خذ بيدي ان بيننا نسب

الفضل والاغتراب والأدب

Take my hand if there is kinship between us

Of virtue, estrangement, and courtesy

يدلى الفتى للفتى بمقربة

وذي ثلاث ما بيننا قرب

A young man holds out to a young man in intimacy

While we three, there is no closeness between us

انت رجانا ولا شفيع لنا

ومن شفيع الكرام ان وهبوا

You are our sheikh and no intercessor for us

And who would intercede for the noble if they granted

تمرغ الجود في يديك كما

تمرغت فوق نعلك السحب

Generosity rolls in your hands as

The clouds rolled over your slippers

وإن ارضا وليتها فلك

يحرسها من يراعك الشهب

And if the land pleased you, it revolved around you

Guarded by the shooting stars that watch over you

لأهلها صارم وذو لبد

وكافل منك مشفق واب

For its people a fierce and mighty man

And a guardian from you, sympathetic and loving

ففت ولم تسع سؤددا وندى

كذاك اهل العلا إذا خطبوا

So he opened but did not have enough hospitality and bounty

That is how the eminent are when they speak

وجهك صبح الغنى ولي زمن

آمل اقباله وارتقب

Your face is the morning of richness and I have a time

Hopeful of its favor and awaiting

فما جوابي ان قيل أي غنى

نلت وماذا أفادك الطلب

What then is my answer if it is said what richness

Have you attained and what has seeking availed you

وأنت كالشمس في منازلهم

طلوعها كل بكرة بجب

While you are like the sun in their dwellings

Rising every morning over the hillsides

جاورت كفا غداك صيبها

واتنقعت منه عصبة غيب

You dwelled next to a palm tree making it bear fruit

And tapped from it a clan of the unseen

ملأنها بالنقود من قبل

فصار منها لقبرك الغلب

Filling them with money before

So it has become for your grave the conquest

ونفر الورق عن منابرها

قوم إذا ما تفصحوا نعبوا

And the paper turned away from its pulpits

A people, if they speak eloquently, they wail

فمن يكف العدا وألسنها

إذا بحيات ضغنهم لسبوا

So who can restrain the enemies and their tongues

When their serpents’ venom makes them curse

ان لم يكن منك سوق عارفة

بدر لي ضرعها واحتلب

If it were not for your knowledgeable market

A full moon whose udder I would milk

لا ترض لي ان اعيش في سمل

وليس غير السحاب لي جيب

Do not approve for me to live in barrenness

With no clouds for me to have a pocket

من بعد ما شاع ان لي سندا

منك به في الامور احتسب

After it spread that I have a supporter in you

Through whom I seek in matters, I account

وقيل قاضي القضاة دام علا

اليه فتحي يدلى وينتسب

And it was said the judge of judges, may his banner remain high

To him Fathi stretches out and traces his lineage

واجتذبتني يد غمائمها

حيث يكون الغليل تنسكب

And its cloudy hands pulled me

Where anguish pours forth, it pours out

اطلق لساني واسمع عجائبه

ان كنت ممن يهزه الطرب

Unleash my tongue and listen to its wonders

If you are one whom rapture shakes

انا امرؤ صنعتي التغزل والمد

ح وفني الانشاء والخطب

I am a man whose craft is amorous verse and panegyric

And my art is rhetoric and speeches

تلقى المعاني إلي زهرتها

فاجتنيها والغير يحتطب

Meanings offer themselves to me in their blossoms

So I pick them while others gather firewood

وكم بيوت ملأنها حكما

وهن ان شئت خرد عرب

And how many houses have I filled with wisdom

And if you wish, Ruins of Arabs

اسوغ من جرعة الزلال على ال

قلب وفي حلق حاسدي لهب

I make lawful a draught of the pure water for the heart

And in the throat of my envious enemies, flame.

وربما ملت للجون فما

عذب رضاب الظباء والضرب

And sometimes I am weary of amorous dalliance, but what

Are sweeter than the blow of hunting and striking

احل سحر اللسان في ذهب ال

قلب وفي حلق حاسدي لهب

I make the magic of the tongue lawful in the gold of the heart

And in the throat of my envious enemies, flame.

يبيت الجليس من طرب

يسجد من سمعه ويقترب

The gathering falls in rapture at night

Prostrating when hearing it and drawing nearer

راقت كذوب الكؤس لي شيم

وراق معها فضائل نخب

The fiction of goblets was pleasing to me as a habit

And virtues of the select have pleased with it as well.

هذي على جبهة العلا رقم

وتلك في ميسم المنى شنب

This is on the forehead of the eminent, a mark

While that is in the bud of desire, down

يا مصر ما للغريب من نزل

عندك الا الهموم والكرب

O Egypt, the stranger has no abode with you

Other than sorrows and constriction

دار اغترابي التي عنيت بها

أنت وداري وحبذا حلب

My abode of estrangement which you have concerned yourself with

You are my abode, and how excellent is Aleppo

دار تميت الهمون نلحتها

وتغتذي من عبيرها الكثب

An abode where sorrows guested it

And feed on its fragrance, O sweet basil.

لا قربها للكرام مضيعة

ولا حماها للضيم منقلب

Neither have the noble made it their concern

Nor defended it from injustice, a place of return

صافح ثراها إذا نزلت بها

فمن ثراها الاعزة النجب

Embrace its prosperity if you descend upon it

For its prosperity are the most precious nobility

فارقتها والكرام من قدم

تقسموا في البلاد وانشعبوا

I left it and since olden times the nobles

Divided in the lands and diverged

علي أن لا تنام لوعتها

بين الضلوع همومها شعب

It is upon me not to sleep, its homesickness

Lodged between the ribs, its sorrows cleaved

آه ومن للغريب في بلد

ان سقب مسه وان لغب

Ah! And what does the stranger have in a land

If he is badly-treated or insulted?

اضحك في اسرتي وترقني

إذا خلوا عبرتي فانتحب

I laugh out of pain in my kin, and it pleases me

When they are alone, to shed tears

اهز جذع المنى وما يبدي

الا نواه وشوكه رطب

I shake the trunk of pleasance but it shows

Naught but its thorns and unripe clusters

أي رياض يكون بلبلها

مثلى ويخفى اسى وينتخب

What garden could there be a nightingale like me

That hides my misery and makes a careful pick?

يسومني الضيم من وثقت به

لام من يرتضي به الحرب

The one I trusted betrays me

I do not blame the one who wages war

لا اقبل الضيم كيف اقبله

والمجد يأباه في والحسب

I do not accept betrayal, how can I accept it

While glory refuses it in dignity and repute?

والشمس صوء بالضوء مطلعها

قبل لحاق الظلام تحتجب

By its light the sun is radiant at its rising

Before the darkness can overtake to veil it

يظن صدعي لقرع نائبة

وإنما من احبه النوب

It is thought my fracture is from the blow of a calamity

But rather from one I loved, the sublime

كأنني من زجاجة جسد

اصابه في انكساره السبب

It is as if I am of a glass body

Struck in its breaking, the cause evident

فامسح دموعي فما سواك يدي

فعبرة الحر صونها يجب

So wipe away my tears for none but you, my hand

For the tears of the free, it is right to protect them

لعل نيل الامان يلحقني

وصدع هذا الفؤاد ينشعب

Maybe safety will join me

And this split heart will cleave