ألطيمةٌ حُبستْ بكاظمةٍ

أم أنتِ زرتِ رحالَنا وهْنا

A poem locked in restraint

Or have you visited our dwellings, now desolate?

شُعْثٌ بك ادّكروا نعيمَهمُ

ومروّعون أزرتِهم أمْنا

Disheveled are you - they recalled their bounty

And terrified, did you chance upon their safety?

حطّوا فكلُّ حوِيّة نَمطٌ

ولكلّ خدٍّ ساعدٌ يُثنَى

They pitched camp, each valley is a footprint

Each cheek has a forearm that bends

أحفيتِ غيرَ ضنينةٍ بهمُ

ولقد يكون سماحُكِ الضَّنّا

You harbored naught but sorrow for them

Perchance your forgiveness was but sorrow

يا مطبقا عينيه حين رأى

ضوءاً فخال البرقَ معتنّا

O you whose eyes contract when you saw

A gleam, so the lightning seemed watchful

اِفتح جفونَك إنّ زائرنا

حسَر القناعَ وأبرزَ السِّنّا

Open your eyelids, our visitor

Has pulled down his veil and bared his teeth

أعلى البعاد وأنتِ عاتبةٌ

تَطوينَ سهلا وحدَكَ الحَزْنا

Highest are you in your distance, blaming

Folding the plains, alone in sadness

وهبي الجفاءَ تَركتِه كرما

فعلام يترك دِينُك الجُبنا

Grant me your aloofness, you left it generously

Why then does your faith leave cowardice?

ما زلتِ للأضداد جامعةً

حتى جمعتِ الجَورَ والحُسْنَى

Still you unite opposites

Until you united injustice and benefaction

شتانَ صدُّكِ بين أظهرِنا

بمِنىً ووصلُكِ في لوى الدَّهنْا

Great is the difference between your hindrance amidst us

In al-Mana, and your connection in the bend of ad-Dahna

يا ليلةً للبدرِ مِنَّتُها

والشمسِ لو قد أبطأتْ عنّا

O night of the full moon's grace

If only the sun had tarried from us

كان افتراقُهما تجمعُّنا

حتى إذا اجتمعا تفرَّقنا

Their parting would gather us

Until, when convened, we would disperse

بتنا على الدَّهناء نشربُ من

ثمداءَ يأكل جَدْبُها مِنَّا

We stayed at ad-Dahna, drinking from

Its withered ground, its drought eats away at us

وعلى مِنىً أبياتُ طاهرةٍ

بالخصبِ تَقرِي الشّهدَ والسَّمْنا

And at al-Mana, immaculate abodes

With fertility, bees sip nectar and clarified butter

لمياءُ ما للخمر خالطَها

مسكٌ بغير رُضابها معنى

Pure water, untainted by wine

Musk without pounding, meaningless

سبتِ القلوب ففي أناملها

دَمُها يُرينَك إنه الحِنّا

You captivated hearts, so in their fingers

Its blood shows you it was henna

واحتدَّ لحظاها وقامتها

أفأنتِ علّمتِ القنا الطعنا

Her glances and stance grew intense

Did you teach the spear to stab?

أخشى الأراقمَ أن أُسمِّيَها

فأقولُ موضعَ زينبٍ لُبْنَى

I fear to name the forearms

And say: "The place of Zainab is Lubna"

ولقد أرى والعينُ ناسيةٌ

ربعاً برامةَ يذكر الحَزْنا

And yet I see, though the eye forgets

A meadow that recalls sadness

كنَّا به عامَ الهوى جَذَعٌ

أيّامَ لا شيءٌ كما كنّا

There we were, in the year of passion, a trunk

Days of nothingness like we were!

مغنَى الشبابِ وكان من جسدي

أخْذُ البلى من ذلك المغنَى

The rapture of youth, and he took from my body

The onslaught of tribulations from that rapture

طللٌ تنكَّر بعد معرفةٍ

وبكى الحمامُ به كما غنَّى

An enclosure that denied after recognition

The doves wept there as they had sung

نفَرَتْ تَجنَّبُهُ رواحلُنا

فكأن إنسَك بُدِّلوا جِنّا

Our she-camels shied from it

As though the humans were replaced by Jinn

كنّا نعوجُ مسلِّمين به

فاليومَ سلَّمنا وما عُجنا

We would lean, surrendering to it

Yet today we surrendered without bending

أفتنكرين وأنتِ قاصيةٌ

صبّاً رعَى لكِ رعيَةَ الأدنى

Will you deny, and you are distant

Watering the lowliest of your flock?

