سائل لِوى خبْتٍ فذاك لواؤه

وهواهُ صدقٌ شاهدٌ وهواؤهُ

A questioner asked about a beloved whose absence pains him - that is his affliction,

And his passion is sincere, a witness to his passion.

واستمطِر الأجفانَ في عرَصاته

غيثاً نفوسُ ذوي الصبابةِ ماؤهُ

Let the eyelids rain in their sleeplessness

A downpour - the souls of passionate youths are its water.

وأعدْ بملتفّ الغضا ذكرى شجٍ

طويَتْ على جمرِ الغضا أحشاؤه

Prepare with coiled tendrils a memory of yearning

That smolders over the embers of yearning - his entrails.

وإذا الأراكُ أراكَ غيدَ سُروبِه

فاحتلْ لجسمِك أنها حوباؤه

And when the Gazelle showed you the setting of its splendor,

Imagine that it arched its body for you - its curve.

وتوقّ أسيافَ الفتورِ فربما

أمست ظُباها في الأسودِ ظباؤهُ

Aim the swords of indifference, for perhaps

Their blades in the dark will be its slaughtering.

كلّ يهيجُ لك الصبابةَ والهوى

أوراقُه إذ ماسَ أو وَرقاؤه

All the passion and love that youth arouses for you -

Its leaves, when touched or when they wither away.

لم يرقُص الغصنُ الرطيبُ وإنما

بانوا فمادَ بعطفِه بُرحاؤهُ

The moist branch did not sway, but rather

Blossomed in its tenderness - its burgeoning.

فانظُر الى قبَسٍ بجرعاءِ الحِمى

عنهم سناه محدّثٌ وسناؤه

So look to a torch with the fever's drafts

Protected from them as it grew older - its aging.

واستهدِ ألطافَ النسيم رسالةً

أوصاه مندلُه

And seek the breeze's whispers as a message

Entrusted to its waving - its undulation.

وبنفسي القمرُ المغيَّبُ نورُه

عن ناظرَيّ وفي الضلوع سماؤه

By my life, the absent moon whose light

Vanished from my eyes, though in my ribs is its rising,

قد كان في طرْفي نقلتُ سوادُه

وسرى الى قلبي فقُلْ سوداؤهُ

Had cast its darkness into my gaze,

And flowed into my heart - say then: its blackening.

ركبَ الدجى متستّراً فوشى به

حسنٌ عليه عوّلَتْ رُقَباؤه

It rode the darkness, cloaked, and confided in it

A beauty on which hopes were pinned - its expectations.

والأفْقُ كالزنجيّ إلا أنه

قد منطقَتْه بدُرِّها جوزاؤه

The horizon was like an Abyssinian, except

That its cheeks were tattooed with its full moon - its adornment.

والبدرُ ملكٌ والثريا راحةٌ

بسطَتْ إليه والنجومُ عطاؤهُ

The moon is a king, and the Pleiades a respite

That stretched toward it, and the stars its granting.

حتى تجلّى الصبحُ في جَنَباتِه

فكأنه الروميّ شُقّ قباؤهُ

Until dawn revealed itself in its sides

As if it were Rome split open - its flanking.

وبدتْ ذكاءُ فقلت غُرةُ أحمدٍ

أوَ ما ينوِّرُ للعقولِ ذكاؤهُ

Intellect dawned, so I said: the jealousy of Ahmed

Or what illuminates minds - its illumination.

وانهلّ وسميُّ الغمامِ كأنه

آراؤه للمُجتدي ورُواؤه

It drizzled, like the clouds' summoner, as though

Its opinions for the reformist - its quenching and slaking.

وهفَتْ سيوفُ البرق في أرجائه

فكأنه متألقاً آراؤه

The swords of lightning brandished in its expanse

As if flashing - its opinions.

وسرى نسيمُ الروضِ في أثنائه

أرجٌ ثناهُ الى القصورِ ثناؤه

The meadow's breeze crept through its midst

Sweetly - the praise it inspires in palaces - its extolling.

وتناجتِ الأطيارُ في أغصانها

بغرائب فكأنها شُعلاؤها

The birds conversed in their branches

Wondrously - as if their twigs were its kindling.

دوحٌ يُطيبُ لك الجنا أفنانُه

ويمدّ ظلّكَ فوقَها أفياؤه

A meadow whose varieties delight you,

And whose shade stretches above it - its extending.

حفظَ الشريعةَ ضابطاً فلأجلِه

سمّتْه حافظَ دينِها علماؤه

It preserved the Law strictly, so for its sake

The scholars named it: defender of the faith - their guarding.

متفردٌ عنهم بسامي مجدِه

لكنهم في حالِه شُركاؤه

Unique among them in its lofty glory,

Yet they are its partners in state - its peers.

آباؤه أملاكُ ساسان الألى

والعُرْبُ عند نوالِه أبناؤه

Its fathers are the exalted kings of Persia,

And the Arabs in its favour are its sons - its offspring.

فغدَتْ الى الفرس الفوارس آلُه

منسوبةً والى العُلا آلاؤهُ

So to the Persians it became the finest of cavaliers,

Attributed to them, and to highness - its nobility.

بحرُ العلوم بصدرِه متدفّقُ

وثمادُه متمنّعٌ وإضاؤه

The sea of knowledge surges from its breast,

Its abundance withheld and its illumination.

يروي فينشُر من حديثِ محمدٍ

ما كادَ يُذهبُ روحه جُهلاؤه

It relates the hadith of Mohammed, spreading

What its ignorant ones had nearly extinguished - their ignorance.

والشرعُ ربعٌ قد غفتْ آثارُه

لو لم يُشيَّدْ بالرواةِ بناؤهُ

The Law was a ruin whose traces had faded

Had the transmitters not built its structure - its erection.

ما زال يصدعُ ضوءُ صبحِ علومِه

ليلَ الهوى حتى انجلَتْ ظَلْماؤه

The light of the dawn of its knowledge continues to shine

Dispelling the night of passion until its darkness recedes.

يفديه شهرُ صيامنا وهو الذي

ما في الشهورِ ولو جُمعْنَ فداؤه

Our month of fasting would ransom it - it who

Cannot be ransomed, even if all months pooled their ransom.

يا حافظاً يعدو على أمواله

حتى تروحَ كأنها أعداؤه

O guardian, your wealth outpaces

Any who would assault it, as if assailing enemies.

ليقُل بُناةُ الشعر فيك فإنما

أوصافُ مجدك صحةٌ أسماؤه

Let the poets speak little of you, for only

The attributes of your glory are true to its names - their validity.

وليَهْنَ هذا الدهرُ منك بسيدٍ

أصباحُه تُزهى به ومساؤهُ

Let this world treat gently one whose morning

Is adorned by him, and its evening - its morning and evening.