أكناس ريم أم عرين غضنفر

هذا اللوى وربي الكثيب الأعفر

Haunts of a gazelle—or the lair of a lion?

This is al-Liwā, by my Lord, and the dust-gray dune.

فقد اغرن على القلوب ظباؤه

بظبا تقد الهام قبل المغفر

Its gazelles have surely raided hearts

with blades that cleave heads before the helmet can protect.

مشهورة مشحوذه اجفانها

اجفان احوى الطرف المى احور

Their eyelids are unsheathed and honed—

the eyelids of a dark-eyed, dark-lipped, tyrannous beauty.

اني لأعجب من سلامة ناظر

من سحرهن وسالم لم يسحر

I marvel that any beholder should come away safe

from their sorcery—that one should remain safe and unbewitched.

امضى من القدر المتاح لواحظا

فمتى طلبت قتالها لم تقدر

Their glances are keener than inescapable fate;

whenever you seek to fight them, you have no power.

حتام جورك ظبي جيران اللوى

فأجر محبك من صدودك تؤجر

How long will your tyranny last, gazelle among al-Liwā’s neighbors?

Give your lover refuge from your rejection, and earn your reward.

لم تدر أي أبي قوم قدته

قسراً وهضب علا وليث قسور

You did not know what proud chieftain of his people you drove

away by force—a lofty massif and a mighty lion.

عذبتني هجراً ولست بصابر

والهجر يهلك كل من لم يصبر

You have tormented me with your abandonment, and I am not patient;

estrangement destroys everyone who is not gladdened.

ان الشدائد جمة واشدها

حكم الهوى وعقاب من لم يغفر

Hardships are legion, and the hardest of them

is passion’s judgment and the punishment dealt by one who will not forgive.

أواه من ظمأ لنهلة وارد

صدر الرعاء وثلتي لم تصدر

Ah for a thirsty man who came seeking a single draught,

when the herdsmen had departed watered, while my thirsty company had not.

مالي وللأيام حظي عندها

نصب خصصت به لنصب المصدر

What have I to do with the Days? My share with them

is naṣb—affliction—reserved for me, like the verbal noun’s accusative.

ابداً تراني منجداً أو متهما

لا عيش بين تصعد وتحدر

Forever you see me bound for Najd or descending into Tihāmah—

there is no life in ceaseless ascent and descent.

اشكو الزمان وليس يقمع ظلمه

عني سوى اقضي قضاة العسكر

I complain of Time, but it does not hear my grievance;

none hears it from me save the army’s most decisive judge:

حبر الأئمة بحر علم إمامنا النعمان

لا النعمان بن المنذر

the learned authority of the imams, an ocean in the learning of our Imam al-Nuʿmān—

not al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir—

اعني كمال الدين والدنيا الذي

احصاء فضل كماله لم يحصر

I mean Kamāl al-Dīn wa-l-Dunyā, whose

perfect merits no reckoning can encompass;

من كمل اللَه العلا بوجوده

وبجوده جود السحاب الممطر

he through whose existence God perfected exalted glory,

and through whose generosity the rain cloud pours.

قصرت مساعي طالبي ادراكه

فضلا وفضل السعي ما لم يقصر

The efforts of those who seek to comprehend him fall short—

let alone his excellence; yet striving has merit if it does not flag.

والعجز في طلب المنيع ومرتقى

الصعب الرفيع ونيل حظ اوفر

To fail in seeking the unattainable, and to climb

the difficult, lofty height, may win a fuller share.

ومتى كتمت محاسناً من ذاته

ظهرت ولا يخفى اريج العنبر

Whenever I conceal any excellence belonging to him,

it appears; ambergris cannot hide its fragrance.

مولى موالي الدهر كل منهم

مستغرق في علمه المتسغزر

Lord of the masters of the age, every one of them

immersed in his copious, far-reaching knowledge.

كالجمع لفظ مفرد لكنه

قد ضم افراد العداد الاكثر

Like a collective noun: singular in expression,

yet embracing the greater multitude of those counted.

