عاد المتيم في غرامك داؤه — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

عادَ المتيَّم في غرامِكَ داؤُه

أهُوَ السَّليمُ تَعودُهُ آناؤُه

The love-struck man's sickness has returned in his passion for you;

Can he be sound, when its fits keep visiting him?

فتأجَّجتْ زفراته وتَلَهَّبَتْ

جمراتهُ وتوقَّدت ومضاؤُه

His sighs have flared into flame,

His embers blaze, their burning glow kindled.

حسبُ المتيَّم وَجْدُهُ وغرامه

وكفاه ما فعلت به برحاؤُه

His yearning and passion are burden enough for the lover;

Enough is the torment that love's anguish has wrought in him.

بالله أيَّتها الحمائم غرِّدي

ولطالما أشجى المشوقَ غناؤُه

By God, O doves, sing out—

How often your song has filled the yearning lover with sorrow.

نوحي تجاوبك الجوانح أنَّةً

وتظلُّ تندبُ خاطري ورقاؤُه

Coo in lament: my heart will answer you with a moan,

While its ring-dove keeps bewailing my thoughts.

هيهات ما صدق الغرام على امرئٍ

حتَّى تذوب من الجوى أحشاؤُه

Never has love proved true in anyone

Until his innards melt away from consuming passion.

إن كانَ يبكي الصبّ لا من لوعة

أخذت بمهجته فممَّ بكاؤه

If the lover weeps, but not from an anguish

That grips his very soul, then why does he weep?

بترقرق العبرات وهي مذالة

سرٌّ يضرّ بحاله إفشاؤه

Tears glistening as they stream

Reveal a secret whose disclosure harms his state.

يا قلب كيف علقت في أشراكهم

أو ما نهاك عن الهوى نصحاؤه

O heart, how were you caught in their snares?

Did your sincere advisers not warn you against love?

لا تذهبنَّ بك المذاهب غرّة

آرام ذيَّاك الحمى وظباؤه

Do not let delusion carry you down many paths—

The white antelopes and gazelles of that preserve.

وبمهجتي من لحظ أحور فاتنٍ

مرض يعزُّ على الطبيب شفاؤه

By my soul! A captivating dark-eyed glance has caused

An illness whose cure defeats the physician.

هل يهتدي هذا الطبيب لعلَّتي

إنَّ الغرامَ كثيرة أدواؤه

Will this physician find the way to my malady?

Passion has ailments beyond number.

واللَّيل يعلم ما أَجَنَّ ضميره

من لوعتي وتضمَّنَتْ أرجاؤه

The night knows what its breast has concealed

Of my anguish, and what its reaches have encompassed.

ما زلت أكتحل السواد بهجركم

أرقاً ويطرف ناظري أقْذاؤه

Through your abandonment, I have never ceased painting my eyes with blackness,

Sleepless, while specks of pain make my gaze blink—

حتَّى يشقّ الصّبح أردية الدجى

وتحيل صبغة ليله ظلماؤه

Until dawn rends the robes of darkness

And the darkness of night alters its hue.

زعم العذول بأنَّ همّي همّه

ومن البليَّة همّهُ وعناؤه

The reproachful man claimed my concern was his concern,

Though his concern and trouble are themselves part of the affliction.

يدعوه الفؤاد إلى السلوّ ودونه

للشوق داع لا يردُّ دعاؤه

The heart calls him to forgetfulness, but before it

A caller of longing cries whose summons cannot be denied.

لا يطمئنَّ بيَ الملام فما له

منِّي سوى ما خابَ فيه رجاؤه

Let reproach place no confidence in swaying me: it will gain

Nothing from me but the frustration of its hopes.

حكمَ الغرام على ذويه بما قضى

ومضى عليهم حكمه وقضاؤه

Love pronounced upon its people what it decreed,

And its judgment and sentence took effect upon them.

يا رحمة للمغرمين وإنْ تكنْ

قتلى هواك فإنَّهم شهداؤه

What pity for the enamored! Though they be

Slain by your love, they are its martyrs.

ما كانَ داء الحبّ إلاَّ نظرةً

هي في الصّبابة داؤه ودواؤه

The malady of love was only a glance—

In ardent passion, it is both sickness and cure.

في الحيِّ بعد الظاعنين لما به

مَيْتٌ بكته لرحمة أحياؤه

Among the encampment, after the travelers departed, there lay, for what afflicted him,

A dead man whom the living mourned in pity.

أحبابه النائين عنه أأنتم

أحبابه الأدنون أو أعداؤه

O his beloved ones far away from him, are you

His nearest loved ones—or his enemies?

