بدر تجلى أم ضياء ذكاء

بزغت بحالك ليلة ليلاء

A full moon revealed, or the radiance of Dhukāʾ, the sun,

Rising in the blackness of a pitch-dark night?

سفرت فأبدت تحت غيهب شعرها

صبحاً تبلج تحت جنح الظلماء

She unveiled, revealing beneath her hair’s deep darkness

A dawn that broke beneath the wing of night.

تعطو كما يعطو الغزال بجيده

ولها التفافت الظبية الأدماء

She reaches out as a gazelle stretches its neck,

And hers is the tawny doe’s turning glance.

حوراء قد أخذت تدير سلافها

لرفاقها من مقلة حوراء

A dark-eyed beauty, she began to pass her pure wine

To her companions, from a wide, dark eye.

طافت وقد ملأ الدلال رداءها

تيهاً تحل معاقد الصهباء

She made the rounds, her mantle filled with coquetry,

Proudly untying the knots of tawny wine.

رسمت محاسن وجهها في كأسها

والبدر يرسم عكسه في الماء

She traced her face’s beauties in her cup,

And the full moon traces its reflection in water.

تطفو بأفق سما الأناء فقاقع

منها فتحسبها نجوم سماء

Along the horizon of the vessel’s sky float bubbles

From it, which you would take for stars in heaven.

للضه ليلتنا بوجرة بعد ما

حل الربيع مرابع البطحاء

How wondrous our night at Wajra, after

Spring had settled in the meadows of al-Baṭḥāʾ,

حيث النسيم الرطب يعبث موهنا

في الروض غب الديمة الوطفاء

Where the moist breeze plays late at night

In the garden, after steady rain from laden clouds—

كليال عرس فتى العلي المعتلي

بعلاه صهوة سؤدد وعلاء

Like the wedding nights of the youth of eminence, who mounts

Through his high worth, the saddle of honor and glory.

علّامة العلماء والعلم الذي

تلوى عليه خناصر العلماء

The most learned of scholars, the luminary

For whom the little fingers of scholars are bent.

لم يرو الأعن مزايا فضله

غرر المديح منبَّأ الأنباء

Only of the merits of his excellence does he recite

The gems of praise—the one well versed in tidings.

يبدو كمثل البدر تمَّ تمامه

في وقت أسعده لعين الرائي

He appears like the full moon, its fullness perfected,

At its most auspicious hour to the beholder’s eye.

شرف أنار الأفق منه وسؤدد

ملأت أشعته الملا بضياء

His nobility has lit the horizon, and his eminence—

Its rays have filled the world with radiance.

متجلبب جلباب مجد تالدٍ

مصنوع كف المجد لا صنعاء

Clothed in the mantle of ancestral glory,

Fashioned by glory’s hand, not Ṣanʿāʾ’s.

تخذ الفراسة والهبات ورثة

عن خيم آباء له أمراء

He took discernment and generosity as an inheritance

From the character of his princely forefathers.

فهم الليوث يوم كريهة

وهم الغيوث يوم عطاء

For they are lions on a day of battle,

And rain clouds on a day of giving.

لن يبرحن الدهر في يومي ردىً

وندى يشوب منيةً بمناء

He will never cease, throughout time, on days of death

And bounty, to mingle death with gifts.

كم قلت للمزجي خفاف طلائح

قطعت نياط مفاوز البيداء

How often I have said to the driver of light-footed, exhausted camels

That have severed the heartstrings of the desert wastes—

عيسا كأمثال السهام إذا انبرت

تفري نحور أجارع الوعساء

Pale camels, like arrows when they dart forth,

Cleaving the throats of the soft-sanded tracts:

إن جنت بالأنضاء مغنى ابن الرضا

فاحبس فثم معرس الأنضاء

If you come with the weary camels to Ibn al-Riḍā’s abode,

Then halt: there is the weary camels’ resting place.

تلقاه ثمة حيث لم ير منعم

مثوى الوفود وكعبة النعماء

You will find him there, where no such benefactor has been seen:

The lodging of delegations, the Kaaba of bounty.

ما أم مغناه الخصيب مؤمل

إلا وآب بثروة وغناء

No hopeful seeker has sought his fertile abode

Without returning with riches and abundance.

خلق له كالروض يغني طيبه

عن طيب نشر الروضة الغناء

He has a garden-like character, whose fragrance makes needless

The sweet, spreading scent of the luxuriant garden.

ويدله بيضاً أبان بصنعها

أعجاز موسى ذي اليد البيضاء

And his white hand, through its deeds, has revealed

The miraculous power of Moses, he of the white hand.

يا ابن الذين تقاعست عن عزهم

أبناء ذروة عزة قعساء

O son of those before whose might fell short

Even the sons of the summit of unassailable glory.

هل كيف يعذر عن مديحك شاعر

في النظم راكب همة عذراء

How can a poet be excused from praising you,

Who rides a virgin ambition in the making of verse?

نهضت به تطأ القريض قريحة

تكفيه نهض كتبية شهباء

A poetic gift has borne him up, striding over verse,

Sparing him the mustering of a steel-gray battalion.

ماذا يقول الكاشحون وإنما

أذن العلى صما عن الفحشاء

What can the spiteful say? Indeed,

The ear of eminence is deaf to foul speech.

إن عاودت رجمي فإن جنادلي

ترمي أمامي حسدي وورائي

If you resume pelting me, then my stones

Strike my enviers before me and behind me.

إني اتخذت بك المدائح جنة

ملسا تقيني السن الأعداء

I have made my praises of you a shield,

Smooth, protecting me from enemies’ tongues.

إن عز مجدي في العلاء وإنما

يعزى لمجدك سؤددي وعلائي

If my glory is exalted on high, it is only

To your glory that my nobility and eminence are ascribed.

وهب انتسبت به إليك فإنما

هي نسبة الأبناء للآباء

And grant that, through it, I claim descent from you; this is but

The kinship of sons to fathers.

فلأنت تاج مفاخري وشعائري

وشباة صارم عزمتي ولوائي

For you are the crown of my glories and my emblems,

The edge of my resolve’s keen sword, and my banner.

تاج كمثل الشمس لاح مرصعا

إكليله بكواكب الجوزاء

A crown like the sun, shining forth bejeweled,

Its circlet set with the stars of al-Jawzāʾ.