هي دار مية يا طليق العدل — Abn Alsaati

هيَ دار ميَّةَ يا طليق العدَّلِ

فقفِ المطايا أن وقفتَ بمنزلِ

This is Mayya's abode, O you freed from reproach.

So halt the mounts, if ever you have halted at a dwelling.

فهناك أفواهُ البروق ضواحكٌ

والدَّوحُ راقصةٌ لشدو البلبل

There the mouths of lightning smile,

and the great trees dance to the nightingale's song.

ما بين درعٍ من غديرٍ مانعٍ

نبلَ الغمام وصارمٍ من جدول

Between a shield of pooled water, warding off

the cloud's arrows, and a sword made from a stream,

صافٍ إذا ما المدُّ البس جسمهُ

صدأ القذى صقلتهُ ريحُ الشمال

clear—when rising water clothes its body

in the rust of debris, the north wind polishes it.

وكان رمحاً فوق متن نظيمةٍ

زغفٍ قضيبُ ألبان فوق المنهل

And a spear above the surface of a linked

coat of supple mail was the ban bough above the pool.

والمزن تسفحُ منهراتُ جراحها

وترى حسام البرق غيرَ مفلَّل

The rainclouds' gaping wounds pour forth,

and you see lightning's sword without a notch.

حربٌ حنين الرَّعد صوتُ قسيّها

والغيم أسودهُ غبار القسطل

A war: thunder's rumbling is the sound of its bows,

and the clouds' black mass is the dust of battle.

وقفت بها الأبصار وقفة حائرٍ

ومشت إليها السُّحبُ مشية مثقل

Eyes paused there like one bewildered,

and the clouds approached with a burdened gait.

فالأرض باسمةٌ ثغور أقاحها

طرباً لوجهِ العارضِ المتهلّل

The earth smiles through the mouths of its daisies,

rejoicing at the raincloud's beaming face.

والأكمُ ترفلُ منهُ في خلع الحيا

الأفوافِ بين معصفر ومصندل

And the hills trail, from it, in rain's robes of honor,

striped, some safflower-dyed and others sandalwood-dyed.

فأدر به كأس الطّلا فشعاعها

يرمي الأسى فيصيب عين المقتل

So pass the winecup there: its radiance

shoots at sorrow and strikes its fatal spot.

وكأنما أخذُ الكرى في مقلةٍ

سهرت يشابهُ أخذها في المفصل

As though sleep's grip upon an eye

kept sleepless resembled the wine's grip upon a joint.

وكأنما خضبت بتبرٍ ذائبٍ

أيدي السقاة إلى رؤوس الأنمل

As though in molten gold were dyed

the cupbearers' hands, to their fingertips.

وعريقةٌ أنسابها تنمي إلى البر

دان أو تعزى إلى قطربُّل

And a pedigreed wine, its ancestry tracing to al-Bar-

dan, or attributed to Qutrabbul,

من كفّ أهيفَ كالقضيبِ يهز

زهُ تيهُ الشبيبةِ أو مهاةٍ مغزل

from the hand of a slender youth, like a bough swayed

by youthful pride—or of a doe with her fawn.

سفرت عن الشمس المنيرة في الدُّجى

ورنا بناظرةِ الغزال الأكحل

She unveiled a radiant sun in the darkness,

and he gazed with the dark-rimmed eye of a gazelle.

فأرى غداة اللهو يذكرنا الصّبا

فأنهض لتذكار الزمان الأول

At the morning's revelry, I see youth remind us,

and rise to remember the earliest days.

وكانَّ غصن ألبان في أوراقهِ

هيفاءُ خاطرةٌ بكمٍّ مسبل

As though a ban bough among its leaves

were a slender woman strolling with a trailing sleeve.

وشذا النسيم معجّلٌِ معروفهُ

لا خير في المعروف غير معل

And the breeze's fragrance hastens its kindness;

there is no good in kindness unless it is prompt.

عرسٌ من اللَّذات رقت شمسهُ

طوراً مكتَّمة وطوراً تنجلى

A wedding-feast of delights, its sun grown gentle,

at times concealed, at times appearing.

نصر الوليُّ بدجنها وسميَّهُ

كندى نصير الدين يسفح للولي

The following rain, with its gloom, aided the first seasonal showers,

like Nasir al-Din's bounty, poured forth for a friend.

القائلِ الفعَّالِ والأنواءُ ماط

لةُ الحيا والقَّلبيِ الحوَّل

The speaker and the doer, while the rain-stars withhold

their rain; the shrewd, resourceful man,

والعادل الأحكام خيفة ربهِ

حيث الزمانُ كأهلهِ لم يعدل

just in his judgments through fear of his Lord,

when time, like its people, has not been just.

