ما بت فيك بدمع عيني أشرق — Abn Nbath

ما بتّ فيك بدمع عيني أشرق

إلا وأنت من الغزالة أشرق

Never have I spent the night choking on my eye’s tears for you

but you were brighter than the sun.

يا من تحكم في الجوارح حسنُه

فالقلب يؤسر والمدامع تطلق

O you whose beauty rules the limbs:

the heart is taken captive, while the tears are set free.

أنفقت عيني في البكاء وحبَّذا

عينٌ على مرآى جمالك تنفَق

I spent my eye in weeping—how lovely

an eye expended at the sight of your beauty!

وأخافني فيك العذولُ وما درى

إني لجودك في الهوى أتشوّق

The censurer alarmed me about you, not knowing

that in love I yearn for your generosity.

قسماً بمن جعل الأسى بك لذةً

والدمع راحة من يحبّ ويعشق

I swear by the One who made sorrow for you a pleasure,

and tears the solace of one who loves and adores:

إن العذول هو الغني وأن من

يفني عليك حياته لموفّق

the censurer is indeed the rich one, and whoever

spends his life for you is truly fortunate.

لي من نصيب هواك سهمٌ وافرٌ

وسهام سحر من جفونك ترشق

Mine is an ample share in the allotment of your love,

while arrows of enchantment are shot from your eyelids.

يمتار من دمعي عليك ذوو البكا

فاعجب له من سائلٍ يتصدّق

Those who weep draw their provisions from my tears for you;

marvel at it: a beggar who gives alms!

ولقد سقيت بكأس فيك مدامة

في غيظ لوّامي عليك فلا سقوا

I was given wine to drink from the cup of your mouth,

to spite my censurers over you—may they be denied drink!

وضممْت من عطفيك غصن ملاحةٍ

بالحلي يزهر والغلائل تورِق

I embraced, in your two flanks, a bough of beauty,

flowering with jewels, while its fine robes put forth leaves.

وقرأت في خديك بعد تأمل

خطًّا به حبّ القلوب معلق

After contemplation, on your cheeks I read

a script to which the love of hearts is bound.

ورزقت من جفنيك ما حسد الورى

حظي عليه وهو رزق ضيق

From your eyelids I received what made mankind envy

my portion, though it was scant provision.

ونُعمت باللّذات وهي جديدةٌ

ولبست ضوءَ الرَّاح وهو معتّق

I was blessed with pleasures while they were fresh,

and wore the radiance of wine, aged as it was,

في ليل أفراح كأنَّ هلاله

للشرب ما بين الندامى زَوْرَقُ

on a night of joys whose crescent seemed

a skiff for drinkers among the boon companions.

يا حبَّذا ليلٌ نبيع به الكرى

لكننا لا عن رضًى نتفرّق

How delightful a night in which we sell our sleep,

yet never part of our own free will!

حيث الشباب إلى المسرة راكض

لا يستقرّ وطالبٌ لا يرفق

There youth races toward delight,

never resting, a seeker who never relents.

سقياً لأوقات الشبيبة إنها

أوفى لمطّلب السرور وأوفق

May rain bless the days of youth, for they are

more faithful to the seeker of joy, and more congenial.

ما سرّني أنّ الكميت تحثها

نحوي السقاة وأن فوْدي أبلق

It would not delight me to have dark-red wine hurried

toward me by cupbearers while my temple was black and white.

غني بكأسك يا نديم فإنّ لي

جفناً مدامعه أرقّ وأرْوَق

[Away] with your cup, O companion, for I have

an eyelid whose tears are finer and clearer.

زال الصبا ونأى الحبيب فعادني

أرقٌ على أرق ومثليَ يأرق

Youth has passed, the beloved is far away, and I am visited

by sleeplessness upon sleeplessness—one like me lies awake.

وكأنّ عيني راحةٌ ملكيّة

حلف النوال بأنها لا تطبق

It is as though my eye were a royal palm:

bounty has sworn that it shall never close.

نشأ النوال الأفضليّ فلم نسل

في الأفق هل نشأ الغمام المغدق

Al-Afdal’s bounty arose, so we did not ask

whether the rain-laden cloud had arisen on the horizon.

إن كان في الكرماء رسل سماحةٍ

فمحمدٌ منها الأخير الأسبق

If among the generous there are messengers of liberality,

then Muhammad is the last of them, yet the foremost.

ملك أقام على حماه وذِكرُهُ

بالمكرمات مغرّبٌ ومشرِّق

A king who stays within his realm, while his renown

for noble deeds travels west and east.

ما ضره والفعل فعل باهر

طلب السهى والأصل أصلٌ معرق

What harm could it do him—his deeds are dazzling—

to seek al-Suhā, when his lineage is deep-rooted?

من أسرة تقوية حظ الأولى

يوم الفخار لقهرها أن يتقوا

From a Taqawī house: the lot of others,

on the day of boasting, is to beware its conquering might.

