ربع لعزة صامت لا يفهم — Abn Nbath

ربع لعزَّة صامتٌ لا يفهم

وقلوبنا في رسمِهِ تتكلَّم

An abode of ʿAzza, silent and uncomprehending,

yet our hearts speak amid its traces.

لو لم تعف حماه غرّ سحائبٍ

تهمى لعفَّته مدامع تسجم

Had bright clouds not effaced its precincts,

as they poured, streaming tears would have effaced it.

وعلى البكى فلقد يروق كأنما

قطع الغمام عليه برد معلم

Despite the weeping, it is indeed lovely, as though

the cloud-fragments upon it were a patterned mantle.

ما أنسَ كم ليل عليه قطعته

بالوصلِ تعذرني عليه اللّوم

I cannot forget how many a night I spent there,

in love's union, for which my reproachers excuse me.

حيث الجرَّة فيه شكل سبيكة

قد جرَّبت فالبدر منها درهم

where the 'jar'—perhaps the Milky Way—had an ingot's shape,

already assayed, the full moon a dirham from it.

وضجيعتي جود بحكمِ جفائها

ولقائها يشقي المحبّ وينعم

And my bedmate is bounty: through her estrangement

and meeting, she brings the lover misery and bliss.

حوراء إلاَّ أنها قد أسكنت

قلبي الذي تبلّته وهو جهنم

A dark-eyed houri—except that she has made her home

in my heart, which she has made lovesick, though it is Hell.

لو لم تكن روضاً لما كانت إذا

هطلت غيوث مدامعي تتبسَّم

Were she not a garden, she would not, when

the rains of my tears fell, break into smiles.

يا قلب هذا شعرها وجفونها

فاصْبر إذا زحفَ السواد الأعظم

O heart, here are her hair and her eyelids;

be steadfast when the great dark host advances.

ما الشمس أشرف بهجة منها ولا

صوب السحائب من عليّ أكرم

The sun is no more splendid in beauty than she, nor

is the clouds' downpour more generous than ʿAlī.

بحرٌ تعلمنا المديح صفاته

فعقوده منه عليه تنظّم

He is an ocean; his qualities teach us praise,

so its necklaces are strung from him to adorn him.

متيقّظ الآراء تحسب أنه

كلُّ الأمور لديه غيباً يُعلم

Keenly alert in judgment, you would think that

all affairs, even unseen, are known to him.

ومسدَّد الحركات ينهلّ الندى

وتخيِّم العلياء حيث يخيّم

And his movements are well directed; bounty pours forth,

and lofty glory camps wherever he camps.

جزل العطا والبأس حينَ خبرته

كالسيفِ حينَ يروق ثمَّ يصمم

Abundant in giving and might, when I tried him,

like a sword that dazzles, then cuts clean through.

تجني فيحلم بعد ما جاورته

حتَّى تظنّ لديه أنك تحلم

You offend him, yet he forbears, once you live beside him,

until, in his presence, you think you are dreaming.

رفق كما انْحلّت خيوط غمامةٍ

فإذا سطا نزلَ القضاء المبرم

Gentleness, like the loosening threads of a cloud;

but when he strikes, irrevocable doom descends.

نطقَ الزمان به وكلٍّ مفاخر

كلمٌ على لسنِ الزمان مجمجم

Time has spoken through him, and all other glories

are words mumbled upon the tongue of Time.

انظر لحبوته وأنعمه تجد

من جانبي رضوى سيولاً تفعم

Look at his gift and favors: you will find

torrents overflowing from both sides of Raḍwā.

لا عيب فيه سوى تسلّط جوده

فالمال من نفحاته يتظلم

He has no fault except the tyranny of his generosity:

his wealth protests against his lavish gifts.

لله ما بلغت مساعيه وما

جمعت من المجد الذي لا يرغم

God be praised for what his endeavors have attained, and what

they have amassed of glory that cannot be humbled.

