1. ألا مَنْ لنفسي وأوصابِها

    ومَن لدموعي وتَسْكابِها

    Ah, who is there for my soul and its afflictions?

    And who for my tears and their outpouring?

  2. إذا فزَّع الشوقُ حبَّ القلوبِ

    كواها بشدّة تَلْهَابها

    When longing agitates the love in hearts,

    it sears them with the fierceness of their burning.

  3. أرِقت لبرقٍ أضاء الدّجون

    وأذهب حُلْكةَ أطنابِها

    I lay sleepless at lightning that lit the gloom

    and dispelled the blackness of its tent ropes.

  4. سَرى والدُّجنّة منشورةٌ

    فمزّق أعلامَ أثوابها

    It coursed by night while darkness lay spread out,

    then tore the embroidered bands of its robes.

  5. كأنّ السَّحاب به غادة

    مُشَوَّقة بين أترابها

    As though within the cloud there were a maiden,

    stirred by longing among her peers.

  6. كأنّ البروقَ سيوفُ الغمام

    إذا هزَّها ثم رامَى بها

    As though the lightning flashes were the cloud's swords,

    when it brandished them, then hurled them forth.

  7. ومُنْبَحسِ القَطْر مُثْعَنْجِرٍ

    جهير الرَّواعد صخَّابها

    And at a rainburst pouring in torrents,

    loud with thunder, clamorous in its peals.

  8. كأنّ يَعالِيله في الصَّبَا

    نَشَاوى نواشِرُ أطرابِها

    As though its rain clouds in the east wind

    were drunken women spreading their raptures.

  9. سَقَيْن عِطاشَ مُتُون الرُّبا

    وبرَّدْن غُلَّة أَقْرَابها

    They watered the thirsty backs of the hills

    and cooled the burning thirst in their flanks.

  10. وأبدين تفويفَ بُسْط الرِّياض

    ونشَّرن أعلامَ زِرْيابها

    And revealed the striping of the gardens' carpets,

    and unfurled the banners of their gold.

  11. كأنّ الشقيقَ بأرْجائها

    خدودٌ ثَنَتْ عَقْد تنْقابِها

    As though the anemones throughout them

    were cheeks that had drawn back their veil's fastening.

  12. فَعُوجا على أَرِجٍ مُونِقٍ

    أنيقِ الدَّسَاكِر مِعْشابِها

    So turn aside, you two, to a fragrant, delightful place,

    with lovely hamlets, luxuriant in their grass.

  13. نُعَلَّل ما بين حَوْذانِها

    وطِيبِ ثراها ولَبْلابها

    Let us be soothed amid its buttercups,

    and its earth's fragrance and its ivy,

  14. بصفراء شابت ولم تَحْتَلِم

    وأَنْحَلَها طولُ أحقابِها

    by golden wine grown gray without reaching puberty,

    and thinned by the length of its ages.

  15. سُلاَفٌ إذا انتسبت للنَّديم

    غدا الكَرْم أوكدَ أنسابِها

    Pure wine: when it names its lineage to the drinking companion,

    the vine proves its surest ancestry.

  16. كأن السُّقاةَ لها يَقْسِمون

    شُعاعَ الشموش لشُرَّابها

    As though its cupbearers were dividing

    the suns' radiance among its drinkers.

  17. تَطوف علينا بها غادةٌ

    كأنّ الضُّحى بين أَثوابها

    A maiden carries it round to us,

    as though morning radiance were within her robes.

  18. إذا سلّطت سحرَ أجفانها

    دَلالاً أشارت بعُنَّابها

    When she unleashes the magic of her eyelids,

    she gestures coquettishly with her jujube-red fingertips.

  19. دعاني فلستُ بُمسْتحسِن

    لطُرق المجُون وآدابها

    Leave me, you two, for I do not admire

    the ways of licentiousness and their customs.

  20. ألا قُلْ لمن ضلّ من هاشم

    ورام اللُّحوق بأرْبابها

    Now tell whoever among Hashim has gone astray

    and sought to catch up with its masters:

  21. أأوسَاطُها مثل أطرافها

    أَأَرؤُسها مِثلُ أذنابها

    Are its middle ranks like its foremost men?

    Are its heads like its tails?

  22. أعبَّاسها كأبي حَرْبِها

    عليٍّ وقاتِلِ نصَّابها

    Is its Abbas like the father of its warfare—

    Ali, the slayer of its foes,

  23. وأوّلِها مؤمِناً بالإِله

    وأوّلِ هادِم أَنْصابها

    and its first believer in God,

    and the first to shatter its idols?

