أَمِثلُكَ مولىً يَبسُطُ العبدَ بِالعذرِ

بِغَيرِ انقِباضٍ مِنكَ يَجْري إلى ذكرِ

Is there anyone like you, my Master, who makes excuses for his servant

Is a master like you one who extends to a servant the grace of an excuse?

With endless generosity flowing from you, without withdrawal

An excuse that flows toward mention without hesitation on your part?

لَهَدّ قريضَ الفضلِ ما هدّ من قوى

وَحَلّ به ما حلّ من عُقْدةِ الصّبرِ

You have facilitated virtue, strengthening what was weak

That which shattered my strength has also shattered the poetry of merit,

And dissolved what stubborn knots of patience held

And the undoing that befell the knot of patience has befallen it too.

وإنّي امْرؤ في خَجْلَةٍ مُسْتَمِرّةٍ

يذوبُ لها في الماءِ جامدةُ الصّخْرِ

Truly, I live in endless shame

Indeed, I am a man in a state of continuous shame,

Melting away like solid rock in water

Before which the solid rock would melt away into water.

أتتني قوافيك التي جَلّ قدرُها

بما نقطةٌ منهنّ مُغْرِقَةٌ بَحْري

Your exquisite verses came to me, their value supreme

Your rhymes reached me—verses of exalted worth,

For a single drop could immerse oceans, I swear

Wherein a single drop drowns my entire sea.

لَعَلّك إذ أغنيتي منك بالنّدى

أردتَ الغنى لي من مَديحك بِالفخرِ

Perhaps in enriching me with your bounty

Perhaps, since you enriched me with your generosity,

You wished to enrich me with pride in praising you

You desired for me the wealth of pride through your praise.

لعمريَ إني ما توهّمْتُ ريبةً

فتدفعَ وَجْهَ العُرْفِ عِندكَ بالنكرِ

By my life! I never suspected any doubts

By my life, I never entertained a suspicion of doubt,

That would turn your noble ways into denial

That you would repel the face of kindness with rejection.

وطَبعكَ تِبرٌ سحّرَ الفضلُ محْضَهُ

وحاشا له أن يَستَحيلَ مَعَ الدَّهرِ

Your nature is pure goodness, made perfect by generosity

Your nature is raw gold whose purity virtue has refined,

Far be it that it changes over time!

And far be it from such nature to change with the passage of time.

وَكُنتُ أمَلُّ الجودَ مِنكَ وأَنتَ لا

تَمَلّ عَطاءً منه يأتي على الوَفْرِ

I hoped for your open-handedness while you never tire

I would grow weary of receiving your bounty, while you never

Of constantly overflowing gifts

Tire of a giving that arrives in such abundance.

فَكَيفَ أظُنُّ الظنّ غيرَ مُبَرّأٍ

تواضَعَ تيهاً كوكبُ الجوِّ عن قدري

How could I entertain suspicions otherwise

How then could I harbor a thought that is not innocent,

That the star of destiny has humbly deferred to me?

When the star of the sky has humbled itself—in pride—far above my station?

يَخِفُّ على خُدّام مُلْكِك جانبي

كما خَفَّ هُدْبٌ في العيونِ على شُفرِ

My status is concealed from your servants

My presence lies light upon the servants of your realm,

Like eyebrows hidden beneath a fringe

As an eyelash lies light upon the eyelid of the eye.

إِذا طارَ مِنهُم بِالوصيَّةِ سَوْذَقٌ

فذلك في إفصاحِ منطقه القمري

When eloquence takes wing from them

When a falcon flies from among them bearing a command,

It is the moon's own clear speech

It possesses, in the eloquence of its speech, the voice of the turtledove.

تُحدّثُ عيني عينَهُ بالّذي يرَى

بوجهكَ لي من حُسنِ مائيّة البِشرِ

My eyes tell your eyes what they see

My eye converses with his eye regarding what it sees

Of the beauty of your features, purest among men

Of the beautiful fluidity of joy upon your face.

لياليَ لا أشْدوكَ إلّا مطَوَّقاً

بنعماكَ في أفنانِ روْضاتِكَ الخُضرِ

Nights I sing of nothing but you adorned

In nights when I sang to you only while wearing the collar

With your favors, amidst blossoming gardens

Of your blessings amidst the branches of your verdant gardens.

وما زالَ صَوْبٌ من نداكَ يَبُلُّني

ويثقلني حَتَّى عَجَزْتُ عَنِ الوكرِ

An arrow of your help unceasingly strikes me

A downpour of your generosity continued to drench me,

Weighing me down until I can barely stir

Weighing me down until I was too weak to reach the nest.

بَكَيتُ زَماناً كانَ لي بِكَ ضاحكاً

وَكسْرُ جناحي كان عندك ذا جَبْرِ

Long I cried when you smiled upon me

I wept for a time that once smiled upon me through you,

And you would surely mend my broken wings

When the breaking of my wing found its mending in your hands.

وأطرَقْتُ لمّا حالتِ الحالُ حَيْرَةً

تَحَيّرَ منها عالمُ النفس في صدري

Bewildered, I fell silent when fortune perplexed me

I bowed my head in bewilderment when our state changed,

Leaving the wise soul within me confused

A change that left the inner world of my soul perplexed.

فخذها كما أدري وإن كلَّ خاطري

وإن لم يكن منها البديعُ الَّذي تدري

Take it as I understand, though no eloquence

So take these verses as I know how to weave them, though my mind is weary,

Not already known to you adorns it

And though they lack the brilliance with which you are familiar.