وحقك ما للبدر حسنك في التم

ولا للآلي حسن ثغرك في النظم

Your right, the full moon has no beauty like yours in the dark night

Nor does the stringed instrument have the beauty of your smile in rhythm

أبيت وطرفي من محياك في الدجى

اراقب ضوء الفجر من مطلع النجم

I stayed up while my eyes were dazzled by your cheek in the darkness

Watching the dawn light from the rising of a star

كأن بقلبي ما بخصرك رقة

وبالجسم مني ما بجنتك من سقم

As if my heart has the softness of your waist

And my body what your side has of illness

ورب ليال بالوصال قطعتها

فككت عراها بالعناق وباللثم

And many nights of union I spent with you

I undid its knitting with embrace and kisses

فطورا بها آسا من الصدغ اجتلى

بلحظي وطورا اجتنى الورد بالشم

So I passed out at dawn from the temple stroke

With my glance, and at times the rose swooned from the smell

وبي فاتر الاجفان ما كان ضره

اذا علني يا جار ن بارد الظلم

And with me the eyelids were languid, it would not hurt

If you wronged me, O dweller of the cold injustice

من الترك لن يشدو تبعرب لحنه

ولم ار احلى منه في العرب والعجم

Of the Turks, their melody in song will not firm up

And I haven’t seen sweeter than it in Arabs and Persians

فتنت بخال فوق دينار خده

كمسك فما احلاه ختما على ختم

So I fell for a mole above a golden cheek

Like musk, so I haven’t found anything sweeter as a seal upon a seal

وبالخد تحت الصدغ منه يشوقني

رقيم عذار لا بخط ولا رسم

And on the cheek under the temple, there is from it what makes me yearn

A line of a bracelet not with a writing or drawing

وما روضة بالنبت وشعها الندا

باحسن فوق الخد من ذلك الرقم

No garden with vegetation and its breeze of blessing

Better over the cheek than that line

فيا غصن حتى ما تضاهى قوامه

وقد قصرت عنه طوال القنا الشم

So O branch, it does not match his stature

And the tall spears have fallen short of it

وبينكما لم يبرح الفرق ظاهرا

فللنصب تأتي دائما وهو للضم

And the difference between you has not ceased to appear

So grammatical inflection comes to you always and it is indefinite

واقسم ان العين لم تهو غيره

الم تر منها حظه وافر القسم

And I swear the eye has not inclined except to it

Haven’t you seen its share being plenty of the allotment

يكاد لفرط اللين يعقد خصره

ووجنته باللحظ تدمى من الوهم

Its waist is about to be knotted from too much softness

And its cheek with a glance imagined from illusion

فلا تنكروا سكري به ان ريقه

هو الراح لكن ضيب الريح والطعم

So do not deny my intoxication with it, his saliva

Is the wine but the fragrance of wind and taste

محا بالجفا رسمي هواه ولم ازل

اعلل قلبي بالعالم والرسم

He erased my form by his aloofness and I kept

Justifying my heart with the generality and the form

وقتلي ظلما قد اباحت لحاظه

وها من دمي في خده شاهد الظلم

And his glances wrongfully permitted shedding my blood

And here is from my blood on his cheek a witness of injustice

فلا تعذلوني عن هواه جهالة

فمن لامني فيه فقد باء بالاثم

So do not blame me for passion for him out of ignorance

Whoever blames me for him has fallen into sin

يمينا به لا ملت عنه لسلوة

وان ذكرت يوما له فعلى رغمي

I swore by him, I haven’t ceased to be devoted to him for his charm

And if I mentioned him one day it would be against my will

ولم اخش شيطان الملام لأن لي

شهابا له ما زال يتبع بالرجم

And I did not fear the devil of blame, because I have for him

A flame, it keeps stoning him with shooting stars

امام الهدى قاضي القضاة ومن سما

وساد على الاقران بالفضل والعلم

The leader of guidance, judge of all judges, and whoever named

And presided over peers in merit and knowledge

غدا كأبيه فعله فهو في الورى

كمحمود فعل لا يرى احمد الاسم

Tomorrow like his father in his action, so he in existence

Is like Mahmoud in action, Ahmad is not seen but in the name

اذا التبس الامران ادى اجتهاده

لما هو عين الشيء في صورة الحكم

If two matters intertwined, his reasoning

Leads to the crux of the matter in the form of a ruling

ويمكنه من غير دعوى تقدمت

لفطنته يقضي على الخصم للخصم

And without pretension, his insight precedes

For his brilliance to judge for opponent over opponent

جواد لعمري فيه لين وشدة

فينقم في حرب ويحلم في سلم

By my life, in him is softness and firmness

So he rages in war and is forbearing in peace

اذا جال قلت الليث جاء متمما

وان جاد قلت الغيث جاء بها يهمي

If he came out I said the lion came accomplishing

And if he was generous I said the rain came pouring heavily

كشيبان في زهد وحاتم في ندا

وبسطام في بأس واحنف في حلم

Like Shayban in asceticism, and Hatim in munificence

And Bostam in courage, and Ahnaf in forbearance

ولا عيب فيه غير ان نواله

انزهه في المدح عن معرض الذم

No fault in him but that his intimacy

Made him abstain in praise from an aspect of criticism

يفوق على قس اذا قام خاطبا

ويزري بحبان البلاغة في الفهم

He surpasses an archer when standing preaching

And hits the target of eloquence in understanding

له منطق منه الاصول تفرعت

ومن نحوه تبدو الصفاحة عن علم

From him is speech which principles branched out

And from his grammar pure clarity of knowledge appears

افاض على فقري سحاب نواله

فكان له في الوضع كالروح في الجسم

He poured upon my poverty clouds of his intimacy

So for him in my poetry is like the soul in the body

يقلدني در المكارم جوده

اقلده در المدائح من نظمي

He gifted me the pearls of generosity, I gift him

The pearls of my praises from my compositions

كأن مديحي من نداه وقد زها

حديقة روض راضها وابل الوسم

It is as if my praise is from his bounty, and it adorned

The garden of the meadow, watering it with pouring rain

حبيب له غر القصائد أمتطى

حروف القوافي لا مضمرة الدهم

A beloved whose cave of poems climbs

The letters of rhyme, not hiding sorrows

وعلقت آمالي بحبل رجائه

لعلمي فيه انه محكم البرم

And I suspended my hopes in the rope of his hope

Knowing he is solid in conviction

فخذها من الدر النظيم يتيمة

فانك اولى من تكفل باليتيم

So take them from the prose of pearls, an orphan

For you are most worthy to sponsor the orphan

فلا زال مدحي فيك مسكا ختامه

يضوع شذاه في ابتداء وفي ختم

So my praise of you remains musk sealing it

Its aroma spreading in the beginning and in the end