بَذلُ وَجهي إلا لمثلك بِذلَه

واعتزازي بغير جاهِكَ ذلَّه

I offer my face to none but the likes of you, so generous

And my pride in other than your glory is diminished

يا جواداً سحابُ كَفَّيهِ بالجو

د على كل قاصد مُستَهِلَّه

O you who are generous, whose palm pours rainclouds

Upon every seeker made destitute

والذي لو رآهُ في دَستهِ الفض

لُ بن يحيى لجاء يَطلُبُ فَضلَهُ

He to whom, if the excellent son of Yahya saw in his hand

Would come seeking his generosity

لك نَيلٌ قد أخجل النِّيلَ جوداً

وغدا دونه الفُراتُ ودجلَه

You have a Nile that has shamed the Nile in generosity

And made the Euphrates and Tigris seem paltry before it

سيدي صَدرَ الدين دعوةَ عَبدٍ

لم تَزَل طرقُهُ لمدحك سَهلَه

My master Sa'd al-Din, the prayer of a servant

Whose paths to praise you are made smooth

بالذي قد أعطاك جاها وقد م

دَّ على الخافقين بالأمن ظلَّه

By Him who has given you glory and extended

His shade over hearts with safety

لا تكلني إلى سواك فإنِّي

جئتُ أشكو إليك كَثرَةَ قلَّه

Abandon me not to other than you, for I

Come to complain to you of much scarcity

حاشَ لله أن أحيدَ بوجهي

عنك يا مالكي وبابُك قَبلَه

God forbid that I should turn my face

From you, my sovereign, whose door is submission

ضاقَ صدري مما أَطالبُ دهري

ببلوغ المُنَى ويُظهِرُ مَطلَه

My breast is narrowed by what I seek from fate

To attain wishes, yet it shows no haste

وإلى كم كذا أذمُّ زماني

ضَجَرٌ لا يفيد والأمر لله

And for how long should I thus blame my days

Fretting fruitlessly, for the matter is God's

ولعبدِ الرحمن أَشكُو زماناً

قتلتني صُروفُه ألف قِتلَه

And to Abd al-Rahman I complain of days

Whose turns have killed me a thousand killings

ضاقَ صدري هماً ولو لم أُهَدِّد

بك دهري ما كان ينجَرُّ خَبلَه

My breast is narrowed by cares, and had I not

Been threatened by fate, it would not have dragged its hem

تارةً أغتدى بدمياط أرجو ال

رِّزقَ منها وتارةً بالمحلَّة

At times I wander destitute in Damietta, hoping

For sustenance from it, at times in Maḥallah

بين قومٍ قد صَيروا المنع والم

نَّ لهم في الزمان دَأباً وملَّه

Among folk who have made refusal and

Denial their habit and tendency in this age

فاغننى عن سؤال كل لئيمٍ

قد علا قدره وإن كان سِفلَه

So provide for me without asking any vile person

Whose worth is low, be he highly placed

معشرٌ ما ظفرتُ منهم عَقيب ال

قصِد عند السؤال إلا بخَجلَه

A group from whom I gained no return from my

Purpose in asking, save through shame

ومتى غبت عنهمُ عَتَبُوني

ومتى جئتهم رأوا ذاك ثقلَه

When I was absent from them, they blamed me

When I came to them, they saw that as tiresome

أنا فيهم عارِ وماشِ وغيري

وهو دوني له ثيابٌ وبَغلَه

I am a disgrace among them, though others

Are lower than me, clothed and possessing mules

لي نصفيَّةٌ تَعُدُّ من العُم

ر سنينا غَسَلتُها ألفَ غَسلَه

I have a thin garment that counts among my years

Decades - I have washed it a thousand washings

لا تسلني عن مشتراها ففيها

منذ فَصَّلتُها نِشَاءً بجُملَه

Ask me not the price at which I bought it. When

I pieced it together patchwork fashion with strips

نَشَّف الريحُ صَدرَها والأرَازِيبُ

فباتَت تشكو هَواءً ونَزلَه

The winds have flayed its breast, and the linings

Complain of blasts and humidity by night

ظَلَمَتها الأيَّامُ حكماً فأضحَت

في العذاب الأليم من غير زَلَّه

The days have oppressed it unjustly, till it became

Amidst painful punishment without pause

كلَّ يَومٍ يحوطها العَصرُ والدَّقُّ

مراراً وما تُقرُّ بجُملَه

Every day the afternoon and repeated mending

Assail it time and again, yet it has no rest with the strips

فَهي تَعتَلُّ كلما غَسَّلُوها

ويُزيلُ النَّشاءُ تلك الغِسلَه

So it wears out each time I wash it

And the patchwork strips remove that washing

أين عيشي بها القديمُ وذاك الت

يَّهُ فيها وخطَرَتي والشَّملَه

Where is my former life in it, and that folding

In it, and my pride, and joined seams

حيثُ لافى أجنابها رُقعَةٌ

قَطُّ ولا في أكمامِها قَطُّ وَصلَه

When its sides were matched by a patch

With neither slit nor slit-seam in its sleeves

قال لي الناس حين أطنبتُ فيها

بَسِّ أكثرت خَلَهَّا فَهيَ بَقلَه

The people said to me when I was overlong preoccupied with it

“Enough! You have teased it overmuch so it has faded”