  24. بني هاشمٍ قد تعامَيْتُمُ

    فخلّوا المعالي لأصحابها

    Sons of Hashim, you have feigned blindness;

    so leave high honors to their possessors.

  25. أعبّاسكم كان سيفَ النبيّ

    إذا أبدت الحربُ عن نابها

    Was your Abbas the Prophet's sword

    when war bared its fang?

  26. أعبّاسكم كان قي بَدْره

    يذود الكتائبَ عن غابها

    Was your Abbas, at his Badr,

    driving battalions away from its thickets?

  27. أعبّاسكم قاتِل المشركين

    جِهاراً ومالِك أَسْلابِها

    Was your Abbas the slayer of the polytheists

    openly, and the possessor of its spoils?

  28. أعبّاسكم كوصيّ النبيّ

    ومُعْطي الرِّغاب لطُلاّبها

    Was your Abbas like the Prophet's legatee,

    and the giver of bounties to those who seek them?

  29. أعبّاسكم شَرَح المُشْكلاتِ

    وفَتَّح مُقْفَلَ أبوابها

    Did your Abbas explain difficult questions

    and open their locked doors?

  30. عجِبتُ لمرتَكِبٍ بَغْيَه

    غَويِّ المقالة كذَّابها

    I marvel at one who commits his outrage,

    wayward in speech, a liar in it.

  31. يقول فَيْنظم زُورَ الكلام

    ويُحْكِم تَنْميقَ إذهابها

    He speaks, stringing falsehood into words,

    and perfects their artful gilding:

  32. لكم حرمةٌ يا بني بنْته

    ولكن بنو العمّ أوْلى بها

    “You have honor, O sons of his daughter,

    but the paternal uncle's sons have more right to it.”

  33. وكيف يحوز سهامَ البنين

    بنو العمِّ أفٍّ لغُصَّابها

    And how can the sons' shares be possessed

    by the paternal uncle's sons? Fie on their usurpers!

  34. بذا أنزل اللهُ آيَ القُرَان

    أتَعْمَون عن نصّ إسهابها

    Thus God sent down the verses of the Quran;

    are you blind to the explicit wording of their detailed exposition?

  35. لقد جار في القول عبدُ الإله

    وقاسَ المطايا بِركّابها

    Abd al-Ilah has indeed been unjust in speech,

    and compared the mounts with their riders.

  36. ونحن لَبِسنا ثيابَ النبيّ

    وأنتم جذَبْتم بِهُدَّابها

    We have worn the Prophet's garments,

    while you have tugged at their fringes.

  37. ونحن بنوه ووُرّاثه

    وأهلُ الوِراثة أوْلى بها

    We are his sons and his heirs,

    and those entitled to inheritance have more right to it.

  38. وفينا الإمامة لا فيكمُ

    ونحن أحقُّ بجِلْبابها

    The imamate belongs to us, not to you,

    and we have more right to its mantle.

  39. ومَنْ لكمُ يا بَني عمه

    بمثل البَتُول وأَنجابِها

    And who can give you, O sons of his uncle,

    the like of al-Batul and her noble offspring?

  40. وما لكُم كوصيّ النبيّ

    أبٌ فتَرامَوْا بنُشّابها

    And you have no father like the Prophet's legatee,

    so shoot at one another with its arrows.

  41. ألَسْنا لُبابَ بني هاشمٍ

    وساداتِكم عند نُسّابها

    Are we not the cream of the sons of Hashim,

    and your masters in the eyes of its genealogists?

  42. ألَسْنا سَبقْنا لغاياتها

    أَلْسنا ذهبنا بأحسابها

    Have we not been first to reach its goals?

    Have we not carried off its ancestral honors?

  43. بنا صُلْتُمُ وبنا طُلْتُمُ

    وليس الولاة ككُتّابها

    Through us you wielded might, and through us you rose high,

    and rulers are not like their scribes.

  44. ولا تَسْفَهوا أنْفُساً بالكِذابِ

    فذاك أشدُّ لإتعابها

    Do not make fools of yourselves with lies,

    for that wears them out all the more.

  45. فأنتم كَلحْن قوافي الفَخَار

    ونحن غدَوْنا كإعرابها

    For you are like a solecism in the rhymes of pride,

    while we have become like their correct inflection.