يا صاح قل لي على تلك البراعات

ألؤلؤٌ هي في زي العبارات

O friend, tell me of those marvels of artistry.

Are they pearls arrayed in the garb of phrases?

أم تلك أقمار حسن قد أحاط بها

من حول نقطتها دارات هالات

Or are they moons of beauty, encircled

Around their central point by rings of halos?

أم دوحة صاح فيها الطير وابتسمت

آقاحها عن ثغورٍ لؤلؤيات

Or a spreading tree where birds sang, and whose daisies

Smiled from pearly mouths?

أم الصبا من ربى نجد معطرة

أدت لنا منهمو أسنى التحيات

Or the east wind, perfumed by the highlands of Najd,

Conveying to us from them the loftiest greetings?

أم ذا كتاب لنا ألفاظُه كشفت

عن المحجب من فنِّ الجراحات

Or is this a book whose words have unveiled for us

What had lain hidden in the art of surgery?

أبان عن كل ما يعنو الطبيب له

وحار في فهمهِ أهل الدرايات

It made plain all that concerns the physician,

Though the learned were baffled in understanding it.

فلو رآه أبقراطٌ وشيعته

لقال من مبتدا هذا نهاياتي

Had Hippocrates and his followers seen it,

He would have said, “Where this begins, I reach my limits.”

ولو تبين جالينوسُ موقعَه

لحار في وصف هذي الابتداعات

And had Galen discerned its worth,

He would have been bewildered trying to describe these innovations.

ألفاظه الغرّ يستشفي المريض بها

بلا معاناةِ كدّ أو مشقات

Through its brilliant words the sick seek healing,

Without suffering drudgery or hardship.

تالله ما تقدر الحساد تنكر ما

في لفظه من بديع أو بلاغات

By God, the envious cannot deny what

Rhetorical beauty or eloquence lies in its wording,

ولا جزالة معناه الجليّ ولا

إنكار ما فيه من لطف الإشارات

Nor the vigor of its manifest meaning; nor can they

Deny the subtlety of the indications within it.

هيهات من ذا الذي في الكون يجحد ما

لأحمدٍ من براهينِ وآيات

Far from it! Who in all creation could deny what

Ahmad possesses of proofs and signs?

ألس نجلَ الذي عمّت محامده

شرقاً وغرباً بآصال وبُكْرات

Indeed, Ahmad is the scion of him whose praises have spread

East and west, through evenings and mornings.