هو الدهر يستثني المخلوف بالأمن

فلا بد من منع لديه ومِن مَنِّ

Does Time exempt any created being by granting it safety?

It cannot but withhold at times and bestow favors at times.

وما كان حبل اليسر بالعسر ملحقا

فحزمي أولى في التجلد من حزني

The cord of ease was never joined fast to hardship;

so my resolve has more claim to steadfastness than has my grief.

وهذي الليالي خبط عشواء طالما

نقرب ما تقصى وتفقر ما تغني

These nights blunder like a night-blind she-camel—how often

they bring near what was far away and impoverish what was rich.

عهدنا التئام الشمل فيها وانها

لتصدع شمل الجفن أو سنة الجفن

We have known them reunite what was scattered, yet

they rend the eyelids' union—or the slumber of the eye.

وكم فرصة فيها استحالت بغصة

فما افترسني أو قرعت لها سني

How many an opportunity in them has turned into a choking grief,

yet it did not prey upon me, nor did I gnash my teeth over it.

وكم سرني فيها المنى بحديثه

وأغصب عيني در ما سمعت أذني

How often hope delighted me in them with its tidings,

and forced my eyes to shed pearls for what my ears had heard.

كأني لم انظر سوى قبح فعلها

ولم تر إلا حسن مصطبري مني

It was as though I saw nothing but the ugliness of their deeds,

while they saw nothing in me but the beauty of my patient endurance.

إلى أن محا المولى حسين خطوبها

بنائله المغنى عن الأب والأبن

Until my lord Hussein erased their calamities

with gifts that left me needing neither father nor son.

أعاد لي الأيام وهي نواضر

وأفرغها من قالب القبح للحسن

He restored my days to me, fresh and blooming,

and recast them from the mold of ugliness into beauty.

وأكثر من نعماه حتى مللتها

كما مُل في جدب مداومة المزن

He multiplied his favors until I wearied of them,

as even one amid drought might weary of the rain clouds' persistence.

همام رحيب الصدر مستسهل العطا

رفيع الذرى داني الوفا حسن الظن

A valiant man, spacious of breast, who finds giving easy,

lofty in station, quick to keep faith, and charitable in judgment.

تنزه عن ريب وعيناه عن خنا

وأحشاه عن غدر ويمناه عن ضن

Free of suspicion, his eyes free of obscenity,

his heart free of treachery, his right hand free of stinginess.

لقد خاب من بالغدر رام محله

كما خاب من يرقى السماء من الجن

Whoever sought his station through betrayal has surely failed,

as the jinn fail when they try to scale the sky.

له الويل قد اصفيته الود معلنما

واعليته عن كل حادثة تدني

Woe to him! You had shown him affection pure and manifest

and raised him above every misfortune that lays men low.

وانقذته من كل هول ومنكر

وشدت له مجداً اثيلا فلم يغن

You delivered him from every terror and evil

and founded deep-rooted glory for him—yet none of it availed him.

بغى لك ما يصمى فعاجلته به

ورام العلا بغيا فخربت ما يبنى

He plotted a mortal blow against you, so you dealt it swiftly to him;

he sought eminence through aggression and destroyed what he was building.

وقاد إليك الجيش من ظنه بهم

جبالاً فأمست عند لقياك كالمهن

He led an army against you, imagining its men

to be mountains; when they met you, they became mere weaklings.

فأمل ما يعي وحاول ما يسى

وفارق ما يحي وصادف ما يغني

He aspired to what he could not grasp and attempted what brought harm;

he abandoned what gives life and met what annihilates.

وولى فأما قومه فمجدل

وآخر يستفديك بالركب والظعن

He turned in flight: some of his people lay felled,

while another sought to ransom himself to you with riders and women's litters.

ولورمته لم ينج لكن انفت ان

تحاول من رام الفرار عن الطعن

Had you aimed at him, he would not have escaped; but you disdained

to pursue one who had chosen flight from the spear-thrust.

فكايلته صاعاً بصاع موفيا

وما منكم من يدعى ردة الغين

You measured him a full bushel for his bushel,

and none among you can be accused of repaying injury with excess.

ألا إن بغي المرء بالمرء مسرع

وأفسد أجناس الرجال أولو الضغن

Indeed, one man's aggression against another comes swiftly home,

and the worst kind of men are those who harbor rancor.

ولم أنسه يوماً وجيشك مقبل

على حلب إقبال مشف على مضن

I shall never forget that day, your army advancing

upon Aleppo like a healer approaching one wasted by illness.

وصدمته بالجيش جيشك ثانيا

ومرجعه بالخزي في طلب الحصن

Your army defeated his army a second time

and sent him back in disgrace to seek shelter in the fortress.

ومن ذلة بالمرء أن يترك الفلا

مفيحة الأرجاء ويسجن بالمدن

What humiliation for a man to abandon the open wilderness—

its spacious, far-reaching tracts—and be imprisoned in cities!

كأنك من بحر من الجيش موجه

من البيض والفرسان فيه على سفن

You seemed, from a sea made wholly of armies, one of its waves,

with white blades and horsemen riding upon ships.

وقد خفقت رايات نصرك في الوغى

كما خفقت أعضاء أعداك من جبن

The standards of your victory fluttered in the battle,

just as your enemies' limbs fluttered with fear.

تلوح ويخفيها القتام كأنها

بوارق تبدو في سحائبها الدجن

They flashed, then the battle dust hid them, as though they were

lightning bolts appearing within dark-laden clouds.

يحاكي دم القتلى على صفحاتها

مدامع صب بات يمسح بالردن

The slain men's blood upon their surfaces resembled

the tears of an ardent lover who spent the night wiping them with his sleeve.

لك الخير وفيت المعالي حقوقها

وصافيتها صفو الصديق مع الخدن

May all good be yours! You rendered noble endeavor its full due

and kept pure faith with it, as friend does with intimate friend.

واظهرت للباغي مدار رحى الوغى

وكيف مجال القرن في طلب القرن

You showed the aggressor the axle of battle's grinding mill,

and how a champion ranges when seeking his peer;

وكيف الجياد الجرد يعلو ظهورها

غصون وكيف البدر يشرق بالغصن

how branches rise above the backs of sleek, unmarked horses,

and how the full moon shines upon a branch;

وكيف المنايا تستمد سيوفكم

وكيف يساوي السهل جيشك بالحزن

how Death draws reinforcements from your swords,

and how your army levels plain and rugged ground alike.

الا ان من علياك تهذيب اهوج

وارغام قهار واقتار مستغن

Among your exalted deeds are the disciplining of a reckless fool,

the humbling of an overbearing tyrant, and reducing the self-sufficient to want;

وتسكين مزعوج وتأمين خائف

واعتاق مأسور واطلاق ذي سجن

the calming of the distraught and the making-safe of the fearful,

the manumission of a captive and the release of a prisoner.

فما نجح آمال ثنت لسواكم

عناناً وألفاظٍ على غيركم تثنى

No hopes succeed if they turn their reins toward anyone but you,

nor do my words praise anyone but you.