أناعسة الأجفان أسهرت مكمدا — Abn Nbath

أناعسةَ الأجفانِ أسهرتِ مكمدا

عسى تكحلي عينيه بالخصر مرودا

O drowsy-eyed one, you have kept a grief-stricken man awake.

Would that you lined his eyes with kohl, using your waist as the wand.

فيا حبَّذا للخصر مرود عسجدٍ

جعلت عليه للذَّوائب إثمدا

How lovely the waist, a kohl-stick of gold,

upon which you laid your tresses as antimony.

لئن فهمت عيناكِ حالي معرّباً

لقد سلَّ منها الجفن سيفاً مهنَّدا

If your eyes understood my plainly expressed plight,

the eyelid has indeed drawn from them a sword of Indian steel.

وإن كان فيك الحسن أصبح كاملاً

لقد أصبح اللاّحي عليك مبرَّدا

And though beauty in you has become complete,

the man who reproaches me over you has indeed been chilled.

وإن كنت مع شيبي خليعَ صبابةٍ

فيا رُبَّ يومٍ من لقاكِ تجدّدا

Though, despite my gray hair, I am a libertine of longing,

how many a day of meeting you has been renewed!

ويا رُبّ ليلٍ فيه عانقت كاعباً

تذكر صدري نهدَها فتنهدا

And how many a night I embraced a full-breasted maiden:

my chest remembered her breast and sighed.

وقيَّدني إحسانها بذوائبٍ

ومن وجد الإحسان قيداً تقيدا

And her kindness bound me with tresses,

and whoever finds kindness a fetter submits to its bonds.

فيا ليتها عندي أتمت جميلها

فتكتب في قيدي عليه مخلدا

Would that she had completed her kindness toward me

and inscribed upon my fetter: "Bound forever."

زمان الصبى يا لهفَ حيران بعده

يظلّ على اللذاتِ في مصر مبعدا

O days of youth! Alas for one bewildered after them,

who remains in Egypt, banished from pleasures.

ولو عاودت ذاكَ الشقيّ شبيبةٌ

لعاودَ ذياكَ النعيم وأزيدا

If youth returned to that wretched man,

he would return to that bliss, and more.

وأشهى إليه من رجوع شبابه

رجوعكَ يا قاضي القضاةِ مؤيدا

And sweeter to him than the return of his youth

is your return, Chief Justice, upheld in honor.

بدأت بحكمٍ وقت الخلق حمدَه

وعدْت فكان العودُ أوفى وأحمدا

You began to rule, and the people marked the time with praise;

and you returned, the return fuller and more praiseworthy.

وكان سرور اليوم في مصر قد فشا

فكيفَ وقد أنشأت أضعافه غدا

Today's joy had already spread throughout Egypt;

what then, when you have prepared many times as much for tomorrow?

ولم أنس من دار السعادة صحبة

مباركةَ الاثنينِ تطلع أوحدا

Nor have I forgotten a fellowship from Dar al-Sa'ada,

blessed on Monday, with you rising peerless.

مدائح لما كان ممدوح مثلها

تراه البرايا مفرداً كنتُ مفردا

Panegyrics: since the man praised by their like

is seen as peerless by mankind, I too was peerless.

أجيدٌ ويجدي عادتينا وإنما

لكل امرئٍ من دهره ما تعودا

I excel, and he gives—our two accustomed ways;

each man has from his lifetime what he has grown used to.

فدتكم بني السبكيّ خلقٌ رفعتمو

فلا أحد إلا إذاً لكم الفداْ

May the people you have raised ransom you, sons of al-Subki;

there is none, then, who would not be your ransom.

ولا أحدٌ إلا خصصْتم برفدِكم

فلا فرق ما بين الأحبَّة والعدى

None has been left without your special bounty,

with no distinction between friends and enemies.

وما تخرج الأحكام عنكم لغيركم

فسيَّان من قد غاب منكم ومن بدا

Judgments never pass from you into others' hands;

equal are those of you absent and those present.

فلو وكفانا الله وُليَ غيركم

لما راح في شيء يجيد ولا غدا

If—God spare us—someone else were appointed,

he would do nothing well, evening or morning.

وما الشام إلاَّ معلم قد ملأته

بعدلك أحكاماً وعلمك مقتدى

Syria is but a school that you have filled

with judgments through your justice, your learning a guiding example.

حكمت بعدلٍ لم تدعْ فيه ظالماً

وصلت بعلمٍ لم تدعْ فيه ملحدا

You ruled with justice that left no oppressor there;

you prevailed through learning that left no heretic there.

وجدت إلى أن لم تدعْ فيهِ مقتراً

وسدت إلى أن لم تذَر فيه سيدا

You gave until no one impoverished remained there;

you became supreme until no other lord remained there.

وأعطيت في شرخ الصبا كلّ سؤدد

إلى أن ظننَّا أنَّ في المشيب أسودا

In youth's first bloom you were granted every lordly distinction,

until we imagined a still greater lord in your gray-haired years.

