أثيل العقيق إلى بانه — Albohtry

The little tamarisks of al-‘Aqiq, as far as its bān trees,

then its pale hills, then its level plains—

haunts of wild creatures, where hearts are hunted

by the eyes of its oryx and gazelles.

My heart grew lovesick after gray had mingled with the hair at my nape,

and after the changes in its colors,

and after losing a beloved; I forsook sleep

and loathed joy because I had lost him.

He obeyed the slanderers against his will,

forsaking the yearning lover and disobeying him.

Had they left him to his own judgment,

his union would have come before his estrangement.

I concealed love, then proclaimed it;

and love is secret before it is proclaimed.

I let a thing go when it slips beyond my reach,

and seek it when it is attainable.

And I hope for a return from Hasan,

through the minister's justice and beneficence.

When he resolves, he brings resolve's keen edge to bear,

and plunging boldly forward is his way.

He does not linger over doubt

and so let it keep him from acting on his certainty.

He is steadfast; his precedence is laid bare

in judgment, by the events of his times.

And calamities' probing bites have been held back

from the nab‘ tree by the hardness of its boughs.

The benefactors learned from his bounty,

and so raced along his arena's course.

And he goes forth, his valor in battle

schooling the valor of his horsemen.

His foes are terrified by his zeal in stockpiling

iron mail-shirts and cuirasses.

If their aggression increases his anger,

and you no longer recognize his outward kindness,

then in the sword, if his pardon does not return,

lies a cure for the stinging pains of his rancor.

He came to his subjects' rescue, dealing fairly,

and gave his sovereign loyal counsel in full.

His competence stood in the way of what

the envious man hoped for out of his hatred.

So weakness is no path for his governance,

nor is incapacity a home for him to inhabit.

When he promises, his hand opens wide

to fulfill it, not to deny it.

Our hopes in him are borne out,

where bounty is readily attained and swiftly given,

by noble deeds whose like cannot be built

by their timid man on the day he builds.

Rhymes travel with news of them,

as riding camels travel with their riders.

He bought the finest glory, gaining the upper hand

over the others in bidding up its price.

If they vie with him for eminence,

he soars beyond the star in his far-reaching advance.

Whenever fulfilling a need seems a long way off,

we shorten the distance through his young men:

through radiant men, as though the cloud had borrowed

from their generosity the torrent of its downpour.

You see praise gathered in all its fullness

for his Ahmad, son of his Sulayman,

for a fair man, who rises through kinship with the minister,

as the minister rises through his Shayban.

His Nu‘man's attire reminds us

of the garb of youth and its first bloom.