Sol 6.1

  1. سرى والدجى كالصدر بالهمِّ ملآن

    خيالٌ بقلبي منه كالشهب أشجان

    Through the night it came, while darkness, like a breast, brimmed with sorrow—

    a phantom, from which sorrows like meteors filled my heart.

  2. فنفَّر عن طرفي الكرَى وأعادَ لي

    رسيس غرام وانْقضى وهو غضبان

    It drove sleep from my eyes and brought back to me

    the lingering ache of love, then departed in anger.

  3. على حين لم ينضب من النجم قطرة

    ولا فاض للظلماءِ للفجرِ طوفان

    At a time when not a drop of starlight had ebbed away,

    nor had dawn's flood overflowed into darkness,

  4. ولا شفق الأصباح ماء وقهوة

    ولا الطير في دوح على العود مرنان

    nor was morning's glow yet water and wine,

    nor were birds warbling on branches in the great trees.

  5. يخيل لي طرفُ المليحة حسنها

    لو أن الكرى فيه على الحسنِ إحسان

    The fair one's eye conjures her beauty for me—

    if sleep within it could add grace to beauty.

  6. بروحي من شطَّت فحجبت النوى

    شقائق خدَّيها وأقفر نعمان

    My soul would ransom her who went far away, so separation veiled

    the anemones of her cheeks, and Nu'man lay desolate.

  7. كأن لم يكن نعمان للغيد منبتاً

    فيا حبَّذا قضبٌ لديهِ وكثبان

    As though Nu'man had never nurtured slender beauties—

    how dear its supple branches and its dunes!

  8. ويا حبَّذا قضبٌ من البانِ حملها

    لذي الثغر تفَّاح وذي الضمّ رمَّان

    And how dear the ben-tree boughs, whose fruit

    is apples for the mouth and pomegranates for the embrace!

  9. وكم قيل في البستان غصنٌ وهذه

    معاطفها تجلى وفي الغصنِ بستان

    How often one has said, 'A branch within a garden!' Yet here

    her supple curves appear: within the branch, a garden.

  10. وغيداء أمَّا ردفها فهوَ مشبع

    رويّ وأما خصرها فهو عريان

    And a slender beauty: her hips are full-fed,

    well-quenched, while her waist is bare.

  11. وما كنتُ أدري قبل فتك جفونِها

    بأن السيوف المشرفية أجفان

    I did not know, before her eyelids' deadly assault,

    that Mashrafi swords were eyelids.

  12. ومن عجب محض الأعاريب جاده

    تجوع على غِلاَّتهِ وهو شبعان

    And a wonder: the purest Bedouins showered him with bounty,

    yet hunger amid his harvests while he is sated.

  13. وأعجب من ذا أنَّ في فمِها الطلا

    وإنِّي إلى تلكَ المليحة نشوان

    And stranger still: wine is in her mouth,

    while I am drunk with desire for that lovely woman.

  14. ليَ الله قلباً لا يزال تهيجه

    إلى الحبِّ أوطارٌ قدُمنَ وأوطان

    God be my help with a heart still stirred

    to love by old desires and homelands.

  15. أجيراننا بالشعبِ سُقياً لعهدكم

    وإن كانَ عهداً حظّنا منه أشجان

    O our neighbors in the mountain pass, may rain bless our days together,

    though our share of those days was sorrow.

  16. ولا زالَ عقد المزْن درًّا بداركم

    يفصله من قادح الشوق مرجان

    May the rainclouds' necklace remain pearls above your dwelling,

    its beads interspersed with coral from longing's spark.

  17. تذكِّرني الأشواق فيكم غزالةً

    تفرّ حياً منها إلى البيدِ غزلان

    Longing for you recalls to me a gazelle,

    from whom gazelles flee, abashed, into the wilderness.

  18. فتاة رأى اللاَّحي عليها مدامعِي

    فقال رياضٌ قلت إنَّ وغدران

    A maiden: my rebuker saw my tears for her,

    and said, 'Gardens!' I answered, 'Yes—and pools.'

  19. فبعتُ لها روحِي أتمّ تبايعٍ

    فيا حبَّذا لم ذا تفرّق أبدان

    So I sold her my soul in the fullest of bargains—

    how lovely! Why, then, this parting of bodies?

  20. ولم أنس مسرى شمسها وهي طلعة

    يحفُّ بها شهب الوغى وهو خرصان

    Nor have I forgotten her sun's night journey, a radiant face,

    ringed by meteors of battle—spears.

  21. إذا هبَّ تلقاء الهوادِج سحرةً

    هواءٌ حثا في وجهه الترب غبران

    When there blew toward the howdahs before dawn

    a breeze, a dust-covered one threw earth in its face,

  22. يذبّ كما ذبّ ابن يحيى عن العلى

    فلا الأنس دان من حماها ولا الجان

    warding it off as Ibn Yahya defends high honor,

    so neither human nor jinn approached its sanctuary.

