مستعبد هيهات إعتاقه — Abn Rumi

مستعبد هيهات إعتاقُهُ

مستأسِرٌ يعسر إطلاقُهُ

One enslaved—how far off his emancipation!

One held captive, whose release is difficult.

صبٌّ رقيق القلب خفّاقُه

عنّاه فظ القلب خفاقُهُ

An impassioned lover, tenderhearted, his heart aflutter;

a hard-hearted one, whose heart flutters, has tormented him.

محبَّبٌ قُلِّل إحسانه

جداً وإن كُثِّر عشاقه

A cherished beloved whose kindness was made scant

indeed, though his lovers were made numerous.

لدن من الأغصان في روضة

من نرجس تنظر أحداقه

A supple bough among the branches in a garden,

his pupils gazing out from narcissus blossoms.

يحسن في التجريد إثماره

وفي الشفوف الخضر إيراقه

His fruiting is lovely when he is stripped,

and his leafing in sheer green garments.

فاقت دجى الليل دجى فرعه

وفاق ضوء الصبح إشراقه

The darkness of his hair surpassed the darkness of night,

and his radiance surpassed the light of dawn.

أخلقْ إذا جرد رمَّانُه

في العين أن يكثر رمّاقه

How fitting, when his pomegranates are bared

before the eye, that his gazers should multiply!

وهو المنى إن زيد في حسنه

حريرةُ الحرِّ وأعلاقه

He is all one desires, if to his beauty are added

a freeborn man's silk garment and his precious adornments.

لا ضرَّهُ ظلمي ولا نابه

إقراحه قلبي وإقلاقه

May his wronging me not harm him, nor may he suffer

for wounding my heart and unsettling it,

وإن غدا أظلمَ من قاسمٍ

ذاك الذي يجفو وأشتاقه

even if he has become more unjust than Qasim—

that one who shuns me, yet whom I long for.

يا عجباً من ناظري إنه

أضحت تقذّانيَ آماقه

How strange my watcher is!

His eye-corners now put grit in my eyes.

أعرض عني وجفا جانبي

تقديمه البر وإلحاقه

Turned from me and shunned my side have

his first acts of kindness and those that followed.

والعذل شيء منه منقاده

والفضل شيء منه منساقه

Reproach is something he readily yields to;

bounty is something that readily flows from him.

ما أقرب المعروف من كفه

فلِم أَغَبَّتنيَ أفواقه

How close kindness is to his hand!

Why, then, have his milk-flows grown infrequent for me?

واغبرَّ في دولته جانبي

وهو ربيعٌ عمَّ إغداقه

My patch has grown dusty in his reign,

though he is a spring whose abundant showers reach all.

وحسبهُ ذكري بإحسانه

فأي شيء منه يعتاقه

He need only remember me with his kindness;

what, then, holds him back from it?

لا أشتكي البدر على بعده

لقد أضاءت لي آفاقه

I do not complain of the full moon despite its distance;

its horizons have indeed shone for me.

ليس بمكفورٍ ولا ضائعٍ

إيناسه نفسي وإرفاقه

Neither unacknowledged nor wasted are

his comforting of my soul and his assistance.

لي أمل فيه إذا أخلقت

آمال قوم راث إخلاقه

I have a hope in him: when worn out are

the hopes of others, its own fading is slow.

تحيا به نفسي وتلتذُّه

وقد دنا بل آن إحقاقه

My soul lives by it and delights in it;

its fulfillment is near—indeed, its time has come.

فاعقد لسان اللوم عن قاسم

أو فليكن بالشكر إطلاقه

So bind the tongue of blame against Qasim,

or let it be loosed in gratitude.

وكيف يلحى خادم سيداً

إليه محياه وإنطاقه

How can a servant blame a master

to whom he owes his life and his being given voice?

لا يسرقن الحق من قاسم

فليس يخفي الحق سراقه

Let Qasim never be robbed of his due;

for its thieves cannot conceal what is due.

من قاسم صيغت أماديحه

ومن حمام الأيك أطواقه

From Qasim himself his praises were fashioned,

and from the woodland doves, their neck-rings.

لقاسم في كل حالاته

شمائل السيف وأخلاقه

Qasim has, in all his states,

the qualities of the sword and its character:

مضاؤه إن أنت أعملته

وقده الحلو ورقراقه

its cutting power when you put it to work,

its lovely form and rippling sheen.

فتى يقر القلب إحسانه

كما يقر العين إيناقه

A young man whose kindness delights the heart,

as his beauty delights the eye.

إن طُلب الخير فمفتاحه

أو طُلب الشر فمغلاقه

If goodness is sought, he is its key;

if evil is sought, he is its lock.

جرَّبته في وعده فاستوى

ميعاده عندي وميثاقه

I tested him in his promise, and equal proved

his promised word and his binding pledge in my eyes.

