طرف يراعي النجم وهو مؤرق — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

طرفٌ يراعي النَّجم وهو مؤرَّقُ

وجوًى تكادُ به الجوانح تُحْرَقُ

An eye watches the stars, kept wakeful,

and burning grief almost scorches the ribs.

ومع الذين أودّهم لي في الدُّجى

عتب يرقّ وعبرة تترقرق

With those I love, in the darkness I have

a tender reproach and a trembling tear.

إنِّي لأذكرهم على شحط النوى

فتظلّ عيني بالمدامع تشرق

I surely remember them despite the remoteness of separation,

and my eye remains brimming with tears.

يا سعد قد ألف السهاد متيَّمٌ

دامي الحشاشة مستهام شيّق

O Saʿd, a love-stricken man has grown accustomed to sleeplessness,

his very soul bleeding, bewildered with love, yearning.

ماذا تقول وكيف ظنّك بالكرى

أيراجع الأَجفان وهو مطلَّق

What do you say, and what do you think of sleep?

Will it return to the eyelids, though it has been divorced?

أمْ هل يعود لنا الزمان بما مضى

من لهوه والعود غضّ مورق

Or will time return to us what has passed

of its pleasures, when the bough was tender and leafy?

أيَّام ترفل بالشباب وعيشنا

فيما تسرُّ به النُّفوس منمّق

Days luxuriating in youth, while our life

was adorned with what gladdens souls.

واهاً لعيشك بين أكناف الحمى

وأحبَّة بالجزع لم يتفرَّقوا

Ah, for your life among the sheltered reaches of the protected pasture,

with loved ones at the valley bend, not yet dispersed,

في منزلٍ نشأت به زهر الرّيا

وسقاه ريقته السحاب المغدق

in a dwelling where fragrant blossoms sprang up,

which the lavish cloud watered with its spittle.

والورق تطربنا بسجع لحونها

والبان يرقص تارةً ويصفّق

The gray doves delighted us with their melodies' cooing,

and the ban trees danced at times and clapped.

أمَّا خمائله وأيّ خمائل

فالسندسُ المخضرُّ والإستبرق

As for its thickets—and what thickets!—

they were green fine silk and rich brocade.

كشفَ الربيعُ لنا مخايل وجهه

فيها وطابَ صبوحنا والمغبق

Spring unveiled for us the features of its face

there, and our morning and evening draughts were sweet.

فرياضنا زهر النجوم وكأسنا

يسعى بها ساقٍ أغنُّ مقرطق

So our gardens were star-blossoms, and our cup

was borne about by a tunic-clad cupbearer with a mellow, nasal voice.

برزت بنوَّار الشقيق فلم يزل

بدر الدجنة عندها يتشقَّق

It emerged in anemone bloom, and still

the dark night's full moon split apart beside it.

فكأَنَّ كأس الرَّاح برق لامع

وكأَنَّ جنح الليل غيم مطبق

As though the wine cup were gleaming lightning,

and night's wing an enveloping cloud.

ومهفهف الأعطاف تحسب أنَّه

قمر بدُريّ النجوم ممنطق

And one slender of flank, whom you would think

a moon girdled with pearly stars,

يرنو إليك بمقلة سحَّارة

تهوى ملاحتها القلوب وتشفق

gazes at you with a bewitching eye,

whose beauty hearts love and fear.

أرأيت ما فعلت نواظر شادن

لم يلتفت لدم يطل ويهرق

Have you seen what a young gazelle's eyes have done?

He heeded no blood left unavenged and spilled.

يا أيُّها الرشأ الذي ألحاظه

ترمي بأسهمها القلوبَ وترشق

O young gazelle, whose glances

shoot their arrows into hearts and pierce them,

قلبي أسيرٌ في هواك معذَّب

فأنا المقيَّد في هواك المطلق

my heart is a tormented captive in your love;

so I am the fettered one in your unfettered love.

ولقد أرقْت لك الدموع بأسرها

شوقاً فما لك لا ترقّ وترفق

I have poured out all my tears for you

in longing; why will you not soften and show kindness?

هلاّ رجعت إلى وصال متيَّم

شبَّ الغرام وشاب فيه المفرق

Why not return to union with a love-stricken man?

Passion blazed, and his hair's parting turned gray within it.

فامنن عليَّ بقبلةٍ تسخو بها

كرماً كما يتصدَّق المتصدِّق

So favor me with a kiss you freely give,

generously, as the almsgiver gives alms.

هيهات فاتت بعد فائتة الصبا

لذاتنا الّلاتي لها أتشوَّق

Far beyond reach! After youth's passing, gone are

our pleasures, for which I yearn.

ذهبتْ ولم تذهب عليها حشرة

في كلِّ يوم تستجدّ وتخلق

They are gone, yet regret for them has not gone [text uncertain],

renewing itself and wearing away each day.

وعفت منازل للهوى ومعالم

كانَ الزمان بها عليه رونق

The dwellings and landmarks of love were effaced,

where time itself once wore a radiant sheen.

أعِدِ الحديث عن الديار وقل لنا

بأبيك ما فعل الحمى والأَبرق

Tell the tale of those homes again, and tell us:

by your father, what became of the protected pasture and al-Abraq?

لا جاز أرضك يا منازل مرعد

من عارضٍ يسقي ثراك ومبرق

May no thunder-bringer pass beyond your land, O dwellings,

nor lightning-flasher, from a cloud that waters your soil.

واعشوشبت منك البقاع وأينعت

منك الأزاهير التي تتأنَّق

May your tracts grow thick with grass, and may they blossom—

those flowers of yours that dress themselves in beauty.

أنَّى تغيَّرت البلاد وأهلها

وأتى عليها الدهر وهو مفرق

How have the lands and their people changed,

and time swept over them, scattering them!

