عوجا على رسم ذلك الطلل

نقضي حقوق الليالي الأول

Turn aside, you two, to the trace of that ruined dwelling;

that we may discharge the claims of the former nights.

لعل تثني أعطاف ثانية

وقد ترجيت غير محتمل

Perhaps they will turn their shoulders once again,

though I have hoped for what is impossible.

فالدهر يأبى إبقاء مغتنم

فكيف يرجى لرد مرتحل

For time refuses to preserve a treasured prize;

so how can one hope to bring back the departed?

لكل ماض من شبهه بدل

وما لعهد الشباب من بدل

Everything past has a substitute resembling it,

but the season of youth has no substitute.

سقى لويلاتنا بذي سلم

كل ملث الرباب منهمل

May our little nights at Dhu Salam be watered

by every lingering, pouring raincloud.

معاهد طالما اقتطفت بها

زهر الهنا من حدائق الجذل

Haunts where so often I plucked

the flowers of bliss from gardens of joy;

واطلع السعد في معالمها

بدر المنى في غياهب الأمل

and fortune made rise amid their landmarks

the full moon of wishes in hope's deep darkness.

حيث قطوف اللذات دانية

ومورد الأنس مغدق النهل

Where the fruits of pleasure hang within reach,

and companionship's wellspring offers abundant draughts.

نعثر تيهاً بذيل لذتنا

في هضبات العناق والقبل

We stumble in proud rapture over our pleasure's train,

on the hills of embraces and kisses.

بكل مستوقف العيون سنا

يدعو فراغ القلوب للشغل

With each one whose radiance arrests the eyes

and summons idle hearts to absorption.

أثقل أعطافه بخفته

لطف التصابي فخف بالثقل

His flanks were weighed down through its lightness—

the grace of youthful dalliance; so he grew light with weight.

وعطلت من حلي النبات عذا

راه فحلاه الجمال بالعطل

And his cheeks were bare of vegetation's ornaments;

so beauty adorned him with that bareness.

ألقى عليه الجمال حلته

وحلة الحسن أحسن الحلل

Beauty cast its robe upon him,

and loveliness's robe is the finest of robes.

إذا رمتنا من قوس حاجبه

سهام جفنيه ما بنو ثعل

When, from the bow of his eyebrow, we are struck

by his eyelids' arrows—what are the sons of Thuʿal?

وارحمة العاشقين قد دهمتهم

المنايا في صورة المقل

Oh, pity the lovers, who have been overtaken

by deaths in the guise of eyes!

وقد تفاءلت من مصارعهم

ان تلافي بالأعين النجل

And from their fatal falls I took a hopeful omen:

that my remedy lay in wide eyes—

أساً لقد جر للأسا وهو

أهويت من أجله على أجلي

a sorrow that indeed brought sorrow; it was he

for whose sake I hurled myself upon my death.

فذا الذي حجبت محاسنه

عنا مساوي الصدود والنقل

So this is the one whose charms have veiled

from us the faults of rejection and inconstancy.

من كان عني قبل الهوى صاماً

أبعد من مسمعي عن العذل

The one who, before love, was deaf to me

was farther away than my hearing is from reproach.

ما زدت بعداً عنه بفرقته

لا وأخذ اللَه البين من قبلي

I grew no farther from him through parting from him;

no—and may God punish separation on my behalf!

وفي امتداحي ليث العرين غنا

عن الغنا بالغزال والغزل

And my praise of the lion of the lair is enough

to spare me songs of the gazelle and love poetry.

مولى غدا في علاه عن زجل

أبعد عن حاسديه من زحل

A lord who in his loftiness has gone beyond song,

farther from his enviers than Saturn.

الندب عبد الرحمن من فضحت

غر سجاياه الشمس في الحمل

The gallant ʿAbd al-Rahman, whose

radiant virtues put the sun in Aries to shame.

فرع أصول طابوا فطاب وه

ذا الشر يروي عن ذلك النفل

A branch of roots that were good, so he was good; and

this evil reports on the authority of that bounty.

أقام للفضل دولة حسنت

ودولة الفضل أفضل الدول

He established a splendid reign for excellence,

and excellence's reign is the finest of reigns.

فأغدقت للورى مناهله

من بعد ما كان غائض الوشل

So his wellsprings flowed abundantly for humankind,

after their scant waters had been dwindling.

قد انتضى اللَه منه في حلب

سيف سداد لهامة الخلل

God has unsheathed from him in Aleppo

a sword of rectitude against the head of disorder.

حتى كسا عدله الليالي وال

أيام ثوب الأسحار والأصل

Till his justice clothed the nights and

the days in the robe of predawn hours and late afternoons.

واستتر الظلم من عدالته

بين جفون الظباء بالكحل

And oppression hid from his justice

in the kohl between the gazelles' eyelids.

يا أبيض العدل ما تركت بها

سواد ظلم إلا من المقل

O you whose justice is white, you have left there

no blackness of oppression except that of eyes.

واعتدلت حيثما استمر بها

لولا قدود الحسان ذو ميل

And it grew straight wherever anything crooked had lingered,

save for the beauties' swaying figures.

ما كنت أدري من قبل رؤيته

كيف انحصار الأنام في رجل

I did not know before seeing him

how all humankind could be encompassed in one man,

حتى رأيت امرأ يقوم له الد

دهر على ساقه من الوجل

until I saw a man before whom stands

Time upon its leg in fear.

إن ادعى مبصر له شبها

فاحكم على ناظريه بالحول

If a sighted person claims a likeness to him,

then pronounce his two eyes cross-eyed.

وان يكن في العيون بدر على

فبأسه في القلوب سيف علي

And if to the eyes he is a full moon on high,

then in hearts his might is the sword of ʿAli.

رام السها شأو مجده فسها

جزى بطرف بالسهد مكتحل

Suha sought his glory's height and went astray;

it was requited with an eye kohl-lined with sleeplessness.

واعتل من لطفه الصبا حسداً

لا برحت حاسدوه في علل

And the east breeze fell ill with envy of his gentleness;

may his enviers never cease to be ill.

وزور الغيث سح راحته

حتى اعتزى للسخاء بالحيل

And rain counterfeited the pouring of his palm,

until it claimed kinship with generosity through tricks.

وحصن البأس بالندى فغدا

أمن الأماني وغالة الغيل

And he fortified might with generosity, and so became

the safeguard of hopes and the scourge of the thickets.

يا سيدا أصبحت مكارمه

أشهر بين الأنام من مثل

O master whose noble deeds have become

better known among humankind than a proverb!

كادت معاني الثناء تسبقنا

إليك والحق واضح السبل

The themes of praise almost preceded us

to you, and the ways of truth are clear.

يهنيك عيد بك الهنا له

كما أهنيك والهنا بك لي

The feast congratulates you; its joy comes through you,

as I congratulate you, and my joy comes through you.

وهاكها روضة لقد صبغت

منها خدود الرياض بالخجل

And take it—a garden that has indeed dyed

the cheeks of gardens with shame.

لو نال فصل الربيع بهجتها

ما سلبت عنه حلة الخضل

Had spring attained its beauty,

its robe of lush freshness would not have been stripped away.

وإنما المجد دولة جعلت

لها معاني الثناء كالخول

Glory is but a kingdom, for which

the themes of praise have been made like servants.