بطيفك يا بدر والطارق

ومسبل شعرك والغاسق

By your phantom, O full moon, and by the night-visitor,

and by the trailing fall of your hair and the darkening night,

وقدك يا غصن واللحظ من

رشيق يميس ومن راشق

and by your stature, O bough, and the glance of

a graceful one who sways, and of an archer,

وطلق جبين قضى حسنه

ببين على سلوتي الطالق

and by a radiant brow whose beauty decreed

a parting for my divorced solace—

أغث بأيادي الرضا مغرماً

دعاك وخذ بيد العاشق

succor, with favors of goodwill, a passionate lover

who called to you, and take the lover by the hand.

فقد تعبت عينه في الهوى

بإنسانها السابح الغارق

For his eye has grown weary in love,

with its pupil swimming, drowning.

وعاقبها سيد ظالم

عليها بذنب الكرى الآبق

An unjust master has punished it,

wronging it for the offense of runaway sleep.

سكاب دموع جرت في مدا

بكاها فأعيت على الآحق

A pourer of tears that ran through the span

of its weeping, beyond a pursuer’s reach.

وسهر روى من بكاءي الذي

تدفق عن جعفر الصادق

And sleeplessness recounted my weeping, which

flowed from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.

وأمرد نشوان أما لقاه

لعمري فمعذرة الفاسق

And a tipsy, beardless youth—as for meeting him,

by my life, it is the libertine’s excuse.

منعم جسماً ولكنني

شقيت بمنظره الشقائق

Soft-bodied, yet I

suffered from his anemone-red appearance.

وذي إمرة سار للقيل في

جناحي لوا قلبي الخافق

And a commander who marched to the king within

the two wings of my beating heart’s banner.

فكم مسلم خائف عندَ ما

رنا من ظبا لحظه المارق

How many a Muslim fears, whenever

he gazes, the blades of his renegade glance!

وكم ذابل في العيون التي

سناها بسهدٍ لها ماحق

And how many a slender lance is in those eyes whose

radiance destroys through the sleeplessness they bring.

فيفتح للجفن من مطبق

ويعمل للقلب من طابق

So he opens a dungeon for the eyelid,

and fashions a griddle for the heart,

بخدٍّ وخال على تبره

يشحّ على قبلةِ الوامق

with a cheek and a mole upon its gold,

begrudging the devoted lover a kiss.

فكم قلت بالتبر جُد مرّة

عليّ فقال ولا الدَّانق

How often I said, 'Be generous with the gold, just once,

to me'; he replied, 'Not even a dāniq.'

وكم قلت ما الرفق قال الطلا

وأقسم ما أنت بالذائق

How often I said, 'What kindness?' He said, 'The wine,'

and swore, 'You shall not taste it.'

ورُبّ مدام تروق التي

شربت على حسنه الرائق

And many a delightful wine was that

I drank in the presence of his limpid beauty,

معتقة من ذوي الحجب في

يمين محجّبة عاتق

aged, from those behind veils, in

the right hand of a veiled maiden.

وفاتكة كالمدام التي

تدير على لينها مادق

And a deadly beauty, like the wine that

she circulates, despite her softness—[final word unclear].

تنزه في الثغر مبني في

محل العذيب وفي بارق

Pleasure at the mouth is established in

the abode of al-ʿUdhayb and in Bāriq.

زمان شباب مضيء مضى

بعيشٍ لنا فائزٍ فائق

A radiant season of youth passed,

with a life for us triumphant and surpassing.

وجاء مشيب على جانبيْ

عذاري وحاشاك كالباصق

And gray hair came upon both sides

of my cheek-down, like a spitter—far be that from you.

فعينايَ في الليل محلوقتان

وفي اليوم من مائها الدافق

So at night my two eyes are shaved bare,

and by day, from their gushing water.

وقلبيَ حرَّانُ من لوعةٍ

أتت من كئيب النوى الفارق

And my heart burns with anguish

brought by dismal, sundering separation,

ومن زمنٍ بعد ذاك الزمان

عقوق كمثل اسمه عائق

and by an age, after that bygone age,

ungrateful, obstructive like its name.

محاذق في الضرّ لي أفرقت

خلاف القياس من الحاذق

Adept at harming me—I distinguished it,

against analogy, from 'the adept.'

وحملت في الأرض من خطبه

ذُرا جبل في السما شاهق

And on earth I bore, from its calamities,

the peaks of a mountain towering into heaven.

لسنيَ بالفم كم قارعٍ

ولحميَ بالهمّ كم عارق

How many a striker at my tooth within my mouth,

and how many a gnawer of my flesh through care!

وقلبي المعذب مع همه

لدى القلب في مخلبيْ باشِق

And my tortured heart, with all its care,

lies, at a turning, in a sparrowhawk’s two talons.

لعل صديق صديق بمصر

يخفف بالشام عن عاتق

Perhaps a true friend in Egypt

will lighten a shoulder’s burden in Syria,

بخطوة ساعٍ مثابٍ إلى

حمى الفضل والكرم السابق

with the step of a rewarded messenger toward

the sanctuary of merit and surpassing generosity.

فنشكو فعال الزمان الغلام

لسيده الفاتق الراتق

Then we complain of the deeds of Time, the servant,

to its master, who rends and mends:

عليّ سيوف لشأوِ العلى

وحاتم في القوم من لاحق

ʿAlī—swords for the farthest reach of glory—

and Ḥātim, among the people, is one of those who follow.

