أَبعَدُ نَأيِ المَليحَةِ البَخَلُ

في البُعدِ ما لا تُكَلَّفُ الإِبلُ

The stinginess of the fair one is distant from me

The true remoteness of the beloved lies in her stinginess; / A distance no camel is burdened to cross.

In distance, where the camels do not get tired

A fickle soul with whom nothing endures; / She bores of boredom itself, finding no constant state.

مَلولَةٌ ما يَدومُ لَيسَ لَها

مِن مَلَلٍ دائِمٍ بِها مَلَلُ

She sways as if she is long-lasting

As if her slender form, should she turn away, / Is a drunkard reeling from the wine of her own gaze.

She has no permanent boredom to bore her

Weighted by hips beneath her waist that pull her back, / As if trembling in fear of parting from her.

كَأَنَّما قَدُّها إِذا اِنفَتَلَت

سَكرانُ مِن خَمرِ طَرفِها ثَمِلُ

As if when her neck moves

I burn with a longing to sip from her lips, / My patience severing the moment desire connects.

A drunk with the wine of her glance is full

Her mouth, her throat, her anklet, and her wrist / Are my malady, alongside hair black as coal.

يَجذِبُها تَحتَ خَصرِها عَجُزٌ

كَأَنَّهُ مِن فِراقِها وَجِلُ

Feebleness pulls her under her waist

Many a barren wasteland I have crossed on foot, / Where even strong, docile camels would fail to tread.

As if out of separation from her, anxious

Clad in my sharp sword, sufficient in my own soul, / Wrapped in the cloak of darkness, alone.

بي حَرُّ شَوقٍ إِلى تَرَشُّفِها

يَنفَصِلُ الصَبرُ حينَ يَتَّصِلُ

In me is the heat of yearning for her draft

If ever I discern betrayal in a friend's demeanor, / I find no lack of means to part ways with him.

Patience breaks when it connects

In the vastness of East and West, there is room to roam, / And in one land, a substitute found for another.

الثَغرُ وَالنَحرُ وَالمُخَلخَلُ وَالـ

ـمِعصَمُ دائي وَالفاحِمُ الرَجِلُ

The lips, the throat, the supple, and the

And in seeking the court of Prince Badr ibn Ammar, / Is a calling that distracts from all other concerns of men.

Wrists are my torment, and the strong leg

His wealth finds its perfection only when given to the needy, / Bestowed before it is sought, given without request.

وَمَهمَهٍ جُبتُهُ عَلى قَدَمي

تَعجِزُ عَنهُ العَرامِسُ الذُلُلُ

And swaying, her dress on my feet

Fate sits so lightly upon his heart, / That neither sorrow nor excessive joy is ever seen there.

The gentle slaves are helpless for it

Death obeys him so fully, it nearly strikes down / Even those whose appointed hour has not yet arrived.

بِصارِمي مُرتَدٍ بِمَخبُرَتي

مُجتَزِئٌ بِالظَلامِ مُشتَمِلُ

With my sharp sword, content with the darkness, covered

Such is the soundness of his resolve, that his intent / Seems to achieve the deed before the act is done.

When a friend becomes hostile to me

The truth of matters is revealed within his eyes, / As if his very gaze were lined with the kohl of brilliance.

إِذا صَديقٌ نَكِرتُ جانِبَهُ

لَم تُعيِني في فِراقِهِ الحِيَلُ

Tricks do not help me when we part

I fear for him when the fire of his intellect ignites, / Lest he be consumed by the intensity of his own mind.

In the expanse of my nostalgia disturbed

His enemies are deluded if they think flight brings safety, / Growing arrogant merely because they escaped with their lives.

في سَعَةِ الخافِقَينِ مُضطَرَبٌ

وَفي بِلادٍ مِن أُختِها بَدَلُ

And in a land substituted for her sister

He meets them with the face of every charging steed, / Whose hooves arrive at the fray before its glance.

In visiting the prince Badr bin Ammar

Sleek-coated, filling the girth, with barrel-ribs expansive, / Her forelocks flowing twice the length of her tail-bone.

وَفي اِعتِمارِ الأَميرِ بَدرِ بنِ عَم

مارٍ عَنِ الشُغلِ بِالوَرى شُغُلُ

Busy from people with things, busy

Viewed from behind, you would say she lacks a neck, / And viewed from the front, that she possesses no croup.

In the morning, his wealth, its perfection for the needy

The thrusts are fierce, and the earth beneath them trembles, / As if a terror has seized the very heart of the ground.

