حرمت رضاك من عدمي وخسري — Albohtry

Being denied your favor is among my privations and losses;

and I had held it in reserve against the reversals of my fate.

I keep repeating: 'Would that I knew what has befallen me

with you!'—if 'would that I knew' could do me any good.

Whenever I ask what has brought on your anger,

an inquirer says, 'I do not know.'

Indeed, they were present while I was absent; it was a loss

to me—their presence, and my going unmentioned.

So if I am too weak to put my affairs right,

then my age bears witness to my excuse.

And I used to count a long life as a gain,

but my long life has brought the opposite of that.

Even if the men have thronged about you without me,

they surely have not thronged about you with verse like mine.

And though they have served you with their bodies, I

surely surpass them in service through my thought.

When I set them loose to journey forth,

like the stars of night, shining clear as they travel,

they traverse the night from east and west,

and the earth's breadth, over land and sea,

you will know that what you have bestowed upon me

deserves to be surpassed by my gratitude.

So if I gain no favor from you, it is no fault

of mine that my fortune falls short of my worth.

And indeed, I am close to seeing my hope perish,

my quest prove fruitless, and my standing sink,

through promise after promise that you initiate,

as my year and my month pass away between them.

Nor has my loyalty fallen short of its full measure,

so that my excuse might give me over to neglect.

Nor has deficient gratitude from me choked your beneficence,

nor has my ingratitude covered over your blessings.

When your dwellings lie far from mine,

my sun grows dark, and my full moon's radiance vanishes.

And a day when my person is absent from you

bears the sign of a day of unrelenting ill fortune.

I have sworn by Wa'il, and by the heights attained

by Sharik ibn Amr among its noble deeds,

and Shayban ibn Tha'laba of noble endeavors,

and Sa'b, son of its most exalted Ali ibn Bakr:

you have indeed vied in beneficence, until you

stood alone in every noble deed and glory.

I see that my bond will grow strong after weakness,

when I brace my back through the minister.

Whenever he frees my tongue with a kindness,

it is no firstborn among his favors.

And how often his hands have suddenly surprised mine

with an abundant gift from the dew of his palms!