روض الهوى مرتع وخيم — Abu Alyemen Alknde

روضُ الهوى مرتعٌ وخيم

في القلب من رعيه كلوم

Love's meadow is a perilous pasture;

grazing there leaves wounds in the heart.

أيَّ سرور جنيت منه

لم تعتكر بعده هموم

What joy have you reaped from it

without cares gathering darkly afterward?

ما هبّ للوصل من نسيم

إِلا ومن فرقةٍ سموم

No breeze of union has ever blown

without a scorching wind of separation.

إن قدُمَ العشق فاخش منه

فشر أدوائك القديم

If love grows old, beware of it:

for the worst of your ailments is the chronic one.

ليس يديم الزمان شيئا

فكيف ما تشتهي يدوم

Time makes nothing last;

so how can what you desire endure?

ربِّ مليح الدلال غرَّ

داني الهوى صدره سليم

Many a lovely, guileless one, charming in coyness,

close in affection, with an untainted heart,

عُلّقته لا أشك أني

خيَّم بي عنده النعيم

I fell in love with, never doubting that

bliss had pitched its tent with me beside him.

غيَّرة للشقاء دهر

بكل ما ساءني زعيم

Time changed him, bringing misery,

a guarantor of everything that caused me pain.

أضحى مقيماً على جفاءٍ

عندي له المُقعِد المقيم

He became steadfast in a coldness

whose torment makes me sit and rise.

يسألني عن ضنى فؤادي

وهو بأسبابه عليم

He asks me about my heart's wasting sickness,

though he knows its causes well.

مستيقظ لاِّطراح عهدي

لكن إِلى الغدر مُستنيم

Alert to cast aside my pledge,

yet resting at ease in treachery.

كان حميماً فصار منه

لي في صميم الحشا حميم

He was a close friend; now, from him,

I have scalding water in my heart's deepest core.

رغبتُ عنه إِلى ودادٍ

على زوال الرضا يقيم

I turned from him toward an affection

that endures even when favor fades,

محصنٌ بالوفاء باقٍ

تَريمُ رضوى ولا يَريم

fortified by fidelity, abiding:

Mount Radwa may move, but it does not budge.

من ماجد الجود أريحيٍّ

من نسل أبائه كريم

From one noble in giving, openhanded,

noble in his descent from his forefathers.

معشره في الوغى أسود

وفي صميم العلا قروم

His kin are lions in battle,

and mighty chieftains at the heart of glory,

وفي الهدى والندى ملاذٌ

فهم نجومٌ وهم غيوم

and a refuge in guidance and generosity:

for they are stars, and they are clouds.

ذلَّت لعليائهم ملوكٌ

ذَلَّت لعليائها النجوم

Kings have bowed before their eminence—

kings before whose eminence the stars have bowed.

وخام عن بأسهم رجال

كان الردى عنهم يخيم

Men have recoiled before their might—

men from whom death itself once recoiled.

لي من فرخشاه طود عزَّ

فناء جاري به حريم

In Farrukhshah I have a mountain of might;

through him, my neighbor's courtyard is inviolable.

عُلّقتُ منه بحبل مولىً

كنت على مثله أحوم

In him I am bound to the rope of a patron;

I used to hover in search of one like him.

يهيم بالجود والعطايا

كما بعليائه أهيم

He is enamored of generosity and gifts,

as I am enamored of his eminence.

مثر من الفضل والمعالي

إذ غيره منهما عديم

He is rich in excellence and lofty honors,

while others are destitute of both.

جليسه السيف أو كتابٌ

هذا حبيب وذا نديم

His companion is the sword or a book:

this a beloved, and that a boon companion.

للعلم من قلبه مكان

وخطبه عنده جسيم

Knowledge has a place in his heart,

and its importance is great in his eyes.

مَن عظَّم الفضل في ذويه

دلَّ على أنه عظيم

Whoever honors excellence in those who possess it

shows that he himself is great.

خذها عروساً إذا تجلَّت

صبا إِلى حسنها الحليم

Take her as a bride: when she unveils herself,

even the sober-minded fall for her beauty.

حِلي ألفاظها معانٍ

يصوغها الفكر والعلوم

The jewels of her words are meanings

fashioned by thought and the sciences.

لها بذكر الطيب نشر

يعبق من فوحه النسيم

Mention of the good one gives her a fragrance;

the breeze is perfumed by its waft.