فهمت على البارق الممطر — Abn Qlaks

فهمتُ على البارقِ المُمْطرِ

حديثاً ببالك لم يخطُرِ

I understood from the rain-bearing lightning

A tale that had never crossed your mind.

تقولُ سهرتُ فأجْرِ الدموعَ

وإلا فإنك لم تسهرِ

You say, 'I stayed awake'; then let the tears flow,

Or else you never stayed awake.

وأنت ترى رعدَه صاهلاً

فيطمع في طرفِه الأشقَرِ

You see its thunder neighing,

And so its chestnut steed is coveted.

تبسّم إذ قال ألمِمْ بهمْ

وقطّبَ إذ قال عنهم طُرِ

It smiled when it said, 'Visit them,'

And frowned when it said, 'Fly away from them.'

رمى بالمشقَّر جُلّ الغَمامِ

وقد جلّ عن متنهِ الأشقرِ

The cloud's saddlecloth cast out the sorrel steed,

Having grown too grand for its chestnut back.

وأحسنَ بالرفعِ رفعَ الحديثِ

وإظهارَهُ للجوى المُضْمَرِ

And how well that rising raised the tale,

And revealed the anguish kept concealed.

فماذا تقولُ وعرْفُ الرياضِ

على جمرهِ فاحَ كالعَنْبرِ

So what do you say, when the gardens' fragrance

Wafts from its embers like ambergris?

تميسُ الغصونُ بأثمارِها

ولا مثل ذا الغُصُنِ المُثْمرِ

The boughs sway with their fruit,

Yet none is like this fruit-bearing bough.

فيا عبلةَ الساقِ لا أشتكي

إليكِ سوى وجْدي العنتري

So, O full-shanked Abla, I complain of nothing

To you except my Antara-like passion.

وأزهرَ مُنسبُ حبّي له

يؤكده أنّني الأزهري

The lineage of my love for him blossomed,

Confirmed by my being al-Azhari.

أعان الغزالةَ فيه الغزالُ

فمن ناظرينَ ومن منظَرِ

In him, the gazelle aided the sun,

Through two eyes and through a countenance.

وجدّد لي ثغرُهُ خبرةً

وقد طالَ عهدي بالجوهَرِ

His mouth renewed my acquaintance,

For it had been long since I knew jewels.

وحصّنتُ عنه دَراءَ السنينَ

فثارَ عليّ من الأشهرِ

I fortified the defenses of years against him,

Yet he rose against me from among the months.

وكنتُ صبوتُ زمانَ الصِبا

بحيث الغدائرُ لم تغْدُرِ

I had fallen in love in the days of youth,

When tresses had not yet betrayed me.

وكم راقَ طرفي من رائعٍ

يقول وقد غرّني غَرري

How many a ravishing one delighted my eye,

Speaking while my rashness deceived me.

فأصبح من رسمِه واسمِه

على أثرِ قطُّ لم يُؤثَرِ

Then, of his likeness and his name, all that remained

Was a trace never once preserved.

وقد كنت أجني ثمارَ الوصالِ

بغُصْنِ شبيبتي الأخضرِ

I once gathered the fruits of union

With the green bough of my youth.

فأما وقد عطِشتْ لُمّتي

وسالَ فلم يروِها مِحجَري

But now that my locks have grown thirsty,

And my eye socket streamed without slaking their thirst,

فأهلاً بناهيةٍ للنُهى

تقول وما أقصرَتْ أقصِرِ

Welcome, then, to an admonisher of reason,

Who says, though she never stops, 'Desist!'

علمتُ وقد طلعَتْ كوكباً

بما بعد من صُبحهِ المسفرِ

I knew, when it rose as a star,

Of the brightening dawn that would follow.

وقالت غدائري الغادرا

تُ أيُّ الأخلاءِ لم يَغدُرِ

And my treacherous tresses said,

'Which friend has never betrayed?'

حلفتُ بها مشعرات الذرى

ببطحاءِ مكةَ فالمَشْعرِ

I swore by them, their humps marked for sacrifice,

On Mecca's gravelly plain, then at al-Mash'ar:

لئن لزّنى الدهرُ في حلبةٍ

غريتُ بأحمرِها أحمري

If time pressed me into a racecourse

Where I pitted my red steed against its red one,

لما أطلقتني يمينُ الغلاءِ

هنالك من عقدةِ الخُنصُرِ

The right hand of high valuation would not release me

There from the knot of its little finger.

ولا كل فعلينِ قد صُرِّفا

سواءً سواءً على المصْدرِ

Nor are all pairs of conjugated verbs

Alike, alike in their source.

وقد يصحَبُ المرءُ من دونه

وخُذْ ذاك عن عينَيْ الأعورِ

A man may keep company with one beneath him;

Take that from a one-eyed man's two eyes.

وفي البرجِ يقترنُ الكوكبانِ

وما زحلٌ ثمّ كالمُشْتري

Two planets conjoin in a zodiacal sign,

But Saturn there is not like Jupiter.

