أنتَ الحبيبُ المرتضى ولكَ الهنَا

وأنَا المحبُّ المبتلى ولى العَنَا

You are the beloved, the chosen one, and for you is praise

While I am the loving one, afflicted, and for me is grief

أنتَ الغنىُّ ولَنْ ترَى مُتَواضِعاً

وأنا الفقرُ وليسَ لِي عنكم غِنَى

You are rich, and never will you see one more humble

While I am poor, and I have no wealth except through you

لك دونَ خلقِ اللهِ حظٌّ وافرٌ

منى ولى منك الكآبةُ والضَّنَا

For you, apart from all of God's creation, is abundant fortune

While for me from you is sorrow and affliction

يا ساكني وادِى الأَرَاك أراكمُ

لا ترقُبون عقوبةً من ربَّنَا

O dwellers of the valley of tents, I see you

Not fearing any punishment from our Lord

غادرتُمُ مضنىَ الفؤادِ ميمَماً

بتهامةٍ وسكنتمُ وادي مِنَى

You left the heartache of my innermost being, heading

To Tihama, settling in the valley of Mina

لما التقينَا بعد حولٍ كاملٍ

لم تسمحنَّ بكيفَ حالُك بَعدنَا

When we met after a full year

You did not permit me to ask how you have been after us

ماذا جَنَيْتُ لأسْتحق جَفاءكُمْ

مَنْ دا من الواشين غيَّرَ عهدَنَا

What wrong did I commit to deserve your coldness?

Who of the slanderers has changed our bond?

إن كان قارفَ عبدُكم من زلةٍ

هو تائبٌ إن كان ذنْباً قد جَنَى

If your servant committed a slip,

He now repents if he has gathered sins

رِقُّوا لمن أضحى وأمْسَى حالُه

مِنْ حبكم بعدَ النَّوى مُتَلَوِّنَا

Have mercy on one who has spent his days and nights

Loving you, with a changing complexion

إن كنتمُ لا تسمحونَ حقيقةَ

بزيارةٍ قُولُوا عسَى ولعَلَّنَا

If you do not really permit

A visit, then say "perhaps" we might

فعساهُ يحيا منكمُ بتعلةٍ

ويكونُ ما قاسيتُ منكم هيَّنَا

So perhaps with an excuse from you he may live

And that which I suffered from you becomes easy

لولا خيالُكمُ وذكرُ ملاعبٍ

بالمُنْحَنَى والرقمين لما اهْتَنَى

Were it not for your image and the memory of trysts

In the twisting road and the two signs, he would not have become lovesick

إن الهوَى حُلْوُ المذاقةِ أولا

فإذا تحكم خِلْتَه مُرَّ الجَنَى

Verily, love is sweet when first tasted

But when it takes control, it becomes bitter fate

كادَت عقولٌ تضْمَحِلُّ وأنفسٌ

لولا رياحُ ربوعكم مَرّت بنا

Intellects almost lose their minds, and selves

Were it not for the winds of your lands that passed by us

ها فانظرُوا يوماً علقت بحبكم

حالي من الأشواق كيف تكونَا

So look one day how I have clung in love of you

See my state of longing, how it has become

مَرّ الغرامُ على الخلائق كلِّهم

فَعدَاهمُ لما رآني أمْعَنَا

Love has passed all people

But lingered when it saw me and deeply settled

فأقامَ واتخذَ الضمائر مَسْكناً

ما حُجتي لما ادَّعاهَا مَسْكَنَا

It then made the hearts its dwelling

I have no argument for its claims of my heart as its dwelling

إن رمت أجحدُ ما ادّعاه مخالفاً

شهدتْ عدولُ الدمع سرك عندنا

If it denies, I will reject its claims as untrue

The witnesses of my tears prove your secret within me

سببُ العلاقةِ نظرةٌ بجمالهم

فتمكنتْ لما أدَرْت الأعينَا

The cause of the bond was a glance at their beauty

So it took hold when I turned my eyes

كيفَ السبيلُ إلى الخلاصِ فإنني

عرضتُ نفسي للهوانِ تيقنَا

What is the path to salvation? For I

Have exposed myself to shame, assuredly

فغدوتُ ذا وَلَهِ بذاكَ وحيرةٍ

وأنا الذي قد كنتُ قبل أَنَا أَنَا

Thus I became infatuated with that one, confused

When I had been, before, myself

فإلى متى أفنى زماني بالمُنَى

وأقيمُ ما بين الورَى مُتَمَسْكِنَا

So until when will I waste my time in infatuation

Remaining between the two abodes, clinging?

