أرح المحب فلست من نصائه — Alablah Albaghdadi

أرِح المحَب فلست من نُصَائِهِ

يكفيه ما يلقاه من بُرَحائِهِ

Give the lover respite—you are not among his [advisers].

The agonies he encounters are enough for him.

لا داء اقتل للشجي من الهوى

وحياته في أن يموت بدائِه

No sickness is deadlier to the grief-stricken than love,

and his life lies in dying of his affliction.

لا تعذلنّ على الصبابة مغرما

يمسي ونار الشوق حشو حشائه

Do not reproach an enamored man for his ardor,

as evening finds the fire of longing filling his breast.

إن لم تكن خلاًّ تعين فلا تكن

عونا عليه وخلِّهِ بعنائه

If you are not a friend who helps, then do not be

an ally against him; leave him to his suffering.

ومهفهف كالغصن هزّته الصبا

يصبي الحليم بخطره المتتائه

And a slender youth, like a branch stirred by the east wind,

infatuates the self-possessed with his proud, swaying gait.

عجبا لحمرة خده كيف اغتدت

تزداد فرط تضرم في مائه

How strange the redness of his cheek, how it has come

to burn ever more fiercely amid its moisture!

بدر يتيه بشعره وظلامه

وبنور صبح جبينه وضيائه

A full moon, proud of his hair and its darkness,

and of the dawn-light of his brow and its radiance.

لم أنسه إذ زارني متستراض

يترقب الغفلات من رقبائه

I have not forgotten how he visited me, [concealed],

waiting for lapses in his watchers' vigilance.

يخفي فتعرفه الوشاة بنفحة

من عرفه كالمسك عند ذكائه

He hides, yet the tale-bearers recognize him by a waft

of his fragrance, like musk when its scent grows strong.

وحياته لولا الحياء وخوفه

أكثرت من تقبيل ورد حيائه

By his life, were it not for modesty and his fear,

I would have kissed the roses of his blush again and again.

سقيا له ما كان أحلى وصله

لو لم ينغصه بمر جفائه

May rain bless him—how sweet his union was,

if only he had not spoiled it with his bitter estrangement!

لهفي على غي الشباب وإن غدا

رشد المشيب ملفعي بردائه

Alas for youth's waywardness, though now

the wisdom of gray hair wraps me in its mantle.

أيام اسكنني السواد وحسنه

من قلب ذات الخال في سودائه

In the days when dark hair and its beauty lodged me

in the dark core of the mole-adorned woman's heart.

جار المشيب فليته متعلم

من عدل مولانا وحسن وفائهِ

Gray hair has wronged me; would that it learned

from our master's justice and the beauty of his fidelity.

أقسمت ما طئ الثرى متخلف

أندى يدا منه ببذل ثرائه

I swear, no [successor] has trodden the earth

more openhanded than he in lavishing his wealth.

طود منيع من ذؤابة هاشم

تجد النعفاة القيء في أفنائهِ

An impregnable mountain from the summit of Hashim's line,

where [petitioners find shade] within his precincts.

خضل الجناب الرحب تخضر المنى

لمؤملي جداواه في خضرائهِ

His spacious domain is lush; hopes grow green

for those seeking his bounty amid its verdure.

بخلائق كالروض حيّاه الحيا

سحرا وأضحك زهرة ببكائهِ

With virtues like a garden greeted by rain

before dawn, which made a flower laugh with its weeping.

المستضي فينا بأمر أنهِهِ

والمستضاء برأيه من بطحائهِ

Al-Mustadi among us, by his [God's] command,

and a source of light through his counsel, from his broad valley.

من معشر أضحي الحطيم وزمزم

ارثا لهم والركن من بطحائهِ

From a people for whom al-Hatim and Zamzam became

an inheritance, along with the Corner of his valley.

ضحكت له آيامنا واستبشرت

جذلا به وتخايلت كالتائهِ

Our days smiled upon him and rejoiced,

delighted in him, and strutted like one full of pride.

