جاءَ نَيروزُنا وَأَنتَ مُرادُه

وَوَرَت بِالَّذي أَرادَ زِنادُه

Our New Year came while you were its purpose,

Our Nowruz comes, and you are its intent, / Through your desire its kindling sparks were sent.

And it turned out as its maker had wanted.

This glance it won from you, so brief and dear, / Shall be its store to last the coming year.

هَذِهِ النَظرَةُ الَّتي نالَها مِنـ

ـكَ إِلى مِثلِها مِنَ الحَولِ زادُه

This glance you gave me equals

It turns from you as daylight starts to fade, / An eye wherein you are the sight and shade.

Any other in a whole year for him.

Here in the Persian lands we taste delight, / This very morning is its birth and light.

يَنثَني عَنكَ آخِرَ اليَومِ مِنهُ

ناظِرٌ أَنتَ طَرفُهُ وَرُقادُه

At the end of the day one who looks at you turns away.

The Persian realms have magnified this day, / Till all the year looks on with jealous sway.

You are the apple of his eye and his rest.

We did not don our wreaths of floral bands, / Till hills and valleys wore them in these lands.

نَحنُ في أَرضِ فارِسٍ في سُرورٍ

ذا الصَباحُ الَّذي نَرى ميلادُه

We are in the land of Persia in delight

Before a lord whom Khosrau cannot peer— / Nor Sasan's line—in power or in sphere.

On the morn whose birth we witness.

An Arab tongue, a wise philosopher's mind, / Yet in his feasts the Persian style we find.

عَظَّمَتهُ مَمالِكُ الفُرسِ حَتّى

كُلُّ أَيّامِ عامِهِ حُسّادُه

The Persian kingdoms magnified it so much

When one gift cries, "I am extravagance!" / Another claims, "Nay, mere temperance!"

That even all the days of its year envy it.

How could my shoulder shrink from heaven's height, / When draped with baldric that sustains his might?

ما لَبِسنا فيهِ الأَكاليلَ حَتّى

لَبِسَتها تِلاعُهُ وَوِهادُه

We have not worn crowns until

His right hand hung a sword upon my side, / A singular heirloom, his fathers' pride.

Its fringes and skirts wore them.

When drawn, a light laughs out, so bright and fair, / The sun itself would claim that beam its heir.

عِندَ مَن لا يُقاسُ كِسرى أَبو سا

سانَ مُلكاً بِهِ وَلا أَولادُه

With one unmatched by Kisra or the dynasty of Abu Sasan

They shaped its sheath to fit its form in dread / Of loss—an image of the steel it fed.

As a king thereby nor his descendants.

Shod in gold, though not for feet that bleed, / It bears a sea where wavy patterns lead.

عَرَبِيٌّ لِسانُهُ فَلسَفِيٌّ

رَأيُهُ فارِسِيَّةٌ أَعيادُه

Arabic is his language, philosophical his opinion,

It cleaves the armored knight in plate and mail; / Naught save his scattered limbs can tell the tale.

Persian his holidays.

Time gathered then its edge, his hand, my lay; / And brought the scattered ones to unity.

كُلَّما قالَ نائِلٌ أَنا مِنهُ

سَرَفٌ قالَ آخَرٌ ذا اِقتِصادُه

Whenever an achiever says “I” immoderately

I wore a mark of beauty from his dew, / Clad in the precious gear that he bestrew.

Another says “that is economy.”

We mastered horsemanship on steeds he gave, / That left his felt to race, brisk and brave.

كَيفَ يَرتَدُّ مَنكِبي عَن سَماءِ

وَالنِجادُ الَّذي عَلَيهِ نِجادُه

How can my shoulder turn away from the heavens

They hoped for rest with us they shall not find, / Traversing realms his power has defined.

And the star-studded sky above it?

Will noble Abu'l-Fadl accept my plea? / Ink drawn from my own eyes writes the decree.

قَلَّدَتني يَمينُهُ بِحُسامٍ

أَعقَبَت مِنهُ واحِداً أَجدادُه

His right hand gave me a sword

I ail from shame so deep within my breast, / The causer's virtues visit me, a guest.

