يتيمُ ابْتسامك ما يُقهر

فسائل دمعيَ لا ينهر

Your orphaned smile cannot be defeated

So my tears flow like a never-ending river

وإنسان عيني إلى كم كذا

بحينٍ من الدهر لا يُذكر

And these eyes of mine, for so long

In a forgotten time, cannot be mentioned

وخدّك ذا السهل ما باله

على من رجا قُبلةً يعسر

And your cheeks, so plain

Are difficult to kiss for those who wish

عن الورد يروي فيا حسنَ ما

رواهُ لنا خَلَفُ الأحمر

More refreshing than roses, O beauty

What has been related to us after the redness

ويا حبَّذا حولهُ عارضٌ

لدمعي هو العارِض الممطر

O would that an eyebrow were by it

My tear is the raincloud that showers

يقول تناسب روحي له

هي النفس خضراءُ يا أخضر

It says my soul suits him

It is the green soul, O most green

عسى بجبر الصب آس العذار

فبالآسِ كسرُ الورى يجبر

Maybe the pain of passion can be mended

With passion, the sorrows of the world can be mended

لكَ الله قلباً نجرّ الأسى

ومن عمل الحب لا يفتر

May God give you a heart that feels the sorrow

And the work of love does not grow weary

وهبت الكرى لجفون الرَّشا

فكم ذا ينام وكم أسهر

The Fates have granted the eyelids of the gazelle

So how much does it sleep and how much do I stay up

وكم قيل للنفسِ قال العذول

فقالت جفون الرَّشا تغتر

And how much has the soul said to the unobtainable

So the gazelle's eyelids have responded with deception

تعشقته بابليَّ اللحاظ

يسكر من شاء أو يسحر

I fell in love with him, my Babylonian glance

It intoxicates those it wishes or casts a spell

ولام على حسنه المجتلى

وِقاحُ العيون فما أثروا

And blame upon his collected beauty

The brazen eyes, but they had no effect

وقالوا أما يرعوِي سامعٌ

فقلت أما يستحي مبصر

And they said, "Does no listener deter him?"

So I said, "Is no onlooker ashamed?"

حلوت وأمررت ملح الملاح

فيا حبَّذا الملح والسكر

You are sweet and bitter like salt

O would that it were salt and sugar!

وكرّر لي ذكرك العاذلون

فما كانَ أحلى الذي كرَّروا

And those who pine for you repeat your memory to me

But nothing was sweeter than what they repeated

ووجهك جامعُ لذَّاتنا

فيا حبَّذا الجامع الأقمر

And your face collects our pleasures

O would that the full moon collect them!