أَصبَحَ مالٌ كَمالُهُ لِذَوي الـ

ـحاجَةِ لا يُبتَدى وَلا يُسَلُ

Is not initiated or asked

Blood has stained the mare's cheek red, / Just as a blush stains the cheek of a shy maiden.

Time seems easy to him, no worry or hardship shows

The horses' hides weep tears of sweat, / Shedding drops that never flowed from eyes.

هانَ عَلى قَلبِهِ الزَمانُ فَما

يَبينُ فيهِ غَمٌّ وَلا جَذَلُ

He almost kills one who praises him for his obedience to the dove

He marches, and his retinue fills the empty wastes, / Until every flat desert seems crowded as a mountain pass.

He almost with his determination does

The rain is barred from reaching the earth below, / By the canopy of spears woven so tight together.

يَكادُ مِن طاعَةِ الحِمامِ لَهُ

يَقتُلُ مَن مادَنا لَهُ أَجَلُ

What happens before the doer reacts

O Full Moon, O Ocean, O Rain-cloud, / O Lion of the thicket, O Death, O Man!

In his eye, his realities are known

Truly, the fingers you turn in gesture, / Are, in every land, the subject of proverbs.

يَكادُ مِن صِحَّةِ العَزيمَةِ ما

يَفعَلُ قَبلُ الفِعالِ يَنفَعِلُ

As if he outlines them with kohl

You hail from a kin who, if they grant a gift / Less than their very lives, consider themselves stingy.

I fear when his thoughts kindle

Their hearts possess the sharpness of the swords they draw, / Their statures the perfection of the spears they wield.

تُعرَفُ في عَينِهِ حَقائِقُهُ

كَأَنَّهُ بِالذَكاءِ مُكتَحِلُ

For him from it, I fear it will ignite

You contradict your name 'Moon' when the fray begins, / Amidst the clash of Indian blades and slender lances.

His enemies are most deceived if they make peace

By my life, you are indeed the radiant Full Moon, / Yet in the cauldron of war, you are the dark star Saturn.

أُشفِقُ عِندَ اِتِّقادِ فِكرَتِهِ

عَلَيهِ مِنها أَخافُ يَشتَعِلُ

With fleeing they became arrogant for what they did

A battalion you do not command is mere plunder, / And a city you do not adorn is a beauty stripped of jewels.

The cheeks of every swimmer turn to him

You were sought from the East and the West alike, / Until the camels and the very paths cried out in weariness.

أَغَرُّ أَعداؤُهُ إِذا سَلِموا

بِالهَرَبِ اِستَكبَروا الَّذي فَعَلوا

Four turns before one of its eyelids connect

You retained but a shred of health for yourself, / As even illnesses came to beg a portion from you.

Bare, full of belt, plaited

The excuse for the two who harmed you is simply this: / A cowardly physician and a heroic scalpel.

يُقبِلُهُم وَجهَ كُلِّ سابِحَةٍ

أَربَعُها قَبلَ طَرفِها تَصِلُ

Will be like the two side locks of its forelock

You extended your hand into the physician's palm, / And he knew not that he was cutting into Hope itself.

If she turns away I say she has no night

If the incision brought pain to the palm's inner flesh, / So too have the kisses of supplicants worn its back.

جَرداءَ مِلءِ الحِزامِ مُجفَرَةٍ

تَكونُ مِثلَي عَسيبِها الخُصَلُ

Or if she comes I say she has no day

The lancet may sever the vein within that hand, / But no censure can ever sever the vein of its generosity.

And the blaming is sparks and the ground shaking

Panic seized the doctor's soul when you held out your arm, / As if he were rushing headlong into death.

إِن أَدبَرَت قُلتَ لا تَليلَ لَها

أَو أَقبَلَت قُلتَ ما لَها كَفَلُ

As if in its heart there was fear

He strove beyond the limits of his skill, until / His zeal nearly brought bereavement to his own mother.

It painted its cheek with blood as

The surest path to success lies in natural instinct, / While over-thinking leads only to the stumble.

وَالطَعنُ شَزرٌ وَالأَرضُ واجِفَةٌ

كَأَنَّما في فُؤادِها وَهَلُ

Shyness paints the cheek of the young gazelle

Have mercy on that hand! For between the wealth it bestowed / And the blood you let flow, it is drained away.

And the horses cry, their skins sweat

There is none like you, O Badr, nor can there be; / Great dynasties are fit only for one such as you.