النجم بعض ريارهم فلينزلوا

والنجم بعض حدودهم فليرتقوا

The herbage is part of their [gardens?]—let them descend;

and the stars are part of their boundaries—let them ascend.

إن فاخروا بقديمهم لم يدفعوا

أو سابقوا بجديدهم لم يلحقوا

If they boast of their ancient heritage, they cannot be rebuffed;

or race with their new achievements, they cannot be overtaken.

إن يفنَ ماضيهم على سنن الردى

فكأنهم ببقاء أفضلهم بقوا

Though their forebears perish along the path of death,

it is as though, with their best still living, they all lived on.

الأرض واسعة بجدوَى ملكهم

والعدل في أيامه متوثق

The earth is spacious through their king’s bounty,

and justice is secure in his days.

ملأت موافقة القلوب مهابة

فالقلب قبل الطرف فيها مطرق

His [assemblies?] filled hearts with awe,

so there the heart bows before the gaze does.

وكأنما صور الوقوف أمامه

صور الذمى فمواثل لا تنطق

The forms of those standing before him seem

like images of [statues?]—figures standing speechless.

سارٍ على منهاج أسرة بيته

ترجو البرية حالتيه وتفرق

He follows the path of his ancestral house;

his two dispositions inspire mankind’s hope and fear.

لا عيب فيه سوى عزائم قصّرت

عنها الكواكب وهي بعد تحلق

No fault has he, save resolves beyond the reach

of the stars—and still they soar.

وندى تتابع وفده حتى اشتكت

نفحات أنعمه الفلا والأينق

And bounty whose delegations arrive in succession, until

the deserts and she-camels complain of the wafts of his favors.

فياض سيب حين يزهى مجلس

وخضيب سيف حين يعرو فيلق

His bounty floods forth when an assembly shines,

his sword is stained when an army draws near.

تلقاه بين مهابة ولطافة

كالسيف فيه مضاً وفيه رونق

You find him between majesty and gentleness,

like a sword, with its keenness and its sheen.

وتراه من لمع الأسنة سافراً

كالبدر بين كواكب تتألق

You see him unveiled amid the gleam of spearheads,

like the full moon among glittering stars.

حيث الغضا بين السلاح كأنه

لجّ تحقق بنده يترقرق

Where the ghadā trees among the weapons seem

a deep sea, its [banner?] made manifest, rippling.

والطير تقربها الظبا فمن السماء

والأرض تغشاه الضيوف وتطرق

Sword-edges draw the birds near; from the sky

and earth, guests flock to him and call by night.

يا أيها الملك المكمل فضله

وُقّيت من حدقٍ إليك تحدّق

O king whose excellence is perfected,

may you be protected from eyes that stare at you.

وبقيت للمدَّاح تجلب عيسهم

جلباً بغير بلادكم لا ينفق

May you live on for the panegyrists, whose pale camels bring

merchandise that sells nowhere outside your lands.

أذكرتنا زمن المؤيد لا غدت

مثواه باكية الغمام تشهّق

You recalled for us the days of al-Mu’ayyad—may there never come

to his resting place a weeping cloud, sobbing,

حتى تجرّبه ذيول حديقة

أكمامها بيد النسيم تفتق

until a garden’s skirts trail across it,

its buds unfolded by the hand of the breeze.

علياك علياه وخلقك خلقه

فاهنأ بلبس مدائحٍ لا تخلق

Your loftiness is his, your character his;

rejoice in wearing praises that will never wear out,

وقدوم عيد كان من طرب إلى

لقياك تخترق الصيام وتسبق

and in the coming of a feast so joyful at

meeting you that it breaks through the fast and races ahead.

وبديعة كالروض إلا أنها

تجلى بجارحة السماع وتعشق

And a wondrous poem like a garden, except that it

is unveiled to the ear and adored.

نظمتها عقداً لمثل مثاله

في النظم شاب من الوليد المفرق

I strung it as a necklace, to match whose design

in verse would turn al-Walīd’s parted hair gray.

وتلوت قاف معوّذاً من قافها

خوفاً عليه من النواظر أشفق

I recited Qāf, drawing a protective charm from its qāf,

fearing for it, anxious about gazing eyes.

لا فضل لي فيها وبحرك قاذف

درر الصفات تقول للخلق انفقوا

No merit is mine in it: your sea casts up

pearls of qualities; you tell mankind, ‘Spend!’

من عشّ بيتك قد درجت وطار لي

في الخافقين جناح ذكرٍ يخفق

From your house’s nest I first stepped forth, and for me took flight

a wing of renown, beating across East and West.

وبكم علمت من القريض صناعة

ما كنت لولاكم بها أتعلق

Through you I learned the craft of poetry,

which, but for you, I would never have pursued.

لكم الولا مني لأنَّ نداكمُ

من كلِّ حادثةٍ له في معتق

My fealty is yours, because your bounty

has in me one freed from every calamity.