وَقَوافٍ مُلْسِ المُتونِ شِدادِ ال

أَسْرِ غُرٍّ مَصْقُولَةِ الأَطرافِ

With smooth, eloquent verses, forceful rhetoric

Of free, finely honed phrase

لَمْ يَشِنْها إِجازَةٌ وَسِنادٌ

وَحَلَتْ إِذْ خَلَتْ مِنَ الإصرافِ

Needing no license nor credentials

Since no one finds fault with them

وإِذا ما رُواتُها انْتَقَدوها

حَسِبوها لآلِئَ الأَصْدافِ

And if critics examine them

They are to be reckoned pearls

صُغْتُها في النَّسيبِ وَالفَخْرِ حَتّى

عُدَّ فيها الإعْجازُ مِنْ أَوْصافي

I composed them on lineage and glory until

In them miracles were seen as my traits

وَمَتى زَلَّ عَنْ لِساني مَديحٌ

هُوَ أَدْنَى مُروءَةِ الأَشْرافِ

And whenever praise slips from my tongue

It is the least nobility can proffer

فَأَنا المُسْتَعيرُ مَعْناهُ مِمَّا

قَالَهُ المَادِحُونَ في الأَسْلافِ

So I borrow the meanings

From what panegyrists have said in the past