للصب بعدك حالة لا تعجب

وتتيه من صلف عليه وتعجب

The lover's state in your absence is far from pleasing;

yet you swagger over him in arrogance and marvel.

أبكيته ذهبا صبيبا أحمرا

من عينه ويقول هذا المطلب

You made him weep gold, streaming and red,

from his eye, while he says, "This is what I seek."

وقتلته بنواظر أجفانها

بسيوفها الأمثال فيها تضرب

You slew him with eyes whose eyelids

are proverbial for the swords they wield.

رفقا بمن أجريت مقلته دما

ووقفت من جريانها تتعجب

Be gentle with one whose eye you made flow with blood,

then stood marveling at its flow.

نيران بعدك أحرقته فهل إلى

نحو الجنان ببعد يتقرب

The fires of your absence burned him; can one

through distance draw near to Paradise?

كم جيش العذال فيك وإنما

سلطان حسنك جيشه لا يغلب

How often have censurers mustered armies over you! Yet

the sovereign of your beauty has an army never defeated.

من لي بشمسي المحاسن لم يزل

عقلي به في كل وقت يذهب

Who will bring me the one with sunlike charms? Never does

my reason cease slipping away through him, at every moment.

أحببته متعمما ومعنفي

أبدا علي بظلمه يتعصب

I loved him wearing a turban, while my reproacher

forever takes sides against me in his injustice.

ويعيب من طرق التفقه وجهه

والعشق يفتي أن ذاك المذهب

He faults his face through the methods of jurisprudence,

while love decrees that this is the doctrine.

ولقد تعبت بعاذل ومراقب

هذا يزير والرقيب ينقب

How weary I have grown of a censurer and a watcher!

This one constrains me, while the watcher pries.

ومؤذنا سلوانه وغرامه

هذا يرجع حيث ذاك يثوب

The two muezzins of forgetting him and loving him—

this one repeats his call as that one calls anew.

وأقول للقلب الذي لا ينتهي

عن حبه أبدا ولا يتجنب

I say to the heart that never desists

from loving him, nor ever keeps away:

قد كدت أنك لا تسميك الورى

قلبا لكونك عنه لا تتقلب

You have almost reached the point where people will not call you

a heart, since you never turn away from him.

ولو استطعت فركته وأدرته

عنه ولكن ما لقلبي لولب

If I could, I would twist it and turn it

away from him—but my heart has no screw.

بأبي غني ملاحة أشكو له

فقري فيصبح بالغنى يتطرب

My father ransom that one rich in beauty! To him I lament

my poverty, and he begins to revel in his wealth.

قمر على غصن وغصن فوقه

قمر على طول المدى لا يغرب

A moon upon a branch, and a branch above which

is a moon that never sets through all time.

قل للغزال وللغزالة إن رنا

أو لاح يهرب ذا وتلك تغيب

Tell the gazelle and the sun: if he gazes

or appears, the first flees and the second disappears.

ما زلت أرفع قصة الشكوى له

وأجر أسباب الخداع وأنصب

I kept presenting him the petition of my complaint,

drawing out the cords of guile and setting snares,

حيث العواذل والرقيب بمعزل

عنا وحيث الوقت وقت طيب

where the reproachers and the watcher were apart

from us, and where the time was a pleasant time.

وطلبت رشف الثغر منه فقال لي

ما في الوجود سوى المدامة يطلب

I asked him for a sip from his lips, and he told me:

"Nothing in existence is sought but wine."

وغدا ينادمني وكأس حديثه

أشهى إلي من العتيق وأطيب

He became my drinking companion, and the cup of his conversation

was sweeter to me than aged wine, and finer.

وأقول حين رشفت صافي ثغره

من بعد ثغرك ما صفا لي مشرب

I say, when I sip the pure draught of his lips:

"After your lips, no drink has tasted pure to me."

قال احسب القبل التي قبلتني

فأجبت إنا أمة لا نحسب

He said, "Count the kisses with which you kissed me."

I answered, "We are a people who do not count."

لله ليل كالنهار قطعته

بالوصل لا أخشى به ما يرهب

How wondrous a night, like day, that I passed

in union, fearing none of what is feared!

وركبت منه إلى التصابي أدهما

من قبل أن يبدو لصبح أشهب

From it I rode a coal-black steed toward youthful folly,

before dawn's grey steed appeared.

أيام لا ماء الخدود يشوبه

كدر العذار ولا عذاري أشيب

Days when the clear water of cheeks was not clouded

by the murk of beard-down, nor were my own sideburns grey.

