وعيشِكم لا ورَد الحُوَّمُ

مناهلا غُدرانُها تبِسمُ

Neither the flower blossoms of your life,

Nor the smiles of its springs that have turned treacherous,

ولا رعت هُمَّلُ أبصارِهم

في روضةٍ نُوّارُها أسهمُ

Nor have their gazes grazed,

In a garden whose radiance arrows have pierced.

رويدكم إن الهوى مَعَركٌ

يُعدَم فيه ألأجرُ والمغنمُ

Restrain yourselves! For passion is an arena,

Wherein reward and spoils are forfeited.

وإنما تأويلُنا أنّه

يحِلُّ للمضطرّ ما يحرُمُ

Our interpretation is that,

What is forbidden to the desperate becomes permissible.

إنّ أبيّاتِ النفوس التي

أحلَى مناها الحادثُ الأعظمُ

Indeed the verses of souls,

Whose sweetness the greatest misfortune exceeded,

فخوضُها في غَمراتِ الهوى

لأنّه يندُرُ فيها الدَّمُ

Their plunge in the depths of passion,

Is because precious blood in them is scarce.

من ذا الذي أفتَى عيونَ المها

بأنّ ما تُتِلف لا يُغرَمُ

Who claimed the eyes of the fascinated,

That what they covet goes unpunished?

ساروا بقلبي دون جسمي فما

تنفعنى الجلدةُ والأعظُمُ

They took my heart without my body, so

Neither skin nor bone avails me.

واستعذبوا ظلمى فمن أجلهم

أستغفر اللهَ لمن يظلِمُ

They made my injustice sweet, so for them,

I seek God's forgiveness for the unjust.

ما ضرّهم لو سفَروا ريثما

يَقْبَل عُذرى فيهم اللوّمُ

No harm if they had journeyed until

My excuse for them blame could parry.

قال ليَ الأحورُ من بينهم

وما به ألأجرُ ولا المأثمُ

The fairest among them said to me,

“Therein neither wages nor sin lies.”

داؤك هذا مَن جناه وَمن

يُبرئه قلتُ الذي تعلَمُ

I said, “He who inflicted this malady,

And He who cures it, knows.”

كم في خيام البدوِ من ظبيةٍ

سِوارها يُشبعه المِعصمُ

How many gazelles are in the desert tents,

Whose bracelets a forearm would suffice?

حاذرت العَينَ فما إن تُرَى

وخافت السمعَ فما تَبغِمُ

They avoided eyes so they go unseen,

And feared hearing so they make no sound.

لو فاخرتْ في الليل بدرَ الدجى

لكان بالفضل لها يُحَكمُ

Had she contended with the moon at night,

Merit would judge in her favor.

لأنها قد فتنَتْ قومَها

والبدرُ لم تُفتَن به الأنجمُ

For she had seduced her people,

While stars were not infatuated with the moon.

ما أصعبَ الإذنَ على منزلٍ

بوّابُه الخَطّىّ واللَّهْذَمُ

How difficult is the ear’s access,

To an abode whose knock is a sword and club!

لا برِح الوسمىّ عن أرضهم

ولا نأَى عن جوّها المِرزَمُ

The branded one did not cease roaming their land,

Nor did the ostrich flee their air.

أو أُبصرَ الكُثبانَ قد ظُلِّتْ

رَقْما كما يصطنع المُحرِمُ

Or the dunes were seen to have cast

A shadow, as the garment of a pilgrim.

وبلَّغ اللهُ المنَى فتيةً

نديمُهم في الصبح لا يندمُ

And God fulfilled the goal, so some lads

Whose morning companion regrets not.

عاطيتهم صهباءَ داريَّةً

قالوا واين الصابُ والعلقمُ

I gave them a blond from my home,

They said, “Where is the morning draught and dried meat?”

عزُّوا فلو تفِقد أذوادُهم

حاميَها خفَّرها المِيسمُ

They excused, had their mounts sought them out,

Their guard would have stabled and fed them.

وهي على عزّتها بينهم

يُبغَتُ فيها الفدُّ والتوأمُ

Yet she in her dignity amongst them,

The ransom is rejected and the twin refused.

ما تبرح الأكوارُ معمورةً

بهم ونيرانُ الوغى تُضرَمُ

The cooking pots do not cease, inhabited by them,

And the fires of turmoil are stoked.

سقياً لهم لو أنّ أُمّاتِهم

لا تُطَعم الثُّكلَ ولا تعُقَمُ

A drink for them, if only their mothers

Were not fed bitter grief or go barren.

تودُّ ذاتُ الحمل لو أنها

يوما بأمثالهم تُتئِمُ

The pregnant one wishes that one day,

She would equal them in childbirth.

فلست أدرى أُنجبوا شمسةً

أم شِنشِنٌ ورّثَهم أخزمُ

So I do not know if a noble line they begot,

Or a combative clan inherited them.

