أما معين على الشوق الذي غريت — Albohtry

Is there no helper against the longing to which

my ribs have clung, and the parting that has drawn near?

I hope for affection from Layla; what makes me despair

is Layla's persistence in estrangement grown old.

And the life that passed yesterday, in which I rejoiced

in loving her—I am led to hope it will return tomorrow.

How can we meet, when she has now encamped

in al-Sham, neither near us nor close at hand?

A mild estrangement, unmixed with union,

except our two phantoms' mutual visits when we both sleep.

And slumber may bring a visitor whose visit

is unintended; and love brings close one who had grown distant.

We spent the night under the slanderers' watch, both enfolding

longing, telling each other of our grief and anguish.

If you ask about our two bodily forms there, they were

absent; but our two phantoms were present.

And no phantom of hers ever visited me, taking me by surprise,

except amid the most agonizing longing ever known.

Al-Fath's hand gave freely while the rain-stars were miserly,

and his bounty melted while the rain had frozen.

And the aspirations of kings fell short of a king:

they bowed low, while his virtues soared upward.

If censured, he finds the world no recompense,

and if praised, he cares nothing for what he has relinquished.

Men raise up glory; you are the most accessible of them

in bounty, and the furthest-reaching in noble rank.

And we have never seen you except building honor,

or doing good, or speaking what is right.

And people are of two kinds: one openly showing affection,

praising favors, or one secretly harboring envy.

You drew, to shield the sons of al-Abbas, a sword of war

that grows bloodied, and a resolve that blazes when you kindle it.

The traces of your might among the enemies of their rule

have become sundry, sundered paths among them:

either one slain, the sword wading through his lifeblood,

or one retreating, never intending to return.

Until you left the spear-shaft of sovereignty upright,

through loyalty, with neither crookedness nor bend in it.

May you never be lost! But for the joy you take

in openhandedness, generosity would have been lost.

As for your favors to me, they are plain:

one favor among them is always ushering in another.

Will ingratitude cling to me if I do not repay them in full,

or will helplessness overtake me if I do not count their number?

I have come to give to petitioners without being asked,

from these favors, though I was only a seeker of bounty.

And whoever spends the night wrapped in hope of you

will not be blamed for giving away whatever he has.

Why should I not stretch out my hand until with it I reach

the height of the stars, when you are my supporting arm?

I have said, when dues were exacted from me, and when

I was made to bear them, exceeding or keeping to due measure:

Will the prince, out of his generosity, act in earnest,

and so give me the thousand he promised?

Help me with generosity that has laid waste to my wealth,

and an ambition that has worn out my new garments.

And giving wears down a generous man's face; sometimes

generosity becomes the death of a freeborn, noble man.

For that reason Ka'b was told on the day of his nobility:

'Come to the water, Ka'b, as you so often do!' Yet he did not.