لقد أهدت كتابك منك كفٌ

لها ولمثلها صيغَ السوارُ

Your letter was bestowed by a hand of yours—

a hand for which, and for its like, the bracelet was fashioned.

وأسرعتِ المطيُّ بحامليهِ

ولا عقرٌ يخاف ولا عثار

The mounts sped on with its bearers,

with neither crippling mishap feared nor any stumble.

حططتُ لثامهُ فإذا شبابٌ

من الآداب يصحبهُ يسار

I lowered its veil, and behold—a youthful bloom

of literary art, attended by abundance:

حروفٌ كالعرائس لابساتٌ

حليَّ الشكل والنقطُ النثار

characters like brides, arrayed

in diacritics as jewels, their dots scattered largesse.

لها بردٌ على الأحشاء شبَّت

له في مجهلِ الإنشاء نار

It lays a coolness upon the innermost heart, though there blazed

for it, in the very souls of composition, a fire.

عجبتُ لهُ ولمَّا يند وجهاً

وفي أحشائه الديمُ الغزار

I marveled at it: though its face was not yet bedewed,

within its depths were copious, enduring rains.