بل من زعيم الرؤساء اقتنوَا

مكارمَ الأخلاق لا منهمُ

Nay, from the chieftain of leaders they acquired

Virtues, not from their lineage.

إن تُسئل العلياءُ عن نفسها

نقلْ أبو القاسمِ بى أعلمُ

If you ask the sublime ones about themselves,

Relay what Abul Qasim has taught me.

قد أَنزلتْ فيه العلا سُورةً

دقَت معانيها فما تُفهمُ

Revelation sent down a chapter about him,

Whose meanings are subtle and not grasped.

كأنّما في صدر ديوانه

داودُ في مِحرابه يحكُمُ

As if in the heart of his anthology,

David in his sanctuary decrees.

بلاغةٌ من حسن إيضاحها

لا تُشكل الخطَّ ولا تُعِجمُ

An eloquence whose clarity in explanation,

Makes verse neither obscure nor foreign.

والفصلُ أن يُنشَرَ قرطاسُهُ

وتَنْبَهَ المُرِّيَّةُ النُّوَّمُ

The summary is that his scroll be circulated,

And the slumbering soul awakens.

إذا تحدَّى الغيبَ أفكارُه

فليس بابٌ دونها مُبهَم

When his thoughts challenge the unknown,

No door to them remains obscured.

كُفيتِ يا سُحْبُ فلا تنصَبى

حسْبُ الثرى تيّارُه الخضِرمُ

Enough O clouds, cease aggregation,

The flow of the land suffices the aged torrent.

قد علِم العُشبُ وضيفُ القِرَى

أيُّكما في الأزمةِ الأكرمُ

The herbage and guest of villages have known,

Which of them in crisis is most generous.

تطاولى يا هضَباتِ المُنَى

فهو إلى ذِروتك السُّلَّمُ

Ascend O plateaus of wishes,

For he is the ladder to your summit.

محسَّدٌ يغبِط أقلامَه

على يديه الرمحُ والمِخذَمُ

Envied are his pens that in his hands

Are spear and picker.

وما الذي بينَهما جامعٌ

هذان بؤسَى وهما أنعمُ

That which unites them is no unifier,

These two are my misery and those two my bliss.

ليس بمحتاجٍ إلى شِكَّةٍ

سلاحُه من ذاته الضيغمُ

He has no need for a whetstone,

His weapon from himself is sharp.

إنّ قِداح النَّبع مبرّيةً

لغير مَنْ وَقْصَتُه شَيْهَمُ

Verily the kindling of the source is purification,

Not for he whose arrowhead is lead.

وهو إذا هزَّ قنَا كيدِهِ

شاطَ عليها البطلُ المعلِمُ

And when he shook his cunning’s bow,

The learned hero tore into it.

وقالت الدرعُ لمُجتابها

ما هُزَّ إلآ القدرُ المبرَمُ

And the shield said to its polished face,

“Naught shook but predetermined fate.”

وما كُلوم الدهر محذورة

ورأيُه الأعلى لها مِرَهمُ

The misfortunes of time are not to be avoided,

And its highest view for them a salve.

ولو تشاءُ اصطنعت خيلُه

وليمةً يَشهدُها القَشعمُ

If you desire, his horses can prepare

A feast witnessed by the night prowler.

قد صُبغتْ بالنقع ألوانُها

فاشتبه الأشهبُ والأدهمُ

Their colors were dyed with indigo,

The gray and the black confused.

من أُسرةٍ بيت معاليهمُ

يزوره الكافرُ والمسلمُ

From a house whose glory,

Infidel and Muslim both visit.

مستلَمُ الأركان طُوّافُهُ

بحمدهم لبَّوا كما أنعموا

Circling its pillars, its guests

Praised them, as they granted bounty.

شُيِّد بالإحسان بنيانُهُ

فكلُّ بيتٍ غيرَه يُهدَمُ

Built by kindness, its edifice,

While all other houses crumble.

يزدحِم الوفدُ بأرجائه

فعامُهم أجمعه مَوسمُ

Delegations throng its corners,

So its year in full is a season.

لو نحتَتْ صخرتَه آلةٌ

لاستُنبِطتْ في تُربهِ زمزمُ

If apparatus carved its stone,

Zamzam would be extracted from its soil.

يا خاتم الأجواد قَولى الذي

به الكلامُ المصطفَى يُختَمُ

O seal of the generous, my saying by which

The chosen words are concluded.

بدُرِّ أوصافكِ أمددتَنى

فيه فما بالَىِ لا أنِظمُ

By the full moon of your attributes I am sustained,

So why can I not compose poetry?

تحيّة النيروز مفروضة

بقدرِ ما يملِكه المعدِمُ

New Year greetings are obligatory,

By what the destitute possesses.

تُهدَى إلى مثلك في مثله ال

أشعَارُ لا الدينارُ والدرهمُ

It is gifted to your like, though neither dinar,

Nor dirham, only verse.