مل وقد ملت إلى وداده

وسلط الخلف على ميعاده

He grew weary, though I had inclined toward his love.

And set promise-breaking to rule his promised tryst.

أهيف يرتج النقا من تحته

إذا تثنى الغصن في أبراده

A slender-waisted one: the sand dune quivers beneath him

When the bough sways within his robes.

مازال حلو الوصل في اقترابه

يعقب مر الهجر في ابتعاده

The sweetness of union when he draws near has always

Brought bitter estrangement in its wake when he withdraws.

أقسم بالسحر الذي في طرفه

لا عاد من شيمته وعاده

I swear by the magic in his gaze:

May such conduct never recur in his nature and habit.

من لي بأن ينقل ما في وجهه

من رقة الخد إلى فؤاده

Who can get him to move, for me, what is in his face—

The tenderness of his cheek—into his heart?

مكنه الحب قياد خاطري

ومكن الواشين من قياده

Love gave him the reins of my mind,

And gave the slanderers control of his reins.

أصبو إلى ريح الصبا إذا جرت

أنفاسها وهناً على بلاده

I yearn for the east wind whenever there flow

Its breaths, late at night, across his land.

لا تستقل بعدو واحد

فالألف مبني على آحاده

Do not think little of a single enemy,

For a thousand is built upon its single units.

ولا تثق بكل من صحبته

مالم تحل عقدة اعتقاده

And do not trust everyone you have befriended

Unless you unravel the knot of his convictions.

ولا تبت من دون جمات الغنى

ترضى بما تمتص من ثماده

Nor spend the night short of wealth's brimming pools,

Content with what you suck from its scant waters.

أفلح من هم فنال ما ابتغى

وجاهد الأيام باجتهاده

Successful is he who resolved and attained what he sought,

And battled the days with his exertion,

مقسماً بين الهجير والسرى

تأويبه يعجب من إسآده

Dividing his journeys between noon's heat and night travel,

His daytime march marveling at his nighttime pace.

يا حادي العيس التي أعجازها

قد أنفضت من مائه وزاده

O driver of the pale camels whose hindquarters

Have been emptied of his water and provisions,

خل العراق والشآم لامرئ

يحكم الغي على إرشاده

Leave Iraq and al-Sham to a man

Who lets folly overrule his right guidance.

ورد بها مشرعة النيل التي

نيل الغنى وقف على وراده

And take them to the Nile's watering place, where

The gaining of wealth is reserved for those who come to drink.

وأقصد أبا النجم الذي تمنت ال

أنجم لو أصبحن من قصاده

And seek Abu al-Najm, whom the

Stars wished they might join others in seeking.

هنالك الجود فلا تعده

وجمرة الناس فلا تعاده

There is generosity—do not pass him by;

And mankind's live coal—do not make him your foe.

أبلج من غسان أحيا ذكره

ذكر بني جفنة من أجداده

A radiant man of Ghassan, whose renown revived

The renown of Banu Jafna among his forefathers.

بدر بن رزيك أغر من سعت

عزائم الأقدار في مراده

Badr ibn Ruzzik, a radiant man for whose desire

The firm resolves of fate have striven.

قد وقف الدهر على إصداره

في كل خطب وعلى إيراده

Time itself awaits his orders to send forth,

In every crisis, and his orders to bring in.

وعول المجد على تدبيره

واعتمد الملك على سداده

And glory has relied on his management,

And kingship has depended on his sound judgment.

فنافر سكن من نفاره

وفاسد أصلح من فساده

Thus a rebel was calmed of his rebellion,

And a corrupt man was cured of his corruption.

ووجد الإسلام من غنائه

ما لم يكن يطمح في إيجاد

And Islam found through his effective service

What it had never aspired to bring into being.

تدارك الأمر وقد تمايلت

قواعد الأركان من عماده

He rescued the cause when already swaying were

The foundations of the pillars that upheld it.

وأمسك الأطناب إذ تقوضت

وانفلتت منه عرى أوتاده

And held fast the tent ropes when they gave way,

And the loops of its pegs slipped free of it.

قد كنت للصالح في حياته

عضباً به يسطو على أضداده

You were for al-Salih, while he lived,

A keen sword with which he struck his adversaries.

