نهاني النهي الا عن المجد والحزم

وعلمني هز العزيمة بالعزم

He forbade me naught but glory and resolve;

And taught me to shake off irresolution with resolve.

فصابرت بالصبر الجميل ليالياً

قضت بعد لذات التواصل بالصرم

So I was patient with beautiful patience through the nights,

That I spent, after the joys of communion, in isolation.

فاخلو ولي دفع تفيض سيوله

فتغلب هطال السحائب بالسجم

Leave me alone to face the flood of tribulation,

And overcome the pouring of clouds with endurance.

وتبصرني يا سعد في دست جلوتي

طروباً ولا من اطربته ابنة الكرم

And look at me, O Sa'd, in my splendor,

In contentment - and none whom I contented was ungenerous.

وريم بفيفاء الصريم تركته

يغالط في دين الغرام على علم

And a faint echo have I left, which deceives him

Who errs in the religion of love, wittingly.

اضاع حقوقي جاهلا في حرمه

وحينا صغير الحرم يكبر بالجرم

He wronged me in his ignorance within his sanctuary;

And when the sanctuary is small the crime is magnified.

الى الله من هذا الزمان فانه

يسيءُ رفيع الهمة الشهم بالهم

To God I complain of this age, for it injures

The high-aspiring, bold, venturesome hero.

لقد طاب لي وقت تقضى شرابه

رحيق غدى بعد التفرق كالسم

Sweet to me was the time when its potion was drunk

Pure, though after our separation it was like poison.

يريق به ريق الحبيب مدامتي

فراح وسماه اخو الظلم بالظلم

Therewith my beloved's saliva wets my bridle-bit -

Then he went away, and called the unjust man just.

امجهد عيس السائرين الى الحمى

رويدا فما الرسم المخيل بالرسم

Slowly, O tireless travellers to the preserve!

Not thus is the pictured idea fixed with exactitude.

ومهلا هداك الله رسم الالى عفا

وما منه الا ما يصور للوهم

Gently! May God guide you to the pictured idea, from which

Comes naught but what the imagination depicts.

تذكرني مذ سرت سيري ميمما

مقام حبيبي ثابت العزم ذا حزم

I remember when I took my course, intending

The steadfast one's abode whose will was resolute.

اطالبه احكام جنسية الهوى

على انها في حكمها علة الضم

I claimed from him the rights of my passion,

Though in his judgment it was unsoundness.

واسمع ما يحكي وانشق عطره

فاسكر في سمعي واسكر في شمي

And I listened to his words; and their perfume rent me,

So that in my hearing and smell I was intoxicated.

مضى لم يكن الا الخيال مصورا

تماثيل يدليها بلطف الى الفهم

He went away: he was but a phantom figured

In graceful forms which he suggested to the mind.

تمر على الفكر الكليل رمومها

فاذهل حرنا عن خصيمي وعن خصمي

Their images pass through the drowsy mind,

And so perplex me that I forget my foe and my friend.

تساهمت والايام لا در درها

فصيرت البعد المبرح في سهمي

I shared with the days, which know not how they pass,

Till I made the distant one who had gone far off my arrow's target.

عدت بتعدي الحد في لجهلها

بعلمي وعن علم اظن قلت علمي

I exceeded the limit in ignorant youth,

And in my knowledge - I think I said my knowledge.

وقد كتمت حقي لباطل زعمها

وما فرقت بين التكتم والكتم

I hid my right through the vanity of her claim,

Nor distinguished between concealment and suppression.

وقابلتها بالحلم علما بانها

وان افرطت الطيش تغلب بالحلم

I met her with forbearance, knowing that she,

Though extravagant in folly, is overcome by forbearance.

ورب نصوح قال وهو مخادع

لزومك هذا الصبر ضرب من الاثم

How many sincere monitors have said - and they were deceiving -

"Your perseverance in this forbearance is a kind of wrongdoing!"

فقلت له دع عنك نصحي فانني

أرى الصبر مني قام في عنصر الجسم

I said to them: "Leave off your censure, for I

See my patience springs in my being's essence."

واني من البيت الذي شاع مجده

ودان له الامجاد في العرب والعجم

And truly I am of the house whose glory is published aloud,

And whose glories among Arabs and Persians are proclaimed.

لان قمت في صحب اساءت مفاخري

فحينا ترى بيض الجواهر في الفحم

Though I consort with one who has injured my reputation,

You will see the pearl-white radiance in the coal.

ولم اعدم الغر الكرام فكم وكم

تفانى بحبي اليوم من ماجد قرم

Nor have I lacked noble sweet herbs, but many, many

A glorious one has perished in love of me today.

ولي في الزوايا من خبايا احبتي

اسود علوا بالعزم عن مطلع النجم

And in the corners are dear beloved ones,

Black but towering in will above the rising of the stars.

من الشامخين الاصل قوم فروعهم

مكرمة التنسيق عالية النظم

Sprung from the original stock of the noble whose branches

Are honored, of lofty and harmonious structure.

ترد الردينيات عزمة رأيهم

وتقلب بيض الهند للغمد بالثلم

Their firm souls restore the tattered at their determination,

And turn the silver of India to the sheath the brighter for wounds.

يؤاخذني بالصبر من هم وقته

وعتم الهوى اعماه عن محكم الحكم

One whose time is blemished blames me for patience,

While blind desire has blinded him as to the wise ordinance.

رضيت بحكم الله في كل واقع

وان دق معناه المطلسم عن فهمي

I acquiesced in God's judgment in everything that befalls me,

Though its meaning, to one who seeks protection, is obscured.

لربيَ جل الفعل والغير عاجز

ولو هو كاس بردة الفعل بالاسم

My Lord does the deed and its opposite, while the helpless man

Can but - if he is a cup - receive the deed in his receptacle.