ما قيل في القاسم مدح له

إلا وفي القاسم مصداقه

No praise has been spoken of al-Qasim

without its confirmation being found in al-Qasim.

بفعله لا بأقاويلنا

أربت على الأطلاق أطلاقه

By his deeds, not by our words,

his grants have surpassed other grants.

سيان في ميزان تقديره

إفادة المال وإنفاقه

Equal in the scales of his judgment

are acquiring wealth and spending it.

يوجد مسبوقوه في فضله

تترى ولا يوجد سباقه

Those he has surpassed in generosity are found

one after another; none is found who surpasses him.

وكيف لا يثمر أحلى الجنى

من وزراء الصدق أعراقه

How should he not bear the sweetest fruit—

one whose ancestral roots are viziers of integrity?

غيث مغيث عرفُه ودقُه

وبشره بالناس إبراقه

A relieving rain-cloud: his kindness is its rainfall,

and his cheer toward people is its lightning.

إذا تعاطى مغرق مدحه

أقصر والتقصير إغراقه

When an extravagant praiser undertakes his praise,

he falls short; even his extravagance is understatement.

قد حمل الله بحُملانه

من حملته نحوه ساقه

God has, through his gifts of mounts, given a mount

to anyone whose leg has carried him toward him.

يا ابن سليمان الذي باسمه

تحيا لهذا الخلق أرماقه

O son of Sulayman, through whose name

this creation's last vestiges of life revive!

يا عدة الملك وأملاكه

لحادث ينباق مُنباقه

O safeguard of kingship and its kings

against a calamity whose outbreak bursts forth!

يا من له الكيد الذي لم يزل

يفلق صم الصخر أفلاقه

O you whose cunning has always

split solid rock with its prodigious feats!

يا مفزع العافي إذا شفَّه

حرمانه واشتدَّ إملاقه

O refuge of the supplicant, when he is worn down

by deprivation and his destitution grows severe!

يا معقل الجاني على نفسه

إذا جنى ما فيه إيباقه

O stronghold of one who wrongs himself,

when he commits something that would destroy him!

لردِّك المصر إلى أمنه

رُدَّت إلى مصرك أُبَّاقه

Because you restored the city to safety,

its fugitives were returned to your city.

وبابنك المرخص أمواله

تُغُولِيَ الحمد وأعلاقه

And through your son, who treats his wealth as cheap,

praise and its treasures have been bid up.

لولا مكان الحمد من قاسم

أوشك أن تكسد أسواقه

Were it not for praise's place with Qasim,

its markets would soon grow stagnant.

قَيِّم ملكٍ وابن قوامه

فتّاق ما أعيا ورتاقه

Steward of a kingdom and son of its mainstay,

unraveler of what defies solution, and its mender.

فالنُجح ما ينجح إمضاؤه

والحزم ما ينتج إطراقه

So success is what his decisive action achieves,

and prudence what his bowed reflection yields.

من أهل بيت ساسة راضة

لديهم السم ودرياقه

From a house of governors and tamers,

who have both poison and its antidote.

تجري على بُطنان أيديهمُ

نقائم الله وأرزاقه

Over the palms of their hands flow

God's retributions and His provisions.

ذو العرف لا يبعد متَّاحُهُ

والنكر لا تُدرك أعماقه

A man of kindness, whose water-drawer is never far;

and his severity has depths beyond reach.

كم جامح أصبح إذ راضه

تدمى لطول الكبح أشداقه

How many a bolting steed, when he tamed it, awoke

with jaws bleeding from prolonged reining-in!

شهاب نورٍ ضامنٌ للهدى

وليس بالمأمون إحراقه

A flaming shaft of light, guaranteeing guidance,

yet none can feel safe from its burning.

غيث مغيث ضامنٌ للحيا

وليس بالمأمون إصعاقه

A relieving rain-cloud, guaranteeing rain,

yet none can feel safe from its thunderbolt's stroke.

يضحي إلى بذل السدى والندى

وهو مشوق القلب مشتاقه

He turns each morning to bestowing gifts and bounty,

his heart stirred to longing and eager for it.

يستعبد الحرَّ له عرفه

وقصده في ذاك إعتاقه

His kindness enslaves the freeborn man to him,

yet his aim in that is to set him free.

قلتُ لمن جاراه لا يستوي

صهّال مضمار ونهاقه

I told whoever raced him: not equal are

the racecourse's neighing horse and its braying ass.

حُقِّق للسيد تأميلُه

فيه ولا حقق إشفاقه

May the master's hope be fulfilled

in him, and may his fear never come true.

وطال للحق به عمره

ودام للباطل إزهاقه

And may truth's life be lengthened through him,

and may falsehood's extinction endure.

واحتل من عاداه في منزل

حميمه آنٍ وغساقه

And may whoever opposes him dwell in an abode

whose scalding water and foul discharge are boiling hot.