صدودُكِ يا لمياء عني ولا البعدُ

إذا لم يكنْ من واحدٍ منهما بدّ

Your reverberations, O limpid water, neither my eye nor distance

If there was no escape from either one

بروحيَ من لمياءَ عطفٌ إذا زها

على الغصن قال الغصن ما أنا والقدّ

My spirit has a kindness to the limpid water when it flows

On the branch, so the branch says, "I am not it and the full moon."

وعنقٌ قد استحسنتُ دمعي لأجلها

وفي العُنقِ الحسناء يستحسن العقد

And a neck I found my tear beautiful for its sake

And in the beautiful neck the necklace is found beautiful

من العُرب إلا أنَّ بين جفونها

أحدّ شبا مما يجرّده الهند

No Arab woman except that between her eyelids

Is one who strips away the kohl like India

على مثلها يعصى العذولُ وإنما

يطاعُ على أمثالها الشوق والوجد

The celibate is disobeyed for her like

Ardor and rapture are obeyed for her like

عزيزٌ على العذال عني صرفها

وللقلب في دينارِ وجنتها نقد

Dear to the celibate is diverting my eye from her

And for the heart in her dinar and cheek is minted money

أعذَّالنا مهلاً فقد بان حمقكم

وقد زاد حتى ما لحمقكُم حد

O you celibates, wait, for your foolishness has become clear

And it has increased such that your foolishness has no limit

وقلتم قبيحٌ عندنا العشق بالفتى

ومن أنتُم حتى يكون لكم عندُ

And you said, "Love is ugly to us in a young man"

And who are you that you would have an opinion?

سمحتُ بروحي للحسان فما لكم

وما لي وما هذا التعسف والجهد

I yielded my soul to the beauties, so what is it to you?

What is it to me? What is this imposition and effort?

