يا ضارب المثل المزخرف مطريا — Abn Rumi

يا ضارب المَثَلِ المزخرفِ مُطْرياً

للحقد لم تَقْدح بزَنْدٍ وارِي

O you who frame an ornate comparison in praise

of rancor—you have struck with no fire-yielding stick.

أصبحتَ خصم الحق تهدم ما بنى

والحقُّ محتجٌّ وأنت تُمارِي

You have become truth's adversary, demolishing what it built;

truth argues its case, while you dispute.

أطريت غثَّك لا سمينك ضلَّةً

واخترت من خُلقَيْكَ غيرَ خيارِ

Misguided, you praised your lean, not your fat,

and chose the worse of your two traits.

شبَّهتَ نفسك والأُلى يولونها

آلاءهم بالأرض والعُمَّارِ

You likened yourself and those who bestow upon it

their favors to the earth and its cultivators.

ورأيتَ حفظك ما أتوا من صالحٍ

أو سيِّئٍ كرماً وعتق نِجارِ

You deemed your retaining whatever good they offered,

or evil, generosity and nobility of stock.

وزعمتَ فيك طبيعةً أرضيةً

يا سابق التقرير بالإقرارِ

You claimed an earthly nature within you,

O you whose confession forestalls the questioning!

ولقد صدقتَ وما كذبتَ فإنهُ

لا يُدفَع المعروف بالإنكارِ

You spoke truly, not falsely, for

what is known cannot be repelled by denial.

لكن هاتيك الطبيعةَ في الفتى

مما تُلِط عليه بالأستارِ

Yet that nature in a man

is something to conceal beneath veils.

ولَصمتُهُ عن ذكرها أولى به

من عدِّها في الفخر عند فخارِ

His silence about it would better suit him

than counting it among his boasts when boasting.

فينا وفيك طبيعةٌ أرضيةٌ

تهوي بنا أبداً لِشرِّ قرارِ

In us and in you there is an earthly nature

that ever drags us down to the worst abode.

هبطت بآدمَ قبلنا وبزوجهِ

من جنّة الفردوس أفضل دارِ

It brought Adam down before us, and his wife,

from the garden of Paradise, the finest home.

فتعوَّضا الدنيا الدنيّة كاسمها

من تلكمُ الجنَّاتِ والأنهارِ

They took in exchange this lowly world, true to its name,

for those gardens and rivers.

بئستْ لَعمرُ الله تلك طبيعةً

حَرمتْ أبانا قرب أكرم جارِ

By God's life, how evil a nature it is,

which denied our father nearness to the noblest neighbor!

واستأسرتْ ضعفَى بنيه بعدهُ

فهُمُ لها أسرى بغير إسارِ

It enslaved his weaker sons after him,

and they are its captives without bonds.

لكنها مأسورةٌ مقسورةٌ

مقهورة السلطان في الأحرارِ

Yet it is captive, constrained,

its dominion subdued among the free.

فجسومهم من أجلها تهوي بهم

ونفوسهم تسمو سموّ النارِ

Because of it, their bodies drag them downward,

while their souls rise as fire rises.

لولا منازعةُ الجسوم نفوسَهم

نفذوا بسَوْرتها من الأقطارِ

Were their bodies not contending with their souls,

they would pierce beyond the bounds through their souls' force;

أو قصّروا فتناولوا بأكفهم

قمرَ السماء وكلّ نجم ساري

or, falling short, would reach with their palms

the moon of heaven and every wandering star.

عَرفوا لروح الله فيهم فضلَ ما

قد أثَّرتْ من صالح الآثارِ

They gave God's spirit within them credit for

the good effects it had wrought.

فتنزَّهوا وتعظّموا وتكرموا

عن لؤم طبع الطين والأحجارِ

So they rose in purity, greatness, and nobility

above the baseness of the nature of clay and stones.

نزعوا إلى النَّجد الذي منه أتت

أرواحهم وسموا عن الأغوارِ

They yearned toward the highland from which

their spirits came, and rose above the lowlands.

هذا عبيد الله منهم واحد

لكنه هو واحد المِضمارِ

Here is ʿUbayd Allah, one of them,

yet he is the peerless one in the racecourse.