مجيد العطا ومجيد السطا

بممتشق فيهما ماشق

Masterly in giving and masterly in assault,

with a drawn sword in both, swift to strike.

له الله من راتقٍ في الورى

أموراً كباراً ومن فاتق

God uphold him, a mender among humankind

of great affairs, and one who rends.

وميكال دهر جديد على

يديه تصبّ يد الرازق

And Mīkāl of a new age—upon

his hands the Provider’s hand pours.

من الغرب والشرق راجوه لا

يردّ حماه رجا الطارق

His hopeful petitioners, from west and east—never

does his sanctuary reject a night-visitor’s hope.

فيلقى الجوينيّ في الوفد من

ندًى عنده ما لقى المالقي

So al-Juwaynī finds among the delegation such

generosity with him as al-Mālaqī found.

على خلفاء كثيرٍ أبرّ

بسؤدده الراسخ السامق

He has surpassed many caliphs

through his firmly rooted, towering lordliness.

فيا عون المكتفي إذ بدت

علاه ويا خجل الواثق

O aid of al-Muktafī, when his

eminence appeared; O shame of al-Wāthiq!

فيا صائغ اللفظ صوغ الشنوف

زهت في حلا سوقه النافق

O fashioner of words as earrings are fashioned,

glittering among the ornaments of his thriving market.

أغثْ مبعداً لاقياً للأسى

يلوذ بإحسانك اللائق

Help an exile who encounters sorrow,

seeking refuge in your fitting kindness.

صباح الطوى من دمشق التي

خدمت ومن حلب فالق

The morning of hunger, from Damascus—which

I served—and from Aleppo, breaks forth.

وفي حلبٍ راتبٍ قانعٍ

ولكن نعته يَدا ناعق

And in Aleppo, content with a stipend,

yet its description: a crier’s two hands [wording unclear].

وعائلة أعولت كلما

أطلت على نفسي الزاهق

And a family wails whenever

it looks upon my departing breath.

على أنني وليَ الصبر قد

ألفت بهذا الشقا الراهق

Yet I, possessed of patience, have

grown accustomed to this overwhelming misery.

فلو قيل فارق ولا تبتئس

أيست لقولهُم فارق

If told, 'Depart, and do not grieve,'

I would despair at their word, 'Depart.'

وقد آن لي من يد العمر أن

أسير إلى رحمة الخالق

And now, from the hand of life, my time has come

to journey to the Creator’s mercy.

وما فتر هذا الهلال القديم

لخلق عليها سوى خافق

And this ancient crescent has not slackened

for creatures upon it, save a fluttering one [wording unclear].

فداك محبّ عطفت الولا

على حبّه عطفةَ الناسق

May a lover be your ransom; you joined devotion

to his love with an arranger’s joining.

طفقت له مزوياً نبْتَهُ

زماناً بطافحك الطافق

You began making his growth wither for him

for a time, with your brimming, pouring bounty.

وأحييت منه ومن لفظه

لمن قد يرى رمق الرامق

And from him and his words you revived,

for whoever might see, a watcher’s lingering breath.

فكم من شهيد زكيٍّ على

جميل ثناه وكم سابق

How many a righteous witness to

his fair praise, and how many a forerunner!

وأنت الذي لم يزل بشره

لظامٍ وسارٍ سنا بارق

And you are the one whose cheer has always been,

for the thirsty and the night-traveler, the gleam of lightning.

وأنت الذي في السهى قدره

بعيّوق شاهده الناطق

And you are the one whose rank is at al-Suhā,

with al-ʿAyyūq as its speaking witness.

لا بدعَ لفظكَ كم حاسدٍ

كليم حشاً دونه صاعق

Your eloquence is no surprise: how many an envier,

wounded within, with a thunderbolt before him,

تنزّه في روضة المجتلى

على المرخ من همة اللاصق

took pleasure in the garden of the spectacle,

on the markh-tree, with a clinger’s ambition.

فعيناه في المرخ حيث اجتلت

بديعاً وأحشاه في دابق

His eyes are on the markh-tree, where they beheld

a marvel, while his innards are in Dābiq.

ملكت بحقلِ جلاد الجلال

وحيداً فمزّقت في مازق

You ruled in the field of majesty’s combat,

alone, and tore apart amid the straits.

وأفردت نظماً سرياً فما

لبيتك في النظم من سارق

And you made noble verse unique; there is

no thief for your line among verses.

وأبعدت بالرغم والعجز عن

جنا دَوْحك الناضر الباسق

And you kept them, through humiliation and impotence, far from

the fruit of your verdant, lofty spreading tree.

فيا طرسيَ ألثم ثراه المري

ع ألفاً ويا مدحةُ عانق

O my page, kiss his lush earth

a thousand times; O praise, embrace him.

وعشْ يا ربيب التقى والعلى

لدى أملٍ بالوفا صادق

Live on, O fosterling of piety and glory,

amid hope that is true in fulfillment.

ومبلغ علم بإعجازه

رمى في حشا الندّ بالحارق

And a pinnacle of learning, whose inimitability

hurled burning fire into the rival’s heart.

علومك يا دوح للمجتني

وذكرك يا روض للناشق

Your sciences, O spreading tree, are for the fruit-gatherer;

and your renown, O garden, for one who inhales fragrance.