وثغرٌ يتيم الدّرّ سلّمَ مهجتي

فأتلفها من قبل ما ثبت الرّشد

And a mouth orphaned of pearls surrendered my innermost being

So it destroyed it before steadfastness was affirmed

هو البرَد الأشهى لغلة هائمٍ

أو الطلعُ أو نورُ الأقاحي أو الشهد

It is the dearest chill to the fervor of an enamored one

Or the first light or the light of threshing floors or honey

ومرشفه المنّ الذي لا يشو به

سلوّي أو الرَّاحُ الشمولُ أو النهد

And its draft is the bounty which does not become commonplace

By my solace or the winds or swaying or the breast

عهدت الليالي حلوةً بارتشافهِ

وهنَّ الليالي لا يدوم لها عهد

I entrusted the nights sweetly with its draft

And look, the nights, their promise does not last

فلا ابتسم البرق الذي كان بالحمى

غداةَ تفرّقنا ولا قهقهه الرَّعد

So neither did the lightning that was in the fever smile

The morning after we parted, nor did the thunder chuckle

تولت شموس الحيّ عنه ففي العلى

سناها وفي أكباد عشاقها الوقد

The suns of life turned away from it, so in the heights

Its years wasted away, and in the livers of its lovers was burning

وكم ذابحٍ للصبِّ يومَ تحملوا

بأخبيةٍ غنى بها للسرى سعد

And how many slaughterers of resolve on the day they carried

Wells brimming for the noble, Sa'd was fortunate through them

فيا قلبُ جهداً في التحرق بعدهم

وهذا لعمري جهدُ منْ لا له جهدُ

So O heart, make an effort in burning after them

And by my life, this is the effort of one who has no effort

ويا دمعُ فضْ وجداً بذكر خدودهم

فإنكَ ماءُ الوردِ إن ذهب الوَرْد

And O tears, burst into copious tears remembering their cheeks

For you are the water of roses, if the roses are gone

رعى الله دهراً كنت فارسَ لهوه

أروح إلى وصلِ الأحبةِ أو أغدو

May God protect for an age! I was the knight of his passion

I would go to join the beloved or spend the night

جوادي من الكاسات في حلبة الهنا

كميتٌ وإلاّ من صدور المها نهد

My steed the goblets in the arena of revelry

Are a storehouse, unless it is breasts of the bent-over idols

وفي عضدي بدر الجمال موسدٌ

وقد قدِحت للرَّاح في خدهِ زندُ

And on my arm the full moon of beauty is pillowed

And for the wind in his cheek a firebrand was ignited

وعيشي مأمون الطباق الذي أرى

فلا الشعرُ مبيضٌّ ولا الحال مسودُّ

And my life secure in the mixed wine which I see

So neither is the wine clear nor is the state clouded

زمان تولى بالشبيبةِ وانقضى

وفي فيَّ طعمٌ من مجاجته بعدُ

An era has passed with my youth and ended

And in me is a flavor of its turmoil still

يزولُ وما زالتْ مذاقته الصبى

ويبلى وما تبلى روائحه البُردُ

It passes away but the taste of youth does not leave me

It wears out but the scent of its coolness does not fade

له أبداً مني التذكر والأسى

وللأفضل الملكِ القصائدُ والقصدُ

For it forever from me is remembrance and sorrow

And for the best King, poems and a goal

بكم آلَ أيوبٍ غنينا عن الورى

فلم نجدِ الأمداحَ فيهم ولم يجدوا

With how many of the House of Ayyub we dispensed with mankind

For we did not find praises in them, nor did they find

أتينا لمغناكم تجاراً وإنما

بضائعنا الآمالُ تعرضُ والحمدُ

We came to your panegyrics as merchants, but

Our wares were hopes displayed, and praise

فنفَّقتمُ سوق الثنا بضنائع

معجّلة للوفد من سبقها وفدُ

So you invested the market of praise with wares

Hastened for the delegation from those preceded by a delegation

ورِشتمْ جناح الآملين وطوّقت

رقابٌ بنعماكم فلا غرْوَ أن تشدو

And you feathered the wing of the hopeful and graced

Necks with your bounties, so no wonder they sing

سقى تربةَ الملك المؤيد وابلٌ

وفيٌّ على عهد المعالي له عهد

The ground of the kingdom of al-Mu'azzam was watered by clouds

Copious during the days of the Sublime One, for him is a time

لقد صدقتنا في الزمانِ وعودُهُ

وشيمةُ إسماعيل أن يصدق الوعد

Indeed he was true to us in time with his promise

And the trait of Isma'il is to fulfill a promise

وولى وقد أوصى بنا الملك الذي

أبرّ على جمع العلى شخصه الفرد

And he succeeded when the King who

Was most righteous in gathering the elevated, his unique person, entrusted us to him

فما لبني أيُّوبَ ندٌّ من الورى

وما في بني أيوبَ عندي له ندّ

So the House of Ayyub has no equal in mankind to me

And in the House of Ayyub, no one equals him to me

مليكٌ له في الملك أصلٌ ومكسبٌ

وحظّ فنعم الجدّ والجدُّ والجدّ

A King whose origin and livelihood are in kingship

And fortune, so excellent is his grandfather, and father, and grandfather

حوته العلى قبل الحجورِ وهزَّهُ

حديث الثنا من قبل ما هزَّه المهد

Kingship contained him before enclosures and rocked him

Reports of praise before the cradle rocked him

وغذَّته للعلياء قبلَ لبانهِ

لباناً لها من مثله مخضَ الزُّبدُ

And it nurtured him for supremacy before his milk

Milk for it the likes of him curdled cream

فجاءَ كما ترضى السيادةُ والعلى

وحيداً على أبوابه للورى حشدُ

So he came just as sovereignty and highness desire

Alone at its doors for mankind gathered

رعى خلقه ربُّ العبادِ وخُلقه

فحسَّنَ ما يخفى لديه وما يبدو

May the Lord of servants and his manners guard him

So He made beautiful what is hidden from Him and what appears

ألم ترني يمَّمتُ كعبة بيتهِ

لحجِّ ولائي لا سُواعٌ ولا ودُّ

Have you not seen me head towards the Kaaba of his house

For the Hajj of my loyalty, neither distraction nor love?

علقتُ بحبلٍ من حبالِ محمدٍ

أمنتُ به من طارقِ الدهر أنْ يعدو

I clung to a rope from the ropes of Muhammed

I felt safe through it from the assailant of fate that he may transgress

ويممت مغناه بركب مدائح

يسيل بها غوْرٌ ويطفو بها نجد

And I set out as a caravan with praises

Through which gushing springs flow and through which Najd floats

من اللاءِ أجدى كُثرُها فتكاثرت

لديّ بها الأتباعُ والأصلُ والولدُ

From the refrain I gained through its plentitude so they proliferated for me

Through it the followers, and origin, and children

وأعجبني المرعى الخصيب ببابه

فحالي به الأهنى وعيشي به الرَّغدُ

And I loved the fertile pasture at his door

So through it my state was comfortable and my life luxurious

أيا ملكاً لولا حماهُ وجودُهُ

لما ملح المرعى ولا عذُبَ الوِرْدُ

O King, were it not for his existence protecting him

The pasture would not have been salted, nor would the roses have been fresh

تجمّع في علياك كلّ مفرَّق

من الوصف حتى الضدّ يظهره الضدُّ

Collected in your heights is every dispersed thing

In description until the opposite reveals its opposite

فقربك والعليا وحلمك والسطا

وحزمك والجدوى وملكك والزهد

So your nobility and the Highest, your clemency and just rule

Your decisiveness and benefit, your kingdom and asceticism

وعنك استفاد الناسُ مدحاً بمثله

على الشب يشدو أو على الركب إذ يحدو

And from you people gained praise the like of which

The youth sing of, or travelers when pace quickens

فدونكها مني على البعد غادةً

يظل عبيداً وهو من خلفها عبدُ

So from me, far away, compose it as an ode

That will remain your servant though behind it a servant

على أنها تحتك منك بناقدٍ

يرجى له نقدٌ ويخشى له نقد

Even if with a critic from you of minted coins

Expected for it cash and dreaded for it cash

عريق العلى ألفاظهُ كدُروعهِ

غدا والوغى والسلم يحكمه سرْد

Lofty is its wording like his coats of mail

Tomorrow and fray and peace it commands arranged

حمى الله من ريبِ الحوادثِ ملكهُ

ولا زال للأقدارِ من حوله جند

May God protect his kingdom from the doubt of events

And may defenders remain around it forever

هو الكافل الدنيا بأنعمهِ فما

يحسّ لمفقودٍ بأيامه فقد

He who provides for the world with his bounty so one does not

Feel anything lost in his days has passed

وإني وإنْ أخرتُ سعياً لأرتجي

عوائد من نعماه تسعى بها البرد

And if I am late in striving in hopes

Of gifts from his bounty that the cold seeks

إذا المرء لم يشدد إلى الغيث رحله

أتى نحو مغناه حيا الغيث يشتدُّ

When a man does not take his mount to the rain clouds

The rain cloud comes passionately raining heavily

وما أنا إلا العبدُ ما في رجائه

ولا ظنّهِ عيبٌ ولا يمكنُ الردُّ

And I am but a servant, there is no fault in his hopes

Or speculations, nor can it be rejected