سل بين بانات الحمى وقدوده — Abn Alsaati

سلْ بين باناتِ الحمى وقدودهِ

عن صبر مسلوب القرار فقيدهِ

Ask among the sanctuary's ban trees and his slender forms

after the patience of one robbed of repose and bereft of it.

من للعميد يروم بيضَ قبابه

مترجياً ويخاف بيض عميده

Who will aid the lovesick man who seeks his white pavilions,

hopeful, yet fearing the white blades of his chieftain?

يا للرّجالِ لناظرٍ متشيع

أبداً يعفر دمعه بصعيده

Men, come to the aid of a devoted eye,

forever mingling its tears with the dust of his ground.

يبكي ويستسقي العهاد صبابةٍ

لزمانه الماضي وحسن عهوده

It weeps and begs the recurring rains, out of longing

for his bygone days and the beauty of his pledges.

ما أنكرتْ ظبياتهُ دعوى أسى

ألاَّ وأقبل طرفهُ بشهوده

Whenever his gazelles denied a claim of grief,

his eye came forward with its witnesses.

هيهات أن ينجو فيصبح مطلقاً

دمعٌ تعثّر في حبائل غيده

How could it escape and become unfettered—

a tear entangled in the snares of his graceful maidens?

أسليلةَ القمرين من لمتيّمٍ

أعرضتِ عنهُ ونمتِ عن تسهيده

O daughter of the sun and moon, who will aid a lovesick man

from whom you turned away, sleeping heedless of his sleeplessness?

كفي ملامك واصرفي أحداثه

عنّي إلى قاسي الفؤاد جليده

Cease your reproach and turn its assaults

away from me, toward the hard-hearted and enduring.

ولربَّ معسولِ اللمى مرَّ القلى

نظّمتُ من دمعي قلائدَ جيده

And many a honeyed, dark-lipped beloved, bitter in aversion,

have I adorned with necklaces strung from my tears.

أجرى بوادره على عاداتها

جريانَ ماءِ شبابهِ في عوده

He set their gushes flowing in their accustomed way,

like the sap of his youth coursing through his stem.

لدنِ المعاطف ما هممتُ بهصره

إلاَّ جنيتُ الوجدَ من أملوده

Supple in his curves, whenever I thought of bending him,

I gathered only passion from his tender bough.

قد كنَّ بيضاً في زمان وصاله

حبّاته فتلونت لصدوده

They were white in the days of union with him—

its beads, which changed color at his rejection.

ما كان أغنى راحةً ظفرتْ به

لو كان يجمد ذوبُ بعض عقوده

How rich a palm that caught it would have been,

if the liquid of some of its necklaces could congeal!

انظر فعالَ ضعافه بكماته

وأعجب لفتك ظبائه بأسوده

Look at what his weak ones do to his champions,

and marvel at his gazelles slaughtering his lions.

حيّيتَ يا زمنَ الشباب فطالما

رفل الغواني في ديول بروده

Hail to you, O time of youth! For how often

the beauties swayed in the trailing hems of its cloaks.

الآن بعدُ ولم تزل أيامه

خفت النّوى فعرفت قدر جديده

Now, at last, while its days still linger,

I have feared separation and learned the worth of its freshness.

وسقى الحيا عنّي الشآم وأهله

وأعمُّ ثمَّ أخصُّ باب بريده

May the rain water Syria and its people on my behalf;

I include all, then single out its Bab al-Barid.

أهاً لموقف ساعة ولّى بها

نفسي وما ملكت جزاءُ معيده

Ah, for a moment's encounter that slipped away!

My life and all I owned are the reward of whoever restores it.

أرأيتَ أحسن من لواحظ سربه

ترنو والينَ من لدان قدوده

Have you seen lovelier than the glances of its gazelle-herd,

gazing, or softer than its supple figures?

زمنٌ حكى رمّانه وغصونه

الحلوينَ من قاماته ونهوده

An age whose pomegranates and branches mirrored

its two sweet forms, its statures and breasts.

سكري بخمري ريقه وسلافه

طرباً لزهري ورده وخدوده

My intoxication comes from its twin wines, its saliva and pure wine;

my rapture from its twin blooms, its roses and cheeks.

والورق في أوراقهنَّ كأنما

عبثت بمزمارٍ يدا داووده

And the doves among their leaves seemed as though

the two hands of its David were playing a flute.