حفظ الوداد فما لكم ضيَّعتموا

ووفى بعهدكم فدامَ وفاؤه

He guarded affection—why, then, did you squander it?

He kept your covenant, and his fidelity endured.

وجزيتموه على الوفاء قطيعةً

أكذا من الإِنصاف كانَ جزاؤه

For faithfulness you rewarded him with estrangement—

Was such, in justice, to be his reward?

ما شرع دين الحبّ شرعة هاجر

صدق الخلوص لودّه شحناؤه

The creed of love never ordained the law of a forsaker

Whose rancor abandons true sincerity in his affection.

خاصمت أيَّامي بكم فرغمتها

والحرُّ أوغادُ الورى خصماؤه

For your sake I contended with my days and humbled them;

The noble man's adversaries are the rabble of mankind.

سفهاً لرأي الدهر يحسب أنَّني

ممَّن يُراع إذا دهتْ دهياؤه

How foolish is Time's judgment: it thinks me

One who is frightened when its great calamity strikes.

ألقى قطوب خطوبة متبسِّماً

وسواي يرهب في الخطوب لقاؤه

Smiling, I meet the scowl of dire events,

While others dread encountering them.

إنِّي ليعجبني ترفُّعُ همَّتي

ويروق وجهي صونه وحياؤه

I delight in the loftiness of my aspiration,

And my face is graced by its reserve and modesty.

لا تعجبنَّ من الزمان وأهلِهِ

هذا الزمان وهذه أبناؤه

Do not marvel at the age and its people:

This is the age, and these are its children.

ليس المهذَّب من تطيش بلبِّه

نعماؤه يوماً ولا بأساؤه

The cultivated man is not one whose reason is unsteadied

One day by prosperity, nor by adversity.

تمضي حوادثه فلا ضرَّاؤه

تبقى على أحدٍ ولا سرَّاؤه

Its events pass on: neither its hardship

Endures for anyone, nor its ease.

لا بدَّ من يومٍ يُسَرُّ به الفتى

وتزول عن ذي غمَّة غمَّاؤه

A day must come in which the young man rejoices

And the pall of sorrow lifts from the afflicted.

ولربَّما صدئ الحسام وناله

قين فعاد مضاؤه وجلاؤه

A sword may sometimes rust, and something may befall it;

Then a smith tends it, and its sharpness and luster return.

أوَ ما تراني كيف كنت وكانَ لي

من كانَ أفخر حليتي نعماؤه

Do you not see how I once was, and how I had

One whose bounty was the proudest ornament I wore?

عبد الغنيّ أبو جميل وابنه

وكذا بنوه وهكذا آباؤه

ʿAbd al-Ghani, Abu Jamil, and his son,

And likewise his sons—and so his forefathers:

نسبٌ أضاءَ به الوجود وأشرقتْ

في مشمخر علائِه أضواؤه

A lineage by which existence was illumined, whose lights

Shone upon the towering summit of its glory.

جعل الإِله لنا نصيباً وافراً

من اسمه فتقدَّستْ أسماؤه

God granted us an ample share

Of His name, and so His names were sanctified.

هذا القريب من العُفاة عطاؤه

هذا الرحيب بمن ألمَّ فِناؤه

This is he whose giving is close at hand for bounty-seekers;

This is he whose courtyard is spacious for whoever alights there.

ضربت على قلَل الفخار قِبابه

وبدا لمشتطِّ الدِّيار سناؤه

His pavilions are pitched upon the peaks of glory,

And his radiance appears even to one in distant lands.

إن كانَ يُعرَف نائلٌ فنواله

أو كانَ يُعْلَمُ باذخ فعلاؤه

If largesse is known, then it is his largesse;

If lofty glory is known, then his deeds are its heights.

شيخٌ إذا الملهوف أمَّ بحاجةٍ

في بابه نشطتْ لها أعضاؤه

An elder whom the distressed man approaches with a need—

At his door, every limb springs eagerly to meet it.

يفدي النزيل بما له وبنفسه

نفسي ونفس العالمين فداؤه

He ransoms his guest with his wealth and with himself;

May my life and all the world's lives ransom him.

مُتَنَمِّرٌ إن سيم ضيماً أدميت

منه البراثن واستشاط إباؤه

Lion-fierce when subjected to wrong: his claws

Draw blood, and his proud refusal blazes.

فيه من الضرغام شدَّة بطشه

ومن المهنَّد بأسه ومضاؤه

In him is the lion's mighty violence,

And the Indian sword's force and keen edge.

رُفعت له فوقَ الكواكب عِمَّةٌ

وأحاطَ بالبحر المحيط رداؤه

For him a turban was raised above the stars,

And his mantle encompassed the encircling sea.

