1. من مبلغ علماء الأعصر الأوَل

    إن التفاصيل قد جمّعن في الجمل

    Who will inform the scholars of the earliest ages

    that the particulars have been gathered into the whole?

  2. تجمعت في فتى العليا ولا عجبٌ

    إن يجمع الله كلّ الناس في رجل

    They have gathered in a youth of lofty rank; no wonder

    if God gathers all mankind in one man.

  3. قاضي القضاة الذي سارت مآثرهُ

    بغير مثلٍ يوازيها سوى المثل

    The chief judge, whose glorious deeds have spread far,

    with no equal to match them, save a proverbial likeness.

  4. جمال ذي الأرض لا زالت محاسنه

    عن أفقها وجمال الدِّين والدول

    The beauty of this earth—may his graces never depart

    from its horizon—and the beauty of religion and dynasties.

  5. من أنشر العلم من بعدَ الهمود ومن

    ضمَّت يدله المعالي وهو كالهمل

    He who revived learning after its dormancy, and whose

    hand gathered lofty attainments while it lay like untended livestock.

  6. من اسْتقامت به الأوقات واعْتدلت

    للناسِ قبلَ نزول الشمس في الحمل

    He through whom the times grew upright and balanced

    for people, before the sun's entry into Aries.

  7. من لو أعارت حلاه المشتري شرفاً

    لم تعترضه عوادِي النحس من زحل

    He whose graces, had they lent Jupiter exaltation—

    no assaults of ill fortune from Saturn would have crossed it.

  8. أما دمشق فقد فازت بما ارْتقبت

    من طارفِ السعد أو من تالد الأمل

    As for Damascus, it has won what it awaited:

    newly gained good fortune or long-inherited hope.

  9. فليهنها إن راعي حكمها يقِظٌ

    بالعلم حكم لا بالسعي والحيل

    So may it rejoice: indeed, the guardian of its justice is vigilant,

    judging through learning, not through striving and stratagems.

  10. ليت ابن إدريس لاقى ابن الدروس بها

    لكان يملأ قلب الأمّ بالجذل

    If only Ibn Idris had met Ibn al-Durus there,

    he would have filled the heart of al-Umm with joy.

  11. ليتَ القضاة الأولى عادوا لما فقدوا

    مواقع القلم المرعيّ بالمقل

    If only the judges of old returned, they would not miss

    the strokes of the pen watched over by eyes.

  12. ما أوضح الحكم فيها عن إمام هدى

    بالعلم متَّزر بالحلم مشتمل

    How clear the judgment there, issuing from an imam of guidance,

    girded with learning and cloaked in forbearance.

  13. لين الخلائق صعب البأس مانعه

    كأنه الجدّ بين السهل والجبل

    Gentle in character, yet protected by formidable might,

    he is like firm ground between plain and mountain.

  14. أغرّ لو كانَ منه في الهلال سناً

    لم يستهلّ بسعدٍ غير متَّصل

    Radiant: had the crescent a gleam of his light,

    it would never rise with good fortune that did not endure.

  15. وظاهريّ الأيادي غير خافيةٍ

    وليس عن شيم العليا بمعتزل

    Manifest in his benefactions, which are not concealed,

    he is not withdrawn from the traits of lofty rank.

  16. موكل بنقيَّات الأمور له

    إلى العلى عزمٌ لا وانٍ ولا وَكل

    Devoted to the purest affairs, he has

    a resolve toward the heights, neither slack nor feeble.

  17. تزين العلم في عينيه حمَّلها

    كلّ الدجى وحماها النوم في الكلل

    Learning adorned itself in his eyes; he burdened them with

    all the night's darkness, keeping sleep from them behind bed-curtains.

  18. لم يكس في حلل العلياء يوسعها

    حتَّى لها عن قدود البيض في الحلل

    He did not clothe [it] in robes of high honor, making them ample—

    until, for them, away from fair women's figures in robes [syntax unclear].

  19. له صفاتٌ بها الأقلام راكعةٌ

    كأنها من قبيل الصحف في قبل

    He has qualities before which pens bow,

    as though they were kin to sacred scrolls, facing directions of prayer.

  20. سل علمه عن خفيَّاتٍ محجَّبةٍ

    وعن إحاطة أوصافٍ فلا تسل

    Ask his knowledge about hidden, veiled matters,

    but do not ask to encompass his qualities.

