Sol 6.1

  1. يمينك لجّة البحرِ الخضمّ

    وحلمك قلة الطَّودِ الأشمِ

    Your right hand is the deep of the vast sea,

    and your forbearance the summit of the lofty mountain.

  2. فضلت الغيث يا غيث البرايا

    بكف ثرةِ الأنواء تهمي

    You surpass the rain, O rain of all creation,

    with a hand that pours down copious showers.

  3. فباطنها لتنويل ورفد

    وظاهرها لتقبيل ولثمِ

    So its palm is for gifts and bounty,

    and its back for kissing and pressing to the lips.

  4. إذا دجت الخطوب برقت فيها

    بماض مرهف ومضي عزمِ

    When calamities grow dark, you flash amid them

    with a keen, honed blade and steadfast resolve.

  5. فجهم عند مشتجر العوالي

    وعند البذل طلق غير جهمِ

    So you are grim where the tall spears interlock,

    and cheerful in giving, never grim.

  6. وعودُك صادقاتٌ ليس تلوى

    وَعودكَ غير ملويّ بمجسمِ

    Your promises are true, never turned aside,

    and your stem is unbent by anything weighty.

  7. أما وسماح عون الدين أني

    وجدت به الغنى وعدمت عدمي

    Indeed, by Awn al-Din’s generosity, I

    have found wealth through him and lost my poverty.

  8. لقد لقحت أمانينا بجدوى

    أنامله وكانت جد عقم

    Our hopes have indeed conceived through the bounty

    of his fingertips, though once utterly barren.

  9. فتى كرمت خلائقه فقلنا

    هي ابن المزن مازح بنت

    A youth whose virtues are noble, so we said:

    “They are the rainclouds’ son, jesting with a daughter...”

  10. ثريّ الفخار إذا تسامى

    عريّ الجيب من عار وذمِ

    Rich in glory when he rises high,

    his bosom free of shame and reproach.

  11. تقل الجرد منه خفيف سير

    إلى أرض العدو رزينَ حلم

    Sleek steeds bear him, light of pace

    toward the enemy’s land, yet weighty in judgment.

  12. فيدهمهم كما دَهمت سيول

    بشقر أعوجيّاتٍ ودهمِ

    Then he overwhelms them as torrents sweep down,

    with chestnut A‘waji steeds and black ones.

  13. يحامي ضاربا بسليل برقٍ

    ويروي طاعنا بشهابِ رجمِ

    He defends, striking with a scion of lightning,

    and slakes thirst, thrusting with a meteor cast to smite.

  14. يتم وعيده في يوم حرب

    تتمة وعده في يوم سلمِ

    He fulfills his threat on a day of war

    as fully as his promise on a day of peace.

  15. لقد أحييت يا يحيى المرجّى

    رجاي وهمّتي وأمت هِّمي

    Indeed, O Yahya, on whom hopes rest, you have revived

    my hope and ambition, and put my sorrow to death.

  16. وصنت قصائد بالبذل حتى

    لقد أعنيتها عن قصد فَدمِ

    And you have sheltered poems through your giving, until

    you have indeed made them too weary to seek a dullard.

  17. كأني حين أسأله ثراء

    أسائل باللوى آثارهم

    It is as though, when I ask him for riches,

    I question their traces at al-Liwa.

  18. بنى علياك جاوزت الثريا

    فلا هز الزمان لها بهدمِ

    The edifices of your eminence have surpassed the Pleiades;

    so may Time never shake them to ruin.

  19. لئن حبرت في شعبان مدحا

    يسؤ عداك من نثر ونظم

    Though I have crafted praise in Sha‘ban,

    that grieves your enemies, in prose and verse,

  20. فقبل ملأت أسماع البرايا

    بذاك وسمع الشهر الأصمِ

    I had already filled the ears of all creation

    with it—and even the hearing of the Deaf Month.

  21. بقيت محسّدا في ظل ملك

    يدوم ودولة غراء تُنمي

    May you remain much envied beneath the shade of a reign

    that endures, and a radiant state that fosters growth.