ذكرتك إذ شمت بالشام برقا — Alshaghouri

I remembered you when I sighted lightning in al-Sham

just before dawn, and my heart matched its flickering with its beating.

I remembered your smile when you were pleased,

and shed a grieving man's tears that would not cease.

May I be your ransom, a sun for whom my heart

spends its nights and mornings lovesick and choking.

She sways the slender branch just above the dune,

and the gazelle resembles her in glance and neck.

No Saydanani wine—

which the priest quaffed deeply from the wine jar,

water-tempered, aged in jars,

and fragrant in the cup with a musk-like scent,

so that, if compared with the east wind's breeze

blowing before dawn, it would be more delicate—

is sweeter in scent to me than your mouth,

nor in moisture—would that I could drink from it!

My youth departed, and gray hair came,

and through it my clear joy turned murky.

The horses of youth used to race

at my temples, black, but they became piebald.

So the beauties turned away from union with me,

though they had loved me as I had loved them.

And when youth was poured away, and shriveled

was my skin, and my bones grew weak and thin,

I warded off passion by wearing separation as armor,

nor asked the pale camels' driver for gentleness

with a lean she-camel whose little hoof-pens

write fine flowing script on the desert's paper.

She spared no effort in her swift stride and gentle trot,

speeding onward until she brought me to Damascus,

to the gate of Mawdud ibn al-Mubarak,

to which seekers of good have made paths.

O full moon, the lands are illuminated

by you, and faith has always been in accord with you.

If the princes of humankind race you

toward the goal of glory, you outstrip them.

Before you, O horseman of the Muslims, Time

has dismounted to kiss your feet gladly,

and swears that through your noble deeds

you have enslaved its freeborn men.

No praise is fitting before kings

unless you are the one who deserves it.

A prince well versed in the import of affairs,

whose judgment has shown us Satih and Shiqq.

No raincloud, roaring like a prized camel-stallion,

the earth his mate, seeking him to mount her,

her belly broader than his back,

when the stallion bears down on her with rain,

and makes her bear by him a lush meadow,

grown grand and delicate in beauty through watering—

how many gardens and pools lie upon her,

with the wind slapping the pool's surface again and again!

There, blossoms white and red and yellow

laugh with blue ones amid the plants' green—

is more lavish than his palm, even when

the clouds' eyes refuse to pour upon the earth.

Nor is a lion defending his cubs,

protecting them with outspread forelegs and jaws,

driving back an army like sheep that have heard

the lions' roar and snapped their tethers,

deadlier than his might, when armored warriors

fight with thrusts, blows, and volleys.

Nor was Harim ibn Sinan, who favored

Zuhayr with bounty that warded off stinginess,

and was clothed by him in praise that

remains among people until the end of time,

more generous than he; and in praising him

I have emulated Zuhayr in praise and skill.

He has a pen with no discernible flaw,

slender, yet from it the provinces are watered.

It is rich with the sustenance of all humankind,

though its tip is fine and its slit narrow.

Bravo to it as a drinker! May no hairs

of its own ever choke a throat, for all time.

Slender, it dispels mighty calamities

with writing that the spears of al-Khatt truly fear.

Obedient to its sharpener in whatever he wishes,

though he wears it away by cutting and scraping.

And a noble steed whose pace outstrips the

winds, leaving them panting in weariness and bewilderment;

and a sword that cleaves the enemies' heads

with a stroke that splits the earth apart;

and a spear driven hard into the army's breast

to please, through its pounding, the One, the Unique;

a spear whose joints are thirsty,

bearing a fox given lions' blood to drink;

and a roomy coat of mail, like locusts' eyes,

that blunts sharp weapons, leaving them scorned and cast aside;

and raiding cavalry that brings forth the sun in

the darkness of dust, rising a head above the full moon;

and a bow that twangs behind its arrows

and kills its targets outright, so they fall thunderstruck.

And you, when we assess the holders of

office, are the most pious, purest, and most enduring.

Your affection is unmixed and pure when

we find the affection of friends adulterated.

You are solicitous, and you are faithful,

when friends fold their sincerity away from you.

You left those who raced you in eminence

drowned in the sea by the flood of your cloud.

No rational person doubts

that they were fools when they rivaled you.

Between you lies the distance between the arch

of the foot and the crown, if you seek a distinction.

I praised my God for that with which

He favored me, granting me fine provision through you.

Your servant has long been a burden

upon you, yet seeks no emancipation from you.

And if you prefer to release him,

your judgment is loftier, more splendid, and higher.

Listen to verse of wondrous composition,

clearer than pearls in description, and purer.

It is as though the meanings within its words

are noble ladies, like houris in form and character.

It delights the friend, but

for your hater it is the soul-snatchers, plunging deep.

You arrived and brought far-off joy near,

and gratified a longing that weighed upon the heart.

You are favored with success in all that

you seek; you have become a fitting match for sovereignty.

So live as long as you wish, in the way we wish,

throughout time: enemies perish, and you endure.