عليل هوي الأحبة لن يعادا

ومأسور المحبة لا يفادى

One sick with love for the beloved will never be visited;

and a captive of love is not ransomed.

ومن جهل التصابي فهو داء

كساك السهد واستلب الرقادا

For whoever does not know youthful dalliance: it is a sickness

that clothes you in sleeplessness and steals your slumber.

وميثاق الغواني مستحيل

فلا تكثر بهن الأعتقادا

The pledge of lovely women is inconstant,

so do not place too much faith in them.

هجرن وفاحمي كالفحم لونا

فكيف يزرن ان امسي رمادا

They deserted me while my black hair was coal-black;

how would they visit me if I became ashes?

وبن وذا الشباب الغض صعب

فكيف بهن ان اعطى القيادا

They departed while this fresh youth was still untamed;

what of them, then, if it yields the reins?

ولن أقضي اللبانة من لبيني

ولم أسعد على طلبي سعادا

I shall never satisfy my longing for Lubayna,

nor was I fortunate in my quest for Su‘ad.

واظلم من تراقبه المجازي

محبيه على القرب البعادا

The most unjust of those you look to is one who repays

his lovers with distance in return for closeness.

فليت نوائب الأيام تنبو

مضاربها

Would that the calamities of the days might miss their mark

with their striking edges.

دع الشكوى وخذ بعنان طرف

بحذك لا بجذ بك البلادا

Leave complaining, and grasp a steed's reins:

[Unclear wording]—not by cutting across the lands with you.

فحيث غدوت شمت الناس ناساً

وان غذيت ذقت الزاد زادا

Wherever you set out, you see people as people;

and when you are fed, you taste provisions as provisions.

ومن لي بخطة بعدت منالا

إذا كلفتها الجرد الجيادا

But who can secure me an aim far beyond reach

when I charge lean, swift steeds with attaining it?

وصبرك في الشدائد صبر حر

يسهلها وان كانت شدادا

Your patience in hardships is a free man's patience;

it makes them easy, however severe they are.

فتطلاب المني بالأمن غي

وكيف يضل من شهد الرشادا

Seeking wishes in safety is folly;

how can one who has witnessed right guidance go astray?

وان الندب من امسى يعاني

المهالك تحت جنبيه مهادا

Indeed, the valiant man is one who comes to endure

deadly dangers as a bed beneath his flanks.

وبعض الموت اوفق من حياة

وارفق بالذي امتطأ المرادا

Some deaths are more fitting than life,

and kinder to one riding in pursuit of his desire.

وهاك النصح ان تك مستفيدا

واي نصيحةلن تتفادا

Here is counsel, if you would benefit from it;

and what counsel will you not evade?

فقلت لقد صدقت وقلت حقا

ولا نبغي مع الحق العدادا

I said: “You have spoken truly and said what is right;

we seek no rivalry with the truth.”

سأجعل لي إلى نيل المعالي

مكارم نجل محمود عتادا

To help me attain lofty honors, I shall make

the noble deeds of Mahmud's son my provision.

ففتح الله فتح للأماني

إذا سدت مسالكها انسدادا

For Fath Allah is an opening for aspirations

when their paths are firmly blocked.

وارجوه على ظمأ ممضٍ

ايرجو ذو الظما إلا العهادا

I look to him amid an agonizing thirst;

does the thirsty hope for anything but renewing rains?

فأني لا يبلغني جوادي

المجد كمثه براً جوادا

For my steed cannot bring me

to glory as he can, benevolent and generous.

فتى رزناً وفيا المعيا

كريما اريحيا مستجادا

A young man, composed, faithful, and keen-witted,

noble, openhanded, and highly prized;

رئيساً شاد بالعلم المعالي

ومن شاد العلا بالعلم سادا

a leader who built lofty honors through learning:

whoever builds greatness through learning becomes a master.

اباد النوم عن عينيه فيها

ومن طلب السها الف السهادا

In their pursuit he banished sleep from his eyes;

whoever seeks Suha grows accustomed to sleeplessness.

وحل بحل مشكلها محلا

به نال اشتهارا واجتهادا

By solving its difficulties, he took a station

where he attained renown and independent scholarly judgment.

وجدد بالفضائل رسم مجد

وجد لم يكاف ولن يكادا

Through virtues he renewed the traces of glory

and distinction, never matched and never to be undermined.

فعد نواله عي وغي

وأيدي السحب لا تحصى عدادا

Counting his gifts is helplessness and folly;

the hands of clouds cannot be numbered.

ورد مقاله عجز ومن ذا

لذاهب امسنا يبغي ارتدادا

Refuting his words is helplessness; who

would seek the return of our vanished yesterday?

فلو لمس الجماد جرى مياها

ولو زجر المياه غدت جمادا

If he touched lifeless matter, it would flow as water;

if he rebuked water, it would become solid matter.

