هل المجد إلا دوحة أنت فرعها

أو الجد إلا خلة فيك طبعها

Is glory anything but a palm tree you are its branch?

Or excellence anything but a palm in which you imprinted its nature?

أو الجود إلا انعم قد تفرقت

فلم يلف إلا من نوالك جمعها

Or generosity anything but blessings that scattered

So none gathered them but from your attainment.

علوت افتخاراً إذ تواضعت المورى

ونفس الكريم الأصل يحسن وضعها

You rose proudly when the fates were humble

And the soul of the generous is virtuous in its disposition.

فما كنت إلا الشمس تعشى نواظراً

فيترك مرآها ويطلب نفعها

You were nothing but the sun whose looks set

So it leaves its mirror and seeks its benefit.

عفاء بقوم أظهروا لك وصمةً

بحرب لعين الشمس أرمد نقعها

Clarity in a people who showed you a blemish

With a war that blinded the eye of the sun and muddied its springs.

هم الجند كانوا والمشيرون فيكم

وأيديهم الوسطى فلم ساء صنعها

They were the soldiers and the advisors among you

And their middle hands, so how bad was their making.

رموا بك في قلب العدا وتأخروا

ارامو بوتر منك يؤخذ شفعها

They threw you in the heart of enmity and lagged behind

They shot an arrow from you taken for its feathers.

وما علموا ان الأعادي مهالك

تعذر مع سوء التدابير قطعها

They did not know that enemies are perishing

Hard to reach with bad planning to cut it off.

وانك كالمرنان لا عيب عندها

وعار على الرامي إذا طاش نبعها

You are like the flexible bow, no defects in it

And shame is upon the archer if his source erred.

رأيناك والأيام ذا الأيدي سطوها

بسفع نواصيها وقد ساء سفعها

We saw you while the days tyrannized

With slapping the foreheads of its nights, so miserable was its slapping.

ونحن صوادٍ نطلب الري سغبا

وغلة صادى القلب يعيبك نقعها

While we are hunters seeking sustenance out of hunger

And the yield of the hunter's heart criticizes you and muddies its springs.

فكنت لنا ماءً نميراً ونخلة

تسافط مجناها وما هز جذعها

You were for us pleasant water and a palm tree

That hangs its fruit and its trunk never shook.

لذاك صحبت الدهر بعد شماسه

ويافعت آمالي وقد شاب فرعها

That is why you accompanied time after its serving

And my hopes were youthful though its branch grew old.

والفيت حظي في ذراك مواسيا

أماني نفس طالما ضاق ذرعها

And I was destined in your shelter to have

The hopes of a soul that had long felt narrowed in its scope.

ففارقت صحبي والأقارب والحما

وكم انعمٍ يمرى على البعد ضرعها

So I parted from my friends, relatives, and family

And how many blessings go to waste with distance that wrings its udder.

وجبت إليك البيدا قطعها سرى

وسير الدياجي حين يسود قطعها

And I came to you, cutting the distance in secret

And traveling the milky way when its pieces turn black.

ولا زلت ارميها بجمع كأسهم

ركبنا الحنايا أو تمزق درعها

And I kept aiming at them with a cupful of arrows

We rode the fast she-camels or their coats tore up.

ضوامر تطوي لقاء أضالعا

على سغب والبيد يطويه ظلعها

Ropes that fold over ribs

On desolation, and the distance folds it over its hillock.

ولليل اشراق بزهر نجومه

كليلة اعراس توقد شمعها

The night has an illumination with the flowers of its stars

Like a wedding night that lights its candles.

وما كنت بالسالي العواصم مسكناً

وهل سكن لي غير ما ضم ربعها

I did not dwell in the mighty capital cities

Is there any dwelling for me but what its expanse enclosed?

وكنت لما القى ولا شي مثله

بأجزع من عين تبادر دمعها

And I was, when I met you, like nothing I had met before

More intensely sad than an eye that sends forth its tears.

