لا تلوموا الدهر في أعماله — Abu Bakr Al Tunisi

لا تَلوموا الدهر في أَعماله

لَيسَ للدهر سوى تلك العبر

Do not blame time for its deeds.

Time has nothing but those lessons.

وافحصوا أَعمالكم كَي تبصروا

شؤمها يَبدو عيانا للبصر

And examine your deeds so that you may see

their ill omen appearing plainly to the eye.

كلما فكر فيكم مصلح

عاد تصلي رأسه بعض الفكر

Whenever a reformer thinks of you,

he returns with certain thoughts scorching his head.

رب ذي نصح رمى أَخلاقكم

فاِنثَنَيتُم عنه تَرمون الحجر

Many an adviser has assailed your conduct,

so you turned away from him, throwing stones.

غير ان الخطب يَزداد إِذا

جال في نشاتنا منا النظر

Yet the plight grows worse when

our own gaze roams over our upbringing,

حيث نَلقاهم كَما سوف تَرى

في حَياة هي أَسباب الخطر

where we find them, as you will see,

in a life that is a source of danger.

حب ابراهيم في يوم مَضى

زَينبا وَالحسن ضمت زينب

One day past, Ibrahim loved

Zaynab, and Zaynab held beauty within her.

ابصرت فيه جَمالا مسها

مها في قلب ضَعيف عقرب

She saw in him a beauty that touched her:

gazelles—a scorpion in a fragile heart.

جس كل منهما نبض الَّذي

اصبحت منه الحَشا تَلتَهِب

Each felt the pulse of the one

from whom the inner heart had begun to burn.

حررا اذ ذاك صكا كتبا

لوحه توا بما لا يكتب

They drew up a pact then, inscribing

its tablet at once with what cannot be written.

وَمَشى كل ولكن تركا

مقلة تَزهو وَعينا تنحب

Each went on, yet the two left behind

an eye that shone and an eye that wept.

يحسبان اليوم عام للقا

وَاللقا وَيلاه لا يقترب

They count a day as a year until reunion,

yet reunion—alas!—draws no nearer.

راح ابراهيم يَجري خببا

نحو دار البنت يلقى الوالدا

Ibrahim went off running at a trot

toward the girl's house to meet her father,

طالبا درته من صدف

ناظرا للرد شكلا اسودا

asking for his pearl from its shell,

imagining refusal as a dark shape,

مُستَعينا بالَّذي يعرف في

نفسه ان رام ان يسترشدا

seeking help in what he knew within

himself, if he sought guidance,

معملا فكرته في شرف

حاسبا أَقوى شَفيع سؤددا

setting his mind to matters of honor,

reckoning high standing the strongest intercessor,

ناظِرا حسنه في مرآته

وَهُوَ لا زالَ ظَريفا امردا

viewing his beauty in his mirror,

still charming and beardless,

راقِصا للعرس من فرحته

وَبِهِ أَسعَد عيش واجِدا

dancing for the wedding in his joy,

and finding in it the happiest life.

لَم يكد يسمعه يذكرها

وَجلا حَتّى ازاحَ الوجلا

Scarcely had the father heard him mention her

fearfully, before he dispelled that fear,

رافِضا مطلبه مستنكفا

هادما للطفل ذاك الهيكلا

rejecting his request with disdain,

demolishing that edifice for the child,

قارئا فيه وَفيها انه

غير كفء ناقما مُستَثقِلا

reading in him and in her that he

was no fit match, in resentment and distaste,

لاعِنا جرأته في طلب

شاهد السخط به وَالخطلا

cursing his audacity in making a request,

seeing in it wrath and folly,

مظهرا عجبا له مستكبرا

مستلذا فيه ذاك الخيلا

showing haughty astonishment at him,

relishing that very conceit in it,

ضاربا صفحا عَلى ما ضم ما

بين طيات اللَيالي غافِلا

turning away from all that lay

within the folds of the nights, heedless.

دخل الوالد للبيت وَفي

وَجهه آيات غش بادية

The father entered the house, with

plain signs of deceit upon his face,

معلنا للبنت ما ازعجه

حاسبا فيه وجود الدامية

announcing to the girl what had upset him,

imagining a bleeding wound in it.

ليس يَرضاها له اذ انه

مفلس يَمشي بها للهاويَة

He would not consent to her being his, for he was

penniless and would lead her to the abyss.

وَلَقَد وافاه قبلا احمد

باذلا فيها المهور الغالية

Ahmad had already come to him,

offering costly dowries for her,

وَهُوَ قَد اعطاه اياها وَفي

مثله تَسعى الفَتاة الغانية

and he had given her to him; it is for

one like him that the lovely maiden strives.

