طلائعنا بالبشر والسعد تطلع

وأعلامنا بالنصر والفتح ترفع

Our vanguards appear with glad tidings and good fortune,

and our banners are raised in victory and conquest.

وأعداؤنا يوم الوغى بسيوفنا

قلوبهم من خوفها تنقطع

And our enemies, on battle's day, before our swords—

their hearts are torn apart from fear of them.

وقد أصبحت تلك البغاة بأسرهم

لبغيهم صرعى ولبغي مصرع

And all those rebels have become

slain for their rebellion—and rebellion meets its doom.

وما منهم إلا أسير وهاربٌ

وميت عليه الطير والوحش وقع

None of them remains but a captive or a fugitive,

or a dead man upon whom birds and beasts have descended.

فلو كنت والأسياف صلت وهم إلى

محاربيها يوما سجود وركع

Had you been there when swords were bared and they, before

their warriors, lay prostrate and bowed that day,

لشاهدت اسدا غابها اجم القنا

تصول واطراف المنية تسرع

you would have seen lions whose forest was thickets of spears,

charging, while death's points hastened forward.

وباتت ولم تغمض جفون سيوفها

بضرب له في القلب والسمع موقع

And they passed the night, their swords' eyelids never closing,

striking blows felt in both the heart and the ear.

وايدي سبا احزابهم قد تفرقت

وليس لهم الا القيامة تجمع

And their factions have scattered like the hands of Saba,

and only the Resurrection will gather them again.

وما شعروا لما الينا تعرضوا

بان على الباغي الدوائر ترجع

They did not realize, when they came against us,

that the turns of fate rebound upon the aggressor.

وما زال باب النصر بالفتح بانياً

فماذا عسى الباغي المعاند يصنع

And victory's gate keeps building through conquest;

so what can the stubborn aggressor hope to do?

وقلعتنا ذات البروج نجومها

اسنتنا يوم الوغى وهي تلمع

And our fortress, with its towers—its stars

are our spearheads, glittering on battle's day.

وبندقنا كالشهب لم يخط صائبا

اذا ما رآه طائر القوم يصرع

Our shot, like meteors, never misses its mark;

when the enemy's bird sees it, it is brought down.

ولا مارد الا ومنها بصيبه

شهاب له ما زال بالرجم يتبع

And no rebellious demon but is struck from it

by a meteor that never ceases pursuing him with stoning.

وبتنا على المخدود نرمي مدافعا

وليس له مما قضى الله مدفع

And through the night we fired cannons at the scarred one,

and he had no defense against what God decreed.

وقد كان اقبرذي يموت بغير ما

نزاع وقد ولى وما فيه منزع

And Aqbirdhi was dying without any

struggle; he fled, with no escape left to him.

وضاقت عليه الارض خوفا فلم يجد

مكانا ولا يأويه قطراً وموضع

Fear made the earth too narrow for him, and he found no

place, nor any land or spot that would shelter him.

واينالاي نال الشقا لعناية

وعيناه من حزن تفيض وتدمع

And Inalay met misery through providence,

his two eyes overflowing with sorrow and shedding tears.

واقباي اعطيناه كاسا من الردى

فولّى وكاسات الردى تتجرع

And Aqbay—we gave him a cup of death,

so he fled, as cups of death were gulped down.

وفرت من الميدان تكبو خيولهم

وأصبح منها خالياً وهو بلقع

Their horses fled the battlefield, stumbling,

and it lay empty of them, a barren waste.

وكل غدا يبغي النجاة لنفسه

هزيما فلا يلوي ولا القول يسمع

And each went forth seeking escape for himself,

routed, neither turning back nor heeding a word.

وكيف النجا والموت الأحمر خلفهم

يصول بحد البيض والسمر تشرع

How could they escape, with red death behind them,

charging with white swords' edges, as brown spears are leveled?

مليك اذا ما اوقدت نار عزمه

حروبا فما كسرى وبكر وتبع

A king—when the fire of his resolve has kindled

wars, what are Kisra, Bakr, and Tubbaʿ beside him?

هو البأس ذو البأس الشديد ومن له

يذل عزيز القوم خوفا ويخضع

He is might itself, the master of fierce might, before whom

the people's proudest man is humbled by fear and submits.

هو الاسد الضرغام والملك الذي

لسطوته تخشى الاسود وتخشع

He is the lion, the fierce lion, the king

before whose might lions are afraid and bow in awe.

