تبسم عن حلو الرضاب شهيه — Abn Nbath

تبسّم عن حلو الرضاب شهيّه

روينا صحيح الحسن عن جوهريّه

He smiled, revealing sweet, delectable lip-nectar.

We transmitted beauty's authentic account from his jewel-like teeth.

وأقبل وضّاح السنا متبسماً

فأفصح عن قمريه قمريه

And he approached, radiant with light, smiling.

So his turtledove gave voice to his moonlike beauty.

وغنَّى وقد مالت به نشوة الصبا

نديمي ماس الغصن في سندسيّه

And he sang, swayed by the rapture of youth—

my drinking companion, a bough swaying in his fine silk.

فلم أر أحلى منه غصناً ترنمت

على ورق الديباج وُرق حليّه

I never saw a bough sweeter than he, upon which sang

the doves of his ornaments on leaves of brocade.

وبدراً له في العرب والترك نسبة

دعتني إلى داني الهوى وقصيّه

Or a full moon whose lineage joins Arabs and Turks,

drawing me toward love's near and distant reaches.

يهزّ عليّ الرمح من علويةٍ

قواماً ويرمي السهم من فحقيه

He brandishes a spear against me from the loftiness

of his stature, and shoots the arrow from his [fahqiyyih: unclear].

ويسكر عقلي خدّه بمدامةٍ

سقاها لغيثي من إنا عسجديه

His cheek intoxicates my mind with wine,

which he poured from his golden vessel to bring me relief.

فيا لك من دينار خدٍّ قد انتمى

يحاكيه من حسنى إلى يوسفيه

What a dinar of a cheek, claiming descent

through its lovely likeness as far as Joseph's beauty!

تطلبت بالإخلاص في الحب عدنه

وتبَّت يد العذَّال في لهبيّه

With devotion in love I sought his Eden;

and the reprovers' hand perished in his blaze.

وإني لتصفو لي المدامة باسمه

ولائم سمعي فيه مثل صفيّه

Indeed, wine grows clear for me at his name,

and to my ears, his reprover sounds like his intimate friend.

وصبرني الواشي فيا لمصبر

قتيل بمسنون اللحاظ مشيه

The slanderer urged me to patience—alas for the one consoled,

a victim slain by sharpened glances and his gait.

وكيف يلذّ الصبر عن ثغر باسمٍ

جرى الريق بالذكرى على سكريّه

How can patience away from a smiling mouth be sweet,

when memory sets saliva flowing over its sugary sweetness?

نأى ولمن لم يألف العشق غادر

فما عذر عذريّ الغرام وفيّه

He went away; to one unversed in love, he is faithless—

what excuse has love's faithful, chaste 'Udhri lover?

وإن فاتني ماء الحياة بثغره

فكم نصبٍ لاقيت من دون ريه

Even if the water of life in his mouth escaped me,

how much hardship I met before its thirst-quenching draught!

ورُبّ مدام بيننا قد أدارها

بنان مداميّ اللماء عليّه

Many a wine between us was passed round

by the fingers of a lofty beauty with wine-dark lips.

غزاني بخديه بياض وحمرة

فويلاه من قيسيه يمنيّه

Whiteness and redness invaded me through his cheeks—

alas for those Qaysi and Yamani hues!

وآهاً على سرّ الصبا بظلامه

فلا كانَ شيب فاضح بنقيه

Ah, for youth's secret beneath its darkness!

May no gray hair betray it with its whiteness!

ولا قيدت عن مصر قافية الحيا

ولا عطّلت أبياتها من رويه

May rain's rhyme never be held back from Egypt,

nor its verses deprived of their rhyme-letter.

هويت من الآثار آثار عمرها

ومن بيت فضل الله عليّه

Among its relics I loved the traces of its 'Umar,

and, from the house of Fadl Allah, its 'Ali:

وزير ملوك شدَّ بالرأي إزرهمُ

وحاتم دهر كفَّ بأس عديه

a minister of kings, whose counsel strengthened them,

and a Hatim of the age, who checked his enemies' might;

وصاحب تدبيرين عن فاضليّه

تحدَّثت العليا وعن أفضليه

master of two counsels: of his excellence

high honor has spoken, and of his greater excellence;

بكف روت أقلامه عن تميرها

وزند روت آراؤه عن وريه

with a palm whose pens recounted its bounty,

and a fire-stick whose ideas recounted its sparks.

وذو النسب المرفوع عن محبوبه

إلى عمريّ المنتمى عدويه

He possesses a lofty lineage, traced through its beloved

to its 'Umari, 'Adawi ancestry;

وذو القلم الخطيّ إما بدرجه

وإما بما يختال من سمهريه

and a Khatti writing-pen, whether upon his scrolls

or in the proud sway of his slender spear.

يراع بتأثير الحروف حمى الحمى

فكان ابتداء النصر من إلفيّه

A reed whose letters' power guarded the sanctuary,

so victory began with its familiar bond.

