تحلبت الأنواء بعد جمودها — Abn Rumi

تحلّبَتِ الأنواءُ بعد جُمُودِها

وأقبلتِ الخيراتُ بعد صدُودها

The rain-bearing stars dripped after their congealing,

And blessings came after their turning away,

بوجه أبي الصقر الذي راح واغتدى

كشمس الضحى محفوفةً بسُعودها

Through the countenance of Abu al-Saqr, who went at dusk and dawn,

Like the forenoon sun, surrounded by its auspicious stars.

ولما أتى بغداد بعد قُنُوطِها

وفتْرة داعيها وإيباس عُودِها

And when he came to Baghdad after its despair,

The flagging of its supplicant, and the drying of its bough,

إذا ظُلَلٌ قدْ لَوّحتْ ببروقها

إلى ظُلَلٍ قد أرجفت برعودها

Behold, cloud-canopies had signaled with their lightning

To cloud-canopies that had rumbled with their thunder.

سحائبُ قيست بالبلاد فأُلْقِيَتْ

غطاءً على أغوارها ونجودها

Clouds measured against the land, then spread

As a covering over its lowlands and highlands.

حَدَتْها النُّعامَى مُثْقَلاتٍ فأقْبَلَتْ

تَهادَى رُويداً سيرُها كرُكودها

The south wind sang them onward, heavy-laden, and they came,

Swaying slowly, their progress like their stillness.

غُيُوثٌ رأى الإمحالُ فيها حِمَامَهُ

قرينَ حياةِ الأرضِ بعد هُمُودها

Downpours in which drought beheld its death,

Coupled with the earth's life after its dormancy.

أظلَّتْ فقال الحرثُ والنَّسْل هذه

فُتُوح سماءٍ أقبلت في سُدودها

They cast their shade, and crops and offspring said: These

Are heaven's openings, come amid its barriers.

فأطفأ نيران الغليل مَواطرٌ

مُضرَّمةٌ نيرانها في وقودِها

So rain-clouds quenched the fires of thirst,

Their own fires kindled within their fuel.

سقتنا ونيرانُ الصدى كبرُوقه

فقد بردت أكبادُنا بِبُرُودها

They watered us, thirst's fires like their lightning;

And our livers cooled with their coolness.

ولمْ نُسْقَ إلا بالوزير ويُمْنِهِ

فَبُورك في أيامه وعهودِها

We were watered only through the minister and his good fortune;

So blessed be his days and their seasons.

دعا اللّه لما اغْبَرَّت الأرض دعوة

بأمثالها تغدُو الرُّبى في بُرُودِها

When the earth grew dusty, he called upon God with a prayer

By whose like the hills awake in their striped mantles.

فكم بركاتٍ أذعنت بنزولها

لدعوته إذْ أمْعَنَتْ في صُعودها

How many blessings consented to descend

At his prayer, as it pressed onward in ascent.

سما سَمْوَةً نحو السماء بغُرَّة

مُسَوَّمَةٍ قِدْماً بِسِيمَا سجُودها

He soared aloft toward heaven with a radiant brow

Long marked with the sign of its prostration,

وكَفَّيْن تَسْتَحِيي السماءُ إذا رأت

رُفُودَهُمَا من ضَنِّها برُفُودها

And two palms: heaven feels ashamed, when it sees

Their gifts, of its own stinginess with its gifts.

فلمَّا تلَقَّتْها الثَّلاثُ رعَتْ لها

مع الجاهِ عند اللّه حُرْمَةَ جُودها

When those three faced heaven, it honored,

Besides their standing with God, the sacred claim of their generosity.

فجادتْ سماءُ اللّه جُوداً غدتْ له

عَقِيمُ بِقاع الأرضِ مثلَ وَلُودِها

So God's heaven gave so generously that

The earth's barren tracts became like its fruitful ones,

بِغَاشِيةٍ من رحمة اللّه لم تَرِثْ

نَسِيَّاتُهَا إلّا كَرَيْثِ نُقُودِها

With an enveloping flood of God's mercy; no slower

Were its deferred gifts than its payments in ready cash.

سقتْنَا ومَرْعانا فروَّت وأفضَلَتْ

لِدِجْلَةَ فضلاً فاغتدت في مُدُودها

It watered us and our pasture, sating us and leaving

A surplus for the Tigris, which rose in swelling floods.

