كيف السبيل لسلسبيل لَماها

ومهند الأجفان يحرس فاها

How can one reach her wrists’ bracelets

When eyelids guard her mouth?

أو كيف يؤمل طيفها وغرامها

بكرى عيون العاشقين حباها

Or how can one hope for her apparition and love

When the lovers' eyes bestowed them upon her at dawn?

بيضاء لو حكت الغزالة نورها

ما كوَّر الليل البهيم بهاها

White, had the gazelle described her light

The ugly night would not have concealed it

تفتر عن لعس يلوذ بلؤلؤٍ

لو مس مهجة ميت أحياها

She parts from a staff seeking refuge in a pearl

If it touched the corpse of a dead man, it would revive him

صاغ السوارَ لها الهلالُ وطَوَّقَت

ذاتُ البروج بنانَها بسهاها

The crescent formed her bracelet for her

And the constellations crowned themselves with her wrists

ورمى لها بيض السيوف حفيظها

لما رأى سود العيون ظباها

And threw at her the eggs of unsheathed swords

When they saw the blacks of her eyes hunting

بأبي وبي منها الغزالة في الضحى

والتيه ما سفرت وفاح شذاها

By my father and mother, she's a gazelle in the morning

And loss, though she never travelled, her scent spreads

شاميةٌ حركاتها مصريةٌ

عربيةٌ روميةٌ ريّاها

A Syrian in her movements, an Egyptian

An Arab, a Roman - heaven watered her

تخشى حواجبَها الرماةُ كأن قو

س الحاجب بن زرارةٍ إحداها

Archers fear her eyebrows as if

The eyebrow of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf were one of them

خلتُ الرماحَ السمهرية حولها

أقلام ميخائيل حين براها

I left the Samhar lances around her

Like Micha'il's pens when he created her

وجنى لقاصده بها ثمرَ الغنى

فغدا يَعُدُّ الفقرَ من قتلاها

And he who seeks her reaps the fruits of wealth

So he reckoned poverty amongst those she killed

البيض والسمر الرقاق عبيدها

والشعر والشعراء من أسراها

The fair and dark, the slender and plump are her slaves

And so are poetry and poets she captured

ينشي العلوم بها فيهتف من يرى

إنشاءه سبحان من أنشاها

Knowledge blooms through her so whoever sees

Her creation exclaims “Glory to Him who created her!”

لو كان كلفها النجوم تَعُدُّها

قبل ارتداد الطرف ما أعياها

If the stars were to count her

Their eyes would tire before completing the task

يا خير أبناء الكحيل وكوكب ال

مجد الجليل بك الوجود تباهى

O best of creatures of kohl and planet of

Sublime glory! Through you existence prides itself

أنت المرجَّى حين ينقطع الرجا

وتكاد أعمار الندى تتناهى

You are the hope when hope is cut off

And the lives of dew are about to end

وأخو سميِّك والملائك دونه

شرفاً ودونك كل من حاكاها

And the brother of your namesake and the angels beneath him

In nobility and beneath you all those who emulate her

من قال مصر دعتك أول كاتبٍ

فيها هجاك بقوله وهجاها

Whoever said “Egypt called you the first scribe”

Wronged you in his words and wronged her

ما أنت إلّا أول الكُتَّاب في الد

دنيا التي اختارتك منهم شاها

You are but the best of scribes in the

World that chose you as its king

لو فتَّش الملك الحفيظ كتابه

ما شام فيه نقيصة تخشاها

If the Protector King examined His Book

He would not find a deficiency to fear in it

فاسلم ودم للألمعية كوكباً

يهواه كل فتى زكٍ يهواها

So submit yourself to the Brilliant Bodies as a planet

Adored by every pure heart that adores it