لِمَ كفَّ عني كلُّ خطبِ حادثٍ

وأذلَّ ضدى بالقواضبِ والقَنَا

Why has every new occurrence ceased from me

And humiliated me with trials and difficulties?

وأضافتى عنه وسدّ خصاصتي

وأحلني دارَ الكرامة والسَّنَا

And estranged me from it and closed my deficiencies

And settled me in the abode of honor and distinction?

لا أشرْئبُ إلى وسائلِ غيره

إذ كنتُ معه في السعادةِ والغِنَى

I do not aspire to the means of any but it

Since I was with it in good fortune and wealth

ذاك الجوادَ المرتضى الملك الذي

مَا زُرْته إلا أجَاد وأحسنا

That excellent, chosen, royal one who

Whenever I visited him, gave generously and did good

نزَّهت شِعرى عن مدائح غيره

ما أمّ يوماً خالداً أو مُحْسِنَا

I refined my poetry from praising any but it

Never intending a day or one who does good

أنَا مُذْ نشأت بربعهِ وجوارِه

أجنى من اللذاتِ نعم المُجْتَنَى

Since I grew up in its land and vicinity

I reap the most pleasurable fruits

هو ذَابلي ومهنّدي يومَ الوغى

وذخيرني في الدهرٌ إن أمر عَنَا

It is my shelter on the day of calamity

And my provision if times become difficult

وبنفسِيَ السمح الذي إحسانُه

يعتادُ ربعي إن نأَى أَوْ إن دَنَا

By its generous soul whose benevolence

My region is accustomed to, whether near or far

الواسعُ للصدر الرحيب الواهب

الفطنُ الكمىُّ أخُو العُلَى رحبُ الفِنَا

The open, vast, the giver of abundance

The prudent, perfect, brother of the lofty, open-handed

جمُّ المواهبِ عمَّ سيبُ نواله

كلَّ الورى من مسرعٍ أو مَنْ وَنَى

Embracing all gifts, its bestowals encompassing

All people, hastening or holding back

يا خيرَ ماشٍ في التراب وراكبٍ

صهوات كل مطهَّمٍ عالي البِنَا

O best walker on earth and mounter

Of steeds, each ridden beast lofty of stature

يا ماجداً ما شادَ مجداً مِثْلُه

من سيّد أو ماجدٍ في ذَا الدُّنَى

O glorious, glorified with glory none like it

Of master or glorified one in this earthly abode

أمسى الذي كفَر النبيَّ محمداً

بنوالِ سيبِ يديك عبداً مؤمنَا

The one who rejected the Prophet Muhammad

Became by your hand’s bestowal a believing servant

فالفضلُ يشهد لي بأنك واحدٌ

فينا وأنك أنت نعمَ المقتنّى

So favor bears me witness that you are one

Among us, and that you are the most coveted treasure

كلَّت قريحتيَ التي كالبحرِ أنْ

تحصى ثناءك لو أقمتُ الأَزْمَنَا

My talent, vast as the sea, falls short

To appraise your merits, even if I take all time

يا واحداً في جودِه أنا واحدٌ

في شعرِه سامحْ وخذ ما أمكنَا

O singular in your generosity, I am singular

In my poetry - forgive, and take what we are able

جاءتك من ربِّ الفصاحةِ مدحةٌ

نُزْرِى على غُرَرِ المدائحِ والثنَا

There has come to you from the Lord of eloquence a praise poem

That we strew like gems among the eulogies and delight

كالجوهرِ الشفاف تنثر لؤلؤَا

فالقطْهُ ممن سرَّهُ مَا أعْلنَا

Like pure jewels we scatter pearls

So pick it up, you who rejoiced in what we have publicized

هي متعة للناظرين وبهجةٌ

لكنها فيها المنية والمُنَى

It is a spectacle for onlookers and a delight

But it contains annihilation and demise

فهي المُنى لمن ارتدى بردائِكم

وهي المنيةُ للعِدى أهلِ الخَنَا

For it is demise for one who wore your mantle

And death for the hostile people of malice

خُذْها فإنك كُفْوُها من شاعرٍ

أضحتْ قريحتُه بمدحِك مَعْدِنَا

Take it, for you are its match, from a poet

Whose talent through praising you became a source

لو أن أحمد خالهَا لأضافَها

في شعره وَصَغَى لها واستَحْسَنَا

If Ahmad had heard it, he would have added it

To his poetry, inclined toward it, and deemed it excellent

أوْ أنْشِدَتْ معه لفَضَّلهَا على

الحُبُّ ما منع الكلام الألْسُنَا

Or, if recited with him, he would have preferred it

Above all else - what has prevented the tongues?