خاطر فإن الحظ للمخاطر

واهجر بها أوطانها وهاجر

Take risks, for fortune belongs to the risk-taker.

Leave their homelands with them, and journey abroad.

وارم بأيدي العيس كل قفرة

تضل فيها لحظات القافر

Hurl the white camels' forelegs into every wilderness

Where even a tracker's glances lose their way.

يهماء لا يسري النسيم خيفة

فيها ولا طيف الخيال الزائر

A trackless waste where, in fear, no breeze travels

Within it, nor the visiting phantom of fancy.

يغدو العنان للخطام تابعاً

فيها ويفدى منسم بحافر

The bridle becomes a follower of the camel's halter

There, and a padded camel-foot is ransomed with a hoof.

إن لم يقربها بنات شذقم

فلا سلمن من شفار الجازر

If the daughters of Shadhqam do not approach it,

May they not escape the slaughterer's blades,

ولا كرمن عن مناخ جعجع

يفحصن فيه الأرض بالكراكر

Nor be spared a cramped resting ground

Where they scrape the earth with their chest-pads.

يا حادي العيس ولك نصحة

تذهب في عرض النسيم السائر

O driver of the white camels, here is counsel for you

That travels in the breadth of the passing breeze.

يا من بها عن اللوى وإن بدت

أعلام سلع والحمى فياسر

Turn right with them, away from al-Liwa; and if there appear

The landmarks of Sal' and the protected pasture, turn left.

واستغن بالشوق الذي يحثها

عن منة الحادي وزجر الزاجر

Let the longing that urges them onward suffice you

Instead of the driver's favor and the scolder's rebuke.

واسمح لها بوقفة إن عرضت

عن الغوير نفحة من حاجر

Allow them a pause if there comes

From al-Ghuwayr a breath from Hajir.

فإنها تفهم عن ريح الصبا

رسائلاً تسمع بالمناخر

For they understand, from the east wind,

Messages heard through their nostrils.

أما ترى أعناقها إلى الصبا

مائلة الأحداج والمحاجر

Do you not see their necks toward the east breeze

Inclining, along with the howdahs and eye-sockets?

ما ذاك إلا أن نجداً لم تزل

منتجع الأهواء والخواطر

That is only because Najd has never ceased to be

The resort of passions and thoughts.

تصبو إليها والمزار نازح

أنفسنا وأنفس الأباعر

Toward her, though the destination is far away, yearn

Our souls and the souls of the camels.

فنحن نشتاق الربوع باللوى

وهن يشتقن ربيع الحاجر

For we long for the dwellings at al-Liwa,

While they long for al-Hajir's spring pastures.

يا حبذا ما حملت أعجازها

من الهوى المكنون في الضمائر

Ah, how lovely what their hindquarters carry:

The love hidden in hearts.

وحبذا برد السرى في ليلة

تسفر منها أوبة المسافر

And how lovely the coolness of night travel on a night

From which the traveler's homecoming shines forth.

وموقف يجمع بين واصل

قد شفة الشوق وبين هاجر

And a meeting place bringing together one arriving,

Whom longing has wasted, and one who has stayed away.

حيث تحط للنوى علائق

ويلتقي بالنوم جفن الساهر

Where the bonds of separation are laid aside,

And the wakeful eyelid meets sleep.

حيث غصون البان من فوق النقا

تكاد تندى من بنان الهاصر

Where the branches of the ban-tree above the sand dune

Almost grow moist beneath the branch-bender's fingertips.

ليتك شاهدت الخدور عندما

زرت على الغزلان والجواذر

Would that you had seen the curtained chambers when

They closed around the gazelles and young wild-oxen.

وقد أدار الوصل ثم قهوة

تسقي الفريقين بكأس دائر

Reunion had circulated wine there,

Giving both parties drink from a circulating cup.

والصعب قد هان فلا أسد الشرى

تخشى ولا سرب المها بنافر

The difficult has grown easy: the lions of al-Shara

Are not feared, nor does the oryx herd flee.

والحدق النجل لها أوامر

يمضين حكم القسر في القساور

The large, wide eyes have commands:

They enforce the decree of compulsion upon lions.

