إِنَّا إِذَا جَارَ الزَّمانُ وَسَامَنا
ظُلْماً وجَشَّمَنا رُكُوبَ الحَيْفِ
Indeed, when Time wrongs us and subjects us
to oppression, making us mount injustice,
لُذْنَا على بُعْدِ الديارِ بجَانبٍ
حَسَنٍ يُذَمُّ على الشتا والصيفِ
we seek refuge—though the homelands lie far away—beside
Hasan, who is censured in winter and summer:
دِفءٌ إذا ما القَرُّ عَضَّ ونَاسِمٌ
صَرَدٌ إذا ما فَارَ وهجُ الهَيْفِ
warmth when biting cold sinks in its fang,
and a piercing chill when the blaze of noonday heat boils;
وَنَدًى إذا ما كان عَامٌ مُجْدِبٌ
واستثقلَ الطائيُّ ذِكْرَ الضَّيْفِ
and bounty when the year has grown barren
and al-Ṭāʾī finds the very mention of a guest burdensome.
لا يملكُ المرتادُ بين جِنَابِهِ
فَرْقاً وبين مَغَاصِ أُمِّ الشيفِ
The seeker arriving at his precinct cannot distinguish
between it and the ford of Umm al-Khayf.
يعتدُّ إعطاءَ المِئينِ كَوَامِلاً
نقصاً فيكملُ عَدَّهنَّ بِنيفِ
He counts the giving of full hundreds
as a shortfall, and completes their number with a thousand.
لا يَطْلُبُ العِلاَّتِ إن تنزلْ بهِ
في دَفْعِ نَائِبةٍ بِلمْ وبكَيْفِ
He seeks no excuses if you lodge with him
when warding off calamity—no “why?” and no “how?”
وِرْدِي إِذَا ما كانَ يومَ كريهةٍ
ودُعِي بحيَّ على قِراعِ السَّيْفِ
He is my support when the day is a day of battle
and the cry goes up: “Hasten to the clashing of swords!”
مَوْلَى مَوَالي تغلبَ ابنةِ وَائلٍ
وحُسَامُ يُمنَاها الفَتى ابنُ هُدَيفِ
Mawlā of Taghlib’s mawālī—Taghlib, daughter of Wāʾil—
and the sword in her right hand: the young Ibn Hudayf;
وسَبيكةُ النَّسَبِ التي لم تَرْمِ في
دِينارِهِ أيديْ الوُصُومِ بِزَيفِ
an ingot of lineage, into whose dinar
the hands of blemishes have cast no counterfeit.
مَنْ لي بحَضْرَتِهِ التي من زَارَهَا
فكَأَنَّما قد زارَ وَادِي الخَيفِ
Who will bring me to his presence? Whoever visits it
is as though he had visited Wadi al-Khayf.
يا ربِّ إنْ لم تَقْضِ لي بِلِقائِهِ
في يَقْظَتي فامنُنْ بِهِ في الطَّيْفِ
O Lord, if You do not decree that I meet him
in waking life, then grant him to me in a dream-vision.
