عز الجفون وذلة الصبر — Abn Alsaati

عزُّ الجفون وذلَّةُ الصَّبرِ

حكما عليَّ بطاعة الهجرِ

The eyelids' pride and patience's abasement

have decreed that I must submit to estrangement.

ما كنتُ أعلم قبل كاظمةٍ

إن الوفاء طليعةُ الغدرِ

Before Kazima, I did not know

that fidelity is treachery's vanguard.

لو كنتُ أسأل بعد وقفتها

عن ذاهبٍ لسألت عن صبري

Had I asked, after stopping there,

about one who had gone, I would have asked about my patience.

أبكى الثلاث السفعَ بعد فرا

ق الظاعنين بأربعٍ حمرِ

I weep for the three soot-black stones after the parting

of those departing, with four reddened eye-corners.

قد آن أن ترثي بملعبها

نظمُ الثغور لأدمعي النثرِ

Now it is time, in their playground, for

the rows of teeth to pity my scattered tears.

يا كعبةً للحسن ما نصبت

إلاَّ لكسب الإثم لا الأجرِ

O Kaaba of beauty, you were raised

only to earn sin, not reward.

علَّمتِ دمعي السعيَ ثم أخذ

تِ الصّبرَ عنكِ بسنَّة النَّفرِ

You taught my tears the pilgrim's striving, then took

patience away from you, according to the rite of departure.

والوجدُ قد بلغ الأشدَّ فما

للقلب حاضنهُ وللحجرِ

And longing has come of age; what need, then,

has the heart for its nurse or the lap?

لو كنتِ عادلةً على دنفٍ

لمنعتِ ظلم الردف للخصرِ

Had you been just toward a lovesick man,

you would have spared the waist the rump's oppression.

ولقد ضربتِ بسيف لحظك معـ

ـموداً فباءَ الجفنُ بالكسرِ

Indeed, with the sword of your glance you struck

a love-stricken man; the eyelid suffered a break.

لفتوره وحيٌ إلىَّ على

هاروتَ أنزل آيةَ السحرِ

Its languor brings me revelation; upon

Harut it sent down the verse of sorcery.

وبسمت من دمعي ولا عجبٌ

للغاديات تبسُّم الزُّهرِ

And you smiled at my tears; no wonder

the flowers smile at morning rain clouds.

والبينُ معركة فطرفك في

غزو القلوب يفوز بالنَّصرِ

And parting is a battlefield; your gaze, in

raiding hearts, wins the victory.

ما راعني في وجنتيكِ بها

غير اصطلاح الماء والجمرِ

Nothing in your cheeks startled me there

but the truce between water and embers.

وأما وأمركِ بالولوع لقد

حرم السبوّ بذلك الأمرِ

And indeed, by your command to love ardently,

consolation [uncertain reading] was forbidden by that command.

يا ليلةً بالنعف فزتُ بها

ما كنتِ إلاَّ ليلةَ القدرِ

O night I won at al-Na'f,

you were none other than the Night of Decree.

والشمسُ أنتِ فلمْ ركبتِ هزيـ

ـع الليل وهو مطيَّةُ البدرِ

And you are the sun; why did you ride a stretch

of night, though it is the full moon's mount?

بتنا وأنديةُ المضارب لا

يروى بها سمرٌ عن السّثمرِ

We spent the night; in the tents' gathering places no

night-talk was recounted there from [unclear: al-sathmar].

أسقى بريقكِ وهي صافيةٌ

صهباء في قدحٍ من الدرِّ

I am given your saliva to drink, and it is clear

tawny wine in a cup of pearls.

وحددتني باللَّحظ حين رأيـ

ـتِ الحدّ يلزم شاربَ الخمرِ

And you punished me with your glance when you saw

that the prescribed penalty applies to the wine-drinker.

والحيُّ مثل الميت يؤمن من

رقصت فرائصهُ من الذُّعرِ

And the clan, like the dead, reassures one

whose flank-muscles quiver with terror.

والمرط يمحو ما كتبتِ بأطـ

ـراف الذوائب منك في العفرِ

And the mantle erases what you wrote with the

tips of your tresses in the dust.

وكأنما سرقت جفونك من

عطفيك معنى التّيهِ والسُّكرِ

And it is as though your eyelids stole from

your two flanks the air of pride and drunkenness.

وسوادُ قلبِ الليل يخفقُ فيـ

ـه البرقُ خوفَ طليعة الفجرِ

And in the blackness of night's heart there flickers

lightning, for fear of dawn's vanguard.

والصبحُ ما دارت سرائرهُ

للجنح في خلدٍ ولا فكرِ

And dawn's secrets had never passed

through night's mind or thought.

لو لم ينم طمّست كواكبه

والشمسُ طالعةٌ من الخدرِ

Had it not slept, its stars would have been blotted out,

as the sun rose from her curtained chamber.

وكأنما ربطَ الهجوعُ بخيط

الصبح فيه قوادمَ النسرِ

And it was as though sleep had bound, with the thread

of dawn, the Eagle's foremost flight-feathers within it.

حتى بدا وكأنَّ طلعتهُ

وجهُ الوزير يهشُّ بالبشرِ

Until it appeared, its countenance resembling

the vizier's face, beaming with gladness.