1. أسهم أصاب القلب أم لَحظُكِ الشَزْرُ

    وسُقمٌ بدا ما بين جفنِيك أم سِحْرٌ

    Has an arrow struck the heart, or your sidelong glance?

    And is what appears between your eyelids sickness, or magic?

  2. وماذا الذّي في صحن خدّكِ لائحٌ

    أماءُ جَمالٍ جائلٌ فيه أم خمرُ

    And what is that gleaming on the surface of your cheek?

    Is it beauty's water coursing there, or wine?

  3. سَفرتِ فَجوّلتِ الدُّجَى قبل فَجرِه

    أشمس أضاءت من نِقابك أم بدرُ

    You unveiled and sent the darkness roaming before its dawn;

    Has a sun shone from your veil, or a full moon?

  4. لقد أسكرتْ عيناكِ قدَّكِ فانثنى

    كما ينثني بالشارب الثمِل السُّكْرُ

    Your eyes have indeed intoxicated your figure, so it swayed,

    as drunkenness makes a tipsy drinker sway.

  5. وحَمَّلْتِني ما لا أطيقُ من الهوى

    كما لم يُطِقْ حَمْلاً لأَردافِك الخَصْرُ

    And you burdened me with love I cannot bear,

    just as your waist could not bear the weight of your hips.

  6. أجَوْراً على العُشّاق والعدلُ ظاهر

    وظلماً لهمْ والحقُّ أَنْجُمُه زُهرُ

    Do you oppress lovers, while justice is manifest,

    and wrong them, while truth's stars are radiant?

  7. ألستِ تخافين العزيزَ ومذ بدت

    خلافَتُهُ لم يبق ظُلمٌ ولا غدر

    Do you not fear al-Aziz? Ever since the rise of

    his caliphate, no tyranny or treachery has remained.

  8. صِليني لتُشْفَى غُلَّتي بِك مثلَ ما

    شفتْ بأبي المنصور غُلَّتَها مصر

    Unite with me, that my burning thirst may be quenched by you, just as

    Egypt quenched her burning thirst through Abu al-Mansur.

  9. تباشرتِ الدنيا به وبمُلْكه

    وردّ على الأيّام بهجتَها الدهرُ

    The world rejoiced in him and in his reign,

    and Time restored to the days their joy.

  10. هَنَاك قدومٌ حَفَّه السعد والعلا

    ومدّ عليه عزّ سلطانِه النصر

    May your arrival, surrounded by fortune and glory, bring you joy,

    and victory spread over it the might of its dominion.

  11. رجعتَ وقد قضّيت ما لم يقضِّه

    إمامٌ وما لم يحوِ أمثالهَ عصر

    You returned, having accomplished what had never been accomplished

    by an imam, and feats whose like no age had witnessed,

  12. بفتح بشرقِ الأرض والغرب ذكرهُ

    تَغَنّى به الدنيا ويحدو به السّفْر

    through a conquest whose fame, in the earth's East and West,

    the world sings, and travelers chant on their way.

  13. فإن يك بَدْر لم يُقَسْ بشبيهه

    فذى الوقعةُ الكبرى شبيهُتُها بدر

    For if Badr has never been compared with its equal,

    then this mighty battle has Badr as its counterpart.

  14. نصرت بها التوحيد والحق نُصْرَةً

    عزيزيَّةً صَلَّى لها المجدُ والفخر

    You championed divine unity and truth through it with a victory

    of al-Aziz, before which glory and pride bowed in prayer.

  15. وأرهبتَ أهلَ الشامِ حتّى تركتُهَمْ

    وليس لهم سرّ سواك ولا جهر

    And you terrified the people of al-Sham until I left them

    with no private thought or public speech except of you.

  16. وسُسْتَهُمُ حَزْماً بما لم يَسُسهُمُ

    بمعشاره يوماً زيادٌ ولا عَمْرو

    And you governed them with such resolve that neither

    Ziyad nor Amr ever ruled them with a tenth of it.

  17. فلو تَسْمَعُ الموتى لناديتُ مُسْمِعاً

    يزيدَ بِخِزْيٍ قم فقد أدرِك الوِتر

    If the dead could hear, I would call out, making my voice heard,

    to Yazid, to his shame: 'Rise, for vengeance has been exacted!'

  18. نهضتُ بثارات الحسين وزيده

    نهوضاً به من زَيْنب شُفيَ الصدر

    I rose to avenge al-Husayn and his Zayd,

    a rising through which Zaynab's breast was healed.

  19. ففاطمة الزهراءُ تُفْديك يابْنَها

    وتسأل أن تَبْقَى ويبقَى لك العُمْرُ

    So Fatima al-Zahra ransoms you, O her son,

    and asks that you endure, and that life endure for you.

  20. وإنكَ للسَيفُ الذي الله ضاربٌ

    به والهدى المدروسُ من نوره الذكر

    And indeed you are the sword that God strikes

    with, and the guidance by whose light the Reminder is studied.

  21. فيا أيّها البحرُ الذي موجُه لُهىً

    ويا أيّها الغيث الذي ماؤه تِبرُ

    So, O sea whose waves are gifts,

    and O rain whose water is gold dust,

  22. فداؤك قْوم طُلْتَهم وعلوتَهُمْ

    أبوهُمْ إذا عدّوا أميَّةُ أو صخر

    may the people you surpassed and towered above be your ransom,

    whose father, when they reckon their descent, is Umayya or Sakhr.

  23. أراني إذا هذّبتُ فيك قصيدةً

    يساعِدني في مدحك النظم والنّثر

    I find that, whenever I polish a poem about you,

    verse and prose help me in praising you.

  24. ويجذِبُني قلبي إليك وهِمِّتي

    ويعذبُ لي في حوك شعري لك الفكر

    And my heart and aspiration draw me toward you,

    and thought is sweet to me as I weave my poetry for you.

  25. وهل أنا إلا ساعةٌ أنت يومُها

    ويومٌ من الأيام أنت له شهر

    And am I anything but an hour of which you are the day,

    and a day among days, for which you are a month?

  26. وإني لممزوج بحبّك خِلْقةً

    كما امتزجت بالماء في كأسها الخمر

    And I am indeed mingled with love for you by nature,

    as wine has mingled with water in its cup.

  27. كلانا لأصلٍ واحدٍ ولمَنبتٍ

    تفرّع غُصْنانَا وما اختلف النَّجْر

    We both come from one root and one place of growth;

    our two branches sprang forth, and the stock did not differ.

  28. فيا من عُلاه لي وإن كنتُ عبدَه

    ومن أنا عند الانتساب له شَطْر

    So, O one whose eminence is mine, though I am his servant,

    and one whose half I am when lineage is traced,

  29. ضميرك يلقاني بخالص ودِه

    ووجهُك ما إن ينقضي منه لي بشر

    your inner self greets me with its pure affection,

    and the cheer your face shows me never ends.

  30. فإن كنُت في نشري لفضلك مُسْهِبا

    ففضلكُ فضلٌ لا يحصِّله الذكر

    So if I speak at length in proclaiming your excellence,

    for your excellence is an excellence no account can encompass.

  31. أُهنّيك لا أَعني سواك بأَوبة

    كأنك عِقْد وهْيَ من تحته نَحْرُ

    I congratulate you, meaning none but you, on a return,

    as though you were a necklace, and your return the neck beneath it.

  32. ولو أنّ أرضاً هزّها الشوقُ أقبلت

    إليك اشتياقاً أرضُ مصرك والقَصْرُ

    If longing could shake a land, there would come

    to you in yearning the land of your Egypt and the palace.