إذا ظفرت يوما بقربكم المنا — Abn Nbath

إذا ظفرت يوماً بقربكُم المنا

فلست أبالي من تباعد أو دنا

If one day my wishes attain nearness to you,

Then I care not who draws away or comes near.

ولعت بعشقي فيكُم فتأكدت

معانيه فاستولى فأصبح ديدنا

I grew enamored of my love for you; firmly established

Were its meanings; it mastered me and became my constant habit.

ولما جنى طرفي رياض جمالكم

جعلتم سهادي في عقوبة من جنى

And when my gaze reaped the gardens of your beauty,

You made my sleeplessness the punishment of an offender.

أجيراننا إن عفتم السفح منزلا

وأخليتموا من جانب الجزع موطنا

O our neighbors, if you have shunned the mountain slope as a dwelling,

And vacated an abode beside the valley's bend,

فقد حزتم دمعي عقيقاً ومهجتي

غضاً وسكنتم من ضلوعيَ منحنى

Then you have claimed my tears as an ʿAqīq valley, and my heart

As ghada-wood, and dwelt within the curve of my ribs.

وأرسلتُم طيف الخيال لمقلةٍ

إذا ما أتاها استصحب السهد ضيفنا

And you sent the phantom of your image to an eye;

Whenever our guest came to it, he brought sleeplessness along.

وكم فيكُم يوم الوداع لشقوتي

هلالٌ سما غصنٌ زها رشأٌ رنا

And how many were among you on farewell's day, to my misery:

A rising crescent, a flourishing bough, a gazing young gazelle!

إذا شمت تحت الحاجبين جفونه

أرى السحر منها قاب قوسين أو دنا

When I glimpse his eyelids beneath the two eyebrows,

I see their magic two bow-lengths away—or nearer.

أما والذي لو شاء قصَّر بينكم

فلم يتعب الطيف المردَّد بيننا

Ah, by Him who, had He willed, would have shortened your separation,

So the phantom passing back and forth between us would not have wearied,

لقد خلقت للعشق فيكم جوانحي

كما خلق الملك المؤيد للثنا

My ribs were indeed created for loving you,

As King al-Mu'ayyad was created to be praised.

مليكٌ له في العلم والجود همةٌ

ترى المال في الإقتار والعيش في العنا

A king whose zeal for learning and generosity

Sees wealth in privation and life in hardship.

بنى رتباً قد أعرب المدح ذكرها

فيا عجباً من معرَبٍ كيف يبتنى

He built ranks whose mention praise has made clear;

How wondrous that something 'declinable' should be 'built'!

وأولى الندى حتى اقتنى الحمد مخلصاً

فأكرم بما أولى وأعظم بما اقتنى

And he bestowed bounty until he earned unalloyed praise;

How noble what he bestowed, how great what he acquired!

وجلى ثغور الأرض من قلح العدى

ولم لا وقد جرَّ الأراك من القنا

And he polished the land's mouths—its frontiers—free of the foes' yellow stain;

And why not, when he drew arak tooth-sticks from lances?

يكاد يعد النبل في حومة الوغى

أقاحاً وأطراف الأسنة سوسنا

He all but takes the arrows in the thick of battle

For daisies, and the spearhead-tips for irises.

أخو فعلاتٍ تصرف الروع بائناً

إلى كلماتٍ تنفث السحر بيننا

A man of deeds that send fear fleeing,

Along with words that breathe magic among us.

لئن أجريت ذكرى المعادن إنني

أرى أرضه للعلم والجود معدنا

If mention of mines is brought up, I indeed

See his land as a mine of learning and generosity.

خليليَّ هذا من حماةٍ محله

فعوجا على الأرض التي تنبت الهنا

My two friends, this man's abode is in Hama;

So turn aside to the land that brings forth happiness.

فلا جلّقٌ بالسهم تمنع قاصداً

ولا حلب الشهباء تلبس جوشنا

So Jilliq does not bar a seeker with an arrow,

Nor does gray Aleppo don a coat of mail.

غنيت بجدواه فأطربني السرى

ولا عجبٌ أن يطرب المرء بالغنا

I grew rich through his bounty, and night travel enraptured me;

Nor is it strange that a man delights in wealth—or song.

ولا عيب فيه غير أني قصدته

فأنستنيَ الأيام أهلاً وموطنا

And he has no fault, except that I sought him,

And so the days made me forget my family and homeland.

تعلمت أنواع الكلام برفده

فأصبحت أعلا الناس شعراً وأحسنا

I learned the forms of speech through his bounty,

So I became foremost among men in poetry, and the finest.

إذا قيل من ربّ المكارم في الورى

أقلْ هو أو ربّ القريض أقلْ أنا

When it is asked, 'Who is lord of noble deeds among mankind?'

I say, 'He'; or, if asked for the lord of verse, I say, 'I.'