1. وقال أيضاً:

    السريع

    And he also said:

    The Sari‘ meter.

  2. المدح يدري أنكم أكبر

    من كل ما ينظم أو ينثر

    Praise knows that you are greater

    than all that is composed in verse or prose.

  3. وإنما يثني على فضلكم

    كل ولي بالذي يقدر

    And your excellence is praised only

    as each devoted friend is able.

  4. ولو عذرتم كان إحسانكم

    مطالباً بالشكر لا يعذر

    Even if you granted pardon, your beneficence would

    demand gratitude and allow no excuse.

  5. وكيف يقضي حقكم مادح

    ظلت قوافيه بكم تفخر

    How can a panegyrist discharge your due,

    whose rhymes keep taking pride in you?

  6. نسط من خاطره أنكم

    منه بما ينشده أخبر

    It slipped from his mind [wording uncertain] that you

    are better informed than he about what he recites,

  7. وأنكم من كل مسترزق

    بالشعر من أيديكم أشعر

    and that you, compared with every seeker of livelihood

    through poetry from your hands, are better poets.

  8. يا آل رزيك نداء امرئ

    يضمر فيكم فوق ما يظهر

    O house of Ruzzik! The call of a man

    who harbors toward you more than he reveals.

  9. مازال يستخبر عن فضلكم

    وهو كضوء الشمس بل أشهر

    He kept asking about your excellence,

    though it is like sunlight—indeed, better known—

  10. حتى إذا شاهد أفعالكم

    صدق حسن الخبر المخبر

    until, when he witnessed your deeds,

    the splendid report proved its teller truthful.

  11. أنتم يد الله مشكورة

    ومنة الله لا تكفر

    You are God's hand, worthy of gratitude,

    and God's favor, not to be met with ingratitude.

  12. طويتم الجور إلى أن غدا

    في كل أرض عدلكم ينشر

    You folded away oppression, until

    your justice spread through every land.

  13. وأينع المعروف في عصركم

    فلا انقضى واجتنب المنكر

    Goodness ripened in your age—

    may it never end—and wrongdoing was shunned.

  14. عليكم قبل ملوك الورى

    في كل أمر تقعد الخنصر

    For you, before the kings of humankind,

    the little finger bends in every reckoning.

  15. جمعكم عول على فضلكم

    أصغرهم في القدر والأكبر

    Your company relied upon your bounty,

    the least of them in rank and the greatest.

  16. فليستديموا بموالاتكم

    سوابغ النعمة وليشكروا

    Let them, through loyalty to you, perpetuate

    the ample blessings, and let them give thanks.

  17. فنعمة الله إذا أُطلقت

    ولم تقيد بالوفاء تنفر

    For God's blessing, when let loose

    and not bound by fidelity, flees.

  18. بذكركم يفتخر السيف وال

    أقلام والقرطاس والمنبر

    At your mention the sword takes pride, and the

    pens, paper, and pulpit,

  19. والأمر والنهي ودين الهدى

    والملك والأبيض والأحمر

    command and prohibition, and the faith of guidance,

    and sovereignty, and the white and the red.

  20. وتخجل الأرض إذا أنشدت

    أوصافكم والمسك والعنبر

    The earth blushes when recited are

    your qualities, and so do musk and ambergris.

  21. لم تخلقوا إلا على قدر ما

    يختاره المجد وما يؤثر

    You were created only according to what

    glory chooses and what it favors.

  22. وجوهكم يقطر ماء الحيا

    منها وأيديكم بها تقطر

    Your faces—the water of modesty drips

    from them, and your hands drip with it.

  23. بالصالح الهادي سموتم على

    كل عظيم قدره يذكر

    Through al-Salih al-Hadi you rose above

    every great man whose stature is spoken of.

  24. أبلج صرف الدهر عن أمره

    ونهيه يورد أو يصدر

    A bright-faced man: the course of time, at his command

    and prohibition, brings to water or sends away.

  25. ديمة كفيه فلا أقلعت

    بأساً وجوداً أبداً تمطر

    The steady rain of his two palms—may it never cease—

    rains might and generosity forever.

  26. الكاشف الغمة من بعدما

    راح بها سرب الهدى يذعر

    The dispeller of affliction, after

    the flock of guidance had become terrified by it,

  27. تارك نصر وأبيه لقاً

    تنثاب أشلاءهما الأنسر

    leaving Nasr and his father cast aside,

    their dismembered remains beset by vultures,

  28. وتارك الدور التي شيدوا

    خاوية خالية تصفر

    and leaving the houses they had built

    desolate, empty, whistling.

