يوم سرور وشفاء صدر

انجز في الأعدا وعيد نحر

A day of joy and healing for the breast;

the threat of slaughter has been fulfilled against the foes.

عيد به سعد علاك قد بدا

جهرا وبان انه عن سر

An Eid when the good fortune of your eminence has appeared

openly—and it became clear that it sprang from a secret.

ودولة السن بيض هندها

قد أصبحت تروى حديث بشر

And a reign whose gleaming Indian swords' tongues

have come to tell a tale of gladness.

ومنزل يسافرا اللحظ به

في قطعه مسافة للقصر

And a dwelling through which the gaze travels,

crossing a distance that warrants shortened prayers.

فاسكنه في ملك عقيم ناعما

بلهو بيض ودقاق سمر

So dwell there at ease in a kingship that admits no rival,

delighting in the play of gleaming swords and slender dusky spears.

برج سعيد زانه ساكنه

أفديه من محترم مقر

An auspicious tower, graced by its inhabitant;

I would ransom it—what a revered abode!

كعبة جود يسئل الوفد بها

رب مقام وحجا وحجر

A Kaaba of generosity, where the delegation petitions

a lord of high station, wisdom, and sound judgment.

اتعب من جاراه في طرق العلا

براحة بحر وقلب بر

He has exhausted whoever rivals him on the paths of eminence,

with a sea for a palm and a benevolent heart.

وكفه السائل واكف بدا

عن سائل من غير نهر يجرى

And his flowing palm appeared as a downpour,

flowing for a petitioner without a river.

منحدر من جوده موجوده

مثل انحدار الماعقيب الفجر

His wealth cascades from his generosity,

like water cascading after the dawn breaks.

تسيل جدواه صباحا ومسا

وغيرها يقطر بعد العصر

His largesse flows morning and evening,

while others' only drips after being squeezed.

ملاء كف معتفيه ذهبا

حين أتاه الكل بكف صفر

He filled his petitioner's palm with gold

when everyone came to him with an empty palm.

وقال للائم في فرط السخا

دعني فحبي للثناء عذري

And he said to one who blamed his lavish generosity:

Leave me be; my love of praise is my excuse.

كيف أطيع اللوم في جود به

أسعى إلى مكرمة وأجري

How can I heed blame for generosity through which

I strive for a noble deed and my reward?

لو تهجرون بالهجار عاشقا

ما صد عن محبوبه لهجر

Were you to hobble a lover with a cord,

he would not turn from his beloved because of estrangement.

فلا تقيس أحمدا بغيره

فليس بلق الخيل مثل الحمر

So do not compare Ahmad with another:

piebald horses are not like donkeys.

ولا سواه ان تقيس من سما

ظروف جوهر حروف الجر

Nor another with him, if you would compare one so exalted—

jewel-caskets against mere particles of the genitive.

الملك الناصر من لا خاطر

إلا له فيه حساب الجبر

King al-Nasir: there is no heart

but he has a reckoning for its mending.

صدر متى ينزل بقلب جيشه

أطلع جيش قلب كل صدر

A chief who, whenever he takes his place in his army's heart,

raises an army in the heart of every breast.

بدر ولكن سيفه لا يتقى

وأي واق من سيوف بدر

A full moon, yet his sword cannot be warded off;

and what shield can save one from the swords of Badr?

فليسئل المصران عنها والطلا

فعلمها في عدن ومصر

So let the two cities and the necks be asked about them,

for they are known in Aden and Egypt.

كم كر في الأعدا وما لجسمه

درع سوى قميصه والكر

How often he charged the foes, his body having no

armor but his shirt and the charge itself.

فشرهم جرحى وقتلى في القضا

حتى ارعووا وللخير بعد الشر

So he laid them out, wounded and slain, under fate's decree,

until they desisted and turned to good after evil.

بحر له مد وجزر في الندا

لكنه خص العدى بالجزر

A sea with flood and ebb in its bounty,

yet he reserves the ebb for his foes.

يوزع الأوقات في كسب العلا

كل لياليه ليالي قدر

He apportions his time to the pursuit of eminence;

all his nights are Nights of Power.

لمح يتخذ كسر البيوت جنة

وأى خير عند رب كسر

He did not make the sides of tents a shield;

and what good is there with a lord of tent-sides?

بل رفده الشفع ينيم وفده

ولا ينام جفنه عن وتر

Rather, his doubled bounty lulls his visitors to sleep,

and his eyelid never sleeps while a wrong awaits vengeance.

قل للخطوب أنني من أحمد

في كل حلو فاذهبي ومري

Tell calamities that, through Ahmad, I am

amid every sweetness; so go away, and be bitter!

أروح نحو جوده وأغتدى

إن ضاق ذرعي نحوه وأسرى

I go at evening toward his bounty, and set out at dawn;

if my endurance fails, I also journey toward him by night.

ان كفرته فتية أنعمه

فالله لا يرضى لنا بالكفر

If youths enjoying his favors have been ungrateful to him,

God does not approve ingratitude in us.

الوجر بالمنشار في جلدي لما

طويت شكري عنه بعد نشر

Even if a saw were drawn through my skin, I would not

fold away my thanks to him after spreading them abroad.

جئناك بالآمال يا ملك الورى

في معشر نفلي الفلا ونفري

We have come to you with hopes, O king of humankind,

among a company, as we scour and cleave the desert.

وصاحبي دون الجميع ناقتي

ورائد من تغلب وبكر

My companion, apart from all the others, is my she-camel,

and a guide from Taghlib and Bakr.

نشكر للجدوى وتغدوا سحرا

قبل غراب مبكر ونسر

We give thanks for bounty, and she sets out before dawn,

before an early-rising raven and a vulture.

إذا سرى برق نداك خلتنا

نبيعه الانفس وهو يشرى

When the lightning of your bounty courses by night, you would think us

selling it our souls, while it buys them.

أغرى بك المديح جود مثله

يلصق بالعرض الثنا ويغرى

Bounty has drawn praise to you; bounty such as this

fastens acclaim to honor and glues it there.

لما حملت منك وفرى مننا

قلت بصوت مسمع ذا وقر

When I bore away my full share of favors from you,

I spoke in a voice audible even to the hard of hearing:

وصفك لا تحصيه أقلام ولا

طرس ولا تحبير كل حبر

Your description cannot be encompassed by pens, nor

by a parchment, nor by every scholar's embellished writing.

يا متبع الحسنى بعشر مثلها

أصلح لي العيد بهذي العشر

O you who follow a good deed with ten of its kind,

make my Eid good with these ten.

واسلم ودم أنل ولا تنقص وزن

حبته من خردل وذر

Stay safe and endure; bestow, and may you lose not even the weight

of a mustard seed or a mote of dust.