وبأبي من قده معتدل

نشوان من خمر الشباب ثمل

By my father, whose stature is upright,

I am intoxicated with the wine of youth,

منيتي لحاظه ومنيتي

ابيض وضاحٌ وساجٍ أكحل

My wish is to gaze upon him, and my wish

Is a bright, smiling, kohl-lined moon.

أي هلال من عامرٍ

أي غزالٍ طاب فيه الغزال

What crescent of `Amer,

What gazelle whose gazelle-like qualities are excellent?

قوامه ورمحه أيهما

أرشق أم أيهما لي اقتل

His stature and his spear - which of the two

Shines brighter, or which of the two should I kill?

حتفي اللحاظ لا السيوف شهرت

أو القدود خطرت لا الأسل

My death by his cheek, not by swords -

Nor by spears brandished, but by eyes.

وبالجفون لا الجفون حربي

ما السيف إلا ما انتضاه الكحل

And by the eyelids - no, by the eyelids - my war,

The sword is only what the kohl has extracted.

يعلم أن الوصل مسلٍ فهولا

ينفعك يلوي عهده ويمطل

He knows that intimacy is perilous, so he

Neither benefits you, nor keeps his pact, nor delays.

والحسن كالمال كما يفسده

الجود كذا يصلح منه البخل

Beauty corrupts like money does -

Just as generosity fixes it, so does stinginess.

فهو لحيني شاعر الحسن غدا

يقول للعشاق ما لا يفعل

So for my sake he is the poet of beauty, and tomorrow

He will say to lovers what he does not do.

ما لجفوني فيه بالسهد يدٌ

ولا لجسمي بالسقام قبل

My eyelids have no effect on him,

Nor does my body's sickness, not before.

إذا سما صبح الجبين ودجا

من صدغه ستر ظلامٍ مسبل

When the morning sun rises and darkness falls

From his temple, covering it in dangling shadows,

رأيت دمعاً واكفاً ينصره

الوجد وصبراً في هواه يخذل

I saw tears, copious, aided

By passion, and patience in his love that fails.

ما جلق الفيحاء إلا جنةٌ

فضلها وحي الغمام المنزل

The open desert is nothing but a garden -

Revelation rains upon it from above.

ساوى بها الليل النهار وضفا ال

ظل ولذ في ذراها المنهل

It equalized night and day, and dawn poured

Shadows, and in its small pebbles lay the waterholes.

كم نعمٍ للعيش في أرجائها

يفصح عنها سهاها والجبل

How many blessings to live in its expanses -

Its plateau and its mountains elucidate them!

بنفسجٌ مثل الخدود قرصت

ونرجسٌ ما هو إلا المقل

Violets like cheeks circled,

And narcissi - nothing but the meadows.

بكى الحمام فالثرى مبتسمٌ

ورقص الدوح وغنى الجدول

The doves wept - so the soil smiled,

And the sand grouse danced, and the streams sang.

حيث الثنايا كالثنايا نفحةً

فبالقبول ابدأ تقبل

Where the curvy dunes, like the curvy dunes, blew

A scent - so begin by accepting acceptance.

يفهم كل ناشقٍ لا سامعٍ

ما حدثت عن الرياض الشمأل

Every passionate understander, not mere listener,

Knows what I’m telling about the bustling meadows.

يجلى وزهر الزهر للدوح حلى

والورق الخضر لهن حلل

Dawn makes its flowers shine, and makes

The green leaves for them into gowns.

فالشرف إلا على يتيه شرفاً

والسهم سهمٌ والهموم مقتل

So nobility is nothing but what ennobles it -

An arrow is just an arrow, and worries are death.

كم جدولٍ باكره مر الصبا

فهو حسامٌ والنسيم صيقل

How many early brooks have passed the morning,

Becoming swords - and the soft winds their whetstones!

شابت بها غيد الغصون حبذا

شيب حبيبٍ عن قليل ينصل

The boughs of its branches have grown white with

The whiteness of a beloved’s hair, right before it is combed.