حيَاً جُعِلَتْ فيه الحياة فأصبحَتْ

بناتُ الثَّرى قد أنْشِرَتْ من لُحُودها

Rain in which life was placed, so that

The daughters of the soil were raised from their graves.

فمنْ مُبْلِغٌ عنَّا الأمير رسالة

فلا برحتْ نُعْمَاكَ داءَ حَسُودها

Who, then, will carry a message from us to the prince?

May your bounty never cease to plague those who envy it.

بَقِيتَ كما تبْقى معاليك إنها

تبيدُ الهضابُ الشمُّ قبل بُيُودها

May you endure as your glories endure, for

The towering hills will perish before their passing.

رأيْنَاكَ ترعانا بعيْنٍ ذكيَّةٍ

أتَى النَّاسَ طُرّاً نَوْمُهُمْ من سُهُودِها

We have seen you watch over us with a keen eye;

All people's sleep has come from its wakefulness.

هي العينُ لم تُؤْثِرْ كَرَاها ولم يزلْ

تَهَجُّدُها أوْلى بها من هُجُودها

It is the eye that never preferred its sleep, and whose

Night vigil has ever had more claim upon it than slumber.

ونُعماك في هذا الوزير فإنَّنا

نعوذُ بنعمى ربِّنا من جُحُودها

And as for your favor in this minister, we

Seek refuge in our Lord's favor from denying it.

وكيف جُحُود الناس نعماءَ مُنْعِمٍ

تَنَاغَى بها أطفَالُهُمْ في مُهُودها

How could people deny the bounty of a benefactor

Of which their children coo in their cradles?

لَعمري لقد قَلَّدْتَهُ الأمرَ كافياً

يَلَذُّ التي أعْيَتْ شفاءَ لدُودها

By my life, you entrusted authority to one fully capable,

Who relishes what has defied its medicine's cure.

وزيرٌ إذا قاد الأمُورَ تتابَعَتْ

فأصْبَحَ آبِيها جنيبَ مَقُودِها

A minister: when he leads affairs, they follow in succession,

So their rebellious one becomes a led mount beside their obedient one.

أخو ثِقةٍ لو حارب الأُسْدَ أذْعَنَتْ

أو الجنَّ ذلَّتْ بعد طولِ مُرُودها

A man to trust: were he to fight lions, they would submit,

Or the jinn, they would yield after their long rebellion.

مَليٌّ بأنْ يغشَى الغِمَارَ وأنْ يَرى

مصادِرَها بالرأْي قبْل وُرُودِها

Well able to plunge into the depths of peril, and to see

By judgment, their ways out before entering them.

وذو طاعة للّه في كل حالة

ومعصيةٍ للنفس عند عُنُودها

Obedient to God in every circumstance,

And disobedient to his self when it grows wayward;

صَدُوعٌ بأحكام الكِتَابِ مُعَوِّدٌ

عَزَائمَهُ التوْقِيفَ عند حُدُودها

Boldly proclaiming the Book's decrees, training

His resolves to stop at their bounds.

وَهَتْ قُبَّةُ الإسلام حتى اجْتَبيتَهُ

فقد أصْبَحَتْ مَعْمُودَةً بِعَمُودها

Islam's dome had weakened until you chose him;

Now it stands supported by its pillar.

بآرائه أضحَتْ سيُوفكَ تُنْتَضى

فَتُغْمَدُ من هَامِ العدا في غُمُودِها

By his counsels, your swords are drawn,

Then returned from enemies' skulls into their scabbards.

غَدا خَيْر ذِي عَوْنٍ لسيِّدِ أمَّةٍ

وَأَكْلأَ ذي عَيْنٍ لِسَرْحِ مَسُودِها

He became the finest helper to the master of a nation,

And the most watchful guardian of the flocks of its subjects.

كفى كلَّ ما تَكْفي الكُفَاةُ مُلوكَها

بِنُجْحِ مساعِيها ويُمْنِ جُدُودها

He met every need that able servants meet for their kings,

Through successful endeavors and auspicious fortunes.

فقد أخمد النِّيران بعد اسْتِعارِها

وقد أوقَدَ الأنْوارَ بعد خُمودها

He has quenched the fires after their raging,

And kindled the lights after their extinction.

ويكْفيه إن خانَ الشهادةَ خائنٌ

بما اسْتَشْهَدَتْ آثارُه من شُهُودها

Should a traitor betray his testimony, sufficient for him

Are the witnesses his deeds have summoned.