ملك له هِممٌ تُنيف على العلا

ويدٌ تطول مواقع الأقدارِ

A king whose aspirations tower above the heights,

whose hand reaches the very stations of fate.

وإذا عطا للمجدِ نال بكفه

ما لا ينال الناس بالأبصارِ

When he reaches for glory, his palm attains

what other men cannot reach with their eyes.

ولقد رأيت معاشراً جمحتْ بهم

تلك الطبيعة نحو كل تَبارِ

I have seen companies of men carried headlong

by that nature toward every ruin.

تهوي نفوسُهُم هُوِيَّ جسومهم

سِفلاً لكل دناءةٍ وصَغارِ

Their souls plunge as their bodies plunge,

downward into every baseness and abasement.

تبعوا الهوى فهوى بهم وكذا الهوى

منه الهُوِيُّ بأهله فحَذارِ

They followed desire, and it drove them down; such is desire:

it brings its followers plunging down—so beware!

لا ترضَ بالمثل الذي مثَّلْتَهُ

مثلاً ففيه مقالةٌ للزاري

Do not accept the likeness you devised

as a likeness: it gives the faultfinder grounds to speak.

وانظر بعين العقل لا عينِ الهوى

فالحق للعين الجليَّة عاري

Look with reason's eye, not passion's,

for truth stands naked to the clear-seeing eye.

الأرضُ في أفعالها مضطرةٌ

والحيُّ فيه تصرّفُ المختارِ

The earth is compelled in all its acts,

but a living being has the agency of free choice.

فمتى جريتَ على طباعك مثلَها

فكأن طِرْفك بعدُ من فخّارِ

Whenever you run according to your nature, like it,

it is as though your steed were still made of potter's clay.

أخرجت من باب المشيئة مثل ما

خرجتْ فأنت على الطبيعة جاري

You have been excluded from the realm of will just as

it was excluded; thus you proceed according to nature.

أنَّى تكون كذا وأنت مُخَيَّرٌ

مُتَصرف في النقض والإمرارِ

How can you be so, when you have free choice,

able to undo or carry through?

أين اصطراف الحيّ في أنحائه

وحَويلُهُ فيما سوى المقدارِ

Where, then, is the living being's freedom in his ways,

and his maneuvering in what lies outside destiny?

أين اختيار مخيَّرٍ حسناته

إن كنت لست تقول بالإجبارِ

Where is the free agent's choice of his good deeds,

if you do not profess compulsion?

شهد اتفاقُ الناس طرّاً في الهوى

وتفاوتُ الأبرار والفجارِ

The agreement of all people in desire testifies,

as does the disparity between the righteous and the wicked,

أن الجميع على طباعٍ واحد

وبما يرونَ تفاضلُ الأطوارِ

that all are of a single nature,

and differing worth in conduct comes from their judgments.

فمتى رأيت حميدهم وذميمهم

فبفضل إيثار على إيثارِ

Whenever you see the praiseworthy and blameworthy among them,

it is because one preference excels another.

قاد الهوى الفجارَ فانقادوا له

وأبتْ عليه مقادةُ الأبرارِ

Desire led the wicked, and they yielded to it,

while the righteous refused it their submission.

لولا صروف الاختيار لأعْنَقوا

لهوىً كما اتسقت جمال قِطارِ

Were it not for the turns of choice, they would hasten

after desire, like camels aligned in a caravan.

ورأيتَهم مثل النجوم فإنها

متتابعاتٌ كلها لمدارِ

You would see them like the stars, which

all follow one another along an orbit,

مُتيمِّمات سَمْتَ وجهٍ واحد

ولها مطالع جمَّةٌ ومَجاري

each aiming toward one direction,

though their rising places and courses are many.

فانسَ الحُقود فإنها منسيةٌ

إلا لدى اللؤماء والأشرارِ

So forget grudges, for they are forgotten

except among the base and the wicked.

واعصِ الطباع إذا اطَّباك لحفظها

واختر عليه تَكُنْ من الأخيارِ

Defy your nature when it lures you to preserve them,

and choose against it: you will be among the good.

