ألا قللا ما بي تقر عيونها — Ibn Al Maqri

ألا قللا ما بي تقرُّ عيونُها

فقد صدقت في ابن التقي ظنونُها

Come, you two, ease what ails me, that her eyes may find comfort.

For her expectations of Ibn al-Taqī have proved true.

له عندَ نعماه ديونٌ قديمةٌ

وقد آن أن تقضي وتمضي ديونُها

Long-standing debts are owed him by his bounty,

and the time has come for her debts to be paid and discharged.

فإن حاولت نعماء هذا أو انها

وإن أملت علياً فذا الحين حينها

If she seeks bounty, this is its time [reading uncertain];

and if she hopes for ʿAlī, then this moment is hers.

فكم بالثنا قلدت جيد جوده

لساني عقود لا تسامُ يمينُها

How often, with praise, has his generosity's neck been garlanded

by my tongue with necklaces whose right hand cannot be priced [wording unclear].

ومن غرسَ الآمال في منبت السخا

تدلت عليه بالثمار غصونُها

And whoever plants hopes in the soil of generosity,

their branches droop toward him, laden with fruit.

خبأت نداهُ الجم للشدةِ التي

لأمثالها تخبا الدموع شئونها

I stored up his abundant bounty against the hardship

for the likes of which tear-ducts store their tears.

مضى زمن لم أشف غلةَ فاقتي

وسحب أياديه تفيضُ عيونها

An age passed without my quenching my poverty's burning thirst,

while the springs of the clouds of his favors overflowed.

وما صدّني عن هز أغصان جوده

تهجمث حامٍ أو رقيبٌ يصونها

Nor was I held back from shaking his generosity's branches

by a guardian's assault or a watcher protecting them.

ولكنْ أمنت الفوتَ والنفس طبُعها

إِذا أمنت قرّت ونامَتْ جفونُها

But I felt secure against missing my chance; the soul's nature is:

when secure, it settles, and its eyelids sleep.

تخامر نفس الشّك فيما ملكتهُ

ويزدادُ حسناً في رجاه يقينُها

A soul harbors doubt over what it possesses,

yet in hope of him its certainty grows fairer.

ألا إنها أضحت بما في يمينه

لأوثق مما قد حوته يمينُها

Indeed, in what his right hand holds it has grown

more confident than in what its own right hand has held.

لنا فيه آمالٌ وأنت زعيمُها

إِذا الدهرُ ناواها وأنت كمينها

We have hopes in him, and you are their guarantor;

when Time assails them, you are their force in ambush.

لقد نهضتْ بي والثناءُ شعارُها

إلى نحو قبل الذراع أمونها

Indeed, she bore me onward, praise her watchword,

her sure-footed she-camel, toward the forearm [phrase unclear].

وعيسٌ بعثناها إليك حواملا

من الحمد آيات كثير فنوُنها

And pale camels we sent to you, bearing

verses of praise, many in their forms.

فما راقني إِلاّ عليك نزولها

ولا ساقني إلا إليك حنينُها

Nothing pleased me but their alighting at your abode,

nor did anything drive me but their yearning toward you.

فيا بن تقي الدين رحّب فقد أتت

تزوركَ أبكار القوافي وعونها

O son of Taqī al-Dīn, bid welcome, for there have come

to visit you the maidens of rhyme, and its matrons.

بسطتُ يدي اليمنى إلى خير منعمٍ

تكاد عطاياه تحنُّ حنونها

I stretched my right hand toward the finest benefactor,

whose gifts almost give their own cry of yearning.

خفيفُ المذاكي والعزائم والظبا

ثقيل حصاةِ الحلمِ فينا رَصينها

Swift in his seasoned steeds, his resolves, and his blades,

his stone of forbearance is weighty among us, and solid.

أبو القاسم السمح الذي لو يمينهُ

تباشر جلمود الصفا فتلينَها

Abū al-Qāsim the generous: were his right hand

to touch a boulder of hard rock, it would soften it.

نمت فرعه ابنا معيبد من همُ

مصابيح في الظلما المصابيح دونها

The two sons of Muʿaybid nurtured his branch—those who are

lamps in the darkness, other lamps falling short of them.

تحن للقياه الوزارة مذ نشا

ولا لوَمِ إن حنّت وطال رزينُها

The vizierate has yearned to meet him ever since he grew up;

nor blame if she yearns while her dignified one grows tall.

فقد أرضعته ثديها في مهاده

وربتهُ في حجرِ المعالي فنونُها

For she nursed him at her breast in his cradle,

and her arts reared him in the lap of lofty honors.

معاشر للعلياءِ والمجد سعيُها

ومن طينةِ المعروفِ والمجد طينُها

Clans whose striving is for eminence and glory,

and whose clay is from the clay of kindness and glory.

هم بيض ليلاتِ المواهب نهزها

وهم سود أيام الوقائعِ جونُها

They are the white ones of nights of bounty, their chances of gain;

and the black ones of battle-days, their darkest ones.

فأيامُ سلمٍ لا يخيب وفودها

وأيامُ حربٍ لا يعيشُ طعينها

On days of peace, their visiting delegations never go disappointed,

and on days of war, those they pierce do not survive.

مطاعون في الجلى مطاعين في الوغى

مطاعيم مهما السحب ضنّ ضنينُها

Obeyed in great crises, fierce spear-thrusters in battle,

generous feeders whenever the clouds' miser withholds.

لها أذن جود يسمعُ الوهم جنسها

وعينُ سماحٍ نومها لا يخونها

They have an ear of bounty whose very nature hears a thought,

and an eye of generosity that its sleep never betrays.

خبير بأخلاقِ الزمانِ يروضها

فشدتها سهل عليه ولينها

Expert in Time's manners, he tames them;

their harshness is easy for him, and their gentleness too.

إذا اسوّدتِ الأعرابُ أشرق وجههُ

وأسفر عن خلقٍ يروق معينُها

When the Bedouins grow dark, his face shines,

and unveils a character whose flowing spring delights.

فيا شرف الدين انتقد قد جلوتها

عليك عروساً ما بها ما يشينها

O Sharaf al-Dīn, appraise her: I have unveiled her

before you as a bride with nothing in her to mar her.

وشنّفتُ أعطاف الكلام فصيحة

تبسم ثغرا من معانٍ يزينَها

And I adorned speech's contours with earrings: she is eloquent,

smiling with a mouth of meanings that adorns her.

من الغيدِ لا تصبو إِلى من يعيرها

دلالاً ولا تحنو على من يهينُها

Among the graceful maidens, she does not yearn for one who lends her

coquetry, nor show tenderness to one who humiliates her.

أبا قاسم كم مدّ عبدك بالدعا

يميناً وكم أُخرى باخرى تعينها

Abū Qāsim, how often your servant stretched out in supplication

a right hand, and how often one hand supported the other,

إلى أن أجاب الله فيك بكلما

تمنيته من نعمةٍ تستزينها

until God answered my prayers for you with all

the blessings I had wished for, which you wear as adornment.

وقد علم الرحمنُ ما كانَ بيننا

وأنت حفي بالعهود تصونُها

And the All-Merciful knows what lay between us,

and you cherish the covenants, keeping them safe.

وإنك للدنيا جمالٌ وزينةٌ

وأنت لعمري عينُها ومُعينها

And you are indeed beauty and adornment for the world,

and, by my life, you are its eye and its helper.