Sol 6.1

  1. أوجهك أم جنَّة عاليَة

    قطوف لرائيها دانيه

    Is that your face, or a lofty garden,

    Its fruit-clusters within reach of its beholder?

  2. ومبسمك العذب أم بارقٌ

    تحثُّ سحائب أجفانيه

    And your sweet smiling mouth, or a lightning flash,

    Stirring the clouds of my eyelids?

  3. بروحيَ مالكة للحشا

    دموعيَ من حلقِها جاريه

    My soul be ransom for the mistress of my heart;

    My tears stream from her earrings.

  4. ووالية قد كدِّرت بالجفا

    حياتي فيا ليتها القاضيه

    And a ruler who, with estrangement, has clouded

    My life—ah, if only she would end it!

  5. معذّبة القلب في حبِّها

    لتهنك عيشتك الراضيه

    Tormentor of the heart in its love for her,

    May your contented life be sweet to you!

  6. لأرخص دمعي غداة السرا

    تأرِّج أنفاسك العاليه

    My tears were surely cheapened at dawn after night travel

    By the fragrance of your lofty breaths.

  7. فلله رائحة من شذاكَ

    حياتيَ من أجلِها غاديه

    By God, what a fragrance comes from your perfume!

    My life is departing for its sake.

  8. غنَّيت بحسنك عن واصفٍ

    وما كلُّ غانيه غانيه

    Your beauty has left me no need of a describer;

    And not every fair woman needs no adornment.

  9. ووافقني في طريق الردى

    حسام لواحظك العاديه

    And on the road to death there met me

    The sword of your assailing glances.

  10. وشقّ السهاد سما مقلتي

    فيومئذ أضلعي واهيه

    And sleeplessness split the sky of my eye;

    On that day, my ribs were frail.

  11. وزادت جنوني ذات الدلال

    وليسَ المدامع بالرَّاقيه

    And the coy one increased my madness,

    And tears are no healer.

  12. ورُبَّ عذول على حبِّها

    عصيت ملامته الناهيه

    And many a reproacher of my love for her

    Whose forbidding rebukes I disobeyed.

  13. فقالَ وأحنقَ في غيظِهِ

    أقوم فقلت إلى الهاويه

    Then he said, fiercer in his rage,

    'I shall rise!' I said, 'Into the abyss!'

  14. أطيع وقد قالَ لي باطلاً

    وأين سلويَ والواشيه

    Should I obey, when he has spoken falsehood to me?

    And what has my solace to do with the talebearer?

  15. فقدتك ناصية للوشاة

    فاًنَّك كاذبة خاطيه

    May I be rid of you, forelock of talebearers!

    For you are lying and sinful.

  16. أرى الحبّ يا صاحبي خلَّة

    تدلُّ على رقِّة الحاليه

    I see love, my friend, as a trait

    That reveals the tenderness of the one it adorns.

  17. فدع قلبي الصبّ يغشى الردى

    وتقتله الفئة الباغيه

    Then let my lovesick heart meet death,

    And let the rebellious band slay it.

  18. ذكرتُ الشباب وأقمارهُ

    جوانح للمَّة الدَّاجيه

    I remembered youth and its moons,

    Leaning toward the dark locks.

  19. وروضاً كأنَّ سقاه المدام

    تبتري سواقيه الجاريه

    And a garden as though wine had watered it,

    Its running watercourses vying with one another.

  20. تولَّى الزمانُ بهذا وذا

    فلم يبقَ ساقٍ ولا ساقيه

    Time departed with both this and that,

    So neither cupbearer nor watercourse remained.

  21. وطوَّح بي الدهرُ في غربةٍ

    صُليت بنيرانِها الخاميه

    And fate hurled me into exile,

    Where I was scorched by its smoldering fires.

  22. كأنيَ خارج خط استواء

    فما ليَ في ظلِّها زاويه

    As though I were beyond the equator,

    So I have no corner in its shade.

  23. طروسيَ ناشرة فضلها

    وبالجوعِ لي مهجة طاويه

    My pages spread forth their merit,

    While hunger leaves my soul folded tight.

  24. أضيع وقد ضاعَ من منطقي

    شذا ما بدا قبل في الباديه

    I go to waste, and wasted from my speech is

    A fragrance never before found in the desert.