ما زال طبع الأرض يقهر لؤمَهُ

مَنْ فيه رُوح الواحد القهارِ

The baseness of earth's nature has always been subdued

by one bearing the spirit of the One, the All-Subduing.

لا تنسَ روحَ الله فيك وأنها

جُعِلت لتصلِح منك كلَّ عُوارِ

Do not forget God's spirit within you, and that it

was placed there to mend every flaw in you.

إن الحُقُود إذا تذكرها الفتى

تحيا حياة الجمر بالمِسعارِ

When a man recalls his grudges,

they live as embers live beneath the poker.

ولعلها إن لا تضرَّ عدوهُ

وهو المسلِّف عاجل الإضرارِ

They may do his enemy no harm,

while he himself pays the harm in advance.

تَصْلَى جوانحُ صدره من حقده

بلهيب جمرٍ ثاقبٍ وأُوارِ

The ribs within his breast burn from his rancor

with the blaze and fierce heat of glowing embers.

فلصدرِهِ من ذاك شرُّ بِطانة

ولقلبه من ذاك شر سُعارِ

From it his breast gains the worst lining,

and his heart the fiercest burning.

ذاك الذي نقد المكيدة نفسه

نقداً وكاد عدوه بِضمارِ

Such a man pays his own soul in guile,

cash down, but plots against his enemy on doubtful credit.

ما نال منه منالَه من نفسه

وِترُ الأُلى وَتَروه بالأوتارِ

He was never harmed as deeply as he harmed himself

by the wrongs of those who inflicted wrongs upon him.

ردّت يداه كَيْدَه في نحرهِ

وكذا تكون مَكايد الأغمارِ

His own hands turned his guile back upon his throat;

such are the stratagems of the inexperienced.

وكفى الحقود مهانةً وغضاضةً

أن لست تلقاه عدوّ جهارِ

For the rancorous man, enough humiliation and disgrace

is that you never meet him as an open enemy.

لكنه يمشي الضَّراء بحقده

ليلاً ويَلبد تحت كل نهارِ

Instead, he walks under cover with his rancor

by night, and lies low throughout every day.

يلقى أعاديه بصفحة ذلةٍ

سِلمَ اللسان مُحارب الإضمارِ

He meets his enemies with a face of abasement,

his tongue at peace, his hidden thoughts at war.

لكن أهل الطّوْل من متجاوِزٍ

ومُعاقبٍ جهراً بغير تواري

But men of power, whether pardoning

or punishing, act openly, without concealment.

طرحوا الضغائن إذ رأوا لنفوسهم

خطراً ينيف بها على الأخطارِ

They cast grudges aside, perceiving in their souls

a worth that lifts them above all other ranks.

فانظر بعين الرأي لا عينِ الهوى

فالحق للعين الجليّة عاري

So look with judgment's eye, not passion's,

for truth stands naked to the clear-seeing eye.

النفسُ خيرك إنها علوية

والجسم شرُّك ليس فيه تماري

Your soul is your better part, for it is heavenly;

your body is your worse—there is no disputing it.

فانقدْ لخيرك لا لشرك واتبِعْ

أولاهما بالقادرِ الغفّارِ

Submit to your better part, not your worse, and follow

the one more akin to the All-Powerful, the All-Forgiving.

كن مثل نفسك في السموّ إلى العلى

لا مثل طينة جسمِك الغدّارِ

Be like your soul in ascending to the heights,

not like the clay of your treacherous body.

فالنفس تسمو نحو علو مليكها

والجسم نحو السفلِ هاوٍ هاري

The soul rises toward its Sovereign's height,

while the body plunges, crumbling, toward the depths.

فأعِنْ أحقَّهما بعونك واقتسِر

طبع السِّفال بطبعك السَّوَّارِ

So aid the one more deserving of your aid, and subdue

your lowly nature with your soaring nature.

إياك واستضعافَ حقٍّ إنه

في كل حينٍ حاضرُ الأنصارِ

Beware of deeming truth weak, for it

has champions ready at every moment.

والحق والشُّبَهُ التي بإزائه

كالشمس جاوَرها هلالُ سِرارِ

Truth and the specious doubts set against it

are like the sun beside a waning crescent.