قَد صَبَغَت خَدَّها الدِماءُ كَما

يَصبُغُ خَدَّ الخَريدَةِ الخَجَلُ

With tears that no wiper wipes off

He marched and did not cross the desert from his processions

وَالخَيلُ تَبكي جُلودُها عَرَقاً

بِأَدمُعٍ ما تَسُحُّها مُقَلُ

As if each litter was a mountain

Its tightness prevents the rain from hitting them

سارَ وَلا قَفرَ مِن مَواكِبِهِ

كَأَنَّما كُلُّ سَبسَبٍ جَبَلُ

From what the lineages have constricted

Oh Badr, oh sea, oh turban, oh

يَمنَعُها أَن يُصيبُها مَطَرٌ

شِدَّةُ ما قَد تَضايَقَ الأَسَلُ

Lion of evil, oh dove, oh man

The cups that you turn

يا بَدرُ يا بَحرُ يا عَمامَةُ يا

لَيثَ الشَرى يا حَمامُ يا رَجُلُ

In your hands everywhere have examples

You are from a people, if they gave

إِنَّ البَنانَ الَّذي تُقَلِّبُهُ

عِندَكَ في كُلِّ مَوضِعٍ مَثَلُ

Less than their lifetimes, they would be stingy

Their hearts in the light of what they drew swords for

إِنَّكَ مِن مَعشَرٍ إِذا وَهَبوا

ما دونَ أَعمارِهِم فَقَد بَخَلوا

Their bodies in the perfection of what they grasped

You are the opposite of his name, if

قُلوبُهُم في مَضاءِ ما اِمتَشَقوا

قاماتُهُم في تَمامِ ما اِعتَقَلوا

Indian bracelets and dried reed differed

You are, by my life, the shining full moon, but

أَنتَ نَقيضُ اِسمِهِ إِذا اِختَلَفَت

قَواضِبُ الهِندِ وَالقَنا الذُبُلُ

You are in the ferocity of war Saturn

A battalion you are not its surplus

أَنتَ لِعَمري البَدرُ المُنيرُ وَلَ

كِنَّكَ في حَومَةِ الوَغى زُحَلُ

And a town whose vacation is not leisure

You are frequented from its east and west

كَتيبَةٌ لَستَ رَبَّها نَفَلٌ

وَبَلدَةٌ لَستَ حَليَها عُطُلُ

Until mounts and roads complained of you

You left only a little wellness

قُصِدتَ مِن شَرقِها وَمَغرِبِها

حَتّى اِشتَكَتكَ الرِكابُ وَالسُبُلِ

Illnesses have come frequenting you

The excuse of the blamers is in you that they are

لَم تُبقِ إِلّا قَليلَ عافِيَةٍ

قَد وَفَدَت تَجتَدِيكَها العِلَلُ

Uways the coward and Maydha the hero

You have extended a hand in the rest of the doctor

عُذرُ المَلومَينِ فيكَ أَنَّهُما

آسٍ جَبانٌ وَمِبضَعٌ بَطَلُ

And he does not know how to cut off hope

If the dissection harmed its interior

مَدَدتَ في راحَةِ الطَبيبِ يَداً

وَما دَرى كَيفَ يُقطَعُ الأَمَلُ

Then perhaps its exterior was harmed by kisses

In her vein, the lancet splits and not

إِن يَكُنِ البَضعُ ضَرَّ باطِنِها

فَرُبَّما ضَرَّ ظَهرَها القُبَلُ

The bond of her generosity splits the joints

When you extended it, anxiety mixed with him

يَشُقُّ في عِرقِها الفِصادُ وَلا

يَشُقُّ في عِرقِ جودِها العَذَلُ

As if he was hasty due to shyness

He exceeded the limits of his exertion, so he came

خامَرَهُ إِذ مَدَدتَها جَزَعٌ

كَأَنَّهُ مِن حَذافَةٍ عَجِلُ

With exertion not befitting for his inept mother

The most one seeks success with is proper

جازَ حُدودَ اِجتِهادِهِ فَأَتى

غَيرَ اجتِهادٍ لِأُمِّهِ الهَبَلُ

Nature and with delving, stumbling

Inherit it as it possessed with what

أَبلَغُ ما يُطلَبُ النَجاحُ بِهِ ال

طَبعُ وَعِندَ التَعَمُّقِ الزَلَلُ

You poured into it, it mixes

The likes of you, oh Badr, do not become nor

اِرثِ لَها إِنَّها بِما مَلَكَت

وَبِالَّذي قَد أَسَلتَ تَنهَمِلُ

Do positions befit except the likes of you

مِثلُكَ يا بَدرُ لا يَكونُ وَلا

تَصلُحُ إِلّا لِمِثلِكَ الدُوَلُ