مكانك في الحشا مني مكين

وودك ذلك الود المصون

Your place in my innermost heart is secure,

and love for you is that love kept inviolate.

وما لسواك في قلبي مكان

فيطمع فيه مال أو بنون

There is no place in my heart for anyone but you

that wealth or sons might covet.

وكس جفاك بالهجران ملء

أجرعها بلا ذنب يكون

The cup of your coldness is full of estrangement;

I gulp it down though I have committed no offense.

أكفكف إن تسيل دموع عيني

إذا نظرت أحبتها العيون

I check the tears of my eyes when they flow,

when eyes behold their loved ones.

واستر تحت أثوابي هزالا

إذا ابديته شمت السمين

Beneath my clothes I hide my emaciation;

if I reveal it, the stout man gloats.

سلوا عني الدجى هل هومت لي

به عين وهل غمضت جفون

Ask the night about me: did slumber ever touch

an eye of mine within it, or did any eyelids close?

لقد عقدت بطرف النجم طرفي

وعود ربهن بها ظنين

My gaze has indeed been bound to the star's gaze

by promises whose giver grudges their fulfillment.

أحبتنا وما أشقى محبا

جواه على أحبته يهون

Our beloved ones! How wretched is a lover

whose burning grief means little to those he loves.

ذوى غرس الهوى فتداركوه

فما تبقى على العطش الغصون

The sapling of love has withered; come to its rescue,

for branches cannot survive thirst.

بللت لكي يلين بماء صبري

صفاة من رضاكم لا تلين

I wetted with the water of my patience, hoping to soften,

a rock of your favor that will not soften.

وفيت لكم ولا منّ عليكم

فقد عاف الخيانة من يخون

I have kept faith with you, without vaunting it to you;

for even one who betrays has come to loathe treachery.

فسائل عنس عن من خان منهم

يجيبك والحديث إذاً شجون

So ask ʿAns about those among them who betrayed:

it will answer you—and the tale has many tangled threads.

سقاهم أحمد كاس المنايا

فقلت هناك لا شلت يمين

Ahmad made them drink the cup of death,

and there I said: 'May that right hand never be paralyzed!'

هناك النصر والفتح المبين

وابناء تقر بها العيون

There are victory and the manifest conquest,

and sons in whom eyes find delight.

فشكرا ايا ابن إسمعيل شكرا

فقد صدقتك في الله الظنون

So thanks, O son of Ismail—thanks!

For your hopes in God have proved true.

وقد ظهرت سعودك للبرايا

ظهورا دونه الصبح المبين

Your auspicious fortunes have shone forth to all creation

with a brilliance surpassing the radiant dawn.

عجبت لمن تخادعه الأماني

عليك وقد جلا الشك اليقين

I marvel at one whom vain hopes deceive

against you, though certainty has dispelled doubt.

ويحسب أنه لسطاك أمسى

طليقا وهو في يدها رهين

He thinks that, before your might, he has become

free, though he is captive in its hand.

يغر ببرد سلمك وهو زند

لنيران الحروب به كمين

He is beguiled by the coolness of your peace, though it is a firestick

in which the fires of war lie hidden.

أتى ليصيد حول فناك جهلا

وشر مقر ذى الصيد العرين

He came ignorantly to hunt around your courtyard,

but the worst abode for a hunter is the lion's den.

يرى وهو القصير الباع نزوا

إليه الأرض أقرب ما يكون

Short of reach though he is, he imagines a leap;

the earth is as near to him as can be.

وخان فجاز أبرنة خداعا

وابرنة هو الحصن الحصين

He betrayed, and passed through Abrana by deceit,

though Abrana is the impregnable fortress.

وأسرع من يعاجله رداه

ظلوم بالخيانة يستعين

The one his doom overtakes most swiftly

is a wrongdoer who relies on treachery.

ونادي يالعنس مستغيثا

بمن في قلبه داء دفين

He cried, 'ʿAns, to the rescue!', seeking help

from one with a buried sickness in his heart.

فجاوبه مفدى كل أشقى

يعاقب في جناية من يخون

So every wretch answered him: 'May you be ransomed!'

Each is punished for the crime of one who betrays.