سطا في الوغى حدًّا وأينع في الندَى

فلله جاني فرعه وجنيه

It struck like a blade in battle and ripened in generosity—

God be praised for its branch's gatherer and its fruit!

وصاغ بديعاً حفَّه بمكارمٍ

فلم تخل في الحالين من ذهبيّه

It fashioned a marvel, surrounding it with noble deeds,

so in neither state was it without its gold;

براحة من أولى الورَى كل راحة

بما سار من سرّ العطا وجليه

in the palm of one who gave mankind every comfort,

through gifts that spread, secret and manifest;

ويمنى لها في الحظ والجود والتقى

ملأت صفات لم تحد عن وليه

and a right hand that, in fortune, bounty, and piety,

was filled with virtues never departing from its saintly guide.

إذا استخدمت مداحها استخدموا لها

بديع الثنا من محضه عربيّه

When it employs its panegyrists, they employ for it

wondrous praise in the purest Arabic.

ترقى ابن فضل الله في الفضل غاية

قضت ذلَّ شانيه وعزّ صفيه

Ibn Fadl Allah rose in excellence to a height

that decreed disgrace for his hater and honor for his friend.

فيا فوز قوم آمنوا تحت رقه

ويا ويح من لا آمنوا برقيه

How fortunate the people secure beneath his rule!

And woe to those who disbelieved in his rise!

هو البحر في تيَّاره وحيائه

أو السيل في إروائه وأتيه

He is the sea in his surging force and modesty,

or the flood in its refreshment and onrush.

إذا قيل من أسمى جلالاً ونسبة

حلفنا لوصفيه على عمريه

If asked who is highest in majesty and lineage,

we swear to his two qualities by his 'Umari descent.

إذا سار سار النصر تلو يراعه

وإن حلّ حلّ الفضل صدر دنيه

When he advances, victory follows his pen;

and when he settles, excellence takes first place among his intimates.

إذا حفّ في نادي السعود بقومه

فما البدر في بيت السما بكفيّه

When his people surround him in the hall of happy stars,

the full moon in heaven's house is no equal to him.

علوتم به يا آل يحيى بشامخ

إلى أن نظرتم للسها من عليّه

Through him you rose, O house of Yahya, to such heights

that you looked down on Suha from their summit.

فإن شئتمُ ورد الغمام بأفقكم

أطلتم خيال المستقي لركيّه

If you wish to draw from the clouds at your horizon,

you stretch the water-drawer's shadow toward his well.

أخا العلم والعلياءِ علّمت منطقي

غرائب من ساري الكلام سريه

Brother of learning and high honor, you taught my speech

rare wonders from the noblest strains of traveling words,

بإنشائك المهدي إلى العقل نشوة

وإن كانَ من طهر المقال زكيّه

through your prose, gifting the mind intoxication,

although in purity of speech it is unsullied;

وشعر بكرنا قبله متنبئاً

وكدنا نقول الآن شعر نبيّه

and verse—before it we had already acclaimed a Mutanabbi,

but now we almost call it a prophet's poetry,

بمعجز نظم الدرّ غير منقَّب

وإخراج ما أعيى الورَى من جنيّه

through the miracle of stringing pearls without piercing them,

and bringing forth its harvest that baffled mankind.

نشرت قريضي بعد ما قد طويته

وأغديته بعد امتناع طويّه

You unfolded my verse after I had folded it away,

and fed it after its hungry belly had been denied.

وقد كانَ عافي البيت أنشد رسمه

هو الربع جارته دموع وليّه

The house's visitor had already recited of its traces:

"It is the dwelling, companioned by its lover's tears."

إلى أن أعاد العطف لي منك عاتياً

بشعريَ طلاَّعاً على معنويّه

Until your kindness restored me, bold once more,

scaling the heights of meaning in my verse.

يفوح على رغم العدى عنبريه

ويخبر آرائ الرضا عن بريّه

Its ambergris scent wafts despite the foes,

and tells approving judgments of its craftsmanship.

أتى لك ما محض العلى وسميها

فخذ من حداقيّ الثنا عيشميه

To you has come pure water, high honor's first rain;

so take from the gardens of praise its [ayshamiyyih: unclear].

وعش يا ابن يحيى ذا حياة سعيدة

وعيشٍ هنيّ المستطاب مريه

Live, O Ibn Yahya, with a happy life

and an agreeable life, pleasant and wholesome.

تقابلك الأعوام ذا في قدومه

بسعد وذا بالحمد عنه مضيّه

May the years meet you—this one in its coming

with happiness, that one with praise as it leaves you.

كأن هلال العام زورق قادم

عليك بمملوك الثناء مليّه

As though the year's crescent were a boat arriving

to you, laden with praise's devoted bondsman.

فهنئته ألفاً وألفاً ومثلها

إلى أن يتيه العقل في عدديّه

So I congratulated him a thousand times, a thousand, and as many again,

until the mind loses its way among their numbers.

لكل امرئٍ والاك حظُّ سعيده

وكلُّ امرئٍ عاداك حظُّ شقيه

Each man who befriends you has his happy share,

and each man who opposes you his unhappy share.