ولم اذكر البقيا بها ولياليا

تقضت عسى يلتام بالذكر صدعها

I did not mention the rest, though nights went by

Hoping that recollection will mend its crack.

ويوم على شاطي فويق وقد جلا

لعيني مرآة تزايد لمعها

And a day at Fuwaiq's coast which had revealed

To my eyes a mirror increasing its gleam.

وللورق في الأوراق لحن مرجع

واعذب من لحن الأغاريد رجعها

And for the soft leaves among the leaves a returning melody

Sweeter than the most melodious songs' echo.

وروض إذا مرت بأغصانه الصبا

فمنهن اعطاء الفتاة ومنعها

A meadow, when the morning breeze passes through its branches

Some grant the maiden her request, some deny.

وان نقلت اخبار اسرار نوره

توهمتها حيث العذيب وسلمها

As if it transmitted the secrets of its light

I imagined it where the beautiful wild cows wander securely.

وبالجوشن الأعلى وبالسفح دونه

مشاهد من يبكي السموات فجعها

By the highest summit, and below it the foothill

Scenes that make the heavens weep in agony for it.

عهدنا بهالآرام بالعشب رتعا

وما رعيها غير الفؤاد ورتعها

We knew it would settle with tranquility on the grass

None would graze it but the heart in its grazing.

ألم أهجر الجمع أنا ذاكر

كما هجر العين السخينة هجعها

Did I not abandon company, I who remember

As the hot eye abandons its sleeping?

وأرضى بأن الفى المنايا أو المنى

لديك وآمالي يضيقك وسعها

And am content that either death or delight

Is near you, while my hopes constrain your amplitude.

فإن أك قد فارقت بابك راحلاً

فكم من مضرات تعذر دفعها

If I, having left your door traveling,

Encounter so many harms hard to repel.

وكم نازلات ضاق ذرعاً بها الفتى

ولا يرتجي إلا من اللَه رفعها

And so many adversities, the young man feels too narrow to encompass

And hopes for relief only from God.

ورب أمور تردع النفس والهوى

ولو قبحت للطبع يحسن ردعها

And matters that deter the soul and passion

Even if they seem ugly to disposition, are good to deter.

فإن سعت الحساد بي لست جاهلاً

إذاها ومن طبع العقارب لسعها

If the envious plot against me, I am not ignorant

That it is the scorpions' nature to sting.

وكم ناطح صماء من غير حاجة

يزعزع روقيه ويعييه قلعها

How many sterile butters senselessly

Undermine my stability, exhausting themselves uprooting it.

وان تلك ما احرمتنيه وهبتهم

فأضحى هشيما غرس ارضي وزرعها

As for those things you deprived me of and gave them

They became debris, land crop and its cultivation.

فرب غوادٍ مثقلات بحملها

على الجدب لا تهمي وفي الخصب همعها

How many clouds heavily burdened

Do not rain on the barren land, yet pour down in the fertile one.

لك الخير للنعماء ما كنت كافرا

وملة خير الخلق فينا وشرعها

Goodness is yours, never was I ungrateful for blessings

The religion of the best of mankind, ours it is, and its law.

ولست اساويك السوى ولذي النهى

انتقاد إذا داني عقيقك جزعها

I do not equate you with anyone lowly

If your knitted mantle close to me causes me agony.

وكل وحوش القفر تدعى بواحد

وأين من القرد المماجن سبعها

All the beasts of the wilderness call upon one thing

Where is the ape from the lion?

وإنك في عيني نور أرى به

هداي وفي أذني وإن غبت سمعها

You are in my eye the light by which I see

My guidance, and in my ear, even if far off, its hearing.

فدونكها تشدو بألحان معبد

ويبدي الشذا بالطرس والنفس سجعها

There, without you, the songs of the temple grow silent

And inspiration is stifled in the soul and poetry in its echo.

ودم ابداً عمر الليالي فأنها

كباسقة تجني وجودك طلعها

My life will continue as long as nights continue

For they reap your existence like date palms their ripening clusters.