بخلت وما طرفي عليك بخيل — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

بَخِلْتَ وما طرفي عليك بخيلُ

وربَّ نوالٍ لا يراه منيلُ

You were miserly, yet my gaze is not miserly toward you.

And many a gift its giver never sees.

وحرَّمت أن يروى بريقك ظامئٌ

فليسَ إلى ماء العُذَيب سبيل

You forbade a thirsty soul to be quenched by your saliva,

so there is no way to the water of al-Udhayb.

وأظلمُ من يجني على الصّبّ في الهوى

مليٌّ لوى دين الغرام مطول

The most unjust of those who wrong the lovesick in love

is a wealthy debtor who withholds love's debt, slow to repay.

ويا كثر ما نوَّلت بالوعد نائلاً

وإنَّ كثير الغانيات قليل

How much bounty you have bestowed through promises!

Yet even what beauties give in plenty is little.

أعيدي إلى عينيَّ يا ميُّ نظرةً

يبلّ بها من عاشقيك غليل

Return a glance to my eyes, O Mayy,

that a lover of yours may cool his burning thirst with it.

وجودي بطيف منك قد حالَ بينَه

وبيني حزون للنَّوى وسهول

And grant a phantom of yourself, though between it

and me lie separation's rugged hills and plains.

فعندي إلى ذاك الخيال الَّذي سرى

هوًى يستميل الشَّوق حيثُ يميل

For I bear toward that apparition that traveled by night

a love that draws longing wherever it inclines.

وليلٌ كحظِّي في هواك سهرته

فطالَ وليلُ العاشقين طويل

A night like my fortune in loving you I spent awake;

it dragged on—and lovers' nights are long.

يؤرِّقني فيه تألُّقُ بارقٍ

كما اسْتلَّ ماضي الشّفرتين صقيل

The gleam of lightning kept me awake in it,

as though a polished blade, keen on both edges, were drawn.

بداجٌ كثير الشُّهب تحسبُ أنَّها

تقطّع زنجيَّ الظَّلام نصول

In a dark night crowded with shooting stars, you would think them

blades cutting darkness's black man to pieces.

يذكِّرني تبسامك البرق موهناً

فللدمع منه سائل ومسيل

Lightning late at night reminds me of your smile,

so it gives tears both a flow and a channel.

أراني علامات الورود وَميضه

وما لي إليه يا أُميم وصول

Its glimmer showed me signs of reaching water,

yet I cannot reach it, O Umaym.

وما ينفع الظَّامي صداه بنظرة

إلى الماء ما منه لديه حصول

A thirsty man's thirst gains nothing from a glance

toward water of which he can obtain none.

خليليَّ هل يؤدَّى دمٌ قد أطلَّه

بمقلته أحوى أغَنُّ كحيل

My two friends, can blood be requited when it was shed unavenged

by a dark-lipped, soft-voiced, kohl-eyed one with his glance?

رماني بعينيه غزالٌ له الحشى

على النَّأي لا ظلّ الأَراك مقيل

A gazelle shot me with his eyes; for him my heart,

despite the distance, is a noonday refuge—not the arak's shade.

عشيَّة أودى بي الهوى وأرابني

من الرّكب إذ حثَّ المطيَّ رحيل

On the evening love destroyed me and I was troubled

by the caravan's departure, as it urged the mounts onward.

برُغميَ فارقتُ الذين أُحبّهم

فلي أنَّةٌ من بعدهم وعويل

Against my will I parted from those I love;

since their departure I have groaning and wailing.

وما تركوا إلاَّ بقيَّة عبرة

برقرقها وجدي بهم فتسيل

They left only the remnant of a tear;

my longing for them makes it tremble, and it flows.

تُذيلُ دموعاً في الدِّيار أُريقها

نجومٌ لها في الغاربين أُفول

The tears I shed among the dwellings are drawn into trails

by stars that set among those who departed.

غداة وقفنا والنياق كأَنَّها

مرزَّأَةٌ ممَّا تحنّ ثكول

On the morning we stood, the she-camels seemed

a stricken mother bereaved of her child, so mournful was their moaning.

