واشتاق طلعتك الخليفة مظهراً
لك شوقه المطوي في اسرارهِ
And the caliph longed for your countenance, openly displaying
And the caliph yearned for your countenance, revealing
to you the longing he had folded within his secrets.
to you his longing, folded away in his secrets.
ودعا الملوك فلم يلبّ دعاءه
إلاّ أحقهم بدار قراره
He summoned the kings, yet none answered his call
And he summoned the kings, but none answered his summons
except the one among them most worthy to dwell in his abode.
except the one among them most entitled to his abode.
عظمت امر الله في تعظيمه
واقمت دين الله في استحضاره
You magnified God’s command by magnifying him,
You exalted God's command by honoring him,
and upheld God’s religion by answering his summons.
and you upheld God's religion by summoning him.
وافاك في برد النبي محمد
بهدى النبي وسمته ووقاره
And he came to him in the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad,
He came to you in the mantle of the Prophet Muhammad,
with the Prophet’s guidance, bearing, and dignity.
with the Prophet's guidance, his bearing and his dignity.
يشكو الى الإسلام وخط مشيبه
ما كلفته الترك من أسفاره
He complains to Islam, while his gray hair writes out
The flecks of his gray hair complain to Islam
the journeys that the Turks compelled him to make,
of the journeys the Turks forced upon him.
حتى بدا عضد الهدى وكأنّما
كان الخضاب أحال شيب عذاره
until the Arm of Right Guidance appeared, as though
Until ʿAḍud al-Hudā appeared, and it was as though
dye had transformed the gray along his cheek.
hair dye had transformed the gray of his sideburns.
حتى إذا أبدى الإمام أمامه
ملكاً كبدر التم في انواره
Then, when the Imam brought forth before him
Until, when the imam presented before him
a king like the full moon in all its radiance,
a king like the full moon in its radiance,
خلنا على الكرسي ليثاً غابه
سمر القنا نبتت بفيض بحاره
we fancied upon the throne a lion whose thicket
we imagined a lion on the throne, whose forest was
was dark lance-shafts, grown from the overflow of his seas.
brown spear-shafts that grew from the overflow of his seas.
وغداة ظلت مساير الإقبال في
خلع الإمام وطوقه وسواره
And on the morning when the offices of good fortune were at work amid
And that morning you kept pace with good fortune, in
the Imam’s robes of honor, his neck-ring, and his bracelet,
the imam's robes of honor, his collar and his bracelet,
متسوراً بأهلة متطوقاً
بالشمس أو بالبدر او بإطاره
he wore crescent moons as bracelets and was necklaced
wearing bracelets of crescent moons, wearing a collar
with the sun, or the full moon, or its encircling halo,
of the sun, or the full moon, or its halo,
في خلعة صبغ للشباب بلونها
فالخلق قد جلبوا على ايثاره
in a robe of honor that resembled youth in its color;
in a robe of honor whose color is a dye for youth;
all creation clamored in preferring him.
for humankind has indeed been drawn to favor him.
Sol 6.1