عرفت بخدَّام البكا أجفانه
إن غابَ لؤلؤه أتى مرجانه
I knew his eyelids as servants of weeping;
if their pearl disappeared, their coral came forth.
باكٍ يرى كتم الغرام وإنما
عن شانه أضحى يعير شانه
A weeper who thinks passion can be concealed—yet
his state has come to reproach him for his state.
حثّ التفرُّق دمعه فتشكَّلت
أشكاله وتلوَّنت ألوانه
Separation spurred his tears, and so took shape
their forms, while their colors turned and changed.
شوقاً كما حكم الفارق لمالكٍ
ولى ولكن عندنا نيرانه
Out of longing—as the Separator decreed for Mālik—
he departed, yet his fires remain with us.
ولربَّما منح الرضا واليوم لا
وأبيكَ مالكه ولا رضوانه
Often he would grant contentment—but not today;
by your father: neither its Mālik nor its Riḍwān.
بأبي مغيث العين قدس جمالهُ
لا عين عاشقهِ ولا سلوانه
My father be his ransom—the eye’s succorer; hallowed is his beauty,
not so his lover’s eye, nor his consolation.
ورقيم حاشية العذار وكلّ ذي
حسنٍ بحاشية الفتى غلمانه
The script along the margin of his cheek’s first down—and every
beauty in the youth’s retinue—is among his pages.
خطّ على الخدِّ الشريق فحبذا
ياقوت ذاك الخطّ أو ريحانه
A line upon the radiant cheek—how lovely
the ruby of that line, or its sprig of basil!
ما مثله في الحسنِ إلاَّ خطّ ذي
نظمٍ تأنَّق في البيان بنانه
Nothing equals it in beauty save the script of one
whose fingertips fashioned verse exquisitely in eloquence.
حسَّان بيت قريضه حتَّى إذا
ذكر الولاء فإنه سلمانه
The Ḥassān of a house in poetry—then, whenever
loyalty is mentioned, he is its Salmān.
نعم الفريد زهت لديَّ فنونه
في الناظمين وأزهرت أفنانه
What a peerless one: his arts have flourished before me
among the poets, and his branches have blossomed.
إن قيل إنَّ سمنديار لشخصه
نسبٌ فللعرب الخلاص لسانه
If it is said that Samandiyār supplies his person’s lineage,
his tongue belongs to the Arabs in their purity.
مستبدع الألفاظ قد حصلت على
رجحانها وعلوّها أوزانه
An originator of expressions: his meters have attained
their weight and their loftiness.
قل يا محمد فيه يسمع فنُّه
قولاً يطول إلى السهى كيوانه
Speak, O Muhammad: in him his art is heard—
words whose Kaywān reaches as high as Suhā.
ها قد أجزتك طوع أمرك إن تجز
إن الرفيع تجيزه أدوانه
Here I have licensed you, obedient to your command—if you permit;
for the lofty man may be licensed by those beneath him.
إن كنت سلطان القريض فإنه
لولاك لم ينفذ إذاً سلطانه
If you are the sovereign of verse, then verse itself
would, without you, wield no sovereignty.
أعلام طرسك حيث سار وقصره
من بيتك المعمور أو بستانه
The banners of your page—wherever it journeys—and its palace,
from your flourishing house or else its garden:
أمّرت في الأشعار شعرك حاكماً
متصرِّفاً في أمرها ديوانه
you have appointed your poetry ruler over all poems,
its dīwān free to command their affairs.