كم في مجال اللهو لي من جولة

أضحت ترقص بالسماع وتطرب

How many a round was mine in the arena of pleasure,

setting people dancing to music and stirring delight!

ولكم أتيت الحي أطلب غرة

بعد الرحيل فلم يلح لي مضرب

How often I came to the encampment seeking a radiant face

after their departure, yet not a tent appeared to me.

ووقفت في رسم الديار وللبكا

رسم علي مقرر ومرتب

I stood among the dwellings' traces, while weeping

was a levy laid upon me, prescribed and ordained.

وأقمت للندماء سوق خلاعة

يجبى المجون إلي فيه ويجلب

For my drinking companions I established a market of wantonness,

where ribaldry was levied and brought to me.

ثم انتبهت وصبح شيبي قد محا

ليل الشباب وزال ذاك الغيهب

Then I awoke: the dawn of my greying had erased

the night of youth, and that deep darkness vanished.

ورجعت عن طرق الغواية مقلعا

وسفين رشدي للسلامة مركب

I turned back from the paths of error, renouncing them,

and the ship of my good sense was a vessel toward safety.

وذكرت في عليا دمشق معشرا

أم الزمان بمثلهم لا تنجب

I remembered a company in the heights of Damascus,

whose like Time's mother never bears.

قوم بحسن فعالهم وصفاتهم

قد جاء يعتذر الزمان المذنب

A people whose fine deeds and qualities

have brought guilty Time to offer his apology.

قوم مديحهم المصدق في الورى

ومديح أهل زمانهم فمكذب

A people whose praise is believed among mankind,

while praise of their contemporaries is disbelieved.

لا تسأل القصاد عن ناديهم

لكن يدلهم الثناء الطيب

Do not ask the petitioners about their assembly;

rather, their fair renown will guide them.

يا من لحران الفؤاد لطرفه

لما تدمشق أدمع تتحلب

Who will help the burning-hearted man, whose eyes,

since he became Damascene, keep streaming with tears?

أشتاق في وادي دمشق معهدا

كل الجمال إلى حماه ينسب

I yearn for a haunt in the valley of Damascus,

to whose precinct all beauty is ascribed.

ما فيه إلا روضة أو جوسق

أو جدول أو بلبل أو ربرب

There is nothing there but a garden or a pavilion,

or a brook, or a nightingale, or a herd of gazelles.

وكأن ذاك النهر فيه معصم

بيد النسيم منقش ومكتب

That river there seems a wrist,

patterned and inscribed by the breeze's hand.

وإذا تكسر ماؤه أبصرته

في الحال بين رياضه يتشعب

When its water breaks in ripples, you see it

at once branching among its gardens.

وشدت على العيدان ورق أطربت

بغنائها من غاب عنه المطرب

Doves sang upon the boughs, delighting

with their song whoever had no minstrel near.

فالورق تشدو والنسيم مشبب

والنهر يسقي والحدائق تشرب

The doves sing, and the breeze plays the pipe;

the river pours, and the gardens drink.

وضياعها ضاع النسيم بها فكم

أضحى له من بيننا متطلب

Across its estates the breeze spread fragrance; how many

among us became seekers after it!

وحلت بقلبي من عسال جنة

فيها لأرباب الخلاعة ملعب

A paradise from ʿAssāl settled in my heart,

where devotees of abandon have a playground.

ولكم طربت على السماع لجنكها

وغدا بربوتها اللسان يشبب

How often I thrilled, listening to its harp,

and on its hill my tongue began to sing of love!

فمتى أزور معالما أبوابها

بسماحه كتب الكرام تبوب

When shall I visit those landmarks, at whose gates

books on the generous are arranged in chapters through his bounty?

وأرى حمى قاضي القضاة فإنه

حصن إليه من الزمان المهرب

And see the sanctuary of the Chief Judge? It is

a fortress to which one flees from Time.

ما زال للعلماء فيه تعلم

منه وللأدباء فيه تأدب

Scholars have never ceased to gain learning there

from him, and men of letters to gain refinement.

كم طالب للعلم فيه وطالب

للمال تم لذا وذا ما يطلب

How many a seeker of knowledge there, and a seeker

of wealth—each has attained what he seeks!

علماء أهل الأرض حين تعدهم

في الفضل دون مقامه تتذبذب

The scholars of all the earth, when you reckon them,

in excellence waver beneath his station.

وله مذاهب في المكارم حاتم

لو عاش كان بمثلها يتمذهب

He has ways of noble giving that Ḥātim,

were he alive, would adopt as his own creed.