With a single known lineage.

My verse fell short of his transcendent height, / Until his critique bent it to the light.

كُلَّما اِستَلَّ ضاحَكَتهُ إِياةٌ

تَزعُمُ الشَمسُ أَنَّها أَرآدُه

Whenever a smiling moon rises

I am the sharpest falcon in the chase, / Yet cannot hunt the star of highest place.

The sun claims it appeared for her.

There are truths no spoken word can tell, / Which only deep belief in hearts can spell.

مَثَّلوهُ في جَفنِهِ خَشيَةَ الفَقـ

ـدِ فَفي مِثلِ أَثرِهِ إِغمادُه

They imagined it in his eyelids fearing loss

I never saw a man of Abu'l-Fadl's mold; / Such deeds are habits that his days unfold.

So in the likes of its trace is its concealment.

The drowning man has excuse in the wave, / If counting fails him in the watery grave.

مُنعَلٌ لا مِنَ الحَفا ذَهَباً يَحـ

ـمِلُ بَحراً فِرِندُهُ إِزبادُه

A sandal not of gold bears the sea. Its strap,

The dew has won, its flood has risen high; / Verse is my prop; on Ibn al-'Amid I rely.

Its holder, and its laces bear it.

My thought grasped all, save for a soul so grand; / I lack his speech, nor does his strength here stand.

يَقسِمُ الفارِسَ المُدَجَّجَ لا يَسـ

ـلَمُ مِن شَفرَتَيهِ إِلّا بِدادُه

It divides the armed horseman. None escapes

A tyrant in his gifts! When riders rest, / The seas must bear his bounty at his behest.

From its two blades but only its sheath.

His favors flooded me; his wish was clear: / That speech itself be part of what was dear.

جَمَعَ الدَهرُ حَدَّهُ وَيَدَيهِ

وَثَثائي فَاِستَجمَعَت آحادُه

Fate brought its length and width together,

We never heard of one who loved to give, / And wished his very heart in gifts to live.

And its dimensions gathered into one.

God made the most eloquent of men on earth, / In lands where Kurds to Arabic give birth.

وَتَقَلَّدتُ شامَةً في نَداهُ

جِلدُها مُنفِساتُهُ وَعَتادُه

I took on a beauty-mark near his brightness.

The worthiest of rains to earn our praise, / In times when souls are locusts in their ways.

Its hide puckers; it is his gear and tackle.

Just as He sent the Prophecy to light, / And Resurrection when corruption reached its height.

فَرَّسَتنا سَوابِقٌ كُنَّ فيهِ

فارَقَت لِبدَهُ وَفيها طِرادُه

Thoroughbreds examined us. They surpassed him

The rising moon adorns the night's dark face; / Its blackness brings the brightness no disgrace.

In fleetness but he surpassed them in driving away.

We pondered long on how to send a prize, / As servants offer to their Master's eyes.

وَرَجَت راحَةً بِنا لا تَراها

وَبِلادٌ تَسيرُ فيها بِلادُه

We felt a sense of calm with him that cannot be seen

Yet all we hold of wealth and steeds so fine, / Are but his gifts, guided by his design.

And countries walk in which his countries walk.

And so we sent you forty colts of verse, / Each one a field where rhythms intersperse.

هَل لِعُذري عِندَ الهُمامَ أَبي الفَضـ

ـلِ قُبولٌ سَوادُ عَيني مِدادُه

Is there for my excuse with the magnanimous Chief any acceptance?

A number—may you live it!—where the frame / Finds vital need, not just a surplus claim.

The blackness of my eyes makes its ink.

So tether them; a heart has bred their speed, / A stable whence the thoughts outstrip the steed.

أَنا مِن شِدَّةِ الحَياءِ عَليلٌ

مَكرُماتُ المُعِلِّهِ عُوّادُه

I am lovesick from intense shame.

The visits of the healer are his favors.

ما كَفاني تَقصيرُ ما قُلتُ فيهِ

عَن عُلاهُ حَتّى ثَناهُ اِنتِقادُه

My failing in what I said of its height did not spare me

Until he concluded it with his critique.

