عسى الدهر أن ينتاشني ولعله — Alshaghouri

May Time rescue me; perhaps it

will say to one whose fortune stumbles, 'May he rise again!'

Is this the sleep of the People of the Cave? O my fortune, awake!

For I have been denied sleep, except the merest little.

Show me a beloved whose union is not denied me,

yes, and a friend whose reproach I am not granted.

And I am smitten with a moon rising above a bān-tree's tender shoot;

his waist complained of his haunches' weight when they burdened it.

His are those glances: never, never has he gazed, aiming

them at one untouched by love, without their pledging to kill him.

And I do not wish, in private, to kiss his palm;

nay, I wish to kiss his foot.

He assumed a potentate's rule over my heart,

so for all time he never feared dismissal from it.

And no one in love is as contented as I:

I accepted a promise from him whose fulfillment he keeps delaying.

So I do not hope for relief from his abandonment,

and part of my suffering is that I do not hope for union with him.

I rode the rough terrain of agonizing love,

while lovers, O my heart, have ridden its smooth ground.

And I am glad that his abandonment has made me a phantom;

perhaps I may travel by night to visit, like one.

I have lost my endurance away from a pampered beloved,

with whom the sorrowful, love-bewildered heart is infatuated.

Is vengeance owed to Time, that it seeks its revenge

from me? Why can I not escape its grudge?

My Time shot at me from bows of cruelty;

it aims its arrows at no heart but mine.

Am I denied bounty's drizzle, despite my learning in this age,

while the people's greatest fool is granted its downpour?

Then the capable man of merit blames his merit,

and there the base ignoramus praises his ignorance.

I shall thank my Time, O Ibn Shukr, for

through him it repented and came to act well.

A minister who has won eminence from every side,

and freely been granted speech's obligatory and voluntary offerings.

A leader who leads the foremost toward the heights,

so no one in glory has occupied his station.

He whitens calamity's face after its blackening

with fine speech, success attending its decisive words.

So all learning falls short of his learning's reach,

and no merit on the racecourse can catch his merit.

Indeed, the woodworms [unclear reading] have yielded to the minister in fear;

their mouths in the dust kiss his sandal,

as all the kings, through his counsel, have submitted

to his master—may God never scatter his company.

In him his master has a judge whose branch learning has refined,

as deep-rooted glory has sweetened his root.

So no one like him in judgment will be found after him,

nor have people seen his like in it before him.

What he unties, Time will never see bound again,

nor will Time see what he binds untied.

Abundant in gifts, he never forsakes his earnestness;

noble in character, he never indulges in frivolity.

No master of eloquence has counted his virtues,

and can anyone count the sea's sand?

To you, Safi al-Din, an unemployed man complains,

kept from work: consider employing him wherever you wish.

And O my Time, fold away injustice—woe to you—and be ashamed!

For here is Safi al-Din spreading his justice.

And O son of Ali, you have risen above all mankind

with deep-rooted glory—may God make its roots firm.

Rajab has come hastening to you in congratulation,

with far-spreading good fortune—may God extend its shade.

And it has shown a crescent in the sky, as though

God had made it rise with your face's glad radiance.

Stripper of the tips of lofty spears—never

of old did one with a blood feud gain his vengeance in it.

And no wonder a touch of illness has reached you,

as the lion takes fever, since you are its like.

Your letter: whoever passes evening and morning seeking refuge

in it dons all the safety he has hoped for.

And you are the one who has always, in every circumstance—

whenever we test him in adversity, we find his nobility.

And never have you debated in the assembly of the sciences,

there against its gathering, without silencing its champion.

You have pledged yourself to winning praise, riding its rough paths,

and bearing its burden in every arena.

So may the panegyrists never cease offering, through their praise,

to you their delicate poetry and their robust verse.