رمى حشاي ويا شوقي إلى الرامي — Abn Nbath

رمى حشايَ ويا شوقي إلى الرامي

لحظٌ برامة من ألحاظ آرام

My heart was struck—oh, my longing for the archer!—

by a glance at Rama, from the glances of gazelles.

رهنت في الحبّ نومي عند ناظره

لما اقترضت لجسمي منه أسقامي

In love I pledged my sleep with his eye

when I borrowed from him my body's ailments.

أفدي الذي كنت عنه كاتماً شجني

حتَّى وشى نبت خدّيه بنمام

I would ransom the one from whom I concealed my sorrow,

until the growth upon his cheeks betrayed it through a talebearer.

ممنّع الوصل كم حالمت من شغفٍ

عدايَ فيه وكم عاديت أحلامي

He withholds union: how often, through passion, I bore with

my enemies for his sake, and opposed my own reason!

ظلمت خدّيه بالألحاظ أجرحها

وحسن خدّيه ظلاّم لظلاّم

I wronged his cheeks with glances, wounding them,

yet his cheeks' beauty grievously wrongs those who wrong it.

وما لبست به من أدمعي خلعاً

إلا ووشيُ دمي فيها كأعلام

Never did I wear for him robes woven of my tears

without my blood's embroidery appearing in them like banners.

يا ليت شعري وقلبي فيه ممتحنٌ

ما ذا على عذّلي فيه ولوّامي

Would that I knew—my heart sorely tried by him—

what concern my rebukers and reproachers have with my love for him.

لا تخش من عاذلٍ قد جا يحاورني

يا سالبي في الهوى حلمي وأحلامي

Do not fear a rebuker who has come to argue with me,

O you who rob me, in love, of my composure and my dreams.

وحقّ عينيك ما لي في محبتها

سمعٌ لعين ولا ذالٍ ولا لام

By your two eyes, in loving them I have

no ear for an ʿayn, a dhāl, or a lām.

ولا لفكريَ من شمسٍ ومن قمر

سوى جبيني في صبحي وإظلامي

Nor has my thought any sun or moon

save my brow, in my morning and my darkness.

سقياً لمعهد أنسٍ كانَ يسند لي

بوجهه الطلق عن بشر ابن بسّام

May rain bless a haunt of fellowship that once transmitted to me,

through its radiant face, on the authority of Bishr ibn Bassam.

حيث النسيم يجر الذّيل من طربٍ

والزهر يرقص من عجبٍ بأكمام

There the breeze trails its hem in delight,

and blossoms dance with pride in their calyx-sleeves.

والنهر طرسٌ تخطّ الريح أسطره

والقطر يتبع ما خطّت بإعجام

The river is a manuscript whose lines the wind traces,

and raindrops follow what it wrote, adding dots.

والكأس في يد ساقيها مصوَّرة

تضيء من حول كسرى ضوء بهرام

The cup in its cupbearer's hand is painted;

around Kisra it shines with Bahram's light.

قد أسرجت وعدت للهمّ ملجمة

فهي الكميت بإسراجٍ وإلجام

It has been lit, and reckoned a bridle for sorrow;

thus it is a bay steed, saddled and bridled.

أنشى بها العيش ينمو من محاسنه

ما ليس يحصره الناشي ولا النامي

Through it I compose life; from its beauties grows

what neither al-Nashi nor al-Nami can encompass.

وأجتلي كأسها والشمس ما جُليت

ولا ترشف منها الشرق في جام

I behold its cup before the sun has been unveiled,

or the East has sipped from it in a goblet.

شهور وصلٍ كساعاتٍ قد انقرضت

بمن أحبّ وأعوامٌ كأيام

Months of union have passed like hours

with the one I love, and years like days.

ولّت كأنيَ منها كنت في سنةٍ

ثمّ انبرت ليَ أيامٌ كأعوام

They passed as though I had spent them in a doze;

then days like years confronted me.

مقلقلاً بيد الأيام مضطرباً

كأنما استقسمت مني بأزلام

Unsettled in the hands of days, shaken,

as though they cast my lot with divining arrows.

قد حرَّمت حالتي طيب الحياة بها

كأن طيبَ حياتي طيبُ إحرام

My plight has forbidden me life's sweetness through it,

as though my life's sweetness were perfume during pilgrim consecration.

هي المقادير لا تنفكّ مقدمة

وللحجى خطراتٌ ذات إحجام

Such are fate's decrees: they never cease advancing,

while reason's impulses are marked by hesitation.