فأنكرت أطلالاً لميٍّ عرفتها

وإنِّي على علمي بها لجهول

I failed to recognize Mayy's ruins that I had known;

despite my knowledge of them, I am truly ignorant.

نسيمُ الصَّبا ذكَّرتني نشوة الصّبا

فهل أنتَ من ليلى الغداة رسول

O east-wind breeze, you recalled to me the rapture of youth;

are you Layla's messenger this morning?

تَنَسَّمتَ معتلاً فلم أدرِ أيّنا

بظلِّ نسيمات الغُوَير عليل

You wafted, ailing, and I could not tell which of us

was ill in the shade of al-Ghuwayr's breezes.

متى أَترك النوق الهجان كأَنَّها

لها كلَّما ضلَّ الدَّليل دليل

When shall I leave the noble white she-camels, as though they

have a guide whenever their guide loses his way,

واتَّخذ البيد القفار أخِلَّةً

ولكن روضي بالعراق محيل

and take the barren wildernesses for intimate friends?

Yet my meadow in Iraq is barren.

ولو كنت ممَّن يشرب الماءَ بالقذى

رويت وفي ريّ الذليل غليل

Had I been one who drinks water with its impurities,

I would be quenched; yet a humbled man's quenching still holds burning thirst.

عن النَّاس في عبد الغني لي الغنى

وكلّ صنيع ابن الجميل جميل

In Abd al-Ghani I find freedom from needing others;

every deed of Ibn al-Jamil is beautiful.

كريمٌ فأمَّا العيش في مثل ظلِّه

فرغدٌ وأمَّا ظلّه فظليل

Generous—as for life beneath a shade like his,

it is comfort, and his shade is deeply sheltering.

قريبٌ إلى الحُسنى فلم يرَ مثلُه

سريع إلى الفعل الجميل عجول

Near to goodness—his equal has never been seen—

swift to a beautiful deed, eager to act.

من الصّيد سبَّاق المقال بفعله

وقلَّ قؤولٌ في الأَنام فعول

One of the proud nobles, his deeds outrun his words;

rare among men is a great talker who is also a great doer.

سأُنزِلُ آمالي بساحة باسلٍ

وما ضيمَ يوماً في حماه نزيل

I shall lodge my hopes in a brave man's courtyard;

no guest in his protection has ever been wronged.

به افتخرت بغداد وانْسَحَبتْ لها

من الفخرِ في قطر العراق ذيول

Baghdad took pride in him, and for her trailed

skirts of glory through the land of Iraq.

علاقته بالمجد مُذْ كانَ يافعاً

علاقة صبٍّ ما ثناه عذول

His attachment to glory, since he was a youth,

is a lover's attachment, undeterred by any reproacher.

غَذَتْه به أُمُّ المعالي لبانَها

وطابتْ فروعٌ قد زكتْ وأُصول

With it, the mother of high honors fed him her milk,

and fair were the branches that flourished, and the roots.

فما اقتَحم الأَهوال إلاَّ خطيرةً

تجلّ وما يلقى الجليلَ جليل

He plunged into no terrors but formidable ones

that loom vast; whatever confronts a great man is great.

ولا راعه روعٌ فلانت قناته

فلا مسَّ هاتيك القناة ذبول

No fright ever shook him into bending his spear-shaft;

may withering never touch that shaft.

أرى كلّ ضرَّاء شكوناه ضرّها

يزايلها في بأسه فتزول

I see every affliction whose harm we complained of to him:

through his might its harm leaves it, and it vanishes.

على ما به من شدَّة البأس لم يزلْ

يذوب علينا رقَّةً ويسيل

Despite the fierce strength in him, he has never ceased

to melt with tenderness toward us and flow.

ترقُّ لنا تلك الشَّمائل مثلما

ترقُّ شمال أو تروق شمول

Those traits grow gentle toward us, just as

a north wind softens or wine delights.

يحنُّ إلى يومٌ يُثير غبارَه

صليل كما تهوى العُلى وصهيل

He yearns for a day whose dust is stirred

by clashing steel, as glory desires, and neighing horses.

يُدير رَحاها حيثُ دارت مثارة

شروبٌ لأبطال الرِّجال أَكول

He turns its mill wherever it turns, roused to fury,

drinking down men's champions and devouring them.

