1. شبّ الحشا قولُ الكواعب شابا

    وآهاً لهنّ كواعباً وشبابا

    The full-breasted maidens’ cry, “He has grown gray,” set my heart ablaze.

    And ah, for them as maidens, and for youth!

  2. ومضى الصبا ومن التصابي بعده

    صيرتُ للدمعِ الدماءَ خضابا

    Youth has passed, and through playing young after it,

    I made blood a dye for my tears.

  3. هيهات أقصرُ لهوَه وتوزّعت

    أوقاتُ من فقدَ الصبا وَتصابا

    Alas! I curb its pleasures, and scattered are

    the hours of one who has lost youth and plays at it.

  4. وغضضت جفني عن مغازلة الظبا

    ولقد أجرّ لبرْدِه أهدابا

    And I lowered my eyelid, shunning flirtation with the gazelles,

    though once I trailed the fringes of its mantle.

  5. ولقد أرودُ الحي خلت رِماحه

    دَوحاً وموقعَ نبلهِ أعشابا

    And indeed I would roam the encampment, deeming its spears

    spreading trees, and its arrows’ landing-ground, grass.

  6. فأدير إمّا بالمدام معَ الدُّمى

    أو بالدِّماء مع الكماة شرابا

    So I would pass round either wine among doll-like beauties,

    or a draught of blood among armored warriors.

  7. أسدٌ تآلفني الظباءُ وتختشي

    من صارمي الصقر الغيور ذبابا

    I am a lion whom gazelles befriend, and they fear

    the tip of my keen sword, the jealous falcon.

  8. أيامَ في ظليْ صبا وصبابةٍ

    أحبى بألطاف المها وأحابى

    In days beneath the twin shades of youth and ardent love,

    I received the oryxes’ tender gifts and was favored

  9. من كل ناشرَةِ الوفا طائيَّةٍ

    قد ناسبت بنوَالها الأنسابا

    by every woman of Ṭayyiʾ spreading fidelity,

    who matched her lineage with her bounty.

  10. غيدآء تسفرُ عن محاسنٍ دُميَةٍ

    حلت بصدغي شعرها محرابا

    A supple beauty, unveiling the charms of a figurine,

    who adorned a prayer niche with the hair-locks at her temples.

  11. سلبت بمقلتها فؤاداً واجباً

    حتى عرفت السلب والإيجابا

    With her eye she stole a throbbing heart,

    until I understood negation and affirmation.

  12. إن شئتُ من كاساتها أو ثغرِها

    أرشفتُ خمرا أو لثمت حبابا

    If I wished, from her cups or her mouth,

    I sipped wine or kissed bubbles.

  13. أو شئت إن غابت يغيب رقيبها

    فذكرتُ موصول اللقا وَربابا

    Or if, when she was absent, I wished her watcher absent too,

    I recalled unbroken union and Rabāb.

  14. ولهجت بالأغزالِ أتبع زورها

    صدقاً بمدح ابن النبي منابا

    And I dwelt on love lyrics, following their falsehood

    with truth in praise of the Prophet’s descendant, in repentance.

  15. وإذا الحسين سما له حسن الثنا

    فلقد أطالا مظهراً وأطابا

    And when the beauty of praise rises to al-Ḥusayn,

    the two indeed heighten and sweeten the display.

  16. أزكى الورى أصلا وأعلاهم يداً

    فرعاً وأَكرَمهم جَنىً وجنابا

    Purest of mankind in root, highest among them in hand,

    in branch, and most generous in fruit and abode;

  17. وأجلُّ أَحساباً فكيف إذا جلت

    سُوَر الكتاب بمدحه أنسابا

    and noblest in ancestral honors—how much more when

    the Book’s surahs reveal lineages in his praise!

  18. نجم الفواطم من كرائمِ هاشمٍ

    والمرضعين من الكرامِ سحابا

    Star of the Fāṭimas among Hāshim’s noble women,

    and of the noble ones who suckle clouds;

  19. والخمسة الأشباح نورا قبل ما

    رَقمَ السماكُ من الدجى جلبابا

    and of the five forms, luminous before

    al-Simāk embroidered a cloak out of darkness.

  20. ذو الفضل لا تحصى مواقع سحبه

    والشخص منفرداً يضيء شهابا

    Possessor of bounty: countless are the places where his clouds rain,

    and his figure, alone, shines as a meteor.

