جسمٌ سقيمٌ لا يرام شفاؤه

سلبت سويدا مهجتي سوداؤه

A sick body beyond cure

My dark complexion took away my beauty

عجباً له جفناً كما قسم الهوى

فيه الضنى وبمهجتي أدواؤه

How strange that he is indifferent

While my beauty is gone with my complexion

يا معرضاً يهوى فنا روحي ولي

روح تمنى أن يطولَ بقاؤه

O you who loves my soul and self

My soul wishes its existence prolonged

إن ينأ عني منك شخصٌ باخلٌ

روحي وما ملكت يديّ فداؤه

If one dear parts from me out of spite

I offer my soul and what I own for his ransom

فلربَّ ليلٍ شقّ طيفك جنحه

والصبح لم ينشقّ عنه رداؤه

For perhaps a night whose darkness tore your image

And morning has not torn its veil

سمحاً يسابقني إلى القبل التي

قد كان يقنعني بها إيماؤه

Forgiving, he races me to kisses that

His gestures once sufficed to convince me of

ومضيق ضمّ لو دراهُ معذِّبي

ضاقت عليه أرضه وسماؤه

If my tormentor knew the intimacy of my embrace

His land and sky would constrict for him

جسمان مرئيان جسماً واحدًا

كالنظم شدَّدَ حرَفهُ علماؤه

Two visible bodies, one body

As prose strengthens the letters of its rhyme

أفدي الذي هو في سناهُ وسطوهِ

بدرٌ وقتلى حسنهِ شهداؤه

I ransom the one who is in his prime and power

A full moon, and the martyrs of his beauty

قامت حلاهُ بوصفه حتى غدا

متغزلاً في خدِّه وأواؤه

His splendor stood up to describe him until he became

One who romances about his cheeks and littleness

حتام بين مذكرٍ ومؤنثٍ

قلبي الشجيّ طويلة برحاؤه

Hatim between masculine and feminine

My ardent heart long in its confusion

وعلى الغزالة والغزال لأدمعي

سيلٌ وأقوالُ الوشاةِ غثاؤه

My tears and the vile's prattle

Are floods over the gazelle and gazelle (male and female)

سقياً لمصر حمى بسيطٌ بحرُهُ

للواصفين مديدةٌ أفياؤه

Offering the fevered plain of Egypt whose sea

Is endless for eulogizers to draw from

لو لم يكن بلداً يعالي بلدةً

بين النجوم لما ارتضاه علاؤه

If it were not a country superior to any country

Among the stars its supremacy would not be desired

أما عليّ المستماحُ فكلنا

متشيعٌ يسري إليه ولاؤه

As for me the one who seeks forgiveness, we are all

Loyal followers marching toward him

المشتري سلعَ الثناء بجودِهِ

وبهاؤه لعطاردٍ وذكاؤه

The buyer of praise goods is generous in his munificence

And his brilliance to Mercury and its intellect

دلَّت مناقبهُ على أنسابهِ

وحَماهُ عن تسآل مَن لألاؤه

His virtues point to his lineage

And his splendor protected from questioning his origins

ذو الفضل من نسبٍ ومن شيمٍ فيا

لله منبتُ عودِه ونماؤه

One of lineage and character, so what

A fine shoot his growth and cultivation

والعود صحَّ نجارهُ فإذا سرى

أرَجُ الثنا فالعود فاح كباؤه

The wood stayed sound its carpenter so if it walked

The fragrance of praise, the wood exuded its aroma

والبيت حيث سنا الصباحِ عمودُه

وبحيث أخبية السعود خباؤه

The house where his pillar straightened in the morning

And where the secrecy of glory hides its shelter

واللفظُ نثرٌ من صفاتِ الحسنِ لا

بيضاء روضِ حمًى ولا صفراؤه

Speech is prose of attributes of beauty neither

The whiteness of a meadow of yearning nor its yellowness

والجود ما لحيا الشآمِ عمومهُ

فينا ولا في نيل مصرَ فناؤه

Generosity is what gave life to Damascus in its entirety

Among us and not in the Nile of Egypt its loss

والرأيُ نافذةٌ قضايا رسمهِ

من قبل ما نوت الإرادةَ راؤه

Opinion is insightful ordains of its principles

Before intention knotted its firm resolution

وسعادة الدَّارين جلَّ أساسها

بمعاقد التقوى فجلَّ بقاؤه

The happiness of two abodes, most of its foundation is

In contracts of piety, so its survival magnificent

من أسرةٍ عمريةٍ عدويةٍ

شهدت بفضل مكانها أعداؤه

Of a family Umarid Adawid

Its enemies witness to its virtuous stature

من كلِّ ذي نسبٍ سمت أعراقه

يوم العلا واستبطحت بطحاؤه

Of all lineages, its branches tower

The day of ascent, and its plains spreaded

قوم همو غرَرُ الزمان إذا أضا

أمرَاؤه وُزراؤه شعراؤه

A people who are deceit of time, when

Its princes, ministers, and poets

ملأوا الثرى جوداً يزِينُ ربيعه

والجوَّ ذكراً تنجلي أضواؤه

Filled the earth with munificence adorning its meadows

And atmosphere with remembrance elucidating its lights

فالجوّ تصدح بالمحامد عجمهُ

والتربُ تنطقُ بالثنا خرساؤه

So atmosphere resounds with praises, its gloom

And soil articulates with eulogy its dumbness

من حولِ منزلهِ الرَّجاءُ محلقٌ

ومقصرٌ حمدُ الفتى وثناؤه

Around his house, Hope circles

And the youth's praise and glorification humbled