لو شاء من أبدى الوصال أَعادا

أو ممرض لي بالصبابة عادا

Had the Uniter of eternal union willed,

Or my healer to youth returned,

ما لي ألام على الغرام ولم أكن

يا صاحبي لتركه معتادا

I'd have no sorrow for love, though I'd not been

My friend, wont to leave it behind.

سهلت طريف الصبر لولا زفرة

ملأت جفوني عبرة وسهادا

I made the path of patience smooth, but for a sigh

That filled my eyes with tears and pillow.

ولرب فتلاء الوشاح غريرة

ولع الصبا بقوامها فانادا

And many a fluttering kerchief of parting

The youthful passion kindled and called.

أهدت إليك صبابة لم تنسها

وأتتك في أترابها تتهادى

I brought you a girlhood you'd not forgotten,

Who came to you in her litters swaying.

خاصرتها فخصرت لدنا ناعما

ولثمت معسول الرضاب برادا

Her waist I'd girdled, and made supple-slender,

And kissed the wine-sweet saliva of her mouth.

وسقيتها الصهباء صوفا والدجى

قدَرت بُردُ شبابهِ أو كادا

I gave her pure wine to drink, while night

Cooled the heat of her youth, or nearly.

يا سلم لو أنصفت خففت الأسى

عني وبدلت السهاد رقادا

O ladder, had you been just, you'd have lightened my pain,

And exchanged my pillow for a couch.

أبعدت مرمى الوصل عمن رامه

وازددت مع قرب الرقيب بعادا

You put far from me the reach of union,

And with the spy's nearness, further aloof.

زيدي من الهجر المبرح انني

بعت اصطباري عنك فيمن زادا

Increase, O Zayd, my exile's banishment,

For I have sold my patience from you, gaining.

وأبيك ما تجدين غيري عاشقا

كلفا ولا غير الوزير جوادا

I wish you none but me for lover,

Spending, and none but the vizier open-handed.

ملك مباح حمى المكارم حامل

ماشئت إلا الوتر والاحقادا

A king who made the sanctuaries free, bearing

Whatever he wished but rancor and grudges;

يهب الكواعب محصنات والظبى

مشحوذة والصافنات جيادا

Who gave the gazelles protected, the roes

Keen-horned, the smooth-sided she-camels fleet;

وعلاه لا صحبت عداه رؤوسهم

ما فارقت أسيافه الإغمادا

Whose heads, save his companions', never

Parted from the sheathing of their swords;

صبغت صوارمه الرقاق وخيله

وقناه ما ورد العجاب ورادا

Whose keen blades dyed the slender spears,

His horses and spear staves what wonders attained!

أصبحت يا ابن محمد بن هبيرة

في الحرب أورى القادحين زنادا

O son of Muhammad ibn Hubayrah,

In war you showed lancers most wary,

أنت الذي قاد الردى نحو العدا

قسرا ولولا باسه ما انقادا

You who led destruction against the foe

Perforce, else it had not obeyed;

باسود غيل هجهجت يوم الوغى

بسطاك من جيش العدو نفادا

With dusky squadrons you snorted in battle,

Stretching out over the enemy your arm;

نبتوا على دين الخلاف فأصبحوا

لسيوف أربابالرفاق حصادا

They grew up in the faith of dissension, and so

Became to the swords of the lords a harvest;

ناهضتهم في عارض متألق

لبست به شمس النهار حدادا

You attacked them on a towering, shining charger

The sun of day wore mourning for;

برقت به البيض الصفاح فلم تزل

حتى جعلت لبرقها أرعادا

It flashed, and the white blades glittered, and went on

Till its flashing made lightning recoil.

لم يلف مسعود السادة عندها

كبتا ولم يجد الرشيد رشادا

Mas'ud the noble found before you no escape,

No resolution the Caliph ar-Rashid.

وابيض منه سواده لما رأى

نقعا أعدت به الضحاء سوادا

From you his blackness turned white when he saw

Slaughter you had prepared for dawn its blackness.

ومضى هزيما وانثنيت مظفرا

ثبتا تعود لقصمة لا عادا

And he went off vanquished, while you returned

Triumphant, to break a pact no more.

قسما لقدب لغت مناها أمة

أمسى لها تاج الملوك عمادا

By my life, you cleft a nation whose crown

At evening was the crown of kings a pillar.

ما شاد حصن في فزارة بعض ما

شادت يدا يحيى الوزير وسادا

No fortress in Khurasan did the hands

Of Yahya the vizier build and lead

الواطئين الهام في رهج الوغى

بسنابك تذر اليفا وهادا

Better than you, who smote prostration's zealots

With columns scattering ruin and decay.

قوم إذا استلموا ليوم كريهة

أفنوا العدا والمرهفات جلادا

A folk, when they took up arms one hapless day,

Destroyed the foe and the polished blades.

لله مني شاعر خولته

منك الغنى فأجاد فيمن جادا

God grant me, made a poet by you,

Wealth, and to excel those who excelled!

ينسيك كعباً والرميع ومالكا

والأعشيين وجرولا وزيادا

To make you forget Ka'b and ar-Ra'iq and Malik

And the two 'Ushayrs and Jarwal and Ziyad.

طبعا رزقت صناعة الشعر التي

أبدعت فيها بيد أن أتَبادى

You were born with the talent of verse which

You perfected, though it later failed.

شعر يفوح الشيح من أثنائه

عبقا وما جاوزته بغدادا

Poetry that diffuses fragrance of gum from its midst,

No perfume reaching it from Baghdad.

وافيتك ابن أبي صريحا لم أقل

سائل جدودي خثعما ومرادا

I have come to you, Ibn Abi Sarh, plainspoken,

Not like a questioner of my ancestry Chosroes or Murad.

كم من فقير خامل أصفدته

وفككت بالإحسان عنه صفادا

Many a hopeless pauper have you released

And freed by kindness from his shackle.

لم ترض همتك الأراضي موطنا

فبنت على فرع السماك مهادا

Your ambition was not content with lands as dwelling,

But built on a branch of the sky a refuge.

أمسى عتادك كل محبوك القرا

أكرم به في الحادثات عتادا

Your wont has been to honor every loving friend,

In disasters with it made steadfast.

وصوار ما مثل الخدود صقيلة

وذوابلا مثل القدود صمادا

With Syrian swords like polished cheeks

And Yemeni blades like braided hair.

يفديك من خاطبته بمدائحي

فكأنما خاطبت منه جمادا

He who saluted you in my eulogies

Is as though he saluted an inanimate thing.

ينسيه مدحي بخله فيهم إن

يعطي ولو أعطى لكان ثمادا

My praise makes him forget his stinginess, though

He'd give, and if he gave he'd still be niggard.

لولا نداك الغمر بت مبدلا

بالأهل أهلا والبلاد بلادا

But for your lavishness you'd be changed

Among people from folk to folk.