Sol 6.1

  1. إذا ساق الزمان عليك ذلّاً

    ولذت بعزةٍ كدت الزمانا

    If time brings humiliation upon you,

    and you seek refuge in might, you outwit time,

  2. وألفيت السنين الشهب روضاً

    أريضاً إن ذكرت له بنانا

    and find the ashen years a meadow,

    lush, if you but mention his fingers.

  3. فما كمشير سوريا وزيرٌ

    غدت بنواله الدنيا جنانا

    For no minister is like Syria's marshal;

    through his bounty the world has become gardens.

  4. ولا كسيوفه يوم التنادي

    سيوف تكبح النوب الرعانا

    Nor, on the day of calling, are any like his swords—

    swords that rein in reckless calamities.

  5. دفعت بجوده ريب الليالي

    وأخزيت العدى خزياً عيانا

    Through his generosity I warded off the perils of the nights,

    and put my foes to open shame.

  6. وكذب مدحُه دعوى جنوني

    غداة أراه من شعري البيانا

    And praising him disproved the claim that I was mad,

    the morning it showed him the eloquence of my verse.

  7. أجن الناس يا مولاي فظٌ

    لخير ملوكنا العظماء خانا

    The maddest of men, my lord, is a boor

    who was treacherous to the best of our great kings.

  8. يؤمل أن أوافقه وأنَّى

    يوافق عبد نعمتك الهوانا

    He hopes that I will agree with him—but how

    could the servant of your bounty accept humiliation?

  9. بقيت تكف كف الروع عنا

    بكفٍ أترعت داري جمانا

    May you live on, holding terror's hand back from us,

    with a hand that has filled my home to the brim with pearls.