إن زار دارك عن مراقبةٍ

حَيَّا وإن هو لم يزر حَنَّا

If one from watchfulness visits your abode

Greet him, and if he did not visit, yearn!

وخفيّة الأعلامِ مهملة

بلهاء ينكِرُ ضَبُّها المَكْنا

The hidden flags are neglected

With stupidity, its pole scorned from flagging

لم يفترعْها خُفُّ يعمَلةٍ

أنهبتُ وجنتَها يدَ الوجنا

No stealthy coward milked it

I gathered its bounty, the hand of one strong-armed

في ذمّة البيضاء قد ثقُلتْ

وقعا وخفَّتْ في يدي وزنا

Burdened, in custody of the innocent

Falling heavily in my hand and weight

كالبقلة استبقَى الزمانُ بها

في غمدها دون الذي أفنَى

Like a seed, time preserved it

In its sheath, unlike what it destroyed

خرساء تكتُم جَرسَها فإذا

طَنَّتْ بمفرَق هامةٍ طنَّا

Mute, hiding its tinkling, then when

It bleated at the parting of forelocks, it bleated

يستاق أُخرَى الرأسِ قائمُها

ويغورُ فيه يظنُّه الجفنا

Another she-camel walks proudly, erected

Plunging in it, you'd think it eyeliner

وعميمة مَرَتِ السماءُ لها

أخلافَ مرضِعةٍ بها تَغْنَى

A rain cloud passed for it,

Successors of a wet nurse through it are sated

تمشي عليها الرِّجلُ ثابتةً

مما يلاحِمُ غصنُها الغصنا

The foot walks on it, steady,

What its branch embraces of branches

جمّت فطالت ما ابتغت ومضت

عُرْضا فخلتُ نباتَها تبنا

She gathered and lengthened what she sought and went

On her way, so I left her growth as fodder

تمضِي الحجورُ بها تصاهِلُها

منها شخوصٌ تُحسب الحُصْنا

The chambers walk through it, intertwining with it

Some emerging, deemed a fortress

من دونها الحيُّ الحُلُول حَمَوا

عنها فما تُرعَى ولا تُجنَى

The living thronged it, lodging

Away from it, so it is not herded or harvested

منعوا بأطراف القنا لُدْناً

من عشبها المتهدِّلَ اللَّدنا

They forbade, at the fringes of the spear

Its dangling grass and the yielding

أطعمتُها إبلى يرود بها

راعٍ بوسم عِلاطهِ يُعنَى

I fed it to my camels who were satiated by it

A herdsman whose burnous is warm

وأخ لبثت على خلائقه

وأجزتُها صُرَحاء أو هُجْنا

And a brother whose nature I tested

And I rewarded it with a donation or produce

مِرآته وجهي إذا صفِرتْ

يده ولَقْوته إذا استَغنى

Its mirror is my face when it yellows

Its hand and strength when it enriches

ألقاه باردةً جوارحُهُ

وفؤاده متوهِّجٌ ضِغْنا

Its limbs cast it aside, cold

While its heart blazes, kindling

يُبدي المودةَ لي ويُغضبه

فضلي عليه فيظهر الشَّحْنا

It shows me affection, and it angers him

My grace upon it, so the rift shows

داريتُه وصبَرت أنظرُه

أن يستعيدَ ببيعتي الغَبْنا

I tamed it and watched it

To regain through my pledge the loss

اِقرعْ ظنابيبَ القطيعةِ لي

فلَتقرعَنْ من بعديَ السِّنّا

Sound the lutes of estrangement to me

For after me, the years will sound

لولا ابنُ أيوب لما ولَدتْ

أمُّ الوفاء على التمامِ ابْنا

Were it not for the son of Ayyub,

The mother of loyalty would not have birthed, perfected a son

لم يبقَ من تُثنَى عليه يدٌ

عَقْدا ولكن جاء مستثنَى

None remained to whom a hand praises

A necklace, but one came, unique

قد كنتُ فردا لا أليق أخا

زمنا فصرتُ بودّه مَثنَى

I was once peerless, unfit for a brother

For a time, then through his affection became a pair

أُثنِي على الدنيا بما وهبت

لي منه ما أحلَى وما أهنا

I praise the world for what it granted me

Of sweetness and bliss from it

وسواه قد عاركتُ خلَّته

عَرك المُنَقَّب جنبُه يُهنَا

And besides it, I struggled with its sorrows

The rubbing of the stripped flank is disgraced