إذا ذُكِر الأشرفُ المرتجى

فدعْ من سواهُ ولا تذكُرِ

When al-Ashraf, our hope, is mentioned,

Leave all others aside and do not name them.

فليس التشابهُ في منظرٍ

دليلَ التشابهِ في مخْبرِ

For resemblance in appearance

Is no proof of resemblance in inward character.

وكم من يقولُ ليَ المأثرا

تُ إن لم تؤثّر ولم تُؤثِرِ

How many say, 'Noble deeds are mine,'

Even if they leave no mark and show no selflessness.

فإن عصرتهُ يدُ الامتحانِ

أحال محالاً على العنصرِ

If the hand of testing squeezes him,

He shifts absurd claims onto his lineage.

عليك تثنّت غصونُ الثناء

فجنّتُه منك في كوثر

Over you the boughs of praise bend,

So its garden, through you, dwells in Kawthar.

وكلتا يديك هما الغايتان

على المُفتري أو على المُقْترِ

Your two hands are the two extremes—

Against the slanderer, or toward the needy.

ومهما جلستَ لفصلِ القضاءِ

شفيتَ السقيم وصنتَ البَري

Whenever you sit to pronounce judgment,

You heal the sick and protect the innocent.

وقارٌ تخفّ له الراسياتُ

وتسكنُ خافقةُ الصرصرِ

A dignity before which steadfast mountains grow light,

And the gusting of the howling wind falls still.

وفصلُ خطابٍ لوَتْ جيدَها

الى درِّه لُبّةُ المنبر

And decisive speech, for which a neck is bent

Toward its pearls by the pulpit's bosom.

ومعرفةٌ جُردَتْ لفظَها

حساماً على عُنُقِ المُنْكِرِ

And knowledge, its utterance drawn bare

As a sword upon the denier's neck.

وأمناً يرى الظبيُ في ظلّه

ومكنِسُه غابة القسورِ

And safety the gazelle finds in his shade,

Though its hiding-place is the lion's thicket.

تميسُ بذكرِك أعطافُنا

فتهتزّ عن نشوةِ المُسْكِرِ

Our shoulders sway at the mention of you,

And tremble with the rapture of intoxicating drink.

ويكثرُ باسمِك أقسامُنا

فنُخبِرُ عن سَهميَ المُيْسِرِ

Our oaths in your name multiply,

And we speak of the gambler's two arrows.

جريتَ على منهجِ الأغلبينَ

الى مضرِ مبعثِ المَفخَرِ

You ran along the path of the Aghlabids,

To Mudar, the fountainhead of pride.

وقالت يمينُك فيّ انظموا

فقلتُ وفي الناظمينَ انثري

Your right hand said, 'Compose verses about me!'

So I said, 'And scatter your bounty among the poets!'

وحققتَ في اسم تميمَ التمامِ

فمن يَرْو عنها بها يُخبرِ

You made perfection true in Tamim's name;

Whoever tells of her reports through her.

وأحجيةٌ فيك حبّرتُها

ولو لم يكنْ فيك لم تُحبَرِ

I embellished a riddle about you,

Which, had it not concerned you, would not have been embellished.

إذا الحسَنُ الندب سنّ الندى

جعلنا نحدّثُ عن جعفرِ

When gallant al-Hasan establishes generosity's custom,

We begin to tell of Ja'far.

ولي حاجةٌ في ضميرِ العُلا

وأنت أبو سرّها المُضْمَرِ

I have a need in the heart of nobility,

And you are the father of its hidden secret.

ألجْلِجُ عنها ولي عبرةٌ

يقول الحياءُ لها عبّري

I stammer about it, and a tear is mine;

Modesty says to it, 'Express it!'

وكم عبرةٍ جدَعَتْ أنفَها

يمينُ الجلالِ فلم ينكِرِ

How many a tear has had its nose cut off

By majesty's right hand, without objection.

دعوتُك فاحضَرْ فليس الجميعُ

إذا غِبْتَ لا غبتَ كالحُضَّرِ

I called you, so come; for the whole company,

Without you—may you never be absent!—is not like those present.

وقد جمع الله فيك الأنام

وليس عليه بمُسْتَنكَرِ

God has gathered all mankind in you,

And that is nothing strange for Him.

وكم هزّ بالشعرِ من نائمٍ

إذا هُزَّ بالسيفِ لم يشعُرِ

How many a sleeper has been stirred by verse,

Yet feels nothing when shaken by the sword!

ولي أن أوفّي حقّ الثناءِ

بفكرٍ أجادَ ولم يفْكُرِ

And I may pay praise its full due

With thought that excelled without pondering.

فأغراضُه عذبةُ المجتنى

وألفاظُهُ رطبةُ المكسِرِ

Its themes are sweet in the gathering,

And its words moist at the break.

يقول إذا ما أتى مُنشِداً

أتاني حبيبٌ مع البُحْتري

He says, whenever one comes reciting,

'Habib has come to me with al-Buhturi.'