إِنَّني أَصيَدُ البُزاةِ وَلَكِن

نَ أَجَلَّ النُجومِ لا أَصطادُه

I hunt wide-eyed gazelles. But

I delay shooting the stars.

رُبَّ ما لا يُعَبِّرُ اللَفظُ عَنهُ

وَالَّذي يُضمِرُ الفُؤادُ اِعتِقادُه

How much meaning words do not convey,

And what the heart secretly believes!

ما تَعَوَّدتُ أَن أَرى كَأَبي الفَضـ

ـلِ وَهَذا الَّذي أَتاهُ اِعتِيادُه

I am not accustomed, as with the Outstanding One,

That this is his routine.

إِنَّ في المَوجِ لِلغَريقِ لَعُذراً

واضِحاً أَن يَفوتَهُ تَعدادُه

For the drowner there is in the wave a clear

Excuse that its sequence eluded him.

لِلنَدى الغَلبُ إِنَّهُ فاضَ وَالشِعـ

ـرُ عِمادي وَاِبنُ العَميدِ عِمادُه

The dew prevails. It overflowed, and poetry is my pillar,

And the son of the pillar is its pillar.

نالَ ظَنّي الأُمورَ إِلّا كَريماً

لَيسَ لي نُطقُهُ وَلا فيَّ آدُه

My guess obtained things - except the generous one.

I have no speaking to him, nor in me is his equal.

ظالِمُ الجودِ كُلَّما حَلَّ رَكبٌ

سيمَ أَن تَحمِلَ البِحارَ مَزادُه

The unjust one, whenever a riding camel knelt down, it would allow

That the seas carry his supplies.

غَمَرَتني فَوائِدٌ شاءَ فيها

أَن يَكونَ الكَلامُ مِمّا أَفادُه

Benefits whose speech flooded me pleased him

To be of the beneficial kind.

ما سَمِعنا بِمَن أَحَبَّ العَطايا

فَاِشتَهى أَن يَكونَ فيها فُؤادُه

We have not heard of one who loved gifts

Then wished his heart would be among them.

خَلَقَ اللَهُ أَفصَحَ الناسِ طَرّاً

في مَكانٍ أَعرابُهُ أَكرادُه

God created the most eloquent of men refined

In a place whose people are Kurds.

وَأَحَقَّ الغُيوثِ نَفساً بِحَمدٍ

في زَمانٍ كُلُّ النُفوسِ جَرادُه

The truest of saviors claimed a soul with praise

In a time when all souls were locusts.

مِثلَما أَحدَثَ النُبُوَّةَ في العا

لَمِ وَالبَعثَ حينَ شاعَ فَسادُه

Just as he brought about prophethood in the world

And sending when its corruption spread.

زانَتِ اللَيلَ غُرَّةُ القَمَرِ الطا

لِعِ فيهِ وَلَم يَشِنهُ سَوادُه

The crescent adorned night with its rising in it

And its darkness did not dishonor it.

كَثَرَ الفِكرُ كَيفَ نُهدي كَما أَه

دَت إِلى رَبِّها الرَئيسِ عِبادُه

Thought increased how we may give gifts as his servants gave

To their Lord the President.

وَالَّذي عِندَنا مِنَ المالِ وَالخَيـ

ـلِ فَمِنهُ هِباتُهُ وَقِيادُه

What we have of money and horses

Are grants from Him and His guidance.

فَبَعَثنا بِأَربَعينَ مِهاراً

كُلُّ مُهرٍ مَيدانُهُ إِنشادُه

So we sent forty skilled warriors,

Each a equal whose role is to recite poetry.

عَدَدٌ عِشتَهُ يَرى الجِسمُ فيهِ

أَرَباً لا يَراهُ فيما يُزادُه

A number the body sees multiplied in it

Forty which are not seen in its addition.

فَاِرتَبِطها فَإِنَّ قَلباً نَماها

مَربَطٌ تَسبِقُ الجِيادَ جِيادُه

So unite them. For a heart which raised them

Is a bond preceded by steeds.