أما ولي حالةٌ عن مرةٍ نقلت

لأنقلنّ بها عن عزم همّام

Indeed, I have a plight transmitted from Murra;

through it I shall surely transmit a stouthearted man's resolve.

ورُبّ شائمة عزمي ومرتحلي

إلى حمى مصر أشكو جفوة الشام

Many a woman watching my resolve and my departure

for Egypt's sanctuary, as I lamented Syria's harshness,

قالت وراءَك أطفالٌ فقلت لها

نعم ونعمى ابن فضل الله قدَّامي

said, 'Children are behind you!' I said to her,

'Yes, and Ibn Fadl Allah's bounty is before me.'

لولا عليّ ابن فضل الله ما استبقت

سفائن العيس في لجِّ الفلا الطامي

But for Ali ibn Fadl Allah, there would have been no racing

of pale-camel ships through the desert's surging deep

لعاقد خنصر المدَّاح يوم ثنا

وموضح الجود فيهم بعد إبهام

for him who bends the praiser's little finger on a day of praise

and reveals generosity among them after obscurity.

ربّ السيادة في إرثٍ ومكتسبٍ

فيا لها ذات أنواعٍ وأقسام

Master of leadership, both inherited and acquired—

how manifold are its kinds and divisions!

سدْ يا عليّ بن يحيى كيف شئت فما

في فرعك المجتنى والأصل من ذام

Be lord, Ali ibn Yahya, however you wish: there is

none to fault your harvested branch or its root.

وارفع إلى عمرٍ إسناد بيتك في

فضلٍ وفصلٍ وتقديمٍ وإقدام

Trace your house's chain of descent up to Umar in

excellence, judgment, precedence, and boldness.

بيت تسامى إلى الفاروق منصبه

فكاتبته العلى بالمنصب السامي

A house whose rank ascended to al-Faruq,

and the heights addressed it with a lofty title.

منظم طاب حتَّى تمّ مفخره

فكم إلى طيّب يعزى وتمّام

An ordered line, goodly until its glory was complete—

how often attributed to Tayyib and Tammam!

إسمٌ حروف المعالي فيه واضحة

وكلّ عالٍ سواكم حرف إدغام

A name in which the letters of high deeds are clear,

while every exalted one besides you is an assimilated letter.

لو طاولتكم نجوم الأفق ما بلغت

قوادم النسر منكم ترب أقدام

Were the horizon's stars to rival your height, never would

the Eagle's flight-feathers reach the dust beneath your feet.

بأول الحال منكم أو بآخره

يراكم الله تأييداً لإسلام

At the beginning of your course or its end,

God sees you as a bulwark for Islam.

إما بأرماح أقلامٍ لكم عرفت

لياقة الحدّ أو إرماح أقلام

Whether by your pen-spears, whose

fitness of edge is known, or by the spear-thrusts of pens,

تحمون سرى الهدى بدأً ومختتماً

وتنهضون بإنعام وإرغام

you guard guidance's night-march, from its outset to its end,

and rise to act through bounty and compulsion.

منكم عليٌّ نماه للعلى عمرٌ

فحبذا ثمرات المغرس النامي

Among you is Ali, whom Umar raised to the heights;

how excellent are the fruits of that growing plantation!

ندبٌ سما وحمت ملكاً براعته

فداً له الناس من سامٍ ومن حام

A gallant man risen high, whose skill has guarded a kingdom;

may all people of Shem and Ham be his ransom!

محسّن الخلق والأخلاق تألفه

عقائل الفضل عن وجدٍ وتهيام

Beautiful in form and character, he is cherished by

the noble ladies of excellence, in passion and rapture.

من أجل ما عقد المدّاح خنصرهم

عليه ميز من جلي نجا تام

Among the greatest on whom praisers fold their little fingers,

he is distinguished from Jali, Naja, and Tam.

لا عيب فيه سوى علياء حالته

عن صف ما شئت من عيٍّ وإفحام

He has no flaw save his station's loftiness

above any rank you choose of inarticulacy and silencing.

تدري سرائر نجوانا عوارفه

إما بصائب فكرٍ أو بإلهام

His favors know the secrets of our private talk,

whether through sound thought or inspiration.

لو أن للبحر جزأً من مكارمه

ألقى على الطرق درًّا موجه الطّامي

If the sea had a share of his noble generosity,

its surging waves would cast pearls onto the roads.

جارى حياه بحار الأرض يوم ندى

ويوم علم فروّى غلة الظامي

His rain rivaled the earth's seas on a day of bounty

and a day of knowledge, quenching the thirsty one's burning thirst.