زينت بمعسول الخلال قده

كالرمح في كف الدلال يعسل

His neck was adorned with wavy black hair

Like a spear in the hand of one who greases it with honey.

لم يدم خديه سوى قتلي ولا

أدمى خدود الورد إلا الخجل

His cheeks did not last long save my murder -

Nor did the cheeks of roses redden, but for shyness.

ياعاثراً فيما سواه لا لعاً

ويا سهام جفنه لا شلل

O you who stumble in all besides! Do not

Incapacitate yourself! And O you, his eyelashes’ arrows! Do not paralyze!

في غيره وغيرها من بلدةٍ

يعصى الغرام ويطاع العذل

In others, in other towns, where

Passion is disobeyed, and separation obeyed.

بالوجد لي شغلٌ عن العذل كما

لابن عليٍ بالمعالي شغل

With passion, I have no time for separation - just as

The son of Ali has with glory no time.

الشرس اللين المخوف المرتجى

النازح الداني الأخير المفضل

Wild yet gentle, fearful yet hoped-for,

Departing yet close, last yet preferred.

قصر عنه كل ساعٍ ومضى

بقصب السبق الجواد المفضل

Every rival fell short of him and passed,

With the steed of precedence, the generous, preferred.

له الأيادي البيض والدهر دجى

يضرب في الدنيا بهن المثل

To him belong the white hands, and the days have darkened -

He strikes the world with them as examples.

زها به الملك وتاه الدهر واخ

تال الزمان شرفاً والدول

Adorned with the crown, the times went astray, as he

Made eras stumble in nobility and power.

جلي عنه بسطاه كل ذي

بأسٍ وحلي بنداه العطل

Revealed through his domination each owner

Of might, and tied with his authority the useless.

وأمن الخوف وهان صعبه

وجبر الكسر وسد الخلل

And safety from fear, and ease of the arduous,

And mending of breaks, and closing of holes.

اليقظ الندب الأبي المصعب

السمح الوفي القلبي الحول

The vigilant caller, the excellent father, the formidable,

The generous, the loyal, the changing.

لا ينثني عنه الثناء لا

ولا للعذل يوماً عن ذراه معدل

Praise cannot twist away from him,

Nor can separation, even for a day, turn from his domains.

جاد وجد دون عافيه

فللمقل مالٌ واللهيف موئل

He has been generous and passionate without well-being,

So for the wretched there is money, and for the homeless, shelter.

وقام بالدولة والدين معاً

بأساً شديداً وتقى لا يجهل

He took a stand for religion and the state together -

With mighty courage and godliness that knows no ignorance.

وهمة تشرق فهي الشمس أو

تسمو إلى الغايات فهي زحل

An ambition that rises - it is the sun -

Or climbs to the heights, so it is Saturn.

حمى عرين الملك منه باسل

يرهبه ليث العرين المشبل

He protected the lair of kingship from it with courage,

Frightening the lion of the lair, the valiant.

إن شيم فهو ديمة أو هيج

فهو زعزع أو ريع فهو جبل

If his quality is high lineage, then he is lasting,

Or if roused, then he shakes, or if calm, then he is a mountain.

با لصاحب انصاع الزمان مصحبا

حتى لياليه الصعاب ذلل

O companion whose era obeyed, accompanying

Him until even his difficult nights were subdued.

ولى شباة عزمه مراتباً

يعزل عنهن السماك الأعزل

He appointed the youths of his determination to positions -

Banishing from them the worthless and fruitless.

ثبت إلى الداعي خفيف سمعه

فيه الأناة لطفاً والعجل

Firm to the supplicant, quick of hearing,

In him gentleness, delicacy, and haste.

ماض بأثواب العلى مشتمل

فهو حسام والمعالي حلل

Proceeding in the clothes of the lofty, cloaked,

So he is a sword, and the heights are garments.