مازال يهنأ داءها فلو أنها

ملكت لسانا أفصحت بهنائهِ

He keeps tending their ailment; if they

possessed a tongue, they would proclaim his healing balm.

فالعدل قد ملاء البسيطة مساكناً

فيها وقد أرخى فضول ملائهِ

For justice has filled the earth, making its home

within it, and has let the folds of its robes hang loose.

ملك الرعية بالجميل فأصبحوا

وهم على الإطلاق من أسرائهِ

He won his subjects through kindness, so they became

his captives, although wholly free.

هذا يروح متيم دعوته وذا

حدب عليه يخصه بدعائهِ

One goes forth enthralled by his summons, and another,

affectionate toward him, singles him out in prayer.

داوى مريض الفقر وهو على شفا

فأتاه عاجل بره بشفائهِ

He healed one sick with poverty, already on the brink,

and his swift kindness came to him with a cure.

كم حادث جلّى جلاه مفرجا

بعزيمة كالسيف عند مضائهِ

How many a dire calamity he has dispelled, bringing relief,

with resolve like a sword in its sharpness.

إن جاشت الحرب العوان فعنده

جيش يلوح النصر في أثنائهِ

If war flares up anew, he has

an army amid whose ranks victory gleams,

وسوابغ كالغدر روشّتها الصَبا

وصوارم كالبَرقِ في لألائهِ

and full coats of mail like pools [rippled] by the east wind,

and keen swords like lightning in its brilliance.

قسم المنايا والمنى لعداته

وعفاته في أخذه وعطائهِ

He apportioned death and fulfilled hopes to his foes

and his petitioners, in his taking and his giving.

ما أسودّ ظن أخي رجاء مخفق

وأتاه إلا أبيض وجه رجائهِ

No disappointed seeker whose expectations had turned black

came to him without the face of his hope turning white.

غيث يجود لنا بصفوةِ مالِهِ

كرماً إذا ما الغيثُ ضنَّ بمائِهِ

A raincloud, he lavishes on us the choicest of his wealth,

generously, when rain is stingy with its water.

خلوا على آبائه وتأملوا

فبمجده شاد العلى وآبائهِ

Leave his forefathers aside, and reflect:

with his glory and his forefathers', he built high renown [syntax uncertain].

أأبا محمد الامام دعاء من

أضحى نداك ملبيِّياً لندائهِ

O Abu Muhammad, the Imam—this is the prayer of one

whose call your generosity has come to answer.

لقد اعتلقت من الوزير بمحصد الت

تَدبير مضاء على غلوائهِ

Indeed, you have taken hold, in the minister, of one firm in

planning, resolute in his onward course.

عضد الإله الدين منه بأروع

وَرِعٍ يحل المشكلات برائهِ

Through him God strengthened religion with a splendid man,

devout, who resolves difficulties through his [judgment].

مغرى بحبك ما صفا ود امرئ

في سائر الدنيا لكم لصفائهِ

Devoted to loving you—no man's affection has ever been

so pure toward you, in all the world, [as his].

كم خاض بحر وفي إلى أعدائكم

وأهاج نار الحرب في هيجائهِ

How often he plunged through a sea [of battle?] to reach your foes,

and stirred war's fire in his fierce fighting!

فالله يمنعنا ويحمي سر بنا

ببقاء ملكك دائما وبقائهِ

May God guard us and protect our [company],

through the lasting endurance of your reign, and his survival.

فتهن شهرا خبَّرتك سعودُهُ

بمسو جدّ صاعد وعلائهِ

Enjoy a month whose auspicious stars have foretold for you

the [ascent] of rising fortune and its loftiness.

وأسلم ودم ياخير خلق يجتدى

ما لاح نجم في أديم سمائهِ

Remain safe and endure, O best of creatures from whom bounty is sought,

so long as a star gleams on the face of its heaven.