لَيسَ يَعنيه اِرتَضَت اعمال من

باعها ام لم تكن بالراضية

It did not concern him whether she approved the deeds of the man

who sold her, or was not content.

سمعت زينب ما فاه به

والد يحسبها مثل الجماد

Zaynab heard what was uttered by

a father who deemed her like an inanimate thing.

فاِستَعانَت بالبكا عَن لومه

وَهُوَ في دمعتها يَلقى العناد

So she resorted to tears rather than reproach him,

while in her tears he found defiance.

لست أَرضى غير ابراهيم لي

قولها وهو سداد في سداد

"I accept no one but Ibrahim for myself,"

she said—sound judgment upon sound judgment.

فاِتركوني انتخب زَوجي وَلا

تَمنَعوني انني لست جماد

"So let me choose my husband, and do not

prevent me: I am no inanimate thing.

انه نصفي فَلا يَختاره

غير نصفي تلك آراء الرشاد

He is my half; let no one choose him

but my own half—these are the counsels of good sense.

ثوب قطن وَالهَنا أليق بي

من نسيج الخز في ثوب الحداد

A cotton dress with happiness suits me better

than silk-and-wool brocade in mourning garb."

أَبرق الوالد مدفوعا بما

قَد رأى من لهجة فيها الصَواب

The father flashed with rage, provoked by what

he had seen of a tone that held the truth.

واِستَوى يَحتال في تَعذيبها

واجدا روح انتقام في العَذاب

And he settled down to scheming her torment,

finding a spirit of vengeance in the torment.

وَهيَ لا تسمعهم في بيتها

غير أَصوات البكا والانتحاب

And in her home she heard from them nothing

but the sounds of weeping and sobbing.

صدرها رحب وَفي طياته

حب ابراهيم اتمام النصاب

Her breast was spacious, and within its folds

love for Ibrahim filled the whole measure.

ان يَقولوا حاولي نسيانه

زاد في أَحشائها منه اضطراب

If they said, "Try to forget him,"

turmoil over him increased within her.

أَو أَرادَت بالَّتي اقناعهم

قابلوا الحجة منها بالسباب

Or if she sought thereby to persuade them,

they answered her argument with abuse.

حملوها وَهيَ رمز اللطف ما

لَيسَ في امكانها أَن تَستَطيع

They burdened her, the very emblem of gentleness, with what

was beyond her power to bear.

اعملوا المنجل في زهرتها

جندَلوها بين أَوراق الرَبيع

They set the sickle upon her blossom,

laid her low among the leaves of spring,

واِستَباحوا صنعهم تبا له

في عصور نحن فيها من صَنيع

and deemed their deed permissible—perdition upon it!—

in ages whose handiwork we ourselves are.

لَيتَ شعري أَي نفس لا تَرى

ذلة في ذلك الأَمر الفَظيع

Would that I knew: what soul does not see

humiliation in that terrible affair?

أَي شخص لا يَرى الخنجر في

قَلبه أَولى بذا الصنع الشَنيع

Anyone who does not see the dagger in

his heart is more deserving of this hideous deed.

وَهُوَ لا يَحتاج في الناس إِلى

ناصر تلك المَبادي أَو شَفيع

And he has no need, among people, of

a defender of those principles or an intercessor.

غابَت الشمس وَفيها أَمل

لوجود البنت في وقت الصَباح

The sun set, with hope still in it

that the girl would be there at morning.

وَهيَ قَد سارَت إِلى مخدعها

تعمل الجهد لاخماد الجراح

And she had gone to her bedchamber,

straining to quench her wounds.

يا لَها من ليلة لَيلاء قَد

صرع الجد بها ذاكَ المُزاح

Ah, what a dark, dark night it was!

In it earnestness had laid that merriment low.

وَإِذا ما طلعت شمس الضحى

وَأَعادَت روح هاتيك البطاح

And when the forenoon sun rose,

and restored the spirit of those plains,

كانَت البنت تلاقيها وَفي

روحها طعنة ذياك الكفاح

the girl was there to meet it, while in

her soul lay the stab of that struggle.

وَهيَ كالمُعتاد الا أنها

في الفَضا طوعا لأَغراض الرياح

She was as usual, save that she was

in the open air, obedient to the whims of the winds.

بعد يوم كانَ ابراهيمها

فوق رمس ضمها بين الرموس

A day later, her Ibrahim was

above a grave that held her among the graves,

حامِلا زهرا بَديعا قَد حَوى

من بَديع الحسن ما تَحوي