راق به ماء الندى بعد القذى

وأورق الذاوي ورف الممحل

The water of dew flows clear after turbidity through him,

And the withering bloom flourished, and theoved wadi.

فالوجه طلق والسماح مفهم

والحكم عدل والمقال فيصل

So the face is bright, the generosity understood,

The rule just, and the words final.

قل فيه ما يرضي العلى فإنه

يقول ما يرضي المنى ويفعل

Say of him what pleases the lofty, for he

Speaks what pleases the hoped-for, and does.

سل إن عراك الشك عن أقلامه

يجبرك عنهن الظبى والأسل

Ask - even if the doubts’ contention deafens you -

His pens will convince you, and the male gazelle, and the chained.

كل أصم ناطق له القنا

الصم عبيد والسوف خول

Every deaf speaker - the reed-flute is his voice,

The deaf are slaves, and pipes are boys.

فيها النعيم والشقاء للوري

أجل ومنها رزقهم والأجل

In it is bliss and misery for the doll -

Yes, and from it is their sustenance and term.

يغضب للمذنب فهو الصاب أو

يرضى عن المحسن فهو العسل

He is enraged at the sinner - so he is the pelting rain,

Or pleased with the good-doer - so he is honey.

ملقوم يقضي العدم في ساحاتهم

وينشر الجود ويقضى المل

Rectifying - he ordains non-existence in their plains,

And spreads generosity and ordains bounty.

ما المجد إلا ما أبوا فمنعوا

والمال الاَّ ما سخوا فبذلوا

Glory is none but what they desired, so they prevented,

Wealth is none but what they were generous with, so they spent.

سيلوا هموا سلوا على الخطب مضوا

شيموا الندى جادوا ولوا فعدلوا

They poured forth, they strove, they questioned the calamities and proceeded -

Their quality was bounty, they gave and so were just.

هم الألى بيأسهم وعدهم

عز الذليل وأقيم الميل

Seas of generosity and dew never exhausted,

Full moons of justice and guidance never weakening.

صاحون ما صاح بهم داع فان

سقاهم كأس الثناءِ ثملوا

How much they bestowed when approached, and prevented when distanced!

How many favors they revived, and sorrows they killed!

اكفهم للخطب كف وهي

فينا قبل تسجد فيها القبل

Were it not for you, the cup of eulogy would not

Have described me roses, nor would bees have settled upon me.

يا باغياً شأوهم إن شئت أن

تنزل فوق النجم حيث نزلوا

As long as the knots of praise from

Its branches continue to untie upon you.

جد جودهم وآحم حماهم أن عدا

دهر وأثل في العلى ما أثلوا

A young man who hopes in you succeeds - no, loses if

After God, he does not rely upon you.

حبار جود وندى لا نضبوا

أقمار عدل وهدى لا ألوا

So accept the gift of the tail that the auspicious

Night has woven, with this year ahead departing.

كم منح ادنوا ومنع ابعدوا

ونعمة أحيوا وبؤس قتلوا

It goes in the world like your gifts - not

Staying but a moment before departing.

لولاك لم يصف صفي الدين لي

ورد ولم تضف علي النحل

And if the dishonest gain from it, then for it

Are the hearings' rejection and the hearts' settlement.

مادمت لي فالصعب هين والنوى

قرب وإحداث الزمان جلل

Lawful magic unlike any affectation -

A polished sword unlike any scabbards.

فاز فتى يرجوك لا بل خاب من

عليك بعد الله لا يتكل

And may you remain as long as the knots of praise

From its branches continue to untie upon you.

فاقبل حصان الذيل بنت ليلة

وليها العام السعيد المقبل

تسير في الدنيا كنعماك فما

تقيم إلا ريثما ترتحل

وان ينل منها لغوب فلها

الأَسماع ورد والقلوب منزل

سحر حلال لم يشبه كلفة

سيف صقيل لم يشبه فلل

ودمت ما دامت عقود الحمد من

جمانها عليكم تفصل