وما عن غرة غاروا ولكن

لا مضاء القضا تعمى العيون

They did not raid through heedlessness, but

to fulfill fate's decree, eyes are blinded.

لقد بارت بهم صرعى ظباه

كذا كنا ويوشك أن تكونوا

Indeed, those felled by his blades perished among them;

thus were we, and soon you too will be

شياه ناطحت أطواد صخر

تحطم في جوانبها القرون

sheep that butted mountains of rock,

on whose flanks their horns shatter.

وظنوا القلعة الشماء منجى

وهل من أحمد تنجى الحصون

They thought the lofty fortress a refuge;

but can fortresses save anyone from Ahmad?

فيا ويل أم من عركته منهم

وقد دارت رحى الحرب الطحون

So woe to the mother of any among them whom it has crushed,

now that the grinding mill of war has turned.

لقد أكلت سيوف الهند لحما

على أن كان أخمصها بطين

The swords of India have indeed devoured flesh,

though their hollow waist was potbellied.

فلا الاعشار تحصى من أبادت

ظباه من الكماة ولا المئين

Not even tens can number those annihilated

by his blades among armored champions, nor can hundreds.

وما يشفى الصدرو سوى المواضي

إذا قضيت بحدتها الديون

Nothing heals hearts except keen swords,

when debts are paid with their sharp edges.

فجردها إذا ما ناب خطب

وحرم أن تلم بها الجفون

So unsheathe them whenever a crisis strikes,

and forbid the scabbards to come near them.

وصُغ من فعلها تيجان فخر

يضيء بها ويبيض الجبين

Forge from their deeds crowns of glory,

by which the brow shines and gleams white.

واطلع في سماء النقع منها

بوارق وبلهن دم هتون

Raise from them in the sky of battle-dust

lightning flashes whose downpour is streaming blood.

فما ضحكت ثغور الروض حتى

بكت فيها السحائب وهي جون

For the meadow's mouths did not laugh until

the clouds wept there, dark as they were.

حميت ذرى المعالي بالعوالي

ورحت وعرضها عرض مصون

You defended the summits of glory with tall spears,

and went your way, their honor kept inviolate.

فما بفتى إذا عاداك جهل

وتلك ظباك تقطر بل جنون

It is not ignorance in a youth who makes you his enemy,

with your blades dripping thus, but madness.

أطيعوا يا عصاة فقد أناخت

بكلكلها على العاصي المنون

Obey, O rebels! For it has knelt down—

death, with its breast upon the disobedient.

ولوذوا بالخضوع فقد أظلت

رماح لا يبل لها طعين

Seek refuge in submission, for they have cast their shadow—

spears whose pierced victims never recover.

في اسخى الملوك علا ومجداً

ويا من كل فوق عنه دون

So, O most generous of kings in loftiness and glory,

and O you, beside whom every height is low!

إذا قيل الأمين فأنت أدرى

بأن محمد الشمسي الأمين

When 'the trustworthy' is named, you know best

that Muhammad al-Shamsi is the trustworthy one.

خليلك حيث لا يبقى خليل

وخدنك حيث يضطرب الخدين

Your friend where no friend remains,

and your confidant where the confidant falters.

يقيك بنفسه من كل سوء

كما وقت القذا العين الجفون

He shields you with his own life from every harm,

as eyelids shield the eye from grit.

إذا الغلمان بالاعضاء قيست

فان محمد العين اليمين

If young attendants are compared to the body's members,

then Muhammad is the right eye.

يلوح عليه منك ضياء سعد

يكاد لمن تأمله يبين

A radiance of good fortune from you shines upon him,

almost visible to anyone who looks closely at him.

له في ظلك الصافي مقيلٍ

ومن غيداقك الماء المعين

He has a resting place in your clear shade,

and flowing water from your abundant bounty.

وانت له وللدنيا جميعاً

ومن فيها المثبت والمعين

You are, for him and for all the world,

and everyone in it, the upholder and helper.

فدم كفوا تزف له المعالي

وتهدى وهي ابكار وعين

So remain a worthy match to whom high honors are led as brides,

and offered as gifts, virgins and wide-eyed beauties.