جواد سديد الرأي والحزم ماجد

شديد شجاع البأس والعزم اروع

Generous, sound in judgment and determination, noble,

strong, courageous in battle and resolve, awe-inspiring.

اخو فعلات يصدم الجيش في الوغى

بعزم لريب الدهر لا يتضعضع

A man of mighty deeds, he crashes into the army in battle

with resolve unshaken by the reversals of time.

ضحوك الثنايا والقنا يقرع القنا

اذا ما غدا سن الفتى منه يقرع

He smiles, his front teeth showing, as spear strikes spear,

when a young man's teeth chatter because of him.

كريم اذا اعطى عظيم اذا سطا

اخو الجود ذو باس يضر وينفع

Generous when he gives, formidable when he strikes,

a master of bounty and might, dealing harm and benefit.

هو البحر الا ان مورده حلا

وراحته منها لنا الجود منبع

He is the sea, save that his watering-place is sweet,

and his palm is the spring from which bounty flows to us.

رفيع العلا دار السعادة داره

منازل لم يبرح بها السعد يطلع

Exalted in glory, his home is the abode of happiness,

dwellings where good fortune has never ceased to rise.

به جلق الفيحاء بالأمن اينعت

واضحت بها الغيد الاوانس ترتع

Through him, spacious Jilliq has ripened in peace,

and graceful, gentle maidens frolic there.

وطابت به ايامها فجميعها

سرور وافراح وانس مجمع

Through him her days have grown sweet, and all of them are

joy, delights, and conviviality gathered together.

وسادت به مجدا وشادت به علا

فامست بحمد الله تحمى وتمنع

Through him she gained supremacy in glory and built her heights,

and so, praise be to God, she is guarded and defended.

وعزت بعلياه فلا مطمح لها

لباغ ولا فيها لمن رام مطمع

Mighty through his eminence, she offers no prospect

to an aggressor, nor any prize within her to one who seeks it.

فطوبى لمن امسى بكعبة بابه

يطوف ومن اضحى بها يتمتع

Blessed is he who spends the evening at the Kaaba of his gate,

circling it, and he who enjoys it in the morning.

فيا ملكا قد ساد من كان قبله

وسؤدده اعلى محلا وارفع

O king, who has surpassed those who came before him,

whose lordship is higher in station and more exalted,

اقمت منار الدين للحق رفعة

صدعت به الباغين والحق يصدع

you raised religion's beacon, exalting truth;

with it you shattered the aggressors—and truth shatters.

وفينا نشرت العدل من بعد طيه

فوافى ومنه نشره يتضوع

Among us you unfurled justice after it had been folded away,

and it arrived, its fragrance spreading abroad.

وفاضت علينا من نداك سحائب

بها الجود طبع في العطا لا تطبع

From your bounty clouds have poured down upon us,

whose generosity in giving is innate, not affected.

وما مثل من تلقى السماحة والندى

به خلقة مثل الذي يتمتع

And one in whom you find liberality and bounty

as inborn traits is not like one who takes pleasure in them.

ليهنئك نصر الله والفتح بعده

فما مثل هذا الفتح في العصر يسمع

May God's victory gladden you, and the conquest that follows it;

no conquest like this is heard of in this age.

فدونكها مني اليك حديقة

بها روض مدحي بالثناء موشع

So take this garden from me, offered to you,

where the meadow of my praise is embroidered with acclaim.

بديعة أوصاف عليك ثناؤها

من الزرد المنظوم درع ممنع

Wondrous in its qualities, its praise of you

is an impregnable coat of interlinked mail-rings:

قصيدا حوى من كل بيت مصرع

محلّى بأنواع البديع مرصع

a poem containing, from every verse, a hemistich

adorned and studded with varied rhetorical ornaments.

فلا زال في الأعداء سهمك صائبا

وسيفك يفري في الرقاب ويقطع

May your arrow never cease to strike true among your enemies,

and your sword cleave necks and cut through them.

ولا زلت ترقى في سما المجد صاعدا

وللسعد في أفلاك مجدك مطلع

And may you ever rise, ascending in the heaven of glory,

and may good fortune rise in the spheres of your glory.

ودمت مدى الايام ما هبت الصبا

وما باتت الورقا على العود تسجع

May you endure throughout the days, as long as the east wind blows,

and as long as the gray dove spends the night cooing on the bough.