  25. عسى كرم الأفضل المرتجى

    يوقع في قصَّتي الشاكيه

    May the hoped-for bounty of al-Afdal

    Set its signature upon my plaintive petition.

  26. مليك له سورٌ في الثنا

    تظلُّ السراة لها جافيه

    A sovereign with chapters of praise to his name,

    To which the nobles remain strangers.

  27. وبأس تبيت عيون الجرا

    ح لهيبته في الوغى داميه

    And a might that makes the eyes of wounds pass the night

    Bleeding in battle, in awe of him.

  28. وإيضاح رأي بنحوِ العلى

    قضاياه شافية كافيه

    And clarity of judgment directed toward the heights,

    Its rulings healing and sufficient.

  29. وعفو يقول لساري الذنو

    ب إلى جبلِ الحلم يا ساريه

    And a pardon that tells the night-traveler through sins:

    'To the mountain of forbearance, O Sariya!'

  30. ولفظ يقرِّط أسماعنا

    بما لا رأت مثله ماريه

    And speech that hangs earrings upon our ears

    With what Mariya never saw the like of.

  31. وجود ينقص جود الحيا

    موازين أنعمه الوافيه

    And bounty that leaves the rain's bounty wanting

    Beside the full measures of his favors.

  32. فخذْ من قواعد أكياسه

    ودعْ لندى حاتم الماشيه

    So take from the depths of his purses,

    And leave livestock to Hatim's bounty.

  33. له الله من سائر المكرما

    ت وأطواد سؤدده راسيه

    God bless him for all his noble deeds,

    And the mountains of his greatness stand firm.

  34. متيَّمة بالعلى نفسهُ

    وعين السهى تحتها ساهيه

    His soul is enamored of the heights,

    And Suha's eye is heedless beneath it.

  35. وحاكمة بين حسَّاده

    وقصَّادِه يدهُ الساميه

    And judging between those who envy him

    And those who seek him is his exalted hand.

  36. فهاتيك خائفة بأسها

    وهذي لأنعمها راجيه

    So the former fear its might,

    And the latter hope for its favors.

  37. تظلّ على العسر أقلامه

    فتأخذه أخذة رابيه

    His pens remain poised over hardship,

    Then seize it with an overwhelming grip.

  38. سمعنا محاسن قوم ولا

    كمثل محاسنه البادِيه

    We have heard of people's merits, but none

    Are like his manifest merits.

  39. من القومِ تمحى نجوم السما

    وآثار سؤددهم باقيه

    He is of a people: heaven's stars may be effaced,

    But the traces of their greatness remain.

  40. رياض محامدهم غضَّة

    والسحب عوارفهم هاميه

    The gardens of their virtues are fresh,

    And their bounties are clouds pouring down.

  41. أأزكى الورَى أسرة برّه

    وأسعدهم همَّة عاليه

    O purest of humankind in virtuous lineage,

    And most fortunate of them in lofty aspiration,

  42. إليك بعثتُ وفود الرجا

    ووجَّهت همَّتيَ القاصيه

    To you I sent the delegations of hope,

    And directed my far-ranging ambition.

  43. وأمَّلت برّك دون الورَى

    زمان يديْ عنهمُ نائيه

    And hoped for your goodness above all others',

    When my hand was far removed from them.

  44. دعاني سواك لعين النوال

    فقلت على عينك الرَّاقيه

    Another invited me to the fountainhead of bounty,

    So I said, 'Let a charm-healer tend your eye!'

  45. وكانَ المؤيد ثمَّ انْقضى

    فأيَّدَ مطالبي العانيه

    Al-Mu'ayyad was, and then was gone;

    So he strengthened my distressed appeals.

  46. وخذها عقلة مدح على

    بني الشعر رتبتها عاليه

    And take it, a tether of praise; above

    The sons of poetry its rank stands high.

  47. بحقِّ الركوب لمن قالها

    على عنق الضِّدِّ بالغاشيه

    By the right of the one who spoke it to ride

    Upon his rival's neck, with a saddlecloth.

  48. يتيمة فكر امرئٍ يرتجي

    كفالة أيامه الماضيه

    An orphan of the thought of a man who hopes

    For guardianship of his bygone days.