حدِّث ولا حرجٌ ولست ببالغ

ما تستحقّ لها به آلاؤه

Speak freely, without restraint—you still will not attain

What his benefactions deserve in praise.

بهر العقول جميله وجمالُه

وجلاله وكماله وبهاؤه

His kindness and beauty have dazzled minds,

As have his majesty, perfection, and splendor.

هذي معاليه فما نظراؤه

غير النجوم عُلًى ولا أكفاؤه

Such are his lofty virtues—what peers has he

But the stars in height, and who could equal him?

تالله لم تظفر يداه بثروةٍ

إلاَّ ليفتك جوده وسخاؤه

By God, his hands never gained a fortune

Except for his generosity and munificence to consume it.

راحتْ ذوو الحاجات يقتسمونها

فكأَنَّهم في ماله شركاؤه

Those in need set about dividing it among themselves,

As though they were partners in his wealth.

وجدانه فقد الثراء لنفسه

ولغيره أبداً يكون ثراؤه

His acquiring riches is their loss to himself,

For his wealth belongs forever to others.

يمسي ويصبح بالجميل ولم يزلْ

يثني عليه صبحه ومساؤه

Morning and evening he practices goodness, and never cease

His morning and evening to sing his praise.

لله منبلج السَّنا عن غُرَّةٍ

لا الصُّبح منبلجاً ولا أضواؤه

What radiant splendor breaks from that noble brow—

Neither dawn nor dawn's lights break so brightly.

لو تنزل الآيات في أيَّامه

أثنى عليه الله جلَّ ثناؤه

Had the divine verses descended in his days,

God—exalted is His praise—would have praised him.

لا بدَّل الله الزمانَ بغيرِه

حتَّى تُبدَّلُ أرضُه وسماؤه

May God never exchange this age for another

Until its earth and sky themselves are exchanged.

ما في الزمان وأهلِهِ مثلٌ له

إذ لم تكن كرماءه لؤماؤه

In this age and among its people there is none like him—

For its base men could never be his noble peers.

وَقْفٌ على الصنع الجميل جنابه

فكأَنَّما هو لو نظرت غذاؤه

His noble presence is wholly devoted to doing good,

As though goodness, if you looked, were his nourishment—

وطعامه وشرابُه وسماعه

ومرامه ورجاؤه وصفاؤه

His food, his drink, and all he hears,

His aim, his hope, and his serenity.

ولربَّما لمعت بوارق غيثه

فانهلَّ عارضه وأُهرِقَ ماؤه

Often the lightning of his raincloud flashes,

Then its bank pours down and its water is spilled.

ولقد تجود بكلِّ نَوْءٍ مُزْنُهُ

جود السَّحاب تتابعتْ أنواؤه

At every rain-star his clouds lavish bounty,

The bounty of clouds whose rain-seasons follow one another.

إنِّي أؤمل أن أكون بفضله

ممَّن يؤمَّل فضله وعطاؤه

Through his favor I hope to become

One whose favor and gifts others may hope for.

بيتُ المروءة والأُبوَّة والندى

ومحلَّه ومكانه ووعاؤه

He is the house of chivalry, fatherly care, and generosity—

Their abode, their place, and their vessel.

سبحان من خلق المكارم كلَّها

في ذلك البيت الرفيع بناؤه

Glory be to Him who created every noble virtue

And built it into that house of lofty structure.

أصبحت روض الحزن من سقيا الحيا

راقتْ محاسنه وراقَ هواؤه

The garden of sorrow, watered by life-giving rain, has come to bloom;

Its beauties please, and pleasant is its air.

يسري إليه نسيم أرواح الصبا

فتضوع في نفحاتها أرجاؤه

The breeze bearing the spirits of the east wind travels to it,

And all its reaches breathe fragrance from those wafts.

يمري عليها الربّ كلّ عشيَّة

وتجودها من صيّب أنداؤه

Each evening the Lord draws rain over it,

And its dews lavish upon it from a downpour.

عهد الربيع بفصله وبفضله

أبداً يمرُّ خريفه وشتاؤه

Spring has pledged it both its season and its bounty;

Its autumn and winter pass continually.

ما زالَ يوليني الجميل تكرُّماً

مولًى عليَّ من الفروض ولاؤه

He has never ceased graciously bestowing kindness upon me—

A patron to whom my allegiance is among my binding duties.

وكأَنَّما اصطبح المدامة شاعر

بمديحه فقريضه صهباؤه

It is as though a poet drank the morning wine

Of praising him, his verse becoming its tawny wine.

فالله يبقي المكرمات وها هما

متلازمان بقاؤها وبقاؤه

May God preserve noble deeds—and here they are,

He and they inseparable: their survival is his, and his is theirs.