وقمت بالدولة بعد موته

حتى استقر الملك في أولاده

And you upheld the state after his death,

Until sovereignty was secured among his children.

مددت يمناك على رواقه

حتى كشفت الناس عن مرصاده

You stretched your right hand over his pavilion,

Until you drove men from lying in wait for him.

وابتسم الدست لنا عن عادل

يقدح نور العقل من زناده

And the throne smiled upon us, revealing a just ruler

Who strikes reason's light from his flint:

أبو شجاع ملك العصر الذي

يضيق ذراع الدهر عن عناده

Abu Shujaʿ, king of the age, whom

Time's arm is too short to defy.

المستبد بالعلى وحبذا

قرة عين لك باستبداده

The sole possessor of the heights—how welcome

The delight of your eyes in his sole dominion!

منفرد كالبدر فوق دسته

والمجد راض عنك بانفراده

Alone, like the full moon above his throne,

While glory is pleased with you for his sole rule.

لو كان في نقص الحياة رخصة

نقصتها حرصاً على ازدياد

Had there been permission to shorten life,

You would have shortened yours, eager to lengthen his.

ولو تمكنت إذاً أحله

طرفك في النقطة من سواده

And if you could, then he would find a home

In your eye, within the very point of its blackness.

كم فت في أعضاد قوم أضمروا

غدراً به أنك من أعضاده

How greatly it weakened the arms of men who harbored

Treachery against him, that you were one of his supporting arms!

من كل من قالت له علاكم

هذا زمان لست من جياده

Each of those to whom your eminence said:

This is an age whose noble steeds do not include you.

لما غدت صعدته منآدة

ثقفتم المائل من صعاده

When his spear shaft grew crooked,

You straightened what was bent among his spears.

لما جذبتم بخزام أنفه

أذعن بالرغم إلى انقياد

When you tugged at the ring through his nose,

He yielded, against his will, to submission.

وا عجباً من حمله لصارم

عاتقه يقصر عن نجاده

Oh, the wonder of his carrying a sharp sword

When his shoulder falls short of its baldric!

نادى به الحين أتيت منكراً

يا داخل الغيل على آساده

Doom cried out to him: 'You have done a monstrous thing,

O you who enter the thicket to confront its lions!'

إن بني رزيك حلوا ذروة ال

عز وحل الناس في وهاده

Indeed, Banu Ruzzik have settled upon the summit of

Glory, while other men have settled in its hollows.

وأسند الدهر إليهم ظهره

فعز ظهر الدهر باستناده

And Time has leaned its back against them,

So Time's back grew strong through that support.

يا فارس الإسلام قول على خادم

على نداك جملة اعتماده

O knight of Islam, a word about a servant

Whose whole reliance rests on your bounty.

يعتد بالشكر لمولى نعمة

لا يتبع النعمة باعتداده

He prides himself on gratitude to a lord of bounty

Who does not follow a favor with boasting of it.

قد خصه وجهك بابتسامه

وعمه فضلك بافتقاده

Your face has singled him out with its smile,

And your bounty has embraced him by tending to him.

ولم يقف جودك عن غاية

حتى شفعت الجود باستشهاده

And your generosity stopped short of no goal,

Until you coupled generosity with calling him as a witness.

فصل وانحر ألف عام واستمع

مدحاً يقل الند عن أنداده

So pray and sacrifice for a thousand years, and hear

Praise beside whose peers fragrant incense falls short.

يلبس عيد النحر من جواهري

قلائداً تنظم في أجياده

The Feast of Sacrifice wears, from my jewels,

Necklaces strung around its necks.

نوهت بالمدح وكان خاملاً

لنائل نفق من كساده

You raised praise to renown when it had been obscure;

Through a gift, it found a market after lying unsold.

فاسلم لعصر لا يزال مدحنا

تحية القادم من أعياده

So live unharmed through an age in which our praise remains

The greeting for each of its coming festivals.

قد كثر الشعر وقل ناقد

وأنت أولى الناس بانتقاده

Poetry has grown abundant, while critics have grown few,

And you are the worthiest of men to judge it.

لو لم تبين فضل ما أقوله

مابان فضل الجمر عن رماده

Had you not shown the worth of what I say,

The embers' superiority to their ashes would not be clear.