قلبي بريحان العذار معلق

وبورد خدك هام وهو محقق

My heart is bound to the basil of your cheek-down,

And is truly enraptured by the rose of your cheek.

يا راشقا قلبي بنيل لحاظه

عطفا فان قوام قدك ارشق

O you who pierce my heart with the reach of your glances,

Have mercy, for your figure is more slender still.

قسما بوجهك انه شمس الضحى

وبنور فرقك وهو بدر مشرق

I swear by your face: it is the sun of the forenoon,

And by the light of your hair-parting, a radiant full moon.

لو لم اغص في مز هجرك في الهوى

ما بت فيك بدمع عيني اشرق

Had I not choked on the tartness of your abandonment in love,

I would not have spent the night choking on my tears over you.

كلا ولا فقت الغزال محاسنا

الا وانت من الغزالة اشرق

Nay, you have not surpassed the gazelle in beauty

Without also being brighter than the sun.

روحي الفداء له غني ملاحة

ما ضره بالوصل لو يتصدق

My soul be his ransom—he is rich in loveliness.

What harm would it do him to bestow union as alms?

اني لأساله الوصال ولم يزل

دمعي له في وجنتي يترقرق

Indeed, I ask him for union, and all the while

My tears for him keep quivering upon my cheek.

واقول للقرط المليح مكانه

رفقا فلي قلب شبيهك يخفق

And I say to the earring, lovely in its place:

Gently! I have a heart like you, which flutters.

امعنفي عني اليك فانني

خلفي بغير الحب لا اتخلف

O my reproacher, away from me! For indeed I—

Behind me—without love I do not lag behind [wording unclear].

كيف السلو وقد رنت الحاظه

ان الطريق بها اليه ضيق

How can I forget, when his eyes have gazed?

Indeed, the way through them to him is narrow.

عذل العذول عليه موت احمر

ان العذول هو العدو الازرق

The reproacher's blame over him is a red death;

Indeed, the reproacher is the blue-eyed enemy.

من لي به شاكي السلاح جفونه

عن نبلها قوس الحواجب ترشق

Who can help me with him, his eyelids fully armed?

The bow of his brows shoots their arrows.

ريان من ماء الشباب عليه من

خفر الملاحة والمحاسن رونق

Sated with the water of youth, he bears

A sheen of beauty's modesty and charms.

ظبي ولكن بالجمال مقرطق

بدر ولكن بالهلال ممنطق

A gazelle, but wearing beauty as his tunic;

A full moon, but girdled with the crescent.

لله ما احلاه حين يمر بي

متلفتا مثل الغزالة يشرق

God, how sweet he is when he passes me,

Turning to look, shining like the sun.

قلبي ودمعي في هواه تطابقا

فمقيد هذا وهذا مطلق

My heart and my tears are in accord in loving him:

This one is fettered, and that one runs free.

وعليه عمري في الهوى انفقته

وكذا النفوس على النفائس تنفق

And upon him I have spent my life in love;

And so souls are spent on precious things.

مالت ذوائبه ولاح جبينه

فتعارضا ليل وصبح مشرق

His tresses swayed, and his forehead shone,

So night and radiant dawn stood opposed.

واذا تبسم قال دونك والحمى

هذا العذيب بدا وهذا الابرق

And when he smiles, he says, 'Here—by the sanctuary!—

This is al-Udhayb revealed, and this is al-Abraq.'

رشأ كأنّ قوامه وقد انثنى

تحت الغلائل غصن بان مورق

A fawn, whose figure, when he bends, seems

Beneath his fine robes a leafy bān branch.

وكأن وجنته ونبت عذاره

طرس به بالمسك سطر ملحق

And his cheek and the growth of his cheek-down seem

A parchment bearing a line appended in musk.

وتكاد تنطق عنه احرفه كما

بمديح شمس الدين كلي ينطق

And its letters almost speak of him, just as

All of me speaks in praise of Shams al-Din.

مولى من العلياء حاز مكانة

وحوى مقاما شأوه لا يلحق

A lord who has won a station of eminence,

And attained a rank whose height cannot be reached.

واذا تسابقت الجياد إلى العلا

فهو الذي للجود منهم اسبق

And when the noble steeds race toward the heights,

He is foremost among them in generosity.

طبعت على تلك الهبات يمينه

فكأنها لسوى الندى لا تخلق

His right hand was molded for those gifts,

As though it were created for nothing but bounty.

غيث اذا استمطرت سحب نواله

اياك من طوفانها لا تغرق

Life-giving rain: if you seek rain from the clouds of his bounty,

Beware their deluge: do not drown!

بحر سريع البذل الا أنه

بالمد وافر جوده يتدفق

A sea, swift to give, except that

His abundant generosity surges with the tide.

تهوى مكارمه الورى وتهيم من

شغف بها ان المكارم تعشق

Mankind loves his noble deeds and is enraptured

From passion for them: noble deeds are indeed beloved.

وهو الذي ان قال قولا لم يزل

للقول حسن الفعل منه يسبق

He is the one who, whenever he speaks a word, unfailingly

Has his fine deeds precede his speech.

وتراه ارفق ما يكون بوفده

يوم الندى وبماله لا يرفق

And you see him at his gentlest with his visitors

On the day of bounty, while he does not spare his wealth.

يا ذا الذي فيه السخاء مجمع

واكفه منها العطياء مفرق

O you in whom generosity has its gathering-place,

And whose palms are a place from which gifts are dispersed,

خذها اليك قصيدة وافت عسى

حسن القبول تنال منك وترزق

Receive it—a poem come to you, in the hope

That it may win your kind acceptance and receive bounty.

قد حسنت فيك المديح لعسها

ان المدائح عند مثلك تنفق

Its dusky lip-color has beautified the praise of you;

Indeed, panegyrics sell readily with one like you.

مسكية الاوصاف الا انها

يسوى مديحك نشرها لا يعبق

Musk-like in its qualities, save that

Its fragrance is worth your praise, but does not waft [wording unclear].

ما للفرزدق حسن معنى نظمها

ولكل بيت فهي فيه فرزدق

Al-Farazdaq has nothing as fine as the meaning of its verse;

And in each verse it is a Farazdaq.

وافتك تبسط عذرها فافتح لها

باب العطاء فباب غيرك مغلق

It has come to you, presenting its excuse: open for it

The gate of giving, for anyone else's gate is closed.

لا زال نجمك بالسعادة طالعا

واليك ناظره يشير ويرمق

May your star always rise with good fortune,

And may its observer point toward you and gaze.

والدهر عبدك طوع امرك خادما

والسعد بالبشرى لبابك يطرق

And may Time be your slave, serving obediently at your command,

And may good fortune knock at your door with glad tidings.

وبقيت للنعم التي لي طوقت

ما بات يسجع في الرياض مطوّق

And may you endure, for the favors you have hung about my neck,

As long as a ring-necked dove coos by night in the gardens.