نَغِلا أُلفِّقُه كأنَّ يدي

رقَعتْ على أخلاقه شَنَّا

Burdensome, I accommodated it as though my hands

Patched its nature with cracklings

وقلبتُ هذا الناسَ أوجُهَهُم

ظَهراً وسِرَّ قلوبِهم بطنَا

And I turned these people's faces

Dorsal and the secrets of their hearts ventral

فوجدتُه أوفاهُمُ بندىً

كفًّاً وأغضَى عن أذىً جفنا

I found him most faithful of them

Palmfuls and most forgiving of offense, eyelid

وأحبَّهم نشرا لمنقبَةٍ

وأشدَّهم لغميزةٍ دفنا

And most loving in spreading repute

And most veiling towards a wink

لله منه وللصفاء أخٌ

عَقَلَ الزمانُ به وقد جُنّا

By God, from it and clarity a brother

The era grew wise through it, though mad

بمحمَّدٍ فُتلتْ قُوَى أملي

ورَعين آمالي وأُسمنَّا

Through Muhammad were the forces of my hope unbound

My hopes were shepherded and fattened

الراكب العُليا على تَرَفٍ

فيه يروض ظُهورَها الخُشْنا

The most high rider on a bed

In which he trains its rugged mounts

تعِبا وراءَ المجد يجمعه

ما شُلَّ من هنّا ومن هنّا

Tired in pursuing glory, gathering it

From here and there and here and there

عشِق الكمالَ فما تبيتُ له

عينٌ على هِجرانه وسنَى

Enamored with perfection, no eye upon

Its estrangement rested or slept

إن قال صدَّقه الفعالُ وإن

أعطى على إقلاله أسنَى

If he spoke, actions verified him, if

He gave, despite his paucity he sufficed

لا تعلَقُ الفحشاءُ ما اجتهدت

من ثوبه ذيلا ولا رُدْنا

Debauchery does not cling to what he strove for

From his gown, dragging tail or train

متقبلٌ في المجد سالفةً

سَنَّت له العَلياءَ فاستَنّا

Tolerant in glory, preceding

What the most high established, so he likewise did

فكأنه لطلابِ غايتهِ

في الفضل أغلقَ دونها رهْنا

As though for seekers of his goal

In merit he shut before it, on deposit

شَجَّتْ أناملُه بنافذةٍ

في الصحف طبَّق لفظُها المعنى

His fingers were eloquent in an opening

In scripture, its phrasing encapsulated meaning

فضّاحة الفُصحاء ما قنِعت

لبيانها أن تفضَح اللُّكنا

The clarion voices of eloquence were not satisfied

For their elocution to divulge secrets

وجدَ التقدّمَ والسلاحَ بها

يوم النزال ولم يجد قِرنا

He found progress and arms through it

The day of battle, and found no match

رجعَتْ على الأعقاب ناكصةً

نوبٌ جعلتُك دونها حِصنا

They retreated backwards, routed,

Strides I made you a fortress below it

ووجدتُ ودَّك واستقامتَه

بَرْداً عليه أضالعي تُحنى

I found your affection and uprightness

A relief upon it, my ribs bend

حمّلتَني للرِّفد أقبلهُ

ولقد تراه نزاهتي أقنى

You burdened me to support it irresistibly

And you can see my probity suffices

وحملتُ لطفَك بي على عُنُقٍ

خَوَّارةٍ أن تحمِل المَنّا

I carried your kindness to me on a

Neck unbending, to carry gifting

فلتجزيَنَّك كلُّ سائرةٍ

تسَع البلادَ وتُظْلع البُدْنا

So may every traveller reward you

Roaming lands and exploring dunes

خرّاجةٍ من كلّ مشكلةٍ

ولَّاجةٍ لا تسأل الإذنا

A digger from every problem

An asker requiring no permission

من كلّ بيتٍ في بيوتكُمُ

عَجُزٌ له لا تخذُلُ المتْنا

From every house amongst your homes

Incapable, failing the text

تُروَى وليس تُرَى فسامعُها

للصوتِ تحسُد عينُه الأُذْنا

Watered yet unseen, so the hearer

Of its voice, his eye envies the ear

موسومة بكُمُ غرائبُها

فلو استُعِرنَ لقد تعرَّفنا

Marked by you, its oddities

If borrowed, we would have recognized it

وأسيءُ ظنَّا وهي محسنةٌ

لا كالمسيء ويُحسنُ الظنَّا

I think ill, though it is beneficent

Unlike the sinister, good of thought