كن حذراً منها إذا ما أرسلت

على القلوب أسهم النواظر

Be wary of them whenever they shoot

The arrows of gazing eyes at hearts.

فليس حزم عندها بجنة

وليس صبر دونها بساتر

For resolve is no shield against them,

And patience is no screen against them.

واها لها من أسهم قسيها

حواجب الفواتن والفواتر

Ah, those arrows! Their bows are

The brows of captivating, languid-eyed women.

ولا قدس الدهر فلولا جوره

لم يتحكم عاجز في قادر

May Time not be hallowed: were it not for its injustice,

An incapable man would not dominate a capable one.

ولا غدا مثلي ومثلي معوز

يعرف مابين الورى بشاعر

Nor would one like me, destitute as I am, become

Known among humankind as a poet.

أما و ورد من وراء نصرتي

فإنني غير ضعيف الناصر

Indeed, by the tawny lion behind my defense,

The one who champions me is no weakling.

ما ضرني وهو ملب دعوتي

من غاب من قومي ومن عشائري

With him answering my call, no harm came to me

From those absent among my people and my clans.

أغر لما أن وفي لي لم أبل

إن غدرت بي صبغة الغدائر

A radiant man: since he kept faith with me, I cared not

If the color of my locks betrayed me.

لو كان في الإمكان رد فائت

أرجع لي عصر الشباب الناضر

Had it been possible to bring back what is gone,

He would have restored to me the age of fresh youth.

طلق المحيا يلتقي وفوده

إن عبس الدهر بوجه سافر

Bright of countenance, he receives his delegations,

When Time scowls, with an open, radiant face.

مستأثر بالمجد إلا أنه

بسابغ النعمة لم يستأثر

He holds glory exclusively, except that

He has not kept abundant bounty to himself.

آنس وحش المدح وهو نافر

بشر له ينطق بالبشائر

The shy wild creature of praise is made tame

By his cheerful countenance, which speaks glad tidings.

ونائل ظلمته إن قسته

بالبحر أو صوب الغمام الماطر

And a bounty you wrong if you measure it

Against the sea or the downpour of rain-bearing clouds.

غيرك يا تاج الخلافة اغتدى

يحيل بالمجد على العناصر

Others than you, O Crown of the Caliphate, have come

To refer their glory to their ancestral origins.

لم ترض من نفسك فعل أنفس

فواخر بأعظم نواخر

You did not accept for yourself the conduct of souls

That boast of rotting bones.

قومك غسان وهم أجل من

يعزى إلى السؤدد والمفاخر

Your people are Ghassan, the noblest of those

To whom lordship and glorious deeds are ascribed.

فلم أنفت أن تعد منهم

أوائلاً زاكية الأواخر

Why, then, did you disdain to count among them

Forebears whose descendants are pure?

ما ذاك إلا أن ثم همة

غنية عن كرم الأواصر

That is only because there is an ambition

Independent of the nobility of kinship ties.

عافت من المجد ورود منهل

وارده متبع للصادر

It disdained, in seeking glory, to approach a watering place

Whose newcomer follows the one departing.

فاخترعت لنفسها مناقباً

تعصر منها كبد المعاصر

So it devised virtues for itself

That wring a contemporary's liver.

أسف قوم دونها وحلقت

ما كل من طار من الكواسر

Others flew low beneath it, while it soared:

Not everyone who flies is a bird of prey.

يفدي أبا الضرغام كل مدع

يطاول النجم بباع قاصر

May every pretender be a ransom for Abu al-Dirgham,

Who tries to reach the star with an armspan too short.

لا يسندون المجد عن فعالهم

إسنادهم عن حفر المقابر

They trace no glory to their own deeds;

Their attribution is to the pits of graves.

وأي فخر برفات أصبحت

آثارها مطموسة المآثر

What glory is there in remains whose

Traces and glorious deeds have been effaced?

لم يحصلوا من العلى ورسمها

إلا على الفخر برسم داثر

Of eminence and its traces, they have obtained

Only the boast of a vanished trace.