فالبحر يزبد من غيظٍ يخامره

والبرق يضحك من عجز الحيا الهامي

So the sea foams with the anger possessing it,

and lightning laughs at the impotence of the pouring rain.

والعدل يغمض جفن السيف في دعةٍ

من بعد ما كانَ جفناً دمعه دامي

Justice closes the sword's eyelid in ease,

after it had been an eyelid whose tears were bloody.

أما الملوك فقد أغنى ممالكها

تصميم منطقه عن حد صمصام

As for kings, their kingdoms have been spared

by his speech's firmness the need for a keen sword's edge.

ذو اللفظ علّمت المصغي فصاحته

قولَ المدائح فيه ذات إحكام

A master of words, whose eloquence has taught the listener

to utter firmly wrought praises of him.

فلو مزجتَ أباريق المدام به

ما رجّعت صوت فأفاءٍ وتمتام

Were you to blend the wine in pitchers with it,

they would not echo a stammerer's or stutterer's voice.

يا فاضلاً لو رنت عين العماد له

لبات يخفق رعباً برقه الشامي

O excellent man, if Imad's eye should gaze at you,

his Syrian lightning would tremble all night with fear.

غطّى ثناك على عبد الرحيم فما

ترنو لأنجمهِ أبصار أفهام

Your praise has overshadowed Abd al-Rahim, so that

the eyes of understanding do not gaze at his stars.

وقد طوى نظمك الطائيّ منهزماً

لما برزت بأطراسٍ كأعلام

Your verse has swept al-Ta'i away in defeat

when you appeared with manuscripts like banners.

ليخبر الملك في يمناك عن قلمٍ

صان الأقاليم عن تخبير مستام

Let sovereignty in your right hand tell of a pen

that protected the provinces from a bidder's probing.

أشدّ من ألف في الكفّ يكرع من

نون وأمنع يوم الرّوع من لام

Stronger than an alif in the hand, it drinks deeply from

a nūn, and guards better in terror than a lām.

تغاير الوصف في يوم العطاء به

والناس ما بين مطعانٍ ومطعام

Descriptions of it differ on the day of giving,

while people range between fierce spear-thrusters and lavish feeders.

وراثة لك يا ابن السابقين علاً

في بثِّ مكرمةٍ أو حسم آلام

An inheritance for you, son of those foremost in eminence,

in spreading noble gifts or cutting short afflictions.

كأنَّ أهل العلى جسمٌ ذووك له

هامٌ وأنت يمين العين في الهام

As though the people of eminence were a body, your kinsmen its

heads, and you the right eye in those heads.

إن كنت في الوقت قد أوفيت آخرهم

فإنك العيد وافى آخر العام

If in time you have completed their line as its last,

you are the feast that arrives at the year's end.

شكراً لأوقات عدلٍ قد أنمت بها

عين الرّعايا فهم في طيب أحلام

Thanks for times of justice in which you put to sleep

the subjects' eyes, so they dwell in pleasant dreams;

وأنجمٍ خدمت علياك فهي إذاً

نعم الجواري التي تدعى بخدَّام

and for stars that served your exalted station: thus they are

excellent maidservants, those called attendants!

أبحت يا صاحب السرّ النوال وقد

منعت ما خيف من ظلمٍ وإظلام

You made bounty freely available, O keeper of the secret, and

prevented what was feared of injustice and darkness.

وأنجدتنا على الأمداح منك لُهًى

إلى الورَى ذات إنجادٍ وإتهام

Gifts from you have aided us in our praises,

gifts to mankind that range through highland and lowland.

خذها منظمة الأسلاك معجزة

بالجوهر الفرد فيها كلّ نظّام

Take it, its strands arranged, confounding

with its unique jewel every stringer of verse.

مصرية بين بيوت الفضل ما عرفت

فيها نسبة جزّار وحمَّام

Egyptian, among the houses of excellence, it bears no known

kinship to Jazzar or Hammam.

أنت الذي أنقذتني من يدي عدمي

آلاؤه ومحت بالبرِّ إعدامي

You are he—from the hands of my poverty I was rescued

by his favors, which erased my destitution with kindness.

فعش مع الدهر لا إبرام في سبب

لما نقضت ولا نقضٌ لإبرام

So live alongside time: may no cord be knotted

that you have undone, nor any knot of yours undone.

ودم لحمدٍ وآلاءٍ ملأت بها

جهاتيَ الستّ من جاهٍ وإنعام

And endure for praise and favors with which you have filled

my six directions with standing and bounty:

فواضل عن يميني والشمال ومن

فوقي وتحتي ومن خلفي وقدّامي

gracious gifts on my right and left, and from

above me and beneath me, from behind me and before me.