وتبدَّلت تلك الوجوه بغيرها

غربت بدور ما هنالك تشرق

Those faces have been replaced by others;

full moons have set and no longer shine there.

نعم الذين شقيت من أدبي بهم

فيما لقيت فما نعمت ولا شقوا

Yes, among those men I suffered for my learning,

in all I encountered: I found no comfort, nor did they suffer.

هذي هي الدنيا كما تريانها

حرم اللبيب بها وفازَ الأَحمق

This is the world, as you both see it:

the wise man is deprived, and the fool succeeds.

فصبرت فيها والخطوب متاحة

لا ضاجر منها ولا أنا مشفق

So I endured it, with calamities at hand,

neither vexed by them nor afraid,

حتَّى رأيت النائبات تقولُ لي

عجباً لصبرك كيف لا يتمرق

until I saw calamities saying to me:

'How astonishing your patience! How does it not fall to shreds?'

ومذ امتدحت أبا الجميل فلا يدي

صفر ولا أنا من نداه مملّق

Since I praised Abu al-Jamil, my hand is not

empty, nor, thanks to his bounty, am I destitute.

حملت مناقبه الرواة بأسرها

فمغرّب بثنائه ومشرّق

Narrators have carried all his virtues,

one bearing his praise westward, another eastward.

من مبلغ الشّعراء عنِّي أنَّني

في الجدِّ شاعره المجيد المفلق

Who will tell the poets on my behalf that I

am, in earnest, his masterful, brilliant poet?

وسواي في الشُّعراء عن ممدوحه

راوٍ بمثل حديثه لا يوثق

And any other poet, speaking of the man he praises,

is a narrator whose account of this sort cannot be trusted.

غرَّدت فيه مطوَّقاً بجميله

إنَّ الحمام كما علمت مطوق

I sang of him, collared with his kindness;

doves, as you know, are collared.

أنبأت عنه وكنت أصدق لهجة

ويسرّني أني أقول فأصدق

I told of him, and was most truthful of tongue;

it delights me to speak and tell the truth.

نبأٌ عن المجد الأَثيل ومنبئٌ

تصغي إليه أُذُنُ الزَّمان فيطرق

Tidings of deep-rooted glory, and a herald

to whom time's ear listens, as time bows its head.

لو بارز الليل البهيم أعانه

من صبح غرَّته عليه فيلق

If he dueled with pitch-black night, he would be aided

against it by a legion from the dawn of his brow.

يسطو على الأَرزاء سطوة ضيغمٍ

إحدى براثنه السنان الأَزرق

He assails calamities with a lion's onslaught,

one of whose claws is the blue spearhead.

متصرّف في البأس حيث وجدته

ما زالَ يفتق ما يشاء ويرتق

A master of battle, wherever you find him,

he ever unseams what he wills and stitches it shut.

ويروق عند لقائه وعطائه

غيث يصوب وبارق يتألَّق

At his greeting and his giving, one is delighted

by rain that pours and lightning that gleams.

فكأنَّما العافون منه بروضة

أنهارها من كفِّه تتدفَّق

It is as though those seeking his bounty were in a garden

whose rivers flow forth from his palm.

فانظر إلى الأَحرار وهي عبيده

بالبرِّ إلاَّ أنَّها لا تُعتَق

Look at the freeborn: they are his slaves

through kindness, except that they are never freed.

خلق الجميل بذاته لوجوده

خلقاً وها هو في سواه تَخَلُّقُ

Goodness was created in his very essence at his coming into being,

as innate character; behold, in others it is affectation.

كرم على عسر الزَّمان ويسره

لا يستقرُّ المال حتَّى ينفق

Generosity through time's hardship and ease:

wealth never rests before it is spent.

ولقد كفاني الله فيه عصابة

لا أرتجيهم أبرقوا أم أرعدوا

Through him, God has spared me a band of men;

I seek nothing from them, whether they flash lightning or thunder.

واللهُ يعلم أنَّ قدرك فوقهم

وعلاك في جوِّ السَّماء مُحَلِّقُ

God knows that your rank is above theirs,

and your eminence soars in the expanse of heaven.

يا لابساً بُرْدَ الأُبوَّة والعُلى

أرج الثناء بطيِّ بردك يعبق

O wearer of the mantle of fatherhood and eminence,

praise's fragrance wafts from your mantle's folds.

فلكم يضوع مكارماً ومفاخراً

يحيا بطيب أريجه المستنشقُ

How richly it diffuses noble deeds and glories;

whoever breathes it lives through its sweet scent.

لم تبصرِ العينان مثلك لاحقاً

للأَوَّلين وسابقاً لا يُلحق

No eyes have seen your like, catching up

with the men of old, yet forging ahead beyond pursuit.

أحييتَ مجداً رمّ بعد فنائه

فالمجد حيٌّ في حياتك يرزق

You revived a glory that had rotted after its demise;

so glory lives and is sustained within your life.

تفديك ممَّا تشتكيه من الأَذى

خَلقٌ وددت لوَ انَّهم لم يخلقوا

May you be ransomed from the harm you complain of

by people whom I wish had never been created.

وُفِّقت للفعل الجميل وصنعه

إنَّ الموفّق للجميل موفَّق

You have been blessed to do good and bring it about;

whoever is blessed to do good is blessed indeed.

فسعى إلى جدواك كلُّ مؤمَّلٍ

باب المواهب دونه لا يغلق

So every man looked to with hope hastened toward your bounty;

the gate of gifts is never shut before him.

تملي عليك الشكر ألسِنةٌ لها

يحلو لها لفظ ويعذب منطق

Tongues recite gratitude to you; for those tongues,

words are sweet and speech is delightful.