فقل لمن مت بفضل غائب

حاضر إذا شئت بفضل حاضر

So tell whoever claims distinction through an absent man's merit:

Compete, if you wish, with merit present here.

فإن عدمت من علاك شاهداً

فقلل الدعوى ولاتكابر

And if you lack a witness to your eminence,

Then lessen your claims and do not boast arrogantly.

يا أسد الدين وما من حاجة

يدعى لها مد الفرات الزاخر

O Asad al-Din—no need calls

For the flood of the overflowing Euphrates—

إن بني رزيك لما أن سطت

أيمانهم منك بعضب باتر

When the sons of Ruzzik struck,

Their right hands wielding in you a keen, cleaving sword,

واطلعوا منك على نصيحة

طاهرة الأذيال والسرائر

And discovered in you loyal counsel,

Pure in its skirts and inner intentions,

واختبروا عزمك في مواطن

تكشفت عن كرم المخابر

And tested your resolve in situations

That revealed the nobility of your inner qualities,

عدوك للملك العقيم عدة

باقية من أنفس الذخائر

They counted you a resource for barren kingship,

An enduring one, among the most precious treasures.

وشاطروك أنعماً شكرتها

إن المزيد واجب للشاكر

They shared favors with you, which you repaid with gratitude:

Indeed, increase is due to the grateful.

فاعتضدوا منك بكاف لم يزل

غناؤه يكبر في الكبائر

They gained support from you through a capable protector

Whose usefulness has always grown amid great crises.

إذا الليالي فغرت خطوبها

سدوا بها ثغر الزمان الفاغر

When the nights' calamities gaped wide,

With that aid they closed Time's gaping mouth.

وإن طرت نازلة وأفكروا

فيمن لها كان ضمير الخاطر

And when a calamity suddenly struck and they considered

Who could face it, he was the thought within their minds.

لا يعقدون خنصراً إلا به

في حيث تثنى عقد الخناصر

They bend no little finger except to count him

Whenever little fingers are bent in reckoning.

دوخت الدنيا له ملمومة

تبلغ أضعاف قياس الحازر

A massed host subdued the world for him,

Reaching many times a guesser's estimate.

تحسب لمع البزل في عجاجها

كواكباً تلمع في الدياجر

You would take the glint of veteran warriors in its dust

For stars shining in deep darkness.

يجر ذيلها على وجه الثرى

أبلج صفَّاحٌ عن الجرائر

Its train is dragged over the face of the earth

By a radiant man, ever forgiving offenses.

زارته من أرض الشآم إخوة

ثلاثة أكرم بهم من زائر

From the land of al-Sham there visited him brothers,

Three—how noble they are as visitors!

أم المعالي عاقر من مثلهم

واليأس أولى من رجاء العاقر

The mother of noble deeds is barren of their like;

Despair is fitter than hope in a barren woman.

إن ينعموا أو ينقموا فإنما

هم خلج من فيض بحر زاخر

Whether they bestow favors or punish,

They are only channels from the overflow of a surging sea.

يطلع منهم في سماء دسته

كواكب تزهى ببدر زاهر

From them, in the heaven of his dais, rise

Stars shining proudly beside a radiant full moon.

إذا بدوا من حوله في كوكب

حسبتهم أشبال ليث خادر

When they appear around him in a troop,

You would take them for the cubs of a lion in his lair.

عبل الذراعين كأن بطشه

بطش أبي شبلين قاس قاسر

Stout in both forearms, his onslaught seems

The onslaught of a fierce, overpowering sire of two cubs.

لا نافر الطول ولا بقاصر ال

صعدة منسوب إلى الحباتر

Neither excessively tall nor short in

Spear-like stature, to be classed among the squat.

من نبعة المجد التي أغصانها

صليبة المتن بكف الكاسر

From glory's bow-wood tree, whose branches

Are stout of core in the breaker's hand.

أيده الله بأيد لم تزل

إرث وصي أو نبي طاهر

God strengthened him with a might that has always been

The inheritance of a legatee or a pure prophet.

معجزة في مدين و خيبر

صارت له برهان فصل باهر

A miracle in Madyan and Khaybar

Became for him a dazzling proof of decisive judgment.

كأن موسى والوصي حيدرا

أحظاه منها بالنصيب الوافر

As though Moses and the legatee Haydar

Had granted him an ample share of it.

بورك في حول له وقوة

أمست له أمضى السلاح الحاضر

Blessed be his strength and power,

Which have become his keenest weapons at hand.

ليس له في كل خطب غيرها

وغير حد السيف من مشاور

In every crisis he has no counselor but that

And the edge of his sword.

ليث إذا قاد الجيوش لم يعد

بهن إلا ظافر الأظافر

A lion: whenever he leads armies, he returns

With them only with victorious claws.

يباشر الأهوال قبل جيشه

علماً بأن الفضل للمباشر

He faces terrors before his army,

Knowing that merit belongs to the one who faces them.

جواده في الحرب محراب لمن

صلى إلى الحرب من العساكر

His charger in war is a prayer niche for those

Of the armies who pray facing battle.

كم شهدت له الأعادي في الوغى

بفتكة المجاهد المهاجر

How often his enemies have testified for him in battle

To the deadly assault of the striving warrior and emigrant.

وأخفر الصارم في يمينه

عند الجلاد ذمة المغافر

The keen sword in his right hand violated,

During close combat, the protection pledged by mail helmets.

وأقسم الرمح بطول باعه

ليسبرن غور الدلاص السابري

The spear swore by the length of its reach

That it would surely probe the depths of smooth Sabiri armor.

سنانه في الطعن أقوى ناظم

وعضبه في الضرب أقوى ناثر

His spearhead, when thrusting, is the mightiest threader;

His keen blade, when striking, the mightiest scatterer.

إن شئت أن تعرفه حقيقة

فارصده في ليل العجاج الثائر

If you wish to know him truly,

Then watch him in the night of rising dust.

فإن رأيت في الكماة حاسراً

فليس فيهم غيره من حاسر

And if you see a bareheaded man among armored warriors,

There is no bareheaded man among them but him.

هل أسد الدين معير سمعه

معدومة الأشباه والنظائر

Will Asad al-Din lend his ear

To a poem without likeness or peer?

يغرف من قلب قليب لم يزل

عاديها يهزأ بالحفائر

It draws from the heart of a well whose

Ancient shaft has always mocked excavated pits.

جواهر من بحر فكري لم يزل

معدنها يثرى من الجواهر

Jewels from the sea of my thought, whose

Mine has always grown richer with jewels.

لم تعترض حظك منها فترة

فلا أن تقابلها بحظ فاتر

No pause has interrupted your share of them;

So do not repay them with a lukewarm share.

سابقة لو راهنت طيف الكرى

لبرقعته بغبار الخاسر

A racing mare: were she to race sleep's phantom,

She would veil him with the loser's dust.

جلت وصلت بعدها ريح الصبا

فما تقول في السكيت العاشر

She came first, and the east wind ran second behind her:

What, then, do you say of the silent tenth-place runner?

ساخرة يبعد منها باطن

وإن دنت من سامع في الظاهر

Mocking, her inner meaning remains distant,

Even if her outward form comes near a listener.

ساحرة المعنى ومن كمالها

وحسنها رقة لفظ ساحر

Enchanting in meaning, and among her perfections

And her beauty is the delicacy of bewitching wording.

ليس لها من قول غيري ضرة

وكم لها عندي من الضرائر

She has no rival wife among another's words,

Yet how many co-wives she has with me!

تنشر طي الجود منها ألسن

أعطر من نشر النسيم العاطر

Tongues within her unfold generosity's folded matter,

More fragrant than the fragrance of the perfumed breeze.

والجود لا يبقى جميل ذكره

ما لم يقيد بلسان شاكر

The beauty of generosity's remembrance does not endure

Unless recorded by a grateful tongue.

فاسعد بصوم أنت أزكى صائم

أيامه الغر وأزكى فاطر

Rejoice in a fast: you are the purest to fast

Its radiant days, and the purest to break the fast.