إذا صَعُبَتْ دهياءُ في الأَمرِ قادها

بأَمر مطاعِ الأَمرِ وهي ذلول

When a dire calamity proves stubborn in an affair, he leads it

by the command of one whose word is obeyed, and it is tamed.

يقينا صروف النَّائبات كأَنَّه

لنا جبلٌ والعالمين تلول

He shields us from calamity's turns, as though

for us he were a mountain, and all mankind mere hillocks.

ولولاه لم يخمد من الشّرّ ناره

ولا سالَ للباغي النوال سيول

But for him, evil's fire would not have died down,

nor would bounty have flowed in torrents to its seeker.

لك الله أمَّا أنتَ فالخير كلّه

وأنتَ به لي ضامنٌ وكفيل

God bless you! You are all goodness,

and you are my guarantor and surety for it.

أنَلْتَ بنا نوَّلت كلّ مؤَمِّلٍ

فعَلَّمْتَ صوب المُزن كيفَ ينيل

You bestowed through us, granting every hopeful seeker,

and taught the rainclouds' downpour how to give.

وإنَّا على يأس النَّدى ورجائه

لنا منك رجَّافُ العشي هطول

And we, whether despairing of bounty or hoping for it,

have from you a cloud that thunders at dusk and pours.

وما فيك ما تعطي مَلالاً ولا قلىً

وغيرك إنْ سيمَ العطاء ملول

In your giving there is neither weariness nor aversion;

another grows weary if asked to give.

ولم تَتَحوَّل عن خلائقك الَّتي

جُبِلْتَ عليها والزمان يُحيل

You have not turned away from the traits

you were born with, though time brings change.

فيا ليت شعري والخطوب مُلِمَّةٌ

وما بك عنِّي في الخطوب غفول

Would that I knew, while calamities descend—

and you are never heedless of me in calamities—

إلامَ أحثُّ الجدَّ والجدُّ عاثر

وأُرْهِفُ حدَّ العزمِ وهو كليل

how long must I spur my striving, while fortune stumbles,

and sharpen resolve's edge while it is blunt,

وأطلبُ في زعمي من الدهر حاجةً

زماني بها حاشا علاك بخيل

and seek from time, as I imagine, something I need,

which my age begrudges—far be that from your eminence?

وكيف يريني الدهر ما استحقُّه

وفضلي لدى هذا الزمان فضول

How can time show me what I deserve,

when this age regards my merit as superfluous?

إذا نَهَضتْ بي همَّةٌ قَعُدَتْ بها

على مضضٍ فيما أراه خمول

Whenever ambition lifts me, it is checked

by obscurity, to my sorrow, as I see it.

وعندي قوافٍ لا يدنِّسُ عِرْضَها

لئيمٌ ولا يشقى بهنَّ نبيل

I have rhymes whose honor is not defiled

by a base man, nor does a noble man suffer through them.

ظوامئُ يطلبنَ الرَّواء بمهمهٍ

تطوف على أكفائها وتجول

Thirsty, they seek quenching water in a trackless waste,

circling those worthy of them and roaming.

تَجنَّبَتِ القومَ اللئامَ فلم تبل

أعانَ معين أمْ أراب خذول

They shunned the base folk, caring not

whether a helper helped or a deserter caused misgivings.

متى اعْتَرَضْهم بالأَماني ضلَّةً

ثناها وجيف عنهم وذميل

Whenever I approach them with hopes, misguidedly,

a swift trot and a brisk gait turn the verses away from them.

فما أوْلَعَ الأَيَّام في جهلائها

وفي النَّاس أشباه لها وشكول

How fond the days are of their fools!

Among people are their likenesses and counterparts.

ولو أنَّها تصغي لعتبي أذقتُها

وبال حديث في العتاب يطول

If they would listen to my reproach, I would make them taste

the bitter burden of a reproachful discourse that runs long.

وما تنفع العُتبى وما ثمَّ منصف

أَقول له ما أَشتهي ويقول

Yet seeking redress avails nothing, and there is no fair-minded one

to whom I may say what I wish, and who may answer.