  23. أعمّ الورى جوداً وأبرع منطقاً

    فقل في سحاب الجود تزجيه سحبان

    Most universal in bounty to mankind, most brilliant in speech—

    think of a cloud of generosity driven by Sahban.

  24. ففي صدره الدهناء حلماً إذا اجْتنى

    وكفاهُ سيحانٌ علينا وجيجان

    His breast holds al-Dahna in forbearance when an offense is committed,

    and his two palms are Sayhan and Jijan flowing over us.

  25. يجود وقد أرسَى الوقار بعطفهِ

    كما دفع السيل العرمرم ثهلان

    He gives, though dignity has anchored at his side,

    as Thahlan sends forth a mighty torrent.

  26. ويقضِي على أموالِه فيمينه

    على منبع السلسال أوْطف هتَّان

    He makes an end of his riches; his right hand

    above the spring of limpid water is a low-hanging, pouring cloud.

  27. إذا جاءَ بالوجناء كالبيت حاتم

    فمن جود مولانا قلاعٌ وبلدان

    If Hatim brought a stout she-camel as large as a house,

    our lord's bounty gives fortresses and towns.

  28. ومن جودِ مولانا علاً ومناصبٌ

    وعلمٌ لنظَّام الثناء وتبيان

    And from our lord's bounty come eminence and offices,

    and knowledge and clear exposition for the composer of praise.

  29. ولا عيبَ في نعمائهِ غير أنَّها

    لأعناق أحرار البريّة أثمان

    His favors have no fault, except that they

    are the purchase-price of free men's necks.

  30. ولا عيبَ أيضاً في بديعِ كلامهِ

    سوى أنَّه بالحسِ للناسِ فتَّان

    Nor is there any fault in his wondrous speech,

    save that it enchants people through their senses.

  31. خطاب كذوْب الشهد في فمِ ذائقٍ

    ولكنه في مهجة الضدّ خطبانُ

    Speech like melted honey in a taster's mouth,

    yet in an enemy's heart it is bitter colocynth.

  32. رقيق فما الصهبا لديه ذكية

    وجزل فما الرمح المدرَّب ملسان

    So delicate that beside it red wine has no fragrance,

    and so robust that a battle-tested spear seems rough beside it.

  33. مضى وبدا عبد الرَّحيم وأحمد

    فلله آثارٌ كرُمنَ وأعيان

    He went on, and Abd al-Rahim and Ahmad appeared—

    God be praised for noble legacies and eminent men!

  34. ولله من لفظِ ابن يحيى وفضله

    علينا مدَى الأيَّام روحٌ وريحان

    God be praised: from Ibn Yahya's speech and bounty

    come repose and sweet basil to us throughout the days.

  35. وزيرٌ له الحسنى صفاتٌ وكاتبٌ

    عليهِ لأوضاع السيادة عنوان

    A vizier whose attributes are all goodness, and a scribe

    who bears the hallmark of the forms of lordship.

  36. محيط الندَى بالعالمين كأنَّما

    لهُ الأرض دارٌ والبرية ضيفان

    His bounty encompasses all worlds, as though

    the earth were his house and all creation his guests.

  37. وكافل أمر الملك حتَّى كأنما

    هو الروح والملك المحرّك جثمان

    And guardian of the realm's affairs, until it seems

    he is the soul, and the realm the body it animates.

  38. وبالغها في مرتقى المجد رتبةً

    تلظّى ولم يظفر بها قبل كيوان

    And attaining for it, upon glory's ascent, a rank

    that blazes—a rank Saturn never reached before.

  39. له قلمٌ يجدي ويردي به العِدى

    فلله طعَّام اليراعة طعَّانُ

    He has a pen that benefits and lays his foes low—

    how wondrous, by God: a feeder and fighter with the reed!

  40. تعلّم سطو الأسد في كرمِ الحيا

    زمان سقته السحب والدار حفان

    It learned the lion's onslaught amid the rain's bounty,

    when clouds watered it and its dwelling was Haffan.

  41. إذا قالَ صاغ الدّر لفظاً وأنعما

    كما شهدت أجياد قوم وأذهان

    When he speaks, he fashions pearls in words and favors,

    as people's necks and minds bear witness.

  42. فأسطره نحو الدَّراري سلالمٌ

    وإلاَّ فنحو الدّر في البحر أشطان

    His written lines are ladders toward the brilliant stars,

    or else ropes reaching toward the pearls within the sea.

  43. ويا رُبّ جيش نقعه ونضالهُ

    دخان تراعيه الوحوش ونيران

    And oh, how many an army whose dust and archery

    were smoke and fires watched by wild beasts!

  44. تظلّ به العقبان آلفة القنا

    كأنهما وُرْقُ الحمائم والبان

    Eagles dwell there, familiar with the lances,

    as though the two were gray doves and ben-trees.