أتانا ودُنيانا عجوزٌ فأصبَحَتْ

به ناهِداً في عُنْفُوانِ نُهودها

He came to us when our world was an old woman; it became

Through him a budding-breasted maiden at the height of her bloom.

فقدْ قُيِّدَتْ عنَّا المخاوفُ كلُّها

وقد أُطْلِقَتْ آمالُنا مِنْ قُيودها

All fears have been bound away from us,

And our hopes released from their bonds,

بذِي شِيَمٍ يُصبيكَ حُسنُ وُجُوهِهَا

ولِينُ مَثانِيها وجَدْلُ قُدُودها

By a man of qualities whose lovely faces captivate you,

And their supple folds and taut, shapely figures.

حمانا وأرْعانا حِمَى كلِّ ثرْوَةٍ

وأبْدَلَنا بيضَ الليالي بسُودِها

He sheltered us and pastured us in every rich preserve,

And gave us white nights in exchange for black ones.

فأَضْحى ولو تَسْطِيعُ كلُّ قبيلةٍ

وَقَتْ نَعْله مَسَّ الثَّرَى بخدُودها

Now, if every tribe could do so,

It would shield his sandal from touching soil with its cheeks.

تَأَلَّف وَحْشِيَّ القُلوب بلْطفِهِ

فأضْحَى مُعَادِيهَا لهُ كَوَدُودِها

He won over untamed hearts with his gentleness,

So their hostile ones became like their loving ones toward him.

وفَى وَعَفَا عن كلِّ صاحِبِ هفْوَةٍ

وكابَدَ ما دون العُلا من كُؤُودها

He kept faith and pardoned everyone guilty of a lapse,

And endured the steep hardships on the road to glory,

بنفْسٍ أبتْ إلا ثَباتَ عُقُودِها

لمنْ عَاقَدَتْهُ وانْحِلالَ حُقُودها

With a soul that would accept only steadfastness in its pledges

To those it pledged to, and the dissolving of its grudges.

ألاَ تلْكُمُ النفْسُ التي تَمَّ فضْلُها

فما نَستَزِيدُ اللّه غيْرَ خُلُودها

Behold, that is the soul whose excellence is complete;

We ask God for nothing more than its immortality.

وإن عُدَّتِ الأحْسَابُ يوماً فإنَّمَا

يُعَدُّ مِن الأحْساب رَمْلُ زَرُودِها

And if ancestral honors are ever counted, it is only

The sands of their Zarud that are counted among them.

مَفاخِرُ عنْ آبائِهِ وبِنَفْسِه

نُفُودُ حصى الإحْصَاءِ قبل نُفُودها

Glories from his forefathers and from his own self:

The counting-pebbles would run out before they did.

تداركَ إسماعيلُ للعَربِ العُلاَ

فعادتْ لإسمَاعِيلِها ولِهُودِها

Isma'il rescued high glory for the Arabs,

And it returned to their Isma'il and their Hud.

فتىً من بني شيْبانَ في مُشْمَخِرَّةٍ

شَدِيد على الرَّاقِي رُقيَّ صُعُودها

A young man of Banu Shayban, on a towering height,

Whose steep ascent is hard for a climber to scale.

نَمَتْهُ من العَلْيا جبالُ صُقُورها

وحفّت جَنَابيْهِ غِيَاضُ أُسُودها

The mountains of glory's falcons reared him,

And the thickets of its lions enclosed his flanks.

فتىً لعطاياه وفودٌ تَؤمُّها

فَإن قعدُوا كانت وفُودَ وُفُودها

A young man whose gifts have delegations seeking them;

If they stay home, the gifts become envoys to their own visitors.

إذا بَدْءُ ما أعْطَى أنَامَ عُفَاتَهُ

سرى عَوْدُهُ مُسْتَيْقِظاً لِرُقُودها

When the first of his gifts puts his petitioners to sleep,

His renewed giving travels by night, awake for their slumber.

وَلَمَّا رَحَلْتُ العِيسَ نحو فِنَائه

ضَمِنْتُ عليه عِتْقَهَا من قُتُودِها

And when I saddled the pale camels toward his courtyard,

I guaranteed, on his account, their freedom from their saddle-frames.

أمِنْتُ على نعمائه رَيْبَ دهرِه

وَلِمْ لا وذاك العُرْفُ بعضُ جُنُودِها

I trusted his blessings were safe from his time's vicissitudes;

And why not, when that generosity is among their troops?