Sol 6.1

  1. سقاني المطلعُ الوضاحُ خمرا

    وأصلاني الهوى الفضاح جمرا

    The radiant countenance gave me wine to drink,

    and telltale passion scorched me with embers.

  2. وعلمني اختلافهما طباقاً

    أذوق به الهوى حلواً ومرّا

    And their contrast taught me antithesis,

    through which I taste love, sweet and bitter.

  3. رمى اللَه الدلال بهجر ليلى

    فقد قلب الوصال علي هجرا

    May God afflict coquetry with Laylā’s desertion,

    for it has turned union into estrangement for me.

  4. ولو قلب القناع لصاغ أمراً

    ألذ من الطلا عندي وأمرا

    Yet if it turned back the veil, it would fashion something

    sweeter to me than wine, and more bitter.

  5. بروحي نون حاجبها أراها

    ولا أدري أنوناً شمت أم را

    My soul for her eyebrow’s nūn, which I behold,

    yet cannot tell whether I glimpsed a nūn or a rāʾ.

  6. خليقة والهٍ بمهاة خدرٍ

    إن ارتابت به انقلبت هزبرا

    Such is the way of one lovesick for a bower’s oryx:

    if she suspects him, she turns into a lion.

  7. إذا خطرت تريك غصين بان

    وإن سفرت تريك عليه بدرا

    When she walks swaying, she shows you a little bān branch;

    and when she unveils, she shows you a full moon upon it.

  8. يفاخر ردفها ببني زبيدٍ

    ويحمل من بني الريان خصرا

    Her hips boast of Banū Zubayd,

    and bear a waist from Banū al-Rayyān.

  9. وينسب ثغرها لبني زهيرٍ

    وما الفردوس أطيب منه زهرا

    And her mouth is traced to Banū Zuhayr;

    nor is Paradise more fragrant in bloom than it.

  10. حباها اللَه ورد الروض خدّاً

    وأعطاها الأقاح الغض ثغرا

    God gave her the garden’s rose as a cheek,

    and gave her fresh daisies as a mouth.

  11. وأسداها نضار الشمس لوناً

    وصاغ لها لجين الصبح نحرا

    And bestowed on her the sun’s gold as a complexion,

    and fashioned for her a throat of dawn’s silver.

  12. وأيّد طرفها بسيوف غنجٍ

    تعربد في الحشى سرّاً وجهرا

    And armed her glance with swords of coquetry

    that run riot in the breast, secretly and openly.

  13. فكم للحيظها الجرّاح قتلَى

    وكم لخديدها الوضاح أسرى

    How many lie slain by her little, wounding glance,

    and how many captives her radiant little cheek holds!

  14. إذا قامت تميس وما سقوها

    سوى لبن اللقاح تُخال سكرى

    When she rises swaying—though they have given her nothing

    but the milk of milch camels—you would think her drunk.

  15. قرأت لها ألم نشرح فولت

    تقول اللَه ينفض عنك وزرا

    I recited “Did We not expand?” to her; she turned away,

    saying, “May God shake a burden from you!

  16. أبعد الشيب تلتمس الغواني

    وتظهر يا قتيل العسر يسرا

    After gray hair, do you seek beautiful women,

    and display ease, O one slain by hardship?”

  17. ولو علمت بأن العبد عبدٌ

    لعبد القادر اتخذته ذخرا

    Had she known that the servant was a servant

    of ʿAbd al-Qādir, she would have taken him as a treasure.

  18. أمير يمنح المحتاج سرّاً

    فيصبح سره بالحمد جهرا

    An emir who gives to the needy in secret,

    so that praise makes his secret public.

  19. أحق بسيف قيصر من أبيه

    ومن كسرى بتاج الملك أحرى

    More entitled to Caesar’s sword than his father,

    and more deserving than Khosrow of the royal crown.

  20. كسى صمصامه بدم الأعادي

    فخلت حديده جمراً تعرَّى

    He clothed his keen sword in his enemies’ blood,

    so I took its iron for embers laid bare.

  21. وخاض النقع ذابله فقيراً

    وعاد كأنه عبدٌ تفرَّى

    His slender lance waded through battle-dust a pauper,

    and returned like a slave torn open.

  22. كأن قناته في الحرب صلٌّ

    يمج على قلوب القوم جمرا

    As though his lance in war were a viper,

    spewing embers upon the enemy’s hearts.

  23. ولو هزت على ورق وكانت

    يراعاً أمطرت ورقاً وتبرا

    And were it shaken over paper, and were it

    a reed pen, it would rain silver and gold dust.

  24. عباد اللَه ملك الغرب هذا

    تبارك من به للشرق أسرى

    O servants of God, this is the king of the West;

    blessed is He who took him by night to the East.

  25. متى قال الجهاد منِ ابن بوحي

    وقال الناس اللهم نصرا

    Whenever Jihad says, “Who is Ibn Būḥī?”

    and the people say, “O God, grant victory!”

  26. وشاد النقع في البيداء سوراً

    منيعاً بالجماجم مسبطرّا

    and battle-dust builds in the wilderness a wall,

    impregnable, built of skulls and stretching far,

  27. علمتم أن دين اللَه باهي

    بعبد القادر الثقلين طرا

    you know that God’s faith has boasted

    of ʿAbd al-Qādir before humans and jinn, one and all.

  28. أمير المغربين لقد حبانا

    هلال العيد من مرآك بدرا

    O emir of the two Wests, we have indeed been granted

    a full moon by the Eid crescent, through beholding you.

  29. وجمَّله سناك وتاه حتى

    كأنك ما كسوت سواه بشرا

    And your radiance adorned it; it grew so proud,

    as though you had clothed none but it in gladness.

  30. فرونقه أعاد الليل صبحاً

    وزورقه أرانا الأوج بحرا

    So its luster turned the night to morning,

    and its skiff showed us the zenith as a sea.

  31. وليلته التي بسناك ضاءت

    تسود على ليالي القدر قدرا

    And its night, which shone with your radiance,

    surpasses the Nights of Decree in worth.

  32. لقد أتممت صوماً حيدرياً

    قليل من يطيق عليه صبرا

    You have indeed completed a fast like Ḥaydar’s,

    which few can endure with patience.

  33. ونلت ثوابه أجراً وإني

    أود لو اتخذت الكون أجرا

    And you have earned its recompense as reward; and I

    wish you might take the universe as your reward.

  34. فكم أشهرت للرحمن سيفاً

    دفعت به عن الإيمان كفرا

    How often you have drawn a sword for the All-Merciful,

    with which you repelled unbelief from faith!

  35. وكم أكحلت بالخطار عيناً

    وكم طوقت بالبتار نحرا

    And how many an eye have you lined with the swaying spear,

    and how many a throat collared with the cleaving sword!

  36. فغادرت العيون الزرق سمراً

    وخلفت النحور البيض حمرا

    So you left blue eyes brown,

    and left white throats red.

  37. وما قدمت للطاغوت خيراً

    ولا أوجدت في الإسلام شرا

    And you brought no good to the false god,

    nor brought any evil into Islam.

  38. فدم لقبائل الإسلام حرزاً

    ودم لقوابل الأعياد ذخرا

    So remain a refuge for Islam’s tribes,

    and remain a treasure for the feasts to come,

  39. تشيع سربها وتدوم برّاً

    عريض الجاه يولي الناس بَرَّا

    escorting their flock and ever remaining righteous,

    great in standing, bestowing kindness on people.