I exchange with you dwellings
Necklaces, fortified settlements abandoned.
عوالقاً بكلِّ سمعٍ صَلِفٍ
يلفِظُ أن يَقبلَ إلاّ الأجودا
Haughty tribes, every deafly unyielding
That spurns to accept save the finest.
مما قهرتُ فجعلتُ وعرَه
مُدَيَّناً وحرَّه مستعبَدا
Of what I conquered and made its ruggedness
Submissive, and its heat enslaved.
مَطارِباً إذا احتبى الراوي لها
شككتَ هل غنىً بها أم أنشدا
Encampments, when their narrator declaimed them
You doubted - were they truly sung of or made up?
تُخالُ أَرجازاً من استقصارها
وقد أطال شاعرٌ وقَصَّدا
You'd think them too short to enumerate
Though a poet prolonged and intended.
يَمضي الفتى الموسومُ في فخارها
صفحاً وتُبقِي عِرضَه مخلَّدا
The youth marked with his pride passes by them
A lifetime while his honor remains immortalized.
تَحمِلُ أيّامُ التهاني تُحَفاً
منها إليك بادئاتٍ عُوَّدا
The days of celebration carry to you gifts
From them, commencing, made habitual.
ما دامت الغبراءُ أو ما حَمَلتْ
مدحوّةٌ من الجبال وَتِدا
As long as the dust-colored one lasts, or one carries
Praise, from mountains propped.
سنينَ تطويهنّ حيَّاً سالماً
مُنَورِزاً في العزّ أو معيِّدا
Years you make pass, living safely
Glowing in glory or repeating anew.
لا الشعرُ تَبلَى أبداً رسومُهُ
فيك ولا تُعدَمُ أنت سَنَدا
No, poetry's inscription never wear out
In you, nor you lack support.