  29. شرفها بعدهما معشر

    قدرهم من قدرها أكبر

    After those two, a company ennobled them,

    whose worth exceeded the houses' worth.

  30. وطهر الناصر أرجاءها

    والغيث إن جاد الثرى يطهر

    Al-Nasir purified their precincts;

    rain, when it drenches the soil, makes it clean.

  31. مرت عليها سحب إحسانه

    فاخضر من ساحتها المرمر

    The clouds of his beneficence passed over them,

    and the marble of their courtyard turned green.

  32. وكل يوم للندى عنده

    وللقرى الجم بها محضر

    Every day at his court, for bounty

    and lavish hospitality, a gathering is held there.

  33. وللعطايا يا موسم جامع

    فيها وللشعر بها معشر

    And for gifts—O!—there is a gathering festival

    there, and poetry has a company there.

  34. لو لم تكن جنة خلد لما

    جرى بها من جوده كوثر

    Had they not been a garden of eternity, no

    Kawthar would have flowed there from his bounty,

  35. ولا تلا المدح على سمعه

    أبشر فشانيك هو الأبتر

    nor would praise have recited to his ear:

    "Rejoice! Your hater is the one cut off."

  36. لو لم تغص في بحر إحسانه

    خواطري ما صح ذا الجوهر

    Had there not plunged into the sea of his bounty

    my thoughts, this jewel would not have proved genuine.

  37. أغر يبدو لك من وجهه

    نور المعالي أبداً يزهر

    Radiant: from his face there appears to you

    the light of lofty virtues, ever shining.

  38. كالليث إلا أن ذا باسم

    والغيث إلا أن ذا أغزر

    Like the lion, except that this man smiles;

    and like rain, except that he is more copious.

  39. لقب بالناصر لما غدا

    بسيفه دين الهدى ينصر

    He was given the title al-Nasir when

    the faith of guidance came to be defended by his sword.

  40. أعف من فوق الثرى قدرة

    وهو على إمضائها أقدر

    Most restrained in power of all upon the earth,

    though the most capable of exercising it.

  41. شبيبة أصبح ريعانها

    من شيب نزق أوقر

    Youth whose prime has become

    more dignified than reckless graybeards.

  42. مثقف الغصن على أنه

    ريان من ماء الصبا أخضر

    A straightened branch, although

    lush with the water of youth, and green.

  43. وفي ضمير الملك من حبه

    سريرة لابد ما تظهر

    In the king's heart, born of his love,

    lies a secret that must come to light.

  44. منزلة أصبح إهلالها

    فما الذي من ذكرها يستر

    A rank whose crescent has now appeared—

    what, then, in mentioning it should be concealed?

  45. إن رشح الليث له شبله

    فهو بها من غيره أجدر

    If the lion nominated his cub for it,

    he is more worthy of it than anyone else.

  46. ومن غدا الهادي له والداً

    فليس من مكرمة يقصر

    And one whose father is al-Hadi

    falls short in no noble deed.

  47. أصل كريم زانه فرعه ال

    سامي وفرع زانه العنصر

    A noble root adorned by its branch, the

    lofty one; a branch adorned by its lineage.

  48. لا ولد يغضي ولا والد

    من خجل إن ضمه المحضر

    Neither son lowers his gaze, nor father,

    from shame if the gathering includes him.

  49. أيهما أجريت ذكراً له

    فغرة الثاني به تسفر

    Whichever of the two you mention,

    the other's bright brow shines through it.

  50. ملكان كل منهما مقلة

    ومقلة الثاني لها محجر

    Two kings: each of them an eye,

    and a socket for the eye of the other.

  51. إن جلسا فالبدر والمشتري

    أو ركبا فالشبل والقسور

    When seated, they are the full moon and Jupiter;

    when mounted, the cub and the lion.

  52. جادا من الدنيا لما لم يجد

    ببعضه يحيى ولا جعفر

    They gave of this world what

    neither Yahya nor Ja'far gave even partly.

  53. لو لم يكن قدرهما عالياً

    قلت هما النعمان والمنذر

    Had their rank not been so high,

    I would have said: they are al-Nu'man and al-Mundhir.