عدوك مقتول بسيء فعله

وليس يحيق المكر إلا بأهله

Your enemy is slain by the evil of his own deed.

And scheming recoils only upon its perpetrators.

ومن يركب البغي المضلل سعيه

بجهل جدير ان يموت بجهله

Whoever pursues oppression that misdirects his striving,

In ignorance, deserves to die through his ignorance.

فتباً لأعداك الذين تجمعوا

وقد اضمروا حقداً فجوزوا بمثله

So ruin upon your enemies who banded together,

Having concealed hatred, only to be repaid in kind.

أتوك فردوا عن حمام بخيبة

يخبون في حزن الفضاء وسهله

They came against you, but were driven back from death in disappointment,

Trotting across the rough and level ground of the open country.

وما عضب ذي الباس المطاع بقاطع

إذا لم يذد عن سرحه ومحله

The keen blade of a mighty, obeyed leader is no true cutter

If it does not defend his flocks and his dwelling.

رأوك فظنو الأرض واجفة بهم

تمور وكل ضل عن رشد سبله

They saw you and thought the earth trembled beneath them,

Heaving, while each strayed from the right course of his paths.

ففروا يرومون النجاة من الردى

مفر نعاج من هزبر وشبله

So they fled, seeking escape from destruction,

As ewes flee from a lion and his cub.

وولو أو قد درت عليهم رماحكم

دماء كدمع المستهام الموله

And they turned in flight, while your spears had already poured upon them

Blood like the tears of a lovesick, distraught lover.

فما فتقت اسيافكم من جلودهم

يرتقه اللدن الوشيج بشله

Whatever your swords ripped open in their skins,

The supple spearshaft stitches shut with its loose stitching.

لقد كفروا نعماك يوم كسوتهم

من الوشي ما ضاهى الربيع بشكله

They were indeed ungrateful for your bounty when you clothed them

In brocade whose appearance rivaled spring,

وحلمك عما غادروه بغدرهم

من الجود في كهل الزمان وطفله

And for your forbearance toward what they forsook through their treachery

Of generosity, in time's maturity and childhood.

ونكثهم تلك العهود دناءة

من الأصل والإنسان يزكو بأصله

Their breaking those covenants was baseness

Rooted in their origins; a person flourishes through his origins.

فجازيتهم يوماً عبوساً قتامه

يسد طريق الشمس عنهم بظله

So you repaid them with a grim day, its dust

Blocking the sun's path to them with its shadow.

تخال مثال النقع جون سحائب

به والحسام العضب برقاً بسلّه

You would take the dust's appearance for dark clouds

Within it, and the keen sword for lightning when drawn.

اسيرهم يخشى الكرى وطليقهم

يفر حذاراً من أخيه وخله

Their captive fears sleep, and their free man

Flees in dread from his brother and his friend.

ولما اقمت الحد والعدل فاتكاً

بهم سبق السيف الطلا قبل عذله

And when you enforced punishment and justice, striking ruthlessly

At them, the sword reached their necks before reproach.

فسريت من افنى الطغاة بعضبه

وارضيت من داس البساط بنعله

So you gladdened him who destroyed the tyrants with his keen blade,

And pleased him who trod the carpet with his sandal.

وقمت بأعباء الأمور وبعض ما

حملت تدك الراسيات لحمله

You shouldered the burdens of affairs; even some of what

You bore would crush the firmly rooted mountains beneath its weight.

وانفقت ما تحويه في طلب العلا

نوالا واحراز العلا عند بذله

And you spent what you possess in pursuit of eminence,

As gifts; and eminence is attained by bestowing it.

وانشأت بالمعروف في كل بلدة

سحاباً عميما وبله قبل طله

And through beneficence you raised, in every town,

A widespread cloud, its downpour preceding its drizzle.

عجبنا لهذا الدهر جاد على الورى

بمثلك مع شح الزمان وبخله

We marvel at this age, which bestowed upon mankind

Someone like you, despite time's stinginess and miserliness.

فأنت الذي يخشى ويرجي على المدا

فيخشى لسطواه ويرجي لفضله

For you are the one feared and looked to with hope through all time,

Feared for his might, and looked to for his bounty.

وأنت الذي لا شيء يعظم عنده

سوى اللَه في كل الأمور ورسله

And you are the one in whose eyes nothing is great

Except God and His messengers, in every affair.

وأنت الذي انقاد الزمان لأمره

فغايه سؤل الدهر غاية سؤله

And you are the one to whose command time submitted;

Thus time's ultimate desire is his own ultimate desire.

فدم لا برحت الدهر تسطو على العدى

ففي سطوات الليث أمن لنجله

So live on; may you never cease, through time, to strike your foes,

For the lion's assaults bring safety to his offspring.

وفي تعب الأيام للمرء راحة

كمجناك شهداً مع جناية نحله

And in the toil of days there is rest for a man,

As when you gather honey along with the stings of its bees.

فيا أوحد العليا ويا أمجد الورى

ويا من تعالى عن عسى ولعله

So O peerless in high rank, O most glorious of mankind,

And O you who rise above 'perhaps' and 'perhaps he will':

ابنك ان لا طرف لي اقتضى به

ديوني وايعاني الغزيم بمطله

I confide to you [reading uncertain]: I have no steed with which to collect

My debts, and the debtor has exhausted me with his delays.

فجد لي بما أرجوه إن شئت ملجما

وإن رمت تعجيل العطا فبجله

So grant me what I hope for, bridled if you wish;

And if you wish to hasten the gift, then with its horsecloth.

فإني امرؤ لو رمت غير نوالكم

لقال الورى ابعدت من متبله

For I am a man who, were I to seek bounty other than yours,

People would say, 'You have strayed far, you fool!

اتترك امواه البحار سوائحا

وتقنع من برض الثرى بأقله

Do you forsake the seas' freely flowing waters

And settle for the least of the soil's scant seepage?'