كثرت عطاياه فخلنا أنه

معن وحاشاه بذلك يلعب

His gifts were so abundant that we imagined him

Maʿn—but no: Maʿn merely plays at such giving.

لله منه مكارم تاجية

سبكية تبدو ولا تتحجب

God bless his Tājī acts of nobility,

his Subkī virtues, manifest and unveiled.

قاض مقر العدل في أبوابه

فالجور من أرجائها لا يقرب

A judge at whose gates justice has its abode,

so tyranny comes nowhere near their precincts.

راض الأمور فأقبلت منقادة

وزمامها بيديه لا يستصعب

He tamed affairs, and they came obedient,

their reins in his hands, offering no resistance.

ما قدموا يوما علاه لمنصب

إلا علا قدرا وقل المنصب

Never have they advanced his eminence to an office

but he rose in stature and the office dwindled.

يجري الندى للواقفين ببابه

ويصوبهم منه السحاب الصيب

Bounty flows to those standing at his door,

and from him a rain-laden cloud showers upon them.

قاضي القضاة كليم بعدك لم يزل

للقرب من ناديكم يترقب

Chief Judge, one wounded by your absence has never ceased

to watch for a chance to draw near your assembly.

لولا تلهب قلبه بلظى النوى

ما بات وهو على اللقاء يلهب

Were his heart not ablaze with separation's flame,

he would not pass the night burning for reunion.

ولقد ذكرتك والوفود بمكة

كل إلى الله المهيمن يرغب

I remembered you while the delegations were in Mecca,

each yearning toward God, the All-Watching.

حطم الحطيم ذنوبهم وبزمزم

لهم مناهل وردها مستعذب

The Ḥaṭīm crushed their sins, and at Zamzam

they have watering places whose draught is sweet.

والكعبة الغراء أسبل سترها

ودعاؤنا من تحته لا يحجب

The radiant Kaaba's curtain has been lowered,

and our supplication beneath it is not veiled.

ولرحمة الرحمن من ميزابها

للطائفين سحاب عفو يسكب

From its waterspout, through the All-Merciful's mercy,

a cloud of pardon pours upon those circling it.

فطفقت أخلص في الدعاء وظننا

أن الكريم لذاك ليس يخيب

So I began to pray sincerely, and we trusted

that the Generous One would not disappoint us in this.

ولفرط شوقي قد نظمت مدامعي

عقدا يؤلف دره ويرتب

In my overwhelming longing I strung my tears

into a necklace, its pearls joined and ordered.

ولماء جفني في الخدود تدفق

ولنار قلبي في الضلوع تلهب

The water of my eyelids streams down my cheeks,

and my heart's fire blazes within my ribs.

يا ذا الأصول الصاحبية جودكم

للأصل في شرع الندى يستصحب

O you of Ṣāḥibī lineage, your generosity

maintains its ancestral precedent in the law of bounty.

ولكم إذا تعب الكرام من العطا

يوم المكارم راحة لا تتعب

When the generous tire of giving, yours is

a palm that never tires on the day of noble deeds.

ها قد بعثت بها عروسا لفظها

بالسحر يأخذ بالقلوب ويخلب

Now I have sent her as a bride, her language

seizing hearts with magic and enchanting them.

ولسيد الأكفاء قد جهزتها

بكرا يقرظها الحسود ويطنب

For the master of the worthy I have readied her,

a virgin whom even the envious extol at length.

إن حاول الأدباء يوما شأوها

قولوا لهم بالله لا تتعذبوا

If men of letters ever attempt to reach her height,

tell them, "For God's sake, do not torment yourselves."

لم يدن من أسبابها إلا فتى

في هتكه بين الورى يتسبب

No youth has sought the means to rival her

without bringing about his own disgrace among mankind.

أنا إن نطقت بمدحكم في مكة

فكأن قسا في عكاظ يخطب

If I voice your praise in Mecca,

it is as though Quss were preaching at ʿUkāẓ.

وإذا أتيت بدرة في وصفكم

فابن المقفع في اليتيمة يسهب

When I bring forth a pearl in describing you,

it is Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ expounding at length in al-Yatīma.

عش يا أبا نصر لتخذل بالندى

والجود جيش الفقر حين يطلب

Live, Abū Naṣr, to vanquish with bounty

and generosity poverty's army when it attacks!

وبقيت يا شمس الوجود وبدره

ما لاح نجم أو تبدى كوكب

Endure, O sun of existence and its full moon,

as long as a star shines or a planet appears.