يا افضل العلماء بل يا اعلم

الفضلاء من ماض ومن متأخر

O best of scholars—rather, O most learned

of excellent men, whether past or late!

بهر الخليقة فيك فضل بارع

والفضل يبهر كل من لم يبهر

Creation stands astonished at your surpassing excellence,

for excellence dazzles everyone not already dazzling.

وارتاح للتأليف منك تشوقا

شوق الأصم لمسمع ولمخبر

Authorship itself stirred with longing for you,

like a deaf man yearning for one who lets him hear and brings him news.

فغدوت تتحفه بكل مجلد

فرد جمعت به علوم الأعصر

So you set about presenting it with every volume,

each unique, yet gathering the learning of all the ages.

نمقته بفوائد وفرائد

اوقابلت زهر الدجى لم تزهر

You adorned it with useful lessons and rare treasures,

or, when they faced the blossoms of darkness, those did not bloom.

وجلوت فيه وجه كل غريبة

حسناء بكر حرة لم تسفر

Within it you unveiled the face of every rarity—

a beautiful, freeborn virgin who had never unveiled her face.

جعل القضاء على العسكر مهرها

والبكر لمت حلل إذا لم تمهر

You made the judgeship of the army her dowry;

a virgin is not made lawful until she is endowed.

فلو ان افلاك السماء صحائف

ومدادهن مديد ماء الأبحر

Were the spheres of heaven sheets of parchment,

and their ink the outstretched waters of the seas,

والكاتبون بلاغة وبراعة

في الدهر كل محرر ومحبر

and were the writers masters of eloquence and invention—

every accomplished author and stylist throughout all time—

ما استوعبوا اوصاف استيعابك

المتصدر الأعلى على المتصدر

they still could not encompass the qualities of your comprehensive mastery,

you who sit highest above every presiding man.

قامت بك الفضلاء فهي كأنها

عرض وذاتك فيهم كالجوهر

Through you the excellent stand upright; it is as though they

were accidents, while your essence among them were substance.

فاعطف بنظرة جابر اكسيره

يغنى كسير مطالب لم تجبر

Favor us with an alchemist’s glance whose elixir mends the broken,

and enriches a broken petitioner whose requests remain unmended.

نهضت إلى العلياء قوم دونه

وأخو الحضيض محله لم يشهر

Men below him have risen toward the heights,

while the denizen of the depths remains obscure in his low station.

والدر دون الذر عندك قيمة

في مستقر البحر ما لم يظهر

Beside you, even a pearl is worth less than a mote

while it lies at the bottom of the sea, unseen.

فلطالما نوهت باسم خامل

ذكرا وخاملنا الذي لم يذكر

How often have you raised an obscure man’s name to renown,

yet our own obscure one remains unmentioned.

ولأنت بالمعروف تأمر مثلما

تنهي عن الفحشاء ثم المنكر

You command what is right, just as

you forbid indecency and then wrongdoing.

من بلا من وبر من يدي

بر ويسر مطلق لم يؤسر

Show favor without reproach for the favor; be bountiful—from two hands

of bounty—and ease a request not yet made easy.

متواضع لله عز ولن ترى

متكبرا إلا على المتكبر

Humble before God Almighty, you will never be seen

arrogant except toward the arrogant.

وإليك بنت قريحة مكدودة

من شاعر امسى كأن لم يشعر

And to you comes the daughter of a toil-worn poetic faculty,

from a poet now as though he had never composed poetry—

اعشى النواظر والبصير إذا دجى

خطب عليه فطرفه لم يبصر

dim-sighted in eye and insight when there darkened

a calamity over him, so his eye no longer sees.

قلت لديك بنظمها ولو انها

كثرت على النظام بعد كثير

I said: Here she is before you, strung into verse, although

after so much, she has grown too copious for the string.

وكفاك فخرا ان شعرى دائما

بسوي مديحك في الورى لم يفخر

It is pride enough for you that my poetry has never

boasted among mankind except through praising you.