أقرم بكر تباهي أيها الحفض — Abu Tammam

أَقَرمَ بَكرٍ تُباهي أَيُّها الحَفَضُ

وَنَجمَها أَيُّهَذا الهالِكُ الحَرَضُ

Do you vie with Bakr's great stallion, you baggage camel,

And her star, you doomed and wasted wretch?

تُنحي عَلى صَخرَةٍ صَمّاءَ تَحسِبُها

عُضواً خَلَوتَ بِهِ تَبري وَتَنتَحِضُ

You strike at an unyielding rock, thinking it

A limb you have all to yourself, to pare and strip of flesh.

في شامَتَينَ هُوَ الشَريُ الجَنِيُّ لَهُم

وَالصابُ وَالشَرَقُ المَسمومُ وَالجَرَضُ

Among gloaters, to whom he is freshly picked colocynth,

And bitter sap, poisoned choking, and stifling grief—

مُخامِري حَسَدٍ ما ضَرَّ غَيرَهُمُ

كَأَنَّما هُوَ في أَبدانِهِم مَرَضُ

Harboring envy that has harmed none but themselves,

As though it were a sickness in their bodies.

لا يَهنِىءِ العُصبَةَ المُحَمَرَّ أَعيُنُها

بِثَغرِ أَرّانَ هَذا الحادِثُ العَرَضُ

May the red-eyed band take no joy

In this sudden calamity at Arran's frontier.

ضَحى الشَجا مُستَطيلاً في حُلوقِهِم

مِن بَعدِ ما جاذَبوهُ وَهوَ مُعتَرِضُ

The choking bone has grown long in their throats,

After they tugged at it while it lay crosswise.

سَهمُ الخَليفَةِ في الهَيجا إِذا سُعِرَت

بِالبيضِ وَاِلتَفَّتِ الأَحقابُ وَالغُرُضُ

The caliph's arrow in battle, when it is set ablaze

With bright swords, and rear girths and fore-girths intertwine.

بِذَلِكَ السَهمِ ذي النَصلَينِ قَد حُفِزا

بِريشِ نَسرينَ يُرمى ذَلِكَ الغَرَضُ

With that arrow, whose two heads have been propelled

By the feathers of two eagles, that target is shot at.

ظِلٌّ مِنَ اللَهِ أَضحى أَمسِ مُنبَسِطاً

بِهِ عَلى الثَغرِ فَهوَ اليَومُ مُنقَبِضُ

A shade from God lay outspread yesterday

Through him over the frontier; today it has shrunk back.

لِخالِدٍ عِوَضٌ في كُلِّ ناحِيَةٍ

مِنهُ وَلَيسَ لَهُ مِن خالِدٍ عِوَضُ

There is a substitute for Khalid in every aspect

Of him; but he has no substitute for Khalid.

لَم تَنتَقِض عُروَةٌ مِنهُ وَلا سَبَبٌ

لَكِنَّ أَمرَ بَني الآمالِ يَنتَقِضُ

No loop of his has come undone, nor any cord,

But the affairs of hope's sons unravel.