1. مازال بي مهر الشبيبة جامحاً

    حتى حملت على المشيب الكابي

    The colt of youth kept running wild within me,

    until I was borne upon stumbling gray age.

  2. فسمعت أقبح ما سمعت نداءها

    ما بال هذا الأشيب المتصابي

    Then I heard her cry—the ugliest thing I ever heard:

    “What is wrong with this gray-haired man who plays at youth?”

  3. إني حلفت برب أشرف كعبة

    في مشهد النشوات والإطراب

    I have sworn by the Lord of the noblest Kaaba,

    in the gathering of ecstasies and delights,

  4. وبكل مخلوع العذار مجرر

    فضل الإزار مسحب سحاب

    and by every unbridled one who trails

    the excess of his waist-wrap, sweeping and dragging it along;

  5. وبمصرع الدن الجريح وحرمة ال

    وتر الفصيح وذمة المضراب

    and by the fall of the wounded wine-jar, and the sanctity of the

    eloquent string, and the pledged honor of the plectrum.

  6. ومتى حلفت بمثلها متأولا

    فصدقت بالازلام والانصاب

    And whenever I swear by such things with a mental reservation,

    may I then believe in divining arrows and idol-stones,

  7. وأنا دعي في البلاغة ملصق

    في الشعر منسلخ عن الآداب

    and be a pretender in eloquence, an interloper

    in poetry, stripped of literary culture;

  8. ويباع في الأكراد شعري انه

    يغلو إذا ما بيع في الإعراب

    and may my verse be sold among the Kurds, for it

    fetches a high price when sold in eloquent Arabic.

  9. لقد ارتقت تبغي أبا الحسن العلى

    يطمحن منه إلى الأبي الآبي

    Indeed, the heights have risen in quest of Abu al-Hasan,

    aspiring through him to the proud, unyielding one—

  10. الموسوعي الناصري أبوة

    وخؤولة علوية الأنساب

    al-Mawsu‘i, al-Nasiri by paternal descent,

    and of Alid lineage on his mother's side,

  11. في حيث أرثت النبوة نارها

    فخبا لنور الحق كل شهاب

    where prophethood kindled its fire,

    and every flame faded before the light of truth.

  12. لا أدعي لك إنما بك أدعي

    اني وصلت الى أعز جناب

    I make no claim for you; through you alone I claim

    that I have reached the most honored presence.

  13. زاد الإله بكم قريشاً رفعة

    واقر عينا قصيها بن كلاب

    God has raised Quraysh in eminence through you,

    and gladdened the eyes of its Qusayy ibn Kilab.

  14. متناسلين وأنت كنت مرادهم

    مترددين إليك في الإصلاب

    They begot descendants, and you were their aim,

    passing toward you through the loins,

  15. حتى ولدت فاغفلوا أنسابهم

    وغدا وجودك أشرف الأنساب

    until you were born and they disregarded their lineages,

    and your existence became the noblest lineage.

  16. ألسان هاشم الذي يغروبه

    تفري وناظر غالب الغلاب

    O tongue of Hashim, with whose keen edges

    you cleave, and eye of Ghalib the conqueror—

  17. أشكو إليك عشية لم نفترق

    فيها على ملل ولا استعتاب

    I lament to you an evening when we did not part

    from weariness or any demand for amends.

  18. ما كنت إلا جنة فارقتها

    كرهاً فصب علي صوت عذاب

    You were nothing but a paradise I left

    unwillingly; then a sound of torment was poured upon me.

  19. ودعت دارك والسماء تجودني

    بيد الغمام فلا أرى بك ما بي

    I bade your house farewell while the sky showered me generously

    by the hand of the clouds—may I never see you suffer as I do.

  20. ما زلت أركض في الوصول مبارياً

    فيها الخيول لواحق الأقراب

    I kept running on my way to you, racing

    the lean-flanked horses along it.

  21. فجريت والعكاز أخصر شكتي

    قصراً ولكني أعز ركابي

    So I ran, my walking-stick the shortest of my arms,

    in length, yet I was the noblest of my mounts.

  22. ورأيت غالية الطريق ومسكه

    طيباً معداً لي على الأثواب

    And I saw the road's perfume-paste and its musk

    as fragrance prepared for me upon my clothes.

  23. وحمى كساؤك لا عدمت معيره

    دراعتي وعمامتي وجبابي

    Your cloak—may I never lose its lender—protected

    my tunic, my turban, and my robes.

  24. فوليت يا بحر السماحة كسوتي

    وولى أخوك الغيث بل ثيابي

    Thus you tended my clothing, O sea of generosity,

    while your brother, the rain, tended the soaking of my garments.

  25. غيثان هذا الذي من أجله

    خلق السحاب وذا سليل سحاب

    Two rains: this one is he for whose sake

    the clouds were created; the other is the offspring of clouds.

  26. فوصلت اشكو ذا واشكر ذا وبال

    غيثين ما بهما من التسكاب

    So I arrived, complaining of this one and thanking that, while the

    two rains poured with all their abundance.

  27. وخريدة عذراء رحت أزفها

    ما بين ألفاظ شرفن عذاب

    And a secluded virgin beauty I set out to lead as a bride,

    amid words both noble and sweet.

  28. جاءتك يحملها الجمال وربما

    وقف الحياء بها دوين الباب

    She came to you, borne by beauty; yet perhaps

    modesty halted her just short of the door.

  29. أهديتها خجلا إلى متغلغل الأ

    فكار محصد مرة الآداب

    I offered her bashfully to one with deeply penetrating

    thoughts and a tightly twisted cord of literary learning;

  30. لأبي القريض ابن المعاني بل أخي ال

    إعراب حين بفوه والإغراب

    to the father of verse, the son of meanings—rather, brother of

    eloquent expression, when it is in his mouth, and of striking originality.

  31. ضمن الحسين له وموسى رتبة

    في الفضل نافرة عن الخطاب

    Al-Husayn and Musa guaranteed him a rank

    in excellence that recoils from suitors.

  32. انظر بعين رضي إلى ما صغته

    واعره سمع مسامح وهاب

    Look with an approving eye upon what I have fashioned,

    and lend it a forgiving, generous ear;

  33. وتجاوز الخطأ الشنيع واخفه

    عن ناظر المتفيهق المغتاب

    overlook the ugly error and conceal it

    from the eye of the pompous, backbiting pedant.

  34. واجهر إذا أنشدتها في محفل

    فعثرت بين عيوبها بصواب

    And speak aloud if, reciting it in an assembly,

    you stumble upon something right among its faults.