  21. مكارم لو رأى الطائيّ مسرحها

    لقال لا ناقتي فيها ولا جملي

    Noble deeds: had al-Ta'i seen their open field,

    he would have said, 'Neither my she-camel nor my he-camel is in this.'

  22. ومنطق لو أراد الفخر غايته

    لبات بالريِّ يشكو بارح الغلل

    And eloquence: if pride sought its furthest reach,

    it would spend the night, though quenched, lamenting fierce thirst.

  23. وسؤدد يتدانى من تواضعه

    ولو ترقَّت إليه الشهب لم تصل

    And lordly eminence made approachable through his humility,

    though, were the stars to climb toward it, they could never reach it.

  24. وفصل قول يلذّ الخصم موقعهُ

    حتَّى يودّ قضاءً غير منفصل

    And decisive speech whose impact delights the adversary,

    until he desires a judgment never concluded.

  25. قالت يراعته والفكر يرشدها

    أصالة الرأي صانتني عن الخطل

    His reed pen said, with thought guiding it,

    'Soundness of judgment has guarded me against error.'

  26. وأنشدت وبأرضِ الشام مركزها

    أعلى الممالك ما يبنى على القلل

    And it recited, its station in the land of Syria,

    'The highest kingdoms are those built upon summits.'

  27. وعطلت كتباً في الدين مارقةً

    فكلّ درع كتاب قدَّ من قبل

    And it rendered powerless books straying from religion,

    so every book's coat of armor was rent from the front.

  28. قد ختمت بيضة الإسلام والْتحقت

    بعشِّ أقلامه في الحادثِ الجلل

    It has sealed the egg of Islam, which has settled

    in the nest of his pens amid the grave calamity.

  29. كم من سعاة علومٍ قد تقدَّمهم

    تقدُّم السعي بالهادِي على الكفل

    How many seekers of learning he has outstripped,

    as the gait sends the neck ahead of the rump.

  30. إذا قصصت على راوٍ له خبراً

    حلّى من الذوقِ أو حلّى من العطل

    If you recount a report of him to a narrator,

    he sweetens it to the taste, or adorns it after bareness.

  31. إذا شدا صوت عافية ومادحهُ

    غدا وحاشاه مثل الشارب الثمل

    When the voice of bounty-seekers and his panegyrist sings,

    he becomes—far be it from him!—like a drunken drinker.

  32. يا ماليَ البيت بيت الشعر من مدحٍ

    وكانَ أقفرَ بالوعساء من طلل

    O you who fill the house—the house of verse—with praise,

    when it was more desolate than a ruined campsite on soft sand!

  33. يا من رأى جوده العافون منسرحاً

    فوجَّهوا العيس تطوي الرمل بالرمل

    O you whose bounty the seekers saw flowing freely,

    so they steered pale camels, folding the sands away at a trot.

  34. ثنى امتداحك شعري عن عوائده

    فما بدأت بتشبيب ولا غزَل

    Praising you turned my poetry from its habits,

    so I did not begin with a lover's prelude or amatory verse.

  35. هذا على أنَّ لي عيناً مسهَّدة

    للحبِّ مخلوقة الإنسان من عجل

    This, though I have a sleepless eye,

    for love, its pupil fashioned out of haste.

  36. أستلمح البرق غربيّ الديار متى

    تقدح أشعّته الأحشاء تشتعل

    I glimpse lightning west of the dwellings; whenever

    its rays strike sparks in my entrails, they blaze.

  37. وأستصحّ بمعتل الصبا جسدي

    وربَّما صحَّت الأجسام بالعلل

    And I seek to heal my body with the languid east wind;

    sometimes bodies grow healthy through ailments.

  38. وأذكر العيش مصقولاً سوالفه

    إذ مصر داري وأحبابي بها خوَلي

    And I remember life, its bygone days polished bright,

    when Egypt was my home, and my loved ones there my household.

  39. هيهات ذكرك أحلى في فمي وكلا

    كفَّيك لا ذو اللمي أشهى إلى قبلي

    Far from it! Your mention is sweeter in my mouth, and both

    your palms—not a dusky-lipped beloved—are dearer to my kisses.

  40. تشاغل الناس في لذَّات دهرهمُ

    وأنت بالفضل والأفضال في شغل

    People have busied themselves with the pleasures of their age,

    while you are occupied with excellence and beneficence.