أحيا الربيع الأرض بعد مماتها

وحلا بسكب القطر عود نباتها

Spring revived the earth after its death,

And the stem of its growth grew lovely with pouring rain.

وسرى النسيم على الرياض وقد أتى

يهدي إليك الطيب من نفحاتها

The breeze passed over the gardens, having come

To bring you fragrance from their scented breaths.

والعود هزته الصبا والطير قد

غنت عليه باختلاف لغاتها

And the east wind shook the branch, and the birds had

Sung upon it in their diverse tongues.

والزهر قد ألقى النثار كأنما

أدت كنوز الروض بعض زكاتها

And the flowers have strewn largesse, as though

The garden's treasures had paid a portion of their alms.

والأرض كلها الندى بجواهر

نظمت عقود الدر من حباتها

And dew decked the whole earth with jewels;

Pearl necklaces were strung from their beads.

والروض بالريحان خرج اسطرا

اضحت غصون البان من الفاتها

And the garden traced lines in fragrant herbs;

Bān-tree boughs became alifs in its writing.

الفات روض قد امالتها الصبا

فكأنما التسكين في حركاتها

A garden's alifs that the east wind has bent—

As though a sign of stillness lay within their movements.

تحكي عنادلها على اعوادها

خطباء تتلو الوعظ من سجعاتها

Its nightingales upon its branches resemble

Preachers reciting counsel in their rhymed cadences.

وحكت جداولها خلاخيلا وقد

اضحى خرير الماء من رناتها

And its streams resembled anklets, while

The murmur of water became one of their chimes.

والصبح من وجه الحبيب بدا وقد

بزغت شموس الراح من مشكاتها

And dawn appeared from the beloved's face, while

The suns of wine rose from its lamp-niche.

قم نبه الاقداح ان الشمس قد

شنت على جيش الدجا غاراتها

Rise, wake the goblets, for the sun has

Launched its raids upon the army of darkness.

واستجل عرس الروض في بسطا الهنا

فالراح قد خضبت اكف سقاتها

And behold the garden's bride upon joy's carpet,

For wine has dyed the palms of its cupbearers.

راح اذا ما عز داؤك برؤه

يسري اليك البرء من نفحاتها

Wine: when your illness proves hard to cure,

Healing steals toward you from its fragrant breaths.

طافت بها تسقي السقاة فقم إلى

ميزابها واحجج الى ميقاتها

She passed it round, serving the cupbearers; so rise to

Its spout, and make pilgrimage to its appointed place.

ومليحة بين الرياض اذا انثنت

عجبا ومالت يا حيا باناتها

And a beauty amid the gardens, when she bends

So wondrously and sways—oh, how ashamed their bān trees are!

واذا بدت من خدرها وتلفتت

يا خجلة الغزلان من لفتاتها

And when she emerges from her chamber and turns,

Oh, how the gazelles are shamed by her glances!

عاب الوشاة قناعها فاجبتهم

لا تخرج الأقمار عن هالااتها

The tale-bearers faulted her veil, and I answered them:

“Moons do not leave their halos.”

يكفي بان البدر يدعى عبدها

ويقال ان الشمس من ضرّاتها

It is enough that the full moon is called her slave,

And the sun is said to be one of her co-wives.

لم انس أنس حديثها لي عندما

زارت وقد نامت عيون وشاتها

I have not forgotten the pleasure of her talk with me when

She visited, while her tale-bearers' eyes had fallen asleep.

والشمس تشرق بهجة وملاحة

من نورها وصفاتها وصفاتها

And the sun shines in splendor and beauty,

From her light and her qualities and her qualities.

والصبح كاد يضيء لولا شعرها

يبقى ليالينا على حالاتها

And dawn would almost shine, but for her hair,

Which keeps our nights as they are.

للّه هاتيك الليبلات التي

قد فزت باللذات من اوقاتها

How splendid those little nights in which

I won delights from their hours,

حيث المسرة والشبيبة والصبا

واللهو والايام في غفلاتها

Where there were joy, youthful vigor, and youth,

And revelry, while the days lay heedless.

فلأشكرنها ما حييت لياليا

قاضي القضاة اليوم من حسناتها

I shall surely thank them while I live—those nights;

Today's chief judge is among their blessings.

مولى به طابت دمشق واصبحت

ايامه غررا على جبهاتها

A lord through whom Damascus grew fair, and

His days became white blazes upon her brows.

بحر اياديه تفيض سماحة

جودا وفيض الجود من عاداتها

An ocean, whose hands overflow with liberality,

With bounty—and bounty's overflowing is their habit.

لم يخش من بذل النوال منازعا

وكفاك ان الجود من راحاتها

He feared no rival in dispensing bounty,

And it is enough for you that bounty springs from their palms.

لا عيب فيه غير ان يمينه

تعطي الالوف وذاك بعض هباتها

He has no fault, save that his right hand

Gives thousands, and that is but part of its gifts.

يكفيه فخرا ان سورة مجده

اضحى الثنا والحمد من آياتها

It is pride enough for him that the chapter of his glory

Now counts eulogy and praise among its verses.

رد يا اخا الجدوى مناهل جوده

مترويا من عذبها وفراتها

O brother of beneficence, visit the watering places of his bounty,

Drinking your fill of their sweet and refreshing waters.

اقلامه تختال في دوح الندى

اذ كان حمل الجود من ثمراتها

His pens strut among the great trees of generosity,

For a harvest of bounty has been among their fruits.

والى ميادين النوال تسابقت

او ما تراه قد حوى قصباتها

And they raced toward the arenas of giving;

Or do you not see that he has won their prize reeds?

ياذا الذي احيا المكارم بعد ما

كان انطوى واعاد نشر حيتها

O you who revived noble virtues after they

Had been folded away, and unfolded their life anew.

عذرا فاشعاري لقد بارت فقد

ضيعت ايامي على ساعاتها

Pardon me: my poems have indeed gone unsold, for

I have squandered my days, hour by hour.

فامدد إلى نحوي يمينا طالما

جادت عوائدها بعود صلاتها

So stretch toward me a right hand that has so often

Lavished its customary favors through renewed gifts.

وجنيت من ثمراتها ونعمت من

زهراتها ورتعت في صدقاتها

And I gathered from its fruits and delighted in

Its blossoms, and grazed among its charitable gifts.

واليك خذها بالمحامد مدحة

حماد من حفّاظها ورواتها

And here—take it, a panegyric rich in praises;

Ḥammād is among those who memorize and transmit it.

لو عاصرت شيخ الشيوخ لجاءها

منطفلا يسعى إلى أبياتها

Had it shared the age of the sheikh of sheikhs, he would have come to it,

An uninvited guest, hastening toward its verses.

او لو يكررها الفتى ابن نباتة

يوما لقال نعم انا ابن نباتها

Or if young Ibn Nubāta were to repeat it

One day, he would say, “Yes, I am the son of its growth.”

ولو ابن حجة رام منها وقفة

ما حاد في مسمعاه عن ميقاتها

And if Ibn Ḥujja sought a pause within it,

He would not stray in his listening from its appointed time.

لولاك لم ينشر لها طي ولا

كانت معاني الحسن من أدواتها

But for you, no fold of it would have been unfurled, nor

Would beauty's meanings have been among its resources.

لا زال نجمك بالسعادة طالعا

وبلغت من درج العلا غاياتها

May your star never cease rising with good fortune,

And may you reach the highest of glory's steps,

ما اعربت بالسجع ورقاء الحمى

طربا وعنه أضحت بلغاتها

So long as the sanctuary's gray dove speaks in rhyme,

In rapture, and at morn speaks of it in her tongues.