ماسَتْ فقيل هي القضيبُ الأملَدُ

ورنَتْ فقيلَ هي الغزالُ الأغيَدُ

She walked with grace, they said she is a slender branch.

She moaned, they said she is a slender gazelle.

ورأتْ بديعَ جمالِها فتبسّمتْ

عن لؤلؤ بمثالِه تتقلّدُ

Seeing her beautiful perfection, she smiled

Like a pearl wearing its likeness as a necklace.

بيضاءُ روضُ الحُسْنِ منها أخضرٌ

ومدامِعي حُمر وعيشيَ أسوَدُ

The garden of beauty is white from her, yet green from me.

My tears are red and my life is dark.

فعلَتْ سيوفُ الحُسنِ في أجفانِها

ما يفعلُ الصَمصامُ وهْو مجرّدُ

The swords of beauty did to her eyelids

What a finely sharpened sword does to its sheath.

ومؤنّبٌ فيها كأنّ فؤادَهُ

مما أطالَ هو المشوقُ المُكمَدُ

And reproached in her is one whose heart

Is wearied from prolonging passion and desire.

كاتمتُه أصلَ الصبابةِ جاحداً

وعلى المحبِّ دلائلٌ لا تُجحَدُ

I concealed the basis of my youth, denying,

Yet signs of love on the lover cannot be denied.

يا هذه إن كنتُ دونَكِ ثانياً

طرْفي ففي قلبي المقيمُ المُقعَدُ

O you, if I were second to you

My eyes in my heart would stay fixed.

دافعتُ في صدرِ الظنونِ ولم يكنْ

بسوى الثُريّا يُسترابُ الفرقدُ

I warded off suspicions in the chest, and it was not

Except the Pleiades that the hen harrier doubts.

هل عندَ ليلِ الشعرِ أني نائمٌ

ولصَبوَتي طرفٌ عليه مسهَّدُ

Does the night of poetry think I’m asleep

While my eyelids are open resting on it?

يا ضيفَ طيفٍ ما هَداهُ لمَضجَعي

إلا لهيبٌ في الحشى يتوقّدُ

O guest of an apparition, nothing led him to my bed

Except a blaze kindling in my chest.

واللهِ لولا أنني بكَ طامعٌ

ما كنتُ كلَفي بحبّك أرقُدُ

By God, if I were not hopeful of you

I would not tire myself with loving you or sleep.

هذي النجومُ وأنت من إخوانها

بجميع ما نصّبته لك تشهد

These stars and you are among their brethren

With everything I placed for you they bear witness.

كم فيكَ عن بلقيسَ من نبأ فهلْ

قلبي سليمانٌ وطرْفي الهدهد

How much news of Balqis is in you, so has

My heart become Solomon and my eyes the hoopoe?

لا تنفِ همّي بالعُقارِ فإنها

أبداً يُثارُ بشُربِها ما يوجَدُ

Do not deny my love with aloes, for it

Will forever stir that which lies dormant.

لي روضةٌ من خاطري ومُدامةٌ

وُرْقُ القوافي بينهنّ تغرِّدُ

I have a meadow of my thoughts and a tavern,

The leaves of poetry twittering between them.

وكفاك في فخرِ الأئمةِ أحمدٌ

إنْ قُلْتَ يا فخرَ الأئمةِ أحمدُ

It suffices you in the pride of imams, Ahmad,

If I say, O Pride of Imams Ahmad!

حبْرٌ لنا في راحتيهِ سَحابةٌ

ذابَ اللُجينُ بها وسالَ العسجَدُ

For us is an ink in his hands like a cloud

Melting rubies and making topaz fluid.

متنوّعُ الأوصافِ من أفكاره

نارٌ مضرّمةٌ وبحرٌ مُزبِدُ

Diverse in attributes from his ideas

A blazing fire and a foaming sea.

هو واحدُ العَليا وواحدُها الذي

ألقابُه وصفاتُه تتعدَّدُ

He is the unique sublime one, and he is the unique one

Whose epithets and attributes are numerous.

فَقْرٌ يُلينُ المشكلاتِ فيستوي

في العِلمِ نِظّارٌ بها ومقلِّدُ

Poverty makes complex matters simple, so he is equal

In knowledge, an investigating scholar or an imitator.

وروايةٌ صحّتْ وسحّتْ فارتوى

من جانبيْها مرسَلٌ أو مسنَدُ

A transmission that is verified and flows, thus quenching thirst,

Whether connected or detached on both sides.

الحمدُ في الطرفين منها واضحٌ

أوَ ليسَ فيها أحمدٌ ومحمّدُ

Praise in both ways is clear from it

Or is Ahmad and Muhammad not in it?

وفصاحةٌ دعْ عنك ذكرَك من مضى

إنّ المبرِّدَ عندَها لمُبرَّدُ

And eloquence - leave your mention of the past -

Al-Mubarrid is cooled next to it.

وإصابةٌ في الرأي تشهدُ أنّهُ

سهمٌ لشاكلةِ الرميّ مسدَّدُ

And insight in opinion bearing witness that he

Is an arrow accurately aimed for its target.

هذي أحاديثُ الكمال ولم تزَلْ

لجلالِه تُعزى وعنهُ تُسنَدُ

These are the words of perfection and they have not ceased

To be attributed to his majesty and transmitted from him.

متملِّكٌ في الفُرسِ هضبةَ نِسبةٍ

ما بينَها إلا العُلا والسؤْدَدُ

A ruler of the steeds, the plateau of noble lineage

None between them but the lofty and rugged.

يا ماجداً قذَفَتْ بحارُ صفاتِه

دُرّاً بلبّاتِ القريضِ تنضَّدُ

O glorious one, the seas of his attributes have cast

Pearls with the shells of poetry piled up.

لبسَتْ بك الأعوامُ ثوبَ فضائلٍ

خلقَ الزمانُ وذكرُها يُتجدَّدُ

The years have dressed you in a garb of virtues

Time created and the mention of which is renewed.

فاهنأ به حولاً يعيدُك يمنه

حولاً تُشدُّ به العُلا وتشيَّدُ

Congratulate yourself upon it, a year restoring you by its auspices,

A year by which you augment greatness and build.

وسمعتَ أنّ القمحَ خُصَّ بقِسمةٍ

ضيزى وتلك قضيةٌ لا تُحمَدُ

And you have heard that wheat was distinguished by apportionment,

Dhizya, and that is an affair not to be praised.

لا يستوي الطرَفانِ قومٌ غُيَّبٌ

عند الدروسِ بها وقومٌ شُهّدُ

The two sides are not equal - a people deprived

Of lessons within it, and a people bearing witness.

فارجِعْ الى فضلِ الحُكومةِ بينَنا

هذي الدفاتِرُ والمحابرُ تشهَدُ

So return to the virtue of governance between us

These records and ink pots bear witness.