أظن الصبا جابت إليك المسالكا

فإني أرى عرفاً بها منك صائكا

I think youth has opened the paths to you,

For I see a familiar scent of you rising.

سرت فأسرت للحشا برء دائه

وحيت فأحيت من أهيلك هالكا

It wandered so it relieved the night of its illness,

And came to life, reviving your perishing loved ones.

أيا دار بثن بالعواصم لا عدت

ثراك بواكي السحب أو يمسى ضاحكا

O abode whose height competes with capitals,

Your soil moistened by clouds' tears or laughing at dusk.

فآها على دهر بظلك عشته

هنيئاً وأيام تقضت هالكا

Alas! For a time whose shade I lived,

Congratulations, and days spent perishing.

بحورٍ حسانٍ قد تقابلن بيننا

على سرر مرفوعة وأرائكا

Seas of beauty had faced between us,

On raised couches and carpets.

وظللن منا بالصوارم والقنا

وغادرن خدراً زغفنا والترابكا

And we were shaded by swords and spears,

Having left intoxication, we clung and wrestled.

مريضات أجفان العيون فواتك

وأقتلها ما كن مرضى فواتكا

Sick were the eyelids of eyes that lost you,

And I kill it for it was not sick of losing you.

أدرن علينا أكؤساً ولواحظاً

ذواهل للعقل الصحيح دواهكا

They passed around cups and glimpses,

Serving reason's sound mind their remedies.

ومسن بأعطافٍ كأعطاف بانة

تقل إذا ماست مع اللين عاتكا

And they touched with shoulders like the shoulders of a young gazelle,

That would bend when touched gently.

يهيجن للأقداح من راح ناسياً

لراحٍ وللأحداق من كان ناسكا

They rouse for cups one who forgot ease,

And for cheeks, one who was devout.

وقد قابلتنا أوجه السحب بالحيا

ومدت لنا أيدي الربيع درانكا

Bright faces of clouds had met us,

And hands of springtime stretched their vines.

تباعدن عني لا قلى وملالة

ولكنها الأيام توجب ذلكا

They kept away from me without boredom or being fed-up,

But days make that necessary.

فهن اللواتي ما أرتنا مطالباً

من الدهر إلا أعقبتها مهالكا

For they are those we did not see seeking

From fate anything but followed by perishing.

معودة أن تسترد عطاءها

فمن كان منها آخذا كان تاركا

She is accustomed to regain her gifts,

So whoever takes from her will leave.

لها زهر غض نضير لناظر

وان لمسته راحة كان شائكا

For her is flower whose green is matched before the onlooker,

And if a hand touched it, it was thorny.

لقد قبحت في عنفوان شبابها

فهل نترجاها لتحسن فاركا

She really was ugly in the prime of her youth,

Can we expect her to improve, having become old?

ولكنني أعلقت منها مآربي

أميرا على نهج الحقيقة سالكا

But I held my hopes in her,

A prince on the path of truth proceeding.

وملكته رقى فملكني العلا

فأصبحت مملوكا لديه ومالكا

And he possessed a high spirit, so he possessed me,

And I became owned by him, and owner.

وحيد الندى والبأس والندب من غدا

يرى الشرك في عليائه أن يشاركا

Unique in bounty and courage, and for people calling

He sees partnership in his supremacy as something to abhor.

رحيب الفنا للمعتفين ولم يزل

بيوم الوغى للمعتدين ملاحكا

Of vast grace for refugees, he has not ceased

To be piercing on the day of turmoil for transgressors.

فيا دهر مذ الجأتني لفنائه

أمنت مع الأيام بؤسي وبأسكا

For the high goals and supreme ones he aspires,

When others aspired the heights and became haughty.

وصدقت ظني فيه عند رجائه

وأكثر ما تلقى الظنون أوافكا

For their endeavor is but to the lances and spears,

And the generous are thus.

أجل أولي العليا ونجل عليها

وسيف بني سيفا فلا زال باتكا

My patron, he who has distanced himself from the neighbor,

And refused glory, while seizing wealth.

هم القوم ان تمسك بهم في ملمة

فما زلت للنصر العزيزي ماسكا

He has come to us, the reddish eyelids,

Swiftly, for that is his habit in giving.

مع البذل ما اعتادت اكف رجالهم

سوى فك عانٍ أو يزال سوافكا

With him is playful savagery disdaining me to mount,

Lest the ground be touched by its hooves.

لهم للمعالي والعوالي تشوف

إذا اشتاق عليا غيرهم والعواتكا

And it aspires to obtain praise and sometimes,

It carries aloft its shoulder above the lofty and nimble.

فما همهم إلا القواضب والقنا

وبذل اللها والأكرمون كذلك

Be gentle with it against death, though

The fates have become decisions on its face.

أمولاي من امسى عن الجار ذائداً

وللمجد مناعاً وللمال هاتكا

And seek the right of glory through effort above it,

For I was not one, my grandfather, to neglect your vengeance.

لقد جاءنا الطرف الأحم اديمه

سريعا وهذي عادة في عطائكا

And here are rhymes whose strength combined,

Is unmatched in their praise of you.

به مرح جذلان يأنف بي السرى

لئلا تمس الأرض منه السنابكا

Their meanings have been blocked, and ardor is their prosody,

And I have become in them a praiser spinning.

ويطمع في نيل السها ولربما

سما كاهلا فوق السماك وحاركا

One who aspires to understand them falls short,

Even if the most rational mind departs exhausted.

اهش عليه للمنايا وان غدت

كوالح فيوجه الكمى حوالكا

And if one babbled in composing like it,

You would think him in his mouth to be babbling nonsense.

واطلب حق المجد بالجد فوقه

وما كنت يا جدي بتارك ثاركا

Had I been enabled to do what I hope,

I would have composed jewels and pearls scattering about.

وهاك قوافٍ لا قوى في معيها

مثان بلا ثان لها عن ثنائكا

But I do not consider them before you a eulogy,

Even if the eloquent were silenced.

تسدت معانيها والحم نظمها

وأصبحت فيها حاكي المدح حائكا

Rather, my patron, with fasting and devotion

They have arrived blessed, and I came blessed.

يقصر عن ادراكها من يرومها

وان راح منها راتع الفكر راتكا

So allow them acceptance from you, allow their acceptance,

And the foe has blown against them evil winds.

وان فاه في نظم يناظرها به

توهمته في فيه العهن لائكا

Remain forever for me fast-flowing with pardon,

That I may pour praise being thankful.

ولو انني مكنت فيما ارومه

نظمت اللآلي والدراري الشواؤكا

And terrify my enemies and dazzle my envious,

And rise gloriously, for you carry honor.

فما ارتضيها بين أيديك مدحة

وان أفحمت قسا وكعبا ومالكا

And boast through poetry, son of your father, which

Affirms the shame that I am the son of your father.

ولكنها مولاي بالصوم والتقى

مباركة جاءت وجئت مباركا

فهبها قبولا منك هب قبوله

وهاب العدا منه الرياح الحواشكا

ودم ابداً لي سابل العفو سايلا

لأصبح عفواً ساكب الحمد سابكا

وارهب اعدائي وابهر حاسدي

وانهض عز ما حامل الذكر باركا

وافخر بالشعر ابن بابك والذي

يؤكد فخزى انني ابن بابكا