وان حملت أنامله يراعا

أراع به من اعتقل الصمادا

If his fingertips carried a reed pen,

with it he would frighten whoever grasped the spears [uncertain reading].

وان وشى الطروس به سطوراً

وجمع ضمنها حكما فرادي

If with it he embroidered pages with lines

and gathered maxims within them, one by one,

يود لها ابن مقلة لو رآها

محل سواد مقلته المدادا

Ibn Muqla, if he saw them, would wish

for their ink in place of his pupil's blackness.

ويسعد نطقه السعدي منها

ويصبو نحوها الصابي انقيادا

His words in them would delight al-Sa‘di,

and al-Sabi would yearn toward them in submission.

فيا من فاز بالقدح المعلى

وقد قدحت قريحته الزنادا

O you who triumphed with the highest lot-arrow,

whose poetic gift has struck sparks from the fire-sticks;

ومن ابدي فرائد عقد نظم

به بهر الزواهر افتقادا

you who revealed the choice pearls of a necklace of verse,

with which he outshone the shining stars [final expression unclear],

منمقة به ببديع معنى

رقيق استرق به العمادا

adorned by him with wondrous meaning,

so delicate that with it he enthralled al-‘Imad.

سريع عطاء أبحرها مديد

يزبد على يزبد امتدادا

Swift is the bounty of its seas, and far-reaching;

it foams upon foaming, spreading ever farther.

لو أبصر بعضها ابن أبي حديد

اقام على قصائده الحدادا

If Ibn Abi Hadid saw some of it,

he would observe mourning for his own poems,

وجلبب غيرة منها وحزناً

أباه الأسود الدؤلي السوادا

and, out of jealousy at it and sorrow, would drape

his father, al-Aswad al-Du‘ali, in black.

ويا من طاب في العلياء فرعاً

وطال بها بحارا أو نجادا

O you whose branch flourished in the heights,

and towered there over seas or uplands:

تهن بشهر صومك وابق دهراً

لتلقي كل عيد فيه عادا

rejoice in your month of fasting, and live for ages

to meet every festival returning within that time.

وعش ابداً سعيداً فالليالي

بجاهدنا الشقاء بها جهادا

Live forever happy, for in these nights

misery wages fierce battle against us.

ودونكها مسربلة حياءً

مغلغلة على خجل سفادا

Take it, clothed in modesty,

borne from place to place in bashfulness [final word unclear].

ارجيها لأزجيها قبولا

فتنفر بي اختيارا واجتهادا

I encourage it, that I may usher it toward acceptance,

yet it bolts with me, deliberately and with effort.

وقد علمت بأنك بحر فضل

فمنه يستفاد ولن يفادا

It knows that you are a sea of bounty:

one gains from it, but it cannot be enriched.

واني وان اتيبت بها امتداحا

إليك وزدت فيها الأعتمادا

And though I have brought it in praise

to you, and placed greater reliance on it,

كمن يهدى إلى هجر ثمارا

ومن يسدي الي بحر ثمادا

I am like one who brings fruit to Hajar,

and one who offers scant water to a sea.

ومثلك من ازال الزيف عنها

وزان بها معانيها وزادا

One like you removes its counterfeit,

and adorns its meanings through it, adding more,

لكونك صيرفي أولي المعاني

وأمهرها انتقاءً وانتقادا

for you are the money-changer among masters of meaning,

and the most skilled at selecting and appraising them.

فلم أرو الروى بها صحيحا

ولم أسنده عن ثقة سنادا

For I have not transmitted its rhyme correctly,

nor supported it with a chain from a trustworthy source.

فداؤك كل من والاه شعرى

فأولاه انقباضاً وانعقادا

May all whom my verse has befriended be your ransom,

and who repaid it with shrinking and constriction.

إذا اهتز الكريم له ارتياحاً

به انتفض ارتعاشا وارتعادا

When a generous man stirs with delight at it,

he shudders at it, shaking and trembling.

وحاكا صفرة الأبريز وجها

ان استوفاه والجسد الجسادا

His face mimics the yellow of pure gold,

if it exacts his full payment; his body mimics saffron.

تسمى بالشهور فكل سمع

له رجب وأيديه جمادي

He bears the months' names: each ear

of his is Rajab, and his hands are Jumada.

واني للضحوك على زمان

به الآساد تستجدي النقادا

I am indeed one who laughs at an age

in which lions beg from sheep.

وللمفضي

ومفترش لجنبي القتادا

And indeed destitute...

and I bed my side upon thornwood.

ولكن لاصلاح لداء دهر

إذا ألفت طبائعه الفسادا

But there is no cure for an age's sickness

when its nature has grown accustomed to corruption.

فدم ابداً منيع علا ووصف

فلن تحصى النجوم ولن تصادا

Remain forever beyond reach in stature and description,

for the stars can never be counted or captured.

وجد لي بالوداد فخير خل

يروقك من يطالبك الودادا

Grant me affection, for the best friend

to delight you is one who asks for your affection.