لو كان يشتاقه مَن كان شوَّقَهُ
ما فرَّق الصبرَ عنه يومَ فرَّقهُ
If he whom it made passionate had yearned for it
Patience would not have parted him when it parted him
صبٌّ إذا ذاق بردَ الوصل خاطرُه
أغصَّهُ هجرُ من يهوى وأَشرقَه
A lover when his heart tastes the coolness of union
Its estrangement from the beloved overwhelms and illuminates him
انظر إلى جسدي تنظرْ إلى جسدٍ
أبلاهُ تجديدُ بلواهُ وأخلقه
Look at my body, you look at a body
Renewal of its afflictions ruined it and gave it moral fiber
وقائلٍ ما له لم يبك قلتُ له
مقالَ صدقٍ رجاءً إن يصدِّقه
And a speaker, why has he not wept, I said to him
A true utterance, hoping he will believe it
قد فاض وجْدي إلى عيني فأحرقها
وغاض دمعي إلى قلبي فَغرَّقه
My passion overflowed into my eyes and burnt them
My tears welled up into my heart and drowned it
يا من تعادت جفوني في هواه كما
عادى مؤَزَّرُهُ ظلماً منطِّقَه
O you whose eyelids equivalently oppose him
His belt unjustly making equivalence with what wrapped it
نسرينُ خدِّكَ مَنْ بالورد لمَّعهُ
وخطُّ صدغِكَ مَن بالمسك غرَّقه
The narcissi of your cheek, who with roses adorned it
The line of your temple, who with musk immersed it
من ماءِ وجهك ظلَّ الحسنُ في تعَبٍ
في كلِّ راووقِ معنىً منه رَوَّقه
From the water of your face beauty remained in fatigue
In every storyteller meaning from it being sated
رقَّت حواشيه حتى لستُ أعلم كم
أراق من دمعِ إنسان وأرَّقه
Its fringes have softened until I know not how much
A human has shed tears and made tender
أنتَ الغزالُ غزالُ الإنسِ زيَّنهُ
دلٌّ وتَرَّفه شكلٌ وفنَّقه
You are the gazelle, the gazelle of mankind, its beauty decorates it
A guide and its magnificence, a figure and its splendor adorns it
ملكتَ قلبي فصار السقمُ يملكه
فهل ترقُّ لمملوكٍ فتعتقَه
You have owned my heart so sickness possesses it
So would you be kind to your owned and emancipate it
أراهُ أوبقَ قَدرَ المستهام بكم
لديكَ أن لباسَ العُدْم أوبَقَه
I see him most wretched in fortune of the desperate for you
The garb of non-existence made him its most wretched
الحلمُ والعُدمُ خيرٌ أم يُقالُ له
لا كان ما كان أغناهُ وأحمقَه
A dream and non-existence, which is better, or is it said to him
“No” was all that was, made him content and imbecilic
فالآن أطلقتُ تأميلي وكنتُ وما
أنفكُّ أحبسُ دون الخلقِ مُطلَقه
So now I have freed my hopes, yet I cannot
Stop detaining from people its freedom
وسرتُ في الرأي إِصعاداً ومنحدَراً
وجالَ مغربه قلبي ومَشرقَه
I roamed in opinion, ascending and descending
Its west and east wandered in my heart
فلم أجدْ كعليٍّ من يليقُ به
حَلْيُ العلاءِ إذا ما اخترتُ أليقه
But I did not find like Ali one befitting him
The adornment of sublime ones if I chose its most befitting
وأنّ مَنْ خلَقَ التوفيقَ وَفَّقني
لحمدِ مَنْ لحميدِ الفِعْل وفَّقه
And that he who created guidance guided me
To praise one who ennobled deed guided it
يهني أبا حسنٍ إذ لم يدعْ خُلُقاً
من المكارم إلا قد تَخلَّقه
It congratulates Abu Hassan since he left no
Trait of noble deeds but donned it
تعشَّقَ المجدَ أدناه وأبعدَه
والمجدُ أعشقُ شيءٍ مَن تعشَّقه
He loved glory, debased and lofty
And glory loves the most beloved thing one loves