فالناسُ من صدقاتهِ في وابلٍ

جودٍ ومن عزماتهِ في معقل

So people, through his alms, live in a downpour

of bounty, and through his resolves, in a stronghold.

لو لم يسر بهدى الكواكب وفدهُ

لسروا بنور جبينهِ في المجهل

If his delegation did not travel by the stars' guidance,

they would journey by his brow's light through trackless lands.

تربُ السيوف القاضيات إلى ال

جياد السابقات إلى الرماح الذبَّل

A companion of death-dealing swords, alongside the

racing steeds, alongside the slender lances.

وابن الشجاعة والنَّدى يأوي بجم

عها إلى نسبٍ معمٍ مخول

A son of courage and bounty, with both he seeks refuge

in a lineage noble in paternal and maternal kin.

ويصيبُ شاكلة الرقي بسهمهِ

فكأنما يرمي بلحظٍ مرسل

With his arrow he strikes the quarry's flank,

as though he shot with a glance let loose.

سمُّ العدى حتف النواظر والكلى

قيد الفرا أجلُ الظليمِ المجفل

The foe's poison, the doom of eyes and kidneys,

the wild ass's fetter, the fleeing ostrich's appointed death.

فضلَ الصفائح والقنا فلغيظها

ما في متون لدانها من إفكل

He outdid the blades and lances; from their anger comes

the trembling in the bodies of their supple shafts.

يفضي إلى السرّ الخفيّ فؤادهُ

تحت السوابغ في ظلام القسطل

His heart reaches the hidden secret,

beneath the mail, in the darkness of battle-dust.

فلو أنهُ قصد الخطار لنازحٍ

لأصاب عينَ فصادهِ في الأكحل

If he aimed his swaying spear at someone far away,

he would strike the precise bloodletting point in the arm's median vein.

ساعٍ إلى الغايات سعي قديمهِ

عرف الأخير بهِ قصورَ الأول

Striving toward the utmost goals as his forebear strove,

through him the later one learned the earlier one's shortcomings.

أوَ ما أبوهُ ذي الوقيعة غادرتْ

صبح الجريرة كالظلام المسدل

Was not his father the master of the battle that left

the dawn of wrongdoing like enveloping darkness?

فالتربُ ليس يجيزهُ متيمٌ

فيها وجاري الماء غير محلّل

No love-stricken wanderer crosses the soil

within it, and its running water is not lawful.

ركب الحياة إلى الحمام ولم يكن

حتى بمهجة نفسه بمبخّل

He rode life toward death, nor was he

stingy even with his own lifeblood.

وثنى الكماة فكالشباب تقلهُ

صهواتُ برقٍ بالأهلَّة منعل

He turned back the champions; then, like youth, he is borne

by the backs of a lightning-steed, shod with crescents.

لو حاولت زهرَ الدُّجى عزماتهُ

لاستنفذت سلبَ السماكِ الأعزل

Had his resolves sought the bright stars of night,

they would have taken every spoil from Simak the Unarmed.

ما ضاق صدراً كالأنام بطارقٍ

ولو أنه بعضُ الخطوب النزَّل

Unlike other men, he never grows uneasy at a night-visitor,

even if it is one of the calamities descending.

فهو الجواد ابن الجواد المرتجى

ابن المتَّقى والمحرب ابن المفضل

He is the generous son of the generous, the man in whom hope rests,

son of the feared; the warrior, son of the lavish giver.

وهمُ السدادُ لكلّ ثغرٍ شاغرٍ

وهمُ البيانُ لكلّ أمرٍ مشكل

They are the bulwark for every unguarded frontier,

and the clarity for every perplexing affair.

من ناظمٍ بددَ الألوفِ وناثرٍ

نظم الصفوف برمجه والمنصل

Among them a verse-maker who scattered thousands, and a prose-writer

who arrayed the ranks with his spear and blade.

وطئتهمُ وطءَ الدّريس جيادهُ

والبيضُ تحصدهم حصادَ السُّنبل

His steeds trampled them like dry fodder,

and bright swords reaped them like grain-ears.

ولقد أبان عن العلى ببنيةٍ

نظرت إلى زهر الكواكب من عل

Indeed, he revealed his loftiness through an edifice

that looked down upon the bright stars from above.

شماءَ للقصَّاد في أرجائها

ماشئت من ظلّ وماءٍ سلسل

Lofty; for visitors, within its precincts

is all the shade and sweet-flowing water you could wish.

ومواهبٍ خضرٍ تلين وإن قسا

دهرٌ وتخصبُ في الزمان الممحل

And fresh green gifts that soften, though harsh

be the age, and flourish in a time of drought.

مدّت لغايتها العيون لأنها

قصرت خطى متأملٍ ومؤمّل

Eyes stretch toward its highest reach, because it

shortens the steps of those who ponder and those who hope.

