رمقن ما بي فعفن الحب من رمقي

إن الظباء ينلن الحذق بالحدق

They glanced at my plight and shunned love because of my fading breath.

Indeed, gazelles attain skill through their eyes.

وما مزية حب سعد طالعه

قضى لكل محب ان يكون شقى

What merit has love, though its rising star be fortunate,

when it decrees that every lover must be wretched?

نوافر من ذوات الدل ما أست

الا لتفريق بين الأمن والفرق

Shy, coquettish creatures, offering no solace

except to set security and fear apart.

اوردتهن دموعي من لظي نفسي

فأبن من حُرق فوضي إلى غرق

I led them to drink my tears, out of my soul's blaze,

and they returned from the burning of my turmoil to drowning.

ورحن والركب يزجي للنوى عنقا

يحملن سمطين من در ومعتق

They departed, while the caravan hastened toward separation,

bearing two strands of pearls and aged wine.

من كل هيفاء كالغصن الرطيب على

حقف يؤلف بين الصبح والفسق

Each a slender-waisted beauty, like a tender branch upon

a curving dune, uniting dawn and sin.

امضي من السحر الحاظاً لمنتقم

ومن شذا السحر الفاظاً لمتشق

More piercing in her glances than magic to an avenger,

and in her words than dawn's fragrance to one inhaling it.

كأنما جوهر الحسن البديع غدا

كالشمس في الشرق أو كالبدر في الشفق

As though the essence of wondrous beauty had become

like the sun in the east, or the full moon in twilight.

أنا الأبي وبي منهن ساطعة

فيهن اجزاء قد صيغت على نسق

I am unyielding, yet a blaze from them lives within me;

within them are parts fashioned in ordered harmony.

لما اطاعت ضلوعي حكم لوعتها

صدقت احكام نار الفرس في الصدق

When my ribs obeyed the rule of her burning anguish,

I believed the Persian fire's judgments concerning truth.

ومذ بدا في الأحم الجعد مفرقها

ازددت بالليل إيمانا وبالفلق

Since her hair's parting appeared amid the coal-black curls,

my faith in night and daybreak has increased.

أرى زماني على الشحناء منطويا

كالماء يطوى لظمآنٍ على الشرق

I see my age harboring enmity,

like water holding choking in store for a thirsty man.

كأنه بعض حسادي بها حنقا

إن الحسود وعاء الحمق والحنق

As though it were one of my enviers, furious over her:

the envious man is a vessel of folly and rage.

سعى لفرقتنا فيه بأجمعه

وكل مجتمع منا لمفترق

Throughout its whole course it strove to part us,

and all of us who gather are bound to part.

لا أوهن اللَه عنسى كم قطعت بها

في الوهن بهماء قطع النجم في الأفق

May God never weaken my sturdy she-camel! How often I crossed on her

a trackless waste in deep night, like a star crossing the horizon.

حملتها من وجيف البيد ما حملت

عيني من الدمع أو جفني من الأرق

I burdened her with as much desert galloping as

my eye bore tears, or my eyelid sleeplessness.

لا تستقر بأرض أو أقلقها

كأنها في فؤاد النكس من قلق

She never settles in a land without my unsettling her,

as though, in her restlessness, she were in a coward's heart.

ولم يبق السرى في نفسها غرضا

الا الذي بعلى الأعوجي بقى

Night travel left her soul no desire

except what lingered for al-Aʿwaji's eminence.

من ليس تدرك علياه حواسده

ولم تنقل من سحيق ارفع السحق

Whose enviers cannot attain his lofty rank,

nor be carried from distant depths to the highest reaches.

نجل الأمير أجل الدهر احمده المحمود

بالألسن الشتى من الفرق

The emir's son—the age's noblest and most praiseworthy, praised

by the diverse tongues of the factions.

فما تفرق منها جد مجتمع

وما تخالف فيها جل متفق

What is scattered among them is truly united,

and what differs among them is largely agreed.

سقى ثراه وحياه الحيا غدقا

فأنه كان رب النائل الغد

May rain water his dust and greet him abundantly,

for he was lord of tomorrow's bounty.

قولو احل له دمعي محرّمه

سقيت مثواه شؤبوبا من العلق

Say: my tears made their forbidden flow lawful for him;

I watered his resting place with a downpour of blood.

يطوى عليه الثرى والحمد ينشره

نشر الصحائف إذ تطوي من الورق

Earth enfolds him, while praise unfolds his fame,

as pages are unfolded when paper is folded away.

مضى وابقى عليا للورى خلفا

والغيث يخلف نشر الروضة العبق

He passed away, leaving Ali as a successor for humankind,

and rain leaves behind the garden's fragrant scent.

فما فقدنا اباه عن رؤيته

والشبل كالليث في خلق وفي خلق

Thus, in seeing him, we have not lost his father:

the cub is like the lion in form and character.

يا من تؤكده مجداً عزائمه

كالطرف يثبت ركضاً جود العتق

O you whose resolves establish you in glory,

as a steed's gallop proves the excellence of its breeding;

ومن يعبر عنه حسن رونقه

والماء عن صفوه ينبيك بالزرق

and whose lovely radiance speaks for you,

as water's blue reveals its clarity to you;

ومن يقرظ شعري في مدائحه

والعقدا حسن منظوم على العنق

and you who honor my verse when it praises you,

and a necklace is beautiful, strung about the neck.

ويا أميراً شهدنا من خلائقه

ماء غيراً خلال المنظر الأنق

O emir, from whose character we have witnessed

water [epithet unclear] amid a lovely scene,

كالروض لكن بلا شوك ازاهره

والحوض لكنه يصفو بلا زرق

like a garden whose blossoms have no thorns,

and a pool, but clear without a bluish tinge.

برزت عزمك لا يرضيك منزلة

فأنت من طبق ترقي إلى طبق

You have brought your resolve to the fore; no station satisfies you,

so you rise from one rank to another.

تباً لحاسد نعمي أنت واجدها

قد طاش والطيش محسوب من الخرق

Ruin upon the envier of a blessing you possess!

He has grown reckless, and recklessness is counted folly.

هل تظهر النار من حقد أنارته

أو ان تقشب منه رثة الخلق

Can fire emerge from rancor it has kindled,

or make his tattered character new?

قد يمم الناس قطراً أنت قاطنه

كأن بابك أضحى مجمع الطرق

People have headed for the land you inhabit,

as though your gate had become the meeting place of roads.

وعمم الحمد هام الفضل منك علا

فراق وصفاً ومن يرقى العلا برق

Praise has turbaned the heads of excellence with glory from you,

so it is lovely to describe; whoever scales the heights shines.

فاسلم لسلَّم هذا المجد تعرجه

ومن ينافقك المخزي في نفق

Remain safe to climb the ladder of this glory;

whoever dissembles toward you lies disgraced in a tunnel.

وهاك من نفثات الفكر شاردة

كالسحر من لحظات الشادن الخرق

Here is a stray verse from the breathings of thought,

like magic from the glances of a startled young gazelle,

احلى من الراح في راحات مصطبح

ومن سرى لاطيف في اجفان مغتبق

sweeter than wine in a morning drinker's palms,

and than a phantom's night passage through an evening drinker's eyelids.

تضفي عليك ثناءً لا فناء له

أبقى وأمنع من مسرودة الحلق

It clothes you in praise that never perishes,

more enduring and protective than a coat of interlinked rings.