يقولُ ثناء الخرْرَجيّ وقومه

لعمرك ما سادت بنو قيلةٍ سدا

The praise of al-Kharraji and his people declares:

"By your life, the sons of Qayla did not gain lordship in vain."

ولا عيبَ في أثناء عيبة يلتقي

سوى سؤدد يضني وشاةً وحسدا

No flaw is found in the recesses of that treasure-chest,

save a nobility that torments slanderers and enviers.

فدونكها علياء فيكم تردَّدت

وعزم اختيارٍ فيكُم ما تردَّدا

Take it, then: a lofty honor that has passed repeatedly among you,

and a resolve in choosing you that never wavered.

وهنئتها أو هنئت خلعاً إذا

أضاءَت فمن أطواقها مطلعُ الهدى

May you be congratulated on them—or they on you—robes which, when

they shine, give guidance its sunrise from their collars.

وإن أزهرت بيضاً وخضراً رياضها

وفاحت ففي أكمامها سحب الندى

And if their gardens blossom white and green,

spreading fragrance, clouds of bounty lie within their sleeves.

إذا ابن عليّ سار في الشعرِ ذكره

فقل حسناً زكَّى قصيداً ومقصدا

When Ibn Ali's name travels through verse,

say: "Hasan has ennobled both poem and purpose."

جواداً أتينا طالباً بعد طالب

فهذا اجْتذى منه وهذا به اقْتدى

We came to a generous man, petitioner after petitioner;

one received his bounty, another followed his example.

مسافرة أموالهُ لعفاتهِ

كأنَّ الثنا حادٍ بأظعانها حدا

His wealth travels out to those who seek his bounty,

as though praise were a camel-driver singing its caravans onward.

له في العلى بابٌ صحيحٌ مجرَّبٌ

لعافٍ رجا خيراً وعادٍ قد اعتدى

In high honor he has a sound and proven door,

for a seeker hoping for good, and an assailant who has transgressed.

فللهِ ما أشقى الحسود بعيشةٍ

لديه وما أهنى الفقير وأسعدا

By God, how wretched is the envious man's life

beside him, and how contented and happy the poor man!

وكم قابلت رجوايَ حالاً حسبته

فضاعف لي ذاك الحساب وعدَّدا

How often my hopes met a circumstance I had reckoned on,

and he doubled that reckoning for me and multiplied it.

وكم نقدةٍ من تبره ولجينه

تخِذْتُ لديها كالنجم مرصدا

How many a coin of his gold and silver

I watched for, as though keeping watch upon a star!

رأيتُ بنقديهِ بياضاً وحمرةً

فقلتُ ليَ البشرى اجتماعٌ توَلدا

In his two coinages I saw whiteness and redness,

and said: "Good tidings for me—a conjunction has been born!"

وسدت على نجل الحسين بمدحِ من

سأثقلُ أفراسي بنعماه عسجدا

And I surpassed the son of al-Husayn by praising one

whose favors will weigh my steeds down with gold.

أأندى الورى كفاه وجهة ذي حيا

على أنَّه أجدى وجاد وجوَّدا

O most bountiful of men, whose hands even a rain-cloud seeks,

though it too bestows, gives generously, and lavishes!

أغارَ على حالي الزمانُ بعسفه

ولكن ندى كفَّيك في الحال أنجدا

Time raided my fortunes with its tyranny,

but the bounty of your hands came at once to my aid.

وما كنتُ أبغي في المعيشةِ مرفقاً

فكم من يدٍ في الجودِ اتبعتها يدا

I had no need to seek support for my livelihood,

for how many a generous gift you followed with another!

حلفتُ بمن أنشا بنانك والحيا

لقد جدت حتى المجتدِي بك يجتدى

I swore by Him who created your fingers and the rain:

you have given so much that through you even the beggar is asked for gifts.

ومن قطع الأطماع من كلّ حاسدٍ

لقد زدت حتَّى ما يكون محسدا

And by Him who cut off every envier's hopes:

you have excelled until no room for envy remains.

ولا خبرٌ في الحلمِ والعلمِ والثنا

تجاه الورَى إلاَّ وذكرك مبتدَا

No account of forbearance, learning, or praise

comes before mankind without your name as its subject.

فعشْ للعلى تاجاً يليق بمثلهِ

فريد الثنا ممَّن أجادَ منضَّدا

Live as a crown for glory, one whose like deserves

rare pearls of praise, strung by a master craftsman.

تردُّ الرَّدى عنكَ المحبُّون فدية

تكون لهم في التربِ مجداً مؤيَّدا

May those who love you ransom you and ward off death,

a ransom that shall be their lasting glory in the dust.

ولا أرْتضي موت العداةِ فإنهم

ببقياك في عيشٍ أمرُّ من الردى

I do not wish your enemies to die, for they,

while you survive, live a life more bitter than death.