بكرُ القرائح بالمسامع تجتلي

أبداً ويخطبها لسانُ المحفل

A maiden born of creative minds, unveiled to listening ears

forever, and sought in marriage by the gathering's tongue.

بيضاءُ في الزمن البهيم كأنها

شيةُ الصباح بجنح ليلٍ اليل

White in the pitch-black age, as though she were

morning's marking upon the wing of a deeply dark night.

طابت منابتها فلست بعادمٍ

نفحاتِ بانٍ أو نسيم قرنفل

Her growing places are sweet; you will never lack

the fragrance of ban trees or the breath of clove.

مختالةٌ في وردها وأقاحها

ما بين خدٍ مخجل ومقبل

Proudly she sways amid her roses and daisies,

between a blush-bringing cheek and a mouth to kiss.

وكأنما الزهرُ الجنيُّ جواهرٌ

زهرٌ فبين منظمٍ ومفصل

As though the freshly gathered blossoms were jewels,

gleaming, some strung together and others set apart.

وتكاد تعرف في وجوه بنائها

تيه الجمال وعزَّة المتذلل

And you can almost discern, in the facades of her structure,

beauty's pride and the dignity of the humble.

فكأنها بيضاءُ من أخواتها

تختالُ في حلل الملاحة والحلي

As though she were a fair one among her sisters,

strutting in robes of loveliness and jewels.

رقَّت فكاد يذوب من أنفاسها

ويسيلُ سيل الماء صم الجندل

She grew so tender that her breath could almost melt

the solid rocks and make them flow like water.

كم للسُّراة بها إذا ما قوبلت

بالبدر من ليل أغرَّ محجل

How many a night for nightfarers there, when she faces

the full moon—a night white-blazed and white-stockinged!

مثل الوصال المشتهى أو كالشباب

المصطفى أو كالحبيب المقبل

Like the union one desires, or like youth

most cherished, or like the beloved approaching.

حليت بأملحَ في النواظر بهجةً

منها وأعذب في القلوب وأجمل

She was adorned with one whose splendor is lovelier to the eyes

than hers, and sweeter and more beautiful to the hearts:

بمقصد القصَّاد يبذل مالهُ

لهم وماء وجوههم لم يبذل

the goal of petitioners, who lavishes his wealth

on them, but never spills the water of their faces.

يندى وما حسرَ السؤال لثامهُ

وأخو الندى يندى وإن لم يسأل

He sheds bounty's dew, though no petition has lifted his veil;

a brother of bounty gives even when not asked.

ملكٌ نزفُّ إليه غيدُ عقائلي

زف الحبيب إلى الحبيب المجمل

A king to whom we escort my slender, noble maidens,

as a beloved is led to a gracious beloved.

طائيةً صعبت وأسهل لفظها

فانظر إلى الصعب المنيع المسهل

Ta'i in manner: difficult, yet easy in her wording;

look at the difficult and impregnable, rendered easy.

نزعت عن المعنى البعيد وهجنة الـ

ـوصف المردد والكلام المقفل

She shuns far-fetched meaning and the ugliness of

repeated description and speech locked shut.

أنس الوحيد وزلفة الغادي إلى

حاجاته ووسيلةُ المتوسل

The solitary's comfort, an approach for one setting out toward

his needs, and the supplicant's means of access;

وذخيرةُ الآباء للأبناء في

حال الثواءِ ونعم زادُ المعجل

and a treasure fathers leave their sons in

a state of abiding, and fine provision for one hurried onward.

قي حيث لا السيف الصقيل بقاطعٍ

حداً ولا ليث العرين بمبشل

She protects where the polished sword cannot cut

with its edge, nor the lion of the lair strike fear.

تهدى إلى خضر السماحة والندى

بنتُ الجزالة للجواد المجزل

Offered to the Khidr of generosity and bounty

is the daughter of forceful eloquence, to the generous, lavish giver.

سفرت فصفحة وجهها من نيرٍ

وتنفست فنسيمها من مندل

She unveiled: the surface of her face comes from a luminary;

she breathed: her breath comes from aloeswood.

هامت بطلعتهِ وهام بحسنها

يا خبيثة الواشي وعي العذَّل

She was enamored of his countenance, and he of her beauty.

O the slanderer's wickedness, and the reproachers' helplessness!

فبقيت ما بقيت فأيسرُ عمرها

يفنى به عمر الزمان الأطول

May you endure as long as she endures; the least of her lifespan

would exhaust the longest lifetime of time itself,

أمناً لمزؤودٍ ومنية عائلٍ

ومقيل مطرودٍ وغنيةَ مرمل

as safety for the frightened, the needy person's wish,

a resting place for the outcast, and sufficiency for the destitute.