«لَجَوْبُ الْبِلَادِ مَعَ الْمَتْرَبَةِ أَحَبُّ إِلَيَّ مِنَ الْمَرْتَبَةِ»
Travelling through lands even in poverty is dearer to me than high office.
La-jawbu al-bilād forms an emphatic nominal opening. Aḥabbu is the comparative predicate, while min al-martabah marks the alternative being compared. Here min is comparative, not partitive.
The qualifying phrase “even with poverty” makes the preference surprising: wandering is preferred to the prestige and risks of official rank. The grammatical comparison carries the character’s decision.