لو حدَّثوا هُومير في دِيماسهِ

ببديع صنعكَ لاستردَّ حياتَه

If they told Homer in his slumber

Of your wondrous making, he would regain his life

ولهَبٌ يطريءُ همَّةً عرجت الى

فلك العلى مذ عرَّبت ابياتَهُ

And a flame would fly, ambition soaring

To the highest sphere, once you had Arabized his verses.

ما كان يحسبُ ان اقمار الدُجى

هبطت لتمنح نُورَها مشكاتَهُ

He wouldn't have thought that the moons of nighttime

Had descended to lend their light to his concerns,

لولا سليمانٌ يُذيع مفاخراً

احي بها تحت التراب رفاتهُ

If it weren't for Solomon broadcasting pride

With which he revived beneath the soil his remains.

جهلَ الزمانُ واهلُهُ لا سيَّما

نحن الاعاربُ شِعرَهُ ونكاتهُ

The age and its people were ignorant, especially

We Arabs, of his poetry and wit.

كُن كيفما شاءَ الزمانُ فانتَ في

عصر البيان مزيّنٌ مِرآتِهُ

Be however you wish, O age, for you are

In the era of rhetoric adorning its mirror.

ولأَنتَ ما اعتلَّ القريضُ طَبيبُهُ

ودواؤُهُ بل باعثٌ امواتهُ

You wouldn't be what poetry's art was lacking

Its doctor, no, but reviver of its dead.

واذا ترنَّم بالبلاغة مِنبَرٌ

كنتَ المبلّغ للملا اصواتهُ

And if a pulpit were to chant eloquently

You'd be the messenger to the scholars of its voices.

لم القَ قبلكَ باذلاً دينارَهُ

وحياتهُ ومبذّراً اوقاتهُ

Why was money wasted before you

And lives and hours squandered?

عفواً بلا اجرٍ ليحبو أمَّةً

خِدَماً تخوّل عزَّها ما فاتَهُ

Pardon, without pay, just to make a nation love

The servants who enabled its lost glory.

لو انصفوا نحتوا لهُ اكبادَهم

صنماً يمثّل للزمان هُداتهُ

If they were fair they'd carve their livers

Into an idol representing his guidance for the age.

زحزحتَ عن أفُق الكلام غمامَهُ

وكبحتَ عن عرش النظام طُغَاتهُ

You've dispelled from language's horizon its clouds

And reined in usurpers to rhetoric's throne,

وحميتَ حَوزَتهُ وصنتَ ذماره

ودفعتَ عن خدر البيانِ غواتَهُ

And protected its precincts and guarded its treasures,

And warded debauchery off the mind of rhetoric.

لم يلقَ دهرك وهو عَضبٌ صارمٌ

يفري الاماني من يفلُّ شَباتهُ

Your times didn't meet while sternly angry

Tearing hopes from whoever's youth slipped away,

حتى بدت آياتُ فضلك اسهماً

راحت تبدّدُ كالقطيع كماتهُ

Until your excellences' signs appeared like arrows

That went and scattered the flock of desires.

حبَّبتَ لي التمداحَ كنتُ اعافُهُ

حتى عشقتُ بمدح ذاتَك ذاتَهُ

You made me love praise though I'd shunned it

Until I loved praising your essence for its essence.

فأهنأ بهِ مدحاً سما اترابَهُ

ما دمتَ قنَّاصاً تصيدُ بُزَاتهُ

With it I congratulate praise that elevated

Its dust, for as long as you keep hunting its beasts.

ما كلُّ من يلج العرينَ غضَنفرٌ

حقٌ لهُ ان يستبيحَ مهاتَهُ

Not every snarler entering the lair is a lion.

It's right for him to violate its sanctums!

فالدرُّ يذخرهُ الفتى ضِناً بهِ

حتى يريهِ الاختبارُ كُفَاتَهُ

So the pearl a lad hoards stingily

Until trial reveals his capacities.

وكذا المديحُ يُصَان في ابراجهِ

حتى يلاقي المادحونَ سرَاتَهُ

And so praise is guarded in its towers

Until the praising meet its ballrooms.

فاذا تجسَّم لي وكنتَ قِوَامَهُ

أَلبستُهُ حِللاً تغيظُ عداتَهُ

And if you embodied yourself for me and were its pillar

I'd dress it in gowns provoking its foes.

وجعلتُ شعري في ملائم وجههِ

قُبَلاً ترصّعُ بالنجوم لهاتَهُ

And I'd make my poetry kissing its features

A string of stars adorning its cheeks.