أعاشر قوما عندهم لي عداوة

أداريهم لو كان يجدي المداراةُ

I associate with people who harbor enmity toward me.

I would placate them, if placating could avail.

وأطلب من ناس يعادونني الرضى

وبين الرضى والحقد منهم مسافات

And I seek approval from people hostile to me,

yet between their approval and their rancor lie vast distances.

تمرّ الليالي عاجلات فتنقضي

ولا تنقضي في القوم تلك العداوات

The nights pass swiftly and come to an end,

yet those enmities among the people never end.

يريني ولاء معشرٌ في عيونهم

على ما أكنّوا في القلوب دلالات

A company of men shows me loyalty; in their eyes

are signs of what they conceal within their hearts.

ويجمعهم والشر طبع وإنما

قلوبهمُ في غير ذلك أشتات

Their nature binds them to evil; but

in all else their hearts are divided.

وإني لأسترضيهمُ عن تجامُلِ

وتأبى عليهم في القلوب حزازات

And I do seek their favor out of courtesy,

yet grudges within their hearts prevent them from yielding.

تقال أكاذيب عليَّ عظيمة

فيوشك منها أن تمور السمواتُ

Enormous lies are told against me,

so that the heavens almost quake because of them.

يسومونني ذلا فآبى قبوله

وهل تقبل الذل النفوس الأبيات

They subject me to humiliation, but I refuse to accept it.

And do proud souls accept humiliation?

وهم كلما سيموا من الخسف خطة

أقرت لها منهم نفوس دنيَّات

And whenever a course of abasement is imposed on them,

their base souls assent to it.

وهل بين من لا يرتضي بمهانة

وبين الذي يرضى الهوان مساواة

And is there, between one who will not consent to disgrace

and one who accepts humiliation, any equality?

نصحتهمُ لو أنهم يسمعونني

ولكن أبت أن تسمع النصح أموات

I counseled them—if only they would listen to me!

But dead men refused to hear advice.

أريهم بنصحى وجهة الحق مثلما

تريك عيانا صورة الشيء مرآة

Through my counsel I show them the way of truth, just as

a mirror plainly shows you a thing's image.

رقَت بأناس جاهلين حظوظهم

إلى رتب في الجاه والحظ مرقاة

Their fortunes raised ignorant men

to ranks of prestige—and fortune is a ladder.

تزول منافاة النقيضين منهما

وبين الحجى والحظ تبقى المنافاة

The incompatibility between two opposites can disappear,

but between wisdom and fortune incompatibility remains.

أتوا بوشايات عظيم إثامها

فكادت بها تغتال نفسيَ آفات

They brought slanderous reports, grievous in their sinfulness,

and through them calamities almost took my life.

ولست أخاف الموت أو أرهب الردى

وما قُضيت لي في الحياة اللبانات

I do not fear death or dread my end,

though my desires in life remain unfulfilled.

فلولا أمانيَّ التي أنا عائش

لإدراكها طابت لديّ المنيَّات

Were it not for my hopes, which I live

to realize, death would be sweet to me;

وسرَّ لقاء الموت قلبيَ مثلما

تسرّ محباً من حبيب ملاقاة

and meeting death would gladden my heart, just as

meeting a beloved gladdens a lover.

فكم دُبِّرت منهم عليَّ سعاية

وكم زُوِّرت منهم عليّ شهادات

How many a malicious denunciation they have plotted against me,

and how often they have forged testimony against me!

ولست أجازيهم بمثل الذي وشوا

فإن سلاح الأذلين الوشايات

I do not repay them with slander like theirs,

for slander is the weapon of the most abject.

أبغدادُ أنت الموطن الأوَّل الذي

به طاب في عهد الصبا لي صبابات

O Baghdad, you are that first home

where, in the days of youth, my ardent loves were sweet to me,

إذ العيش مخضر يلوح لناظري

عليه صفاء لم تَشَبهُ الكدُورات

when life was verdant, and to my eyes it gleamed

with a clarity that no troubles had tainted.

فلما انقضت أيام لهوي وصبوتي

وأصحبني الناسَ اللئام الضرورات

Then, when the days of my play and youthful passion had passed,

and necessity made me keep company with ignoble people,

وجدتُهم إما عدواً منافقا

على قلبه في الوجه منه علامات

I found them either a hypocritical enemy,

whose face bore signs revealing his heart,

وإما صديقاً في الرخاء يزورني

وينأى إذا اشتدت عليَّ الملمات

or a friend who visits me in prosperity

and keeps away when calamities bear hard upon me.

عداك الحيا من بلدة عمَّ شرها

وسادت بها دون البلاد الجهالات

May life-giving rain pass you by, city whose evil is everywhere,

and where ignorance reigns as in no other land.

ولم تر في سكانها غير ظالم

وأما أولو الإنصاف منهم فقد ماتوا

And among its inhabitants you have seen none but oppressors;

as for the fair-minded among them, they have died.

تلاعب أطماع الولاة بهم فما

أحسُّوا كأن القوم فيها جمادات

The rulers' greed toys with them, yet they

feel nothing, as though the people there were inanimate objects.

ولولا اجتناب الذام كنت هجوتهم

فحّلت بهم من سيف شعري نكايات

Had I not shunned reproach, I would have satirized them,

and wounds from the sword of my poetry would have befallen them.

ولكنني إن جار في القوم معتدٍ

فليس سوى الإعراض عندي مجازاة

But if an aggressor among these people commits injustice,

my only requital is to turn away.

عسى اللَه أن يستبدل الغي بالهدى

ولِلّه محوٌ في الأمور وإثبات

May God replace error with guidance;

and to God belong effacement and confirmation in affairs.

توعدني بالقتل قوم وإنما

لكل امرئ في الموت يوم وميقات

Some people threaten to kill me; but

every person has a day and an appointed time for death.

برئت من العلياء إن كان لي بما

توعدني القوم اللئام مبالاة

May I be bereft of high honor if I care at all about what

those ignoble people threaten me with.

فإن تقتلوني تقتلوا غير معتدٍ

عليكم ولا باغٍ عدته المروءات

For if you kill me, you kill someone who is no aggressor

against you, nor a wrongdoer whom noble virtues have passed by.