وثغرك يشهد مسواكه

فأعدِلْ به شاهداً يسكر

And your mouth, its smoothness testifies

So equate it to a witness that intoxicates

ويا رُبَّ نيل بلقياك قد

تبين لي فعله المضمر

O Lord, to meet you, it was revealed to me

Its concealed deed

بخصرك والنهد نحو الهنا

فهذا أضم وذا أكسر

By your waist and breast toward delight

This one is fuller and that one slighter

فيا لك ليلاً لو المانويّ

رآه رأى أنه الخير

O would that, at night the bright one

Saw him and saw he is the best

وأشرق إشراق ذاك الدّجى

فما منهما واحدٌ يكفر

And the shining of that darkness appeared

Neither one obscures the other

وطابق أجفان عيني الظَّلام

فهذا يطول وذي تقصر

And my eyelids matched the darkness in extent

This one is long and that one shorter

وما قصرُ الليل أو سكون طوله

سوى أنك تسعف أو تهجر

Not the shortness of night or the stillness of its length

Except that you bestow or abandon

وما الحزن والعيش إلا سطا

عليَّ وأنعمه تنشر

And sadness and living are nothing but

Plenty upon me and blessings you spread

وزير إذا نظراء العلى

تردُّوا ولاذوا بهِ أزّرُوا

Minister, when the eminent

Turned away and sought refuge in him, they were girded

إذا سلكوا نحوه عرّفوا

برفع وإن تركوا نكّروا

When they walked toward him, they recognized

By raising and if they left, they denied

فما صغروا وبه كبروا

ولا كبّروا وبه صُغروا

They neither diminished with him nor

Grew big and with him diminished

سعادة جدّ بها يحتذى

ونهج أبٍ في العلى يشتهر

Prosperity truly with which to be guided

And path of father in the high is famed

كريم رأينا مسيء الزمان

ببسطِ أيادِيه يستغفر

Generous we saw time doing wrong

With extending his hands asking forgiveness

فحسب الملوك سفيرٌ لهم

وجودهُ إنالتهُ تسفر

So the kings suffice as envoy to them

And his existence, gaining it, unravels

وحسب ابن يحيى حياة العلى

وبعض معالي الورى تقبر

And suffice son of Yahya life of the eminent

And some glories of the eminent bury

زها أفقُ مصرَ بتدبيرهِ

فطالعَها أبداً يزهر

Brightness of Egypt’s horizon with his planning

So its rising forever flourishes

وقاهرة شادها لفظه

فشائدها أبداً جوهر

And Cairo he erected with his utterance

So its emitter forever essence

هو اللفظ حالٍ بهِ جيدها

كفيل ندًى وردًى يهمر

It is the word changing thereby her body

Responsible for dew and flowers that drizzle

وزهر الورى خضرٌ بالهنا

وملك البريَّة إسكندر

And flower of the eminent green by bliss

And king of prairie Alexander

وصاحب أسراره كاتم

وأنعمه في الورى تجهر

And companion of his secrets concealing

And his boons in the eminent proclaim

مقيمٌ على النيل لا ابن الفرات

ومجدهُم البحرُ لا جعفر

Resident on the Nile not son of Euphrates

And their glory the sea not Ja’far

يعجل غايةَ ما يرتجى

ويحلمُ ساعةَ ما يقدِر

He hurries the sought outcome

And he plans the destined hour

ولا عيب فيه سوى سؤدد

تكدّ الفهومُ ولا يحصر

No fault in him but difficulty

That exhausts the minds and cannot be contained

على فضلهِ خنصرُ العاقدين

ومن أجلِ ذا حلي الخنصر

Upon his favor the contract folders gird

And for this the bracelets of contract

وفي يدهِ فاضليّ اليراع

مقيمٌ وسؤددهُ سير

And in his hand eminent the messenger

Resides and his difficulty walks

تغازل أحرفه كالظبا

وطوراً يحاذرها القسور

His letters flirt like gazelles

And sometimes the lynxes fear them

إذا صاولته سيوفُ العدى

فما ضرَّه الشانئُ الأبتر

If the swords of enemies assail him

Then the truncated slanderer did not harm him

وإن ساجعَ الوُرقَ مال الحيا

بها خلفَ أوراقها تستر

And if the leaves pour virtue

With them beyond their leaves hide

وإن فاضَ درًّا على سامع

فأنمل حامله الجسَّر

And if he spills jewels upon a listener

His carrier becomes mute

أخا الفضل مكتملاً وابنه

ليهنك عامُ الهنا الأزهر

O brother of perfected nobility and his son

For you may this year of bliss flourish

فقابل بعلياك فيهِ الهلال

لينحرَ حسَّادها خنجر

So counter with your heights in it the crescent

That it may slaughter your enviers with a dagger

وعش يا كثير الندى والثنا

وأجرك من ذا وذا أكبر

And live long O frequent of dew and praise

And your reward from this and that greater

بجود يديك ابن فضل الإله

تناسب منطقي الأبهر

With the generosity of your hands, son of God’s nobility

Suiting my most eloquent utterance

فإن كنت غيث ندى هاملاً

فإنَّ نبات ثناً مزهر

For if you are a cloud of dewy protection

Then the vegetation of praise blossoming

شعرت بمدحِك حتى بهرت

وكنتُ من العيّ لا أشعر

I have sensed in praising you until dazzling

And I was of understanding, unaware

وحلَّق خلفي بهذا المُطار

أناس عن الخطوِ قد قصروا

And after me with this flight clung

People who fell short of meter

إلى صنعةِ الشعر فليدع في

حمى الفضل شاعرك الأظهر

To the craft of poetry, so let the protector

Of nobility, your most apparent poet

محبّ لتشبيبه مادح

يروح سوى مدحه يزمر

Lover of his youth, praising

Who goes but with his praise humming