  21. ومناقب البيتِ الذي من أفقه

    بدت الكواكب سنَّة وكتابا

    And of the virtues of the House from whose horizon

    the stars appeared as Sunnah and Book;

  22. وعجائب العلمِ التي من بحرها

    ماس اليراع بطرسه إعجابا

    and of the wonders of knowledge, from whose sea

    the reed-pen swayed proudly on its page in admiration;

  23. ومحاسنُ الأقوال والشيمِ التي

    قسمتْ لديهِ وسميتْ آدابا

    and of the beauties of speech and character, which

    were apportioned in his presence and called refinements.

  24. عَلَويَّةٌ أوصافها عُلْوِيَّةٌ

    قد بذّت الإيجاز والإسهابا

    ʿAlid are they; their attributes are lofty,

    having surpassed brevity and expansiveness alike.

  25. في كفه قلمٌ يُخافُ ويُرتجى

    فيجانس الإعطاءَ والأَعطابا

    In his palm is a pen both feared and looked to with hope,

    so it is kin to giving and destruction.

  26. عصمت منافعه العواصم تارة

    شهداً يصوب بها وطوراً صابا

    Its benefits protected the capitals: at times

    it rains honey upon them, at times bitter sap.

  27. بسداده تجلى الخطوبُ ويجتلي

    صوب الكلامِ أوانِساً أترابا

    Through its right aim, calamities are dispelled, and it beholds

    the shower of speech as companionable maidens of equal age.

  28. عجباً له مما تضيءُ سطوره

    سبلَ الهدى وتحير الألبابا

    What a wonder it is: its lines illuminate

    the paths of guidance and bewilder minds!

  29. جمدَت به سحب الحيا ولو أنه

    يوم الوغى لمسَ الحديد لذَابا

    Rain-clouds froze through it; yet, had it

    touched iron on battle-day, the iron would have melted.

  30. إن جاد أرضاً لفظُهُ فكأنما

    نبتت لسكر عقولنا أعنابا

    If his speech showers a land, it is as though

    it has grown grapes to intoxicate our minds,

  31. حتى إذا جاءت صواعقُ رعبهِ

    أضحى جميع نباتها عنّابا

    until, when the thunderbolts of his terror arrive,

    all its growth turns to jujubes.

  32. لله درّكَ يا حِمى حَلبٍ لقدْ

    أمطرت صوب ندائه وصوابا

    God bless your excellence, O refuge of Aleppo! Indeed,

    you have showered forth the outpouring of his call and sound judgment,

  33. من كلّ فاتنة الترسُّل لو بدت

    لنُهاك يا عبد الرحيمِ لغابا

    from every enchantress of letter-writing that, if revealed

    to your mind, O ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, would make it vanish;

  34. ونظيمةٍ دَرَتِ البداةُ أن في

    حَضرِ الممالك عندها أعرابا

    and a little poem through which the desert folk learned that, in

    kingdoms’ settled lands, there are Bedouins in its presence.

  35. هشمت فخارَ العرب هاشمُ واحتوت

    حتى القريض لنسلها أسلابا

    Hāshim shattered the Arabs’ pride and claimed

    even poetry as spoils for its offspring.

  36. قلعت بها أوتاد كلّ معاند

    وتمسكت هي للسما أسبابا

    With it you uprooted the tent-pegs of every opponent,

    and it itself held fast to ropes toward heaven.

  37. ولمثلها الضَّلِّيل ضلَّ فكيف لو

    يُدْعى تكلف بدأةً وجوابا

    And for its like the Errant One lost his way—how, then, if

    he were called to compose an initial letter and a reply?

  38. يا ابن الوصيّ وصية بمقصر

    من بعد ما جهدت قُواه ولابا

    O son of the Legatee, a plea for one who falls short,

    after his powers were exhausted and he circled in thirst,

  39. في نظمه عنكم وخطّ يراعهِ

    صغر فلا ألفاً أجادَ ولا با

    in composing verse about you; his reed-pen’s script

    dwindled—he formed neither an alif nor a bāʾ well.

  40. باب البديع فُتوحكم وأنا امرؤٌ

    لا طاقةً لي في البديعِ ولا با

    You have opened the gate of rhetorical art; I am a man

    with no capacity in rhetorical art, nor even a bāʾ.