كرم تصلي السحب خلف صلاته

لكنها للعجز عنه تسلم

A generosity behind whose prayer the clouds pray,

yet, unable to match him, they make their closing salutation.

وثناً يقيد بالمدائح ذكره

فتراه ينجد في البلاد ويتهم

And praise that binds his name in panegyrics—

yet you see it roam the lands, through Najd and Tihāma.

عبق الشذا تحكيه زهر كمائم

في الروض إلا أنها تتكلم

Fragrant with perfume, mirrored by blossoms in their sheaths

in the garden—except that these can speak.

وفضائل لذّت وعزّ مرامها

فكأنها شهدٌ يذاق وعلقم

And virtues sweet to savor, yet hard to attain,

like honey to taste, and bitter colocynth.

من كلّ ساجعة السطور كأنما

همزاتها وُرْقٌ بها تترنم

From every poem whose lines coo, as though

its hamzas were gray doves singing within it.

وقصيدة غرّاء تعلم أنه

قد غادر الشعراء ما يُتردم

And a radiant ode from which you know that

the poets have indeed left something still to mend.

وتواضع كالشمس دانٍ ضوءها

والقدر أرفع أن ينال ويكرم

And humility like the sun, whose light is near,

but whose station is too high to reach or duly honor.

يممه يا راجيه تلقَ خلاله

تسدى بها حلل الثناء وترقم

Seek him, you who hope in him: you will find his virtues,

with which the robes of praise are woven and embroidered.

يرجى فيعطي فوقَ كلّ رغيبة

وتطيش ألباب الرجال فيحلم

When hopes are placed in him, he gives beyond every wish;

when men's minds grow unsteady, he remains forbearing.

وإذا دعى الداعي نزال وجدتهُ

بالرأيِ يطعن واليراع فيهزم

And when the herald calls, 'To battle!', you find him

thrusting with judgment and the reed pen, and routing the foe.

قلمٌ له في كلِّ يومٍ كريهة

أنباء يجري في جوانبها الدّم

His pen, on every day of battle, has

reports through whose margins blood flows.

نادى سواد النفس لما أفصحت

كلماته أنا عبد من يتفهّم

The soul's dark core cried out at the eloquence of

his words: 'I am the servant of whoever understands.'

وجرت بحكمته يدٌ من تحتِها

أبداً يدٌ من فوقها أبداً فم

And by his wisdom moved a hand, beneath it

always a hand, above it always a mouth.

يا ابن الذين لهم سناً بهر الورَى

وعلاً نبجّل ذكرها ونعظم

O son of those whose radiance dazzled humankind,

and whose lofty glory we recall with reverence and esteem—

شرفٌ ولكن بالهلالِ متوَّج

فوقَ السماء وبالسماك مخيم

nobility, yet crowned with the crescent,

above the sky, and encamped beside al-Simāk.

يفدِي ربيع نداك مثرٍ كفّه

أبداً جمادى أو نداه محرَّم

May the spring of your bounty be ransomed by a rich man whose hand

is forever Jumādā, or whose bounty is Muḥarram.

قرم تعيّس للمديحِ إذا شدا

فكأنه عند المديح مذمم

A lord made wretched by praise whenever it is sung,

as though, at being praised, he were being reviled.

أنت الذي لجأت إليه مدائحي

أيام لا وزرٌ ولا مستعصم

You are the one to whom my panegyrics took refuge,

in days when there was no shelter or place of safety.

أغنيتني عمَّن إذا مدح امرؤ

لم يفرحوا وإذا هجا لم يألموا

You freed me from needing those who, when a man praises them,

feel no joy, and when he satirizes them, feel no pain.

خذها إليك بديهة عربيّة

ما نالَ غايتها زياد الأعجم

Take it—an impromptu Arabic poem—

whose heights Ziyād al-Aʿjam never reached.

شابَ الوليد لعجزِهِ عن مثلها

وارْتدَّ عن نظم القوافي مسلم

Al-Walīd grew gray, unable to produce its like,

and Muslim turned back from composing rhymes.