فَردُ الفَعال بتاج الفخر توَّجَه
فَعالُهُ وبطوق الفخر طَوَّقه
So the deed gave back the crown of pride crowning it
His deeds and the collar of pride garlanding it
المشتري من عُلوقِ الفضلِ أثمنَها
والمكتسي منه أبهاه وأشْرَقَه
The buyer of the loftiest merit, the most precious of it
The wearer of it, the most splendid and luminous in it
والهندوانيّ تَخْشَى حدَّ مضربه
كفُّ الذي استحسنتْ عيناهُ رَوْنَقه
The Indians fear the strike of his assault
The palm the eyes fancied the delicacy of its softness
ما سَوّدَ الطِّرْسَ خطاً حين سوّده
لكنه بِخَلُوقِ الفكرِ خَلَّقه
He blackened no pages when he blackened it
But rather he morally pruned it with the scissors of thought
ألَدُّ يبلغُ ما شاءَت بلاغته
وليس يطلبه خَلْقٌ فيلحَقه
He reaches what his eloquence wills to reach
Creation seeks not and so does not overtake it
موحٍ إلى ناطقٍ نُطْقاً بغير فمٍ
فالعينُ تسمعُ دونَ الأذْنِ منْطِقَه
An indication to the speaking though not with a mouth
So the eye hears without the ear uttering it
ما بارز العسرَ مسودّاً مفارقُه
إلا أشابَ بهول اليُسر مفرقه
He did not confront adversity gloomy leaving it
Unless he lit it with the magnificence of facility
شهابُ فكرٍ إذا استوعرتَ مسلكه
مفتاحُ ذكرٍ إذا استفتحتَ مُغلقه
A comet of thought if you lose its course
A key if you unlock its closure
رأيٌ تحصَّنَ مِن لبسِ الظنونِ به
مذ ابتنى سُورَهُ واختطَّ خندقه
An opinion fortressed from the garb of suspicions upon it
Since it built its fence and dug its moat
تلقى عليَّ بنَ إبراهيم ذا خُلُقٍ
يكفيكَ أن تتقاضاه تَخلُّقَه
You meet Ali son of Ibrahim of moral fiber
Sufficient for you to request it to act morally
تلقاه أنفذَ ذي حزمٍ وأثقبَ ذي
فهمٍ وأفتقَ ذي علمٍ وأرتَقه
You meet penetrative resolute one an accurate one of intellect
An excellent one of knowledge and its climber
أفَلَّهُ لشبا خطبٍ وألطفَهُ
بحلِّ ما يَلْتَوي منه وأرْفَقَه
It misses him to remedy grave matters and gentles him
To solve that which winds from it and is kinder to it
فقلْ لحاسِدِهِ أطْرِقْ على حَسَدٍ
لو كنتَ رُخّاً لما وازَنتَ بَيْذَقَهُ
So say to his envious detractor, yield to envy
If you were a paddle you would not parallel its twig
المنفقُ الوفرَ لما قلَّ مُنْفِقُهُ
وإنما في اكتساب الحمد أنفقه
The spending one lessened not his expenditure
But rather spent seeking praise expending it
لله هضبةُ أرفاقٍ يَلوذُ بها
مَنْ وسَّدَتْهُ صروفُ الدهر مِرفَقه
To God a platform of shelter he takes refuge in
When the turns of fate nestled its intimacy
بشراً أَمامَ العطايا كالغمامِ إذا
أنشا يُقَدِّم قبل الوبلِ مُبْرِقَه
Giving good news before the tribulation like clouds
If they begin, send ahead of torment their lightning
هذا ثنائي وشعري فيك زَخْرَفَهُ
صدقُ الثناءِ من المُنْشي وَنَمَّقَه
This, my praise and poetry about you adorned it
The truthfulness of praise from the composer and its fabricator
طابقته لا كمن كدَّ القوافيَ كي
يطابقَ اللفظ في المعنى فأطبقه
Corresponding, not like one who agonized rhymes so that
The words correspond in meaning and coalesced it
ترى الأعاديَ زُرقاً نحو منشده
يرون منه طريرَ الحدِّ أزرقه
You see the enemies gloomy toward its reciter
They see from it the warbling of sharpness bluing it
