أخ لي كنت أغبط باعتقاده

ولا أخشى التنكر من وداده

A brother of mine—for whose devotion I was envied—

and I never feared that his affection would change.

أخٌ لي عاد من بعد اجتنابِهْ

وفرَّق بين قلبي واكتئابِهْ

A brother who returned to me after shunning me,

and severed my heart from its dejection.

حباني بالعتاب وكان ظنّي

به أن لا سبيلَ إلى عتابه

He favored me with reproach, though I had thought

there was no way he would ever reproach me.

وخاطبني فخلت بأن زهر ال

ربى الموشيَّ يُجنى من خطابه

He addressed me, and I fancied that the flowers

of brocade-clad hills were gathered from his speech—

بلفظٍ لو بدا لحليف شَيبٍ

لفارقه وعاد إلى شبابه

words which, if they appeared to one allied with gray hair,

would make the gray depart and restore him to youth.

فقرَّبَ بين أجفاني وغمضي

وباعد بين دمعي وانسكابه

My eye came to rest between eyelid and sleep,

and he set a distance between my tears and their spilling.

وردَّ البرَ في جسمٍ ثوى من

سَقام الصدّ حين ثوى لما به

He restored health to a body laid low

by the sickness of estrangement, when it succumbed to its pain.

أتاني أرْيُ منطقه فعفَّى

على ما ذقته من طعم صابه

The honey of his speech came to me and effaced

all I had tasted of the bitter ṣāb-tree’s flavor.

وكان ألذَّ عندي من رضابٍ ال

حبيب إذا قدرتُ على رضابه

It was sweeter to me than the mouth-nectar

of a beloved—if I could ever attain that nectar.

إذا انتسب الثقاتُ إلى وفاءٍ

فحسبك بانتسابي وانتسابه

When the trustworthy trace their lineage to fidelity,

it is enough that he and I both claim descent from it.

على أني وإن حزتُ الثريا

فلستُ أُقاسُ بعدُ إلى ترابه

Though I possessed the whole earth,

beside him I could not be measured against his dust.

ولو أقسمتُ أن المجد شيءٌ

له دون البرية لم أحابه

If I swore that glory belonged to him alone,

apart from all creation, I would show him no partiality.

خليلٌ كنت إن واريتُ شخصي

رأت عيناي شخصي في ثيابه

My friend—if I concealed my own person,

I would see myself plainly in his clothes.

حمامي في تنائيه ولكن

حياتي حين يقرب في اقترابه

My death lies in his keeping far away; but

when he draws near, my life lies in his approach.

إذا ما اقتادني ألفى قيادي

قيادَ الماء أسرعَ في انصبابه

Whenever he leads me, he finds my reins

quicker to yield than water rushing downward.

ولما أحدث الدهرُ ارتياباً

غدا متعلقاً بعرى ارتيابه

When Time gave rise to suspicion,

he clung to the bonds of his doubt.

يعاقبني على غير اجترامٍ

فأصبر حين يبلغُ في عقابه

He punishes me though I committed no offense,

and I endure when he goes to the utmost in punishment,

رجاءَ إِيابهِ لي بالذي لم

أزلْ صباً إليه من إيابه

hoping he will return to me, even while wronging me; never

have I ceased yearning for him since his return.

وما لي لا أخافُ ذهابَ ودٍّ

وجدتُ ذهاب نفسي في ذهابه

Why should I not fear affection’s departure,

when I found my soul departing with it?

أمن معنى تبسّم عن صوابٍ

فأجتنب الزيادة من صوابه

Is it because a meaning smiled forth in correctness

that I should shun adding to its correctness?

يغادرني التجني كلَّ يومٍ

صريعاً بين مخلبه ونابه

His unjust reproach leaves me every day

felled between its claw and fang,

كأني قد رضيتُ عن الليالي

واسعدت الزمان على انقلابه

as though I had made peace with the nights

and helped Time through all its reversals.

وما أنا وارتكابَ الأمر حتى

أرى ما خلفه قبل ارتكابه

Yet I undertake no affair until

before undertaking it, I see what lies behind it.

أبا الفتح افتتحت الفضلَ لما

فككتَ معذباً بك من عذابه

Abu al-Fath, you inaugurated grace when

you freed one tormented by you from his torment.

أعيذك أن يكونَ رضاك يعدو

فتىً ما كان سخطٌ في حسابه

May you be guarded lest your favor overstep

and undo what my anger had entered in its reckoning.

فقد سكَّنتَ قلباً كاد مما

حشدتَ عليه يخرجُ من إِهابه

For you calmed a heart that nearly,

beneath all you had massed upon it, burst from its sheath.

وأطفأ بردُ وصلك حرَّ هجرٍ

تلهبت الجوانحُ بالتهابه

With the coolness of union with you, you quenched an estrangement’s heat

whose blaze had set my innermost ribs aflame.

فكنتَ إذا مددتَ لحسمِ أمرٍ

يداً لم تأته من غير بابه

Whenever you stretched out a hand to settle an affair,

that hand reached it through no door but its own.

بنفسي شيمةٌ لك ولو أُتيحتْ

لذي ظمأ لكانت من شرابه

May my life ransom a trait of yours which, if offered

to a thirsty man, would become his drink.

كتبتُ ومن أجن الشوق قدماً

قسيماً ما يجن على كتابه

My writings and those of one whom longing maddened long ago

share alike whatever he conceals in his letter.

ولي قلم إذا كاتمتُ ما بي

تبين في انتحابي وانتحابه

I have a pen that, whenever I hide what is within me,

reveals it in my sobbing—and in its own.