  45. كأنَّ الثرى خدّ من الدمّ مشرق

    إذا ما التقى الصفان والخيل خيلان

    The earth is like a cheek, radiant with blood,

    when the two ranks meet and the horses are beauty-spots.

  46. تلقفت ذاك النضو جمع سلاحه

    كما في اليدِ البيضاء للقف ثعبان

    That lean one swallowed the whole of his weaponry,

    like a serpent poised to devour in the white hand.

  47. يصرّفه البحر الذي البحر كفه

    وأنمله أنهار رزقٍ وخلجان

    An ocean wields it—one whose palm is the sea,

    whose fingers are rivers of livelihood and gulfs.

  48. من القوم حلوا كل آفاق دولة

    فهم في سماء العزّ والرأي شهبان

    Of a people settled throughout the realm's horizons:

    they are meteors in the sky of might and judgment.

  49. ألم ترهم كالشهب لما علوا حموا

    ولما حموا أضاؤوا ولما أضوا رانوا

    Have you not seen them, like meteors: when they rose, they blazed;

    when they blazed, they shone; when they shone, they prevailed.

  50. لعدلهمُ صلح الضراغم والظبا

    وبين الندى والوفر عبسٌ وذبيان

    Their justice made peace between lions and gazelles,

    while generosity and wealth are Abs and Dhubyan to one another.

  51. يرجّح ما بين الكواكب فضلهم

    ومن أجل هذا للكواكب ميزان

    Their excellence outweighs all that lies among the stars,

    and that is why the stars possess a Balance.

  52. جمعتم بين الفاروق ما افترق العلى

    ونظمتمو أحوالها وهي شدّان

    You have united al-Faruq with what was scattered of glory,

    and ordered its affairs when they were dispersed.

  53. لعمري لقد طبتم وطابت محاتدٌ

    وطابت لكم يا زبدة الفضل ألبان

    By my life, you are pure, and pure are your ancestral roots,

    and pure, O cream of excellence, was the milk you received.

  54. وحسبك يا فرع السيادة والعلى

    فنونٌ أضاءت في الفخار وأفنان

    Enough for you, O branch of lordship and high honor,

    are arts and boughs that shine in glory.

  55. تجمَّع في أوصافك اللطف والسطا

    كأنَّك في أثنا ثنا حرّ نيسان

    Gentleness and force unite among your qualities,

    as though, amid the folds of praise, you were April's warmth.

  56. وسرّ فقد أحيت محياك آخذاً

    كتاب العلى بل سرّ جدك عدنان

    Rejoice, for your face has been revived as you take

    the book of glory—rather, your forefather Adnan rejoices.

  57. رأتك نظير العين في الناس دولة

    على رأسِها من صوغ لفظك تيجان

    A dynasty saw you as the eye's counterpart among mankind,

    upon its head crowns fashioned from your words.

  58. لقد شاءَ ربُّ الناس تفضيل قدرهم

    كأنَّك فيهم يا أخا العين إنسان

    The Lord of mankind has willed their rank to be distinguished:

    as though among them, O brother of the eye, you were its pupil.

  59. وإنَّك يا عين الملوك شهابهم

    إذا زاغَ في أفقِ المهالك شيطان

    And you, O eye of kings, are their meteor

    when a devil strays across the horizon of destruction.

  60. وإنَّك للبحرِ الذي كله وفاً

    وكلّ حصى شطَّيه في النَّقد عقيان

    And you are surely the sea, all of it fidelity,

    and every pebble on its two shores proves pure gold when assayed.

  61. بدأت بخير طالَ دون تمامه

    لحظّي وللأيَّام عدوٌ وعدوان

    You began a kindness whose fulfillment was long delayed:

    my fortune took flight, and the days turned hostile.

  62. ودافعني الديوان عن متوفرٍ

    ولي فيكَ يا أوفى الخليقة ديوان

    The bureau has put me off concerning an ample sum,

    yet I have a divan on you, O most faithful of creation.

  63. فقمْ في ذرى العليا قيام عنايةً

    سيمضي بها أزمان ذكرٍ وأزمان

    So stand upon the peaks of high honor in devoted care,

    through which ages and ages of remembrance shall pass.

  64. ودونكَ مني كل مشرقة الثنا

    لها الأفق مغنى والأهلة جيران

    And take from me every radiant poem of praise,

    whose dwelling is the horizon, whose neighbors are crescents.

  65. منظمة من كلِّ بيت بودّكم

    ففي كلِّ بيت للموالاة سلمان

    Composed of verses devoted to loving you,

    in every verse, loyalty has its Salman.

  66. ولا عيبَ فيها غير راحة نظمها

    وحاسدها ذاك المنكل تعبان

    It has no fault except the ease of its composition,

    while its envier, that punished wretch, is weary.

  67. يحاول نظماً مع مثاقيل نظمه

    كأنَّ يراعاً في الأناملِ قبَّان

    He attempts verse beneath the heavy weights of his verse,

    as though a reed pen in his fingers were a steelyard.