قل هكذا الشعر ترتاح النفوس له

وهكذا الشعرا تبني قوافيها

Say: such is poetry, in which souls find repose,

and thus do poets build their rhymes.

ما الشعر إلا الشعور المحض تبعثه

نفس الحقائق روحا في معانيها

Poetry is nothing but pure feeling, sent forth

by the essence of truths as a spirit within their meanings,

حتى يريك من الأشيا دقائقها

كالشمس تبدو المرائي في تجليها

until it reveals to you the subtleties of things,

like the sun, in whose radiance sights appear.

هذا وفي ما لديكم من شواهده

ما كان يغني عن التبيان راويها

This is so; and in the examples of it you possess

is enough to spare their reciter the need to explain.

هذي القصيدة تنبيكم طلاوتها

عن حافظ الشعر إبراهيم منشيها

This poem's sweetness tells you

of Hafiz Ibrahim, poetry's guardian, who composed it.

كم بينات من الآيات قد حفظت

لحافظ ولسان الدهر تاليها

How many lucid verses have been preserved

for Hafiz, while the tongue of Time recites them!

ناجي الضمير فأوحى بالمهم له

فيما يقصه تذكيرا وتنبيها

He communed with his conscience, which inspired him with what mattered

in what he recounts as a reminder and an admonition.

وخاض بالفكر أعماق العصور على

يتيمة الدهر بحثا عن لآليها

And in thought he plumbed the depths of the ages in pursuit of

Time's peerless jewel, searching for its pearls.

وكم لنا من يتيمات تشاببها

كواكب الأفق لآلاء وتحكيها

And how many peerless gems are ours, rivaled

by the horizon's stars in brilliance, and mirrored by them!

فجاء للناس بالعقدين في نسق

أبيات شعر وما أدراك ما فيها

So he brought the people the two necklaces, in a sequence of

poetic verses—and what could tell you what they hold!

فيها الخليفة ثاني الراشدين أبو

حفص وناهيك بالفاروق تنويها

In them is the caliph, second of the Rightly Guided, Abu

Hafs—and naming al-Faruq is praise enough.

العدل يعرفه والفضل يعلمه

والدين نزهه في الناس تنزيها

Justice recognizes him, and excellence knows him;

and religion has fully vindicated him among the people.

صدر الشريعة من جدواه منثلج

مذ طالما وافقت في الرأي مجريها

Sacred Law's breast is cooled by his beneficence,

since it so often agreed in judgment with its enforcer.

قد قام يرثيه بين المسلمين وإن

طال المدى عنه والأيام ترثيها

He has risen to elegize him among the Muslims, even though

long ages have passed since him—and it is the days that are mourned.

يرجو بذكره والتاريخ موعظة

إحياء قومه فليحي ليحيها

He hopes, by recalling him—and history is a lesson—

to revive his people; may he live to bring them life!