من كل شادٍ يستبي البابنا

سحراً بطيب بسيطهِ ونشديه

Every singer captivated our minds

by enchantment, through its sweet, flowing tune and song.

فكأنّما غنّى بما حبرتُ في الملك

المؤيد من مدائح جوده

So it seemed to sing what I had composed about King

al-Mu'ayyad, in praise of his generosity.

نجمٌ يودُّ الأفق ودَّ خلالهِ

لو كان للقمرين بعض سعوده

A star: the horizon, loving his virtues, wishes

that the sun and moon had some of his good fortune.

راسي حصاة الحلمِ والأطوادُ

طائشةٌ قريبُ العفو غير بعيده

His rock of forbearance stands firm, while mountains

are tossed about; his pardon is near, never far.

لو صافحت كفّاهُ يبساً ذاوياً

لأفاض مدَّ الجودِ من جلموده

If his two palms clasped a dry, withered thing,

a tide of bounty would gush from its hard rock.

ولو أنه لقيَ الحسام بجذوة

من عزمه لأذاب ماءَ حديده

And if he met the sword with an ember

of his resolve, he would melt its gleaming steel.

أغنى وفودَ ذراهُ وافرُ جودهِ

وحباهمُ من ظلّهِ بمديد

His abundant generosity enriched the delegations to his heights,

and he bestowed upon them far-reaching shade.

خاف الملام ولو يشاءُ لعزّهِ

ما خاف من شيءٍ سوى معبوده

He feared reproach; yet if he wished, through his might,

he would fear nothing except the One he worships.

فغدا وراح إلى العلاء مصدقاً

آمال قاصده وظنَّ قصيده

Morning and evening he went toward high rank, fulfilling

his seeker's hopes and his ode's expectation.

وسعى إلى الغايات سعي قديمة

الأملاك من آبائه وجدوده

He strove toward the highest ends with the striving of ancient

kings among his fathers and forefathers.

حسبٌ يضيءُ لكلّ سارٍ مدلج

والصبح ما صدع الدّجى بعموده

A lineage that shines for every traveler journeying by night,

while dawn has not yet split the darkness with its shaft.

ما خاب في نهج النّدى متنقلٌ

من ظل يوسفه إلى مسعوده

No wayfarer on the path of generosity has failed,

passing from the shelter of its Yusuf to its Mas'ud.

ربُّ الظُّبي والنّقع أن شهد الوغى

نسخ العداة ببيضها وبسوده

Lord of sword-edges and battle-dust: if he enters the fray,

he obliterates his foes with their white blades and its black dust.

فاضرب على الخذم القواضب والقنا

واضرب صفوفهم بلفظ وعيده

So set aside the keen, cutting swords and spears,

and strike their ranks with the words of his threat.

نسخت أحاديث الحديد فلم تسرْ

لا عن مجردّه ولا مغموده

Tales of steel are superseded and no longer circulate,

whether of its drawn blades or its sheathed ones.

عبل الذراع طويل ثني نجاده

يوم النزالِ قصير عمرِ وعودهِ

Stout of arm, with a long-folded sword-baldric,

on the day of combat, his promises are short-lived.

يلقي الكتائب غانياً من نفسهِ

والحزم عن فرسانهِ وجنوده

He meets the battalions, sufficient in himself

and his resolve, without needing his horsemen or troops.

فضلَ الحسامَ فذبَّ يومَ كلالهِ

وشأى الغمامِ فذاب عامَ جموجه

He surpassed the sword, defending when it grew blunt,

and outstripped the cloud, pouring forth in the year it held back.

أعدتْ قلوبَ عداهُ بيضُ سيوفهِ

سقماً وعلَّمهنَّ خفقَ بنوده

His swords' white blades infected his enemies' hearts

with sickness, and his banners' flutter taught them to tremble.

كالشمس في بعد المكان ورفدهُ

مثلُ الشعاعُ يطيعُ كفُّ مريده

Like the sun in the remoteness of his station, his bounty

is like sunlight, answering the hand of whoever seeks it.

أما الليالي فهي سودُ إمائه

وكذلك الأيامُ بيضُ عبيده

As for the nights, they are his black female slaves;

and likewise, the days are his white male slaves.

ألقى إلى الملك المعزّ مودّةً

باتت تنعَّمُ في جناب وروده

He offered King al-Mu'izz an affection

that spent the night in bliss where he arrived.

ربّان للنّعمى تعجّب فيهما

من مبدئٍ للمكرمات معيده

Two lords of beneficence, in whom you marvel

at an initiator of noble deeds and their renewer.

متناصران على الشجاعة والندى

كالسيل أردفه الحيا بمدوده

They support one another in courage and generosity,

like a torrent reinforced by rain with further floods.

هذا يفيضُ غعلى العدو ببأسه

نقماً وذاك على الوليّ بجوده

This one pours upon the foe, through his might,

vengeance, and that one pours his bounty upon his ally.

الموقدي للضيف ناراً جمرها

يطفي ضرام الشّهب قبل خموده

The two kindling a fire for the guest, whose embers

quench the stars' blaze before dying out.

هذا لذاك هلالُ أفق سمائه

حقاً وذاك لذا صبيحةُ عيده

This one is that one's crescent on the horizon of his sky,

truly; and that one is this one's festival morning.

وكلاهما شملَ البسيطةَ عدلهُ

كبني أبيه وجلَّ قدرُ وجوده

The justice of each embraces the earth,

as with their father's sons; exalted is the worth of each one's existence.

المرمدي حلقِ الدّلاص وما نعي

جفنِ المهنّد من لذيذ هجوده

The two who inflame the rings of polished mail and deny

the Indian sword's sheath its sweet slumber.

متشابهي كرمِ الفعال يسير عن

مهديهِ ويحلُّ عند رشيده

Alike in noble deeds: nobility journeys from

its Mahdi and alights beside its Rashid.

أقمار ليل النقع فرسان الوغى

والحرب أملاك الفخار وصيده

Moons in the night of battle-dust, horsemen of combat

and war, kings of glory and its proud lions.

ما شئتَ من زاكي المقال كريمهِ

فيهم ومن سامي الفعال سديده

Whatever you wish of pure, noble speech

is in them, and of lofty, upright deeds.

فلأكسونهما ولستُ بمائنٍ

حللاً تفوق الدرّ في تنضيده

I shall surely clothe them both—and I am no liar—

in robes surpassing pearls in their ordered setting:

حبراً كما نشرت يداً متملكٍ

ما حيك من صنائعهِ وزبيده

striped cloth, such as a sovereign's two hands unfurl,

woven from his benefactions and his Zabid.

عربيةٌ ألفاظها ما هجنت

بإعادة المعنى ولا تريده

Their words are Arabic, never debased

by repeating a meaning or reiterating it.

هزأت ببنت الكأس في تجيلها

وتضاحكت بالسحر في تعقيده

It mocked the daughter of the cup in its [unclear action],

and laughed at magic in its tangled knots.

لولا لطافتها ونشوةُ فضلها

ما اسودَّ وجهُ الخمر في عنقوده

Were it not for its delicacy and the intoxication of its excellence,

wine's face would not have blackened in its grape-cluster.

يحلو بها نغم الحداءِ على السُّرى

فتكاد تروى عن دجاهُ وبيده

Through it the camel-driver's song grows sweet on night journeys,

till the journey's darkness and deserts almost seem to recite it.

كرماً وما شبَّ الحياءَ شعاعهُ

منّي وماءُ الوجه في ناجوده

In honor—its radiance has not kindled shame

in me, while my face's water rests in its wine-flask.

فبقيتما عمرَ البقاءِ فإنهُ

يبقى ويفنى الدهرَ طول خلوده

May you both endure for the lifetime of eternity, for it

endures, and its long immortality wears away time.

متلاحق الأوزان لا أنفكُّ من

مقصورهِ إلاَّ إلى ممدوده

With meters following one another, I never pass from

its short form except into its long one.

فالشعرُ قيدُ الصالحاتِ ولا ترى

بحانها حلياً كمثلِ قيوده

For poetry is the fetter of good deeds, and you will not see

in their [unclear place] any jewels like its fetters.

فتحتْ لها مروانهِ وحبيبهِ

فتلا مواهبَ معنهِ ويزيده

Its Marwan and its Habib opened the way for them,

then recited the gifts of its Ma'n and its Yazid.

فلقد صفا بكما الزمان فلم نبت

من شوبهِ نخشى ولا تنكيده

Through you both, time has grown pure indeed, so we no longer spend the night

fearing its taint or its vexations.