قدومك أفرح قلب الهدى

وآنس وحش عراص الندى

Your arrival gladdened the heart of guidance

and cheered the lonely courts of bounty,

وأبرد مني جوى لوعة

نهت نفس الليل أن يبردا

and cooled the burning anguish within me

that forbade the breath of night to cool.

وأرخى على الدجى أبيضاً

وقد كان نور الضحى أسودا

And draped the darkness in white,

when the light of morning had been black.

شكت رمدة الجفن لي مقلة

قدمت فكنت لها الإثمدا

An eye with an inflamed lid complained to me;

you arrived and became its antimony kohl.

ولم لم أجد رمداً إذ نأيت

دعوت عليها بأن ترمدا

And why did I find no soreness when you went away?

I prayed against it that it should grow inflamed.

أجبت المحلة لما دعت

بكف يكف أكف العدا

You answered the town when it called,

with a hand that restrains the hands of foes.

ولما حللت بأرجائها

نقعت الصدى وجلوت الصدا

And when you settled within its bounds,

you quenched thirst and polished away rust,

ولبدت منها العجاج المثار

وثرت بها أسداً ملبدا

and laid the dust stirred up within it,

and sprang up there, a lion with a matted mane.

وعاثت يد الدهر في سربها

فأصلحتها قبل أن تفسدا

And time's hand had ravaged its flock,

so you restored it before it fell to ruin.

تروح قلوباً بهذا أو تروق

كذا السيف جرد أو أغمدا

You refresh hearts with this, or delight them—

so does the sword, whether drawn or sheathed.

ستحسد من فضلك النيرات

وحق لفضلك أن يحسدا

The radiant stars will envy you for your excellence;

and rightly should your excellence be envied.

سها شغفاً بك قلب السهى

وزاحمت في برجه الفرقدا

Al-Suhā's heart wandered, in passion for you,

and you rivaled al-Farqad in its heavenly station.

فدى للظهير ولا أتقي

ملامة من لام أو فندا

A ransom for al-Ẓahīr—and I do not fear

the reproach of anyone who blames or censures—

رجال هو المبتدا في السماح

به وهم خبر المبتدا

are men: he is the subject with whom generosity

begins, while they are that subject's predicate.

وجدتك أخلفهم في العقاب

وعيداً وأصدقهم موعدا

I found you least likely, in punishment,

to keep a threat, and truest to a promise;

وأطهر من ضمة محفل

مغيباً وأطيبهم مشهدا

and the purest of all whom an assembly has gathered,

when absent, and the finest of them when present;

وأكرم أجدادهم منجدا

وأكرم أجوادهم محتدا

and the noblest of their forefathers in giving aid,

and the noblest of their generous men in lineage.

كأني بأيامه قد أتت

رواكع من ندم سجدا

It is as though I see his days arriving,

bowing in remorse, falling prostrate,

خواضع تسأله أن يعود

عليها بصفح كما عودا

humbled, begging him to turn again

to them with pardon, as he always has.

ينادي السماح على بابه

هلموا فهذا يحب الندى

Generosity calls out at his door:

“Come, for this man loves bounty!”

أبا العز لو جاز أن يعبد ال

كرام لأفتيت أن تعبدا

O Abu al-ʿIzz, if it were lawful to worship the

noble, I would rule that you be worshipped.

رأيتك تسلف هذا المديح

نوالك من قبل أن تحمدا

I saw you pay this praise in advance,

with your bounty, before you were praised.

وغيرك يسدي جميل الثنا

إليه فيذهب لغوا سدى

And another has fine praise offered

to him, only for it to be wasted, idle and vain.

وكم لك في الناس من منة

أطلت على الشكر فيها المدى

And how many favors you have bestowed on people,

whose reach you have stretched beyond all thanks!

ومكرمة أمرت رغبتي

وظني في الناس أن يزهدا

And many a noble deed has commanded my desire

and my hopes to forsake all other men.

وبر تعود قصدي فلو

سرى في الدجى وحده لاهتدى

And kindness so used to seeking me out that, if

it traveled alone through darkness, it would find its way.

أجدت وعلمتني ما أقول

وينكر الشعر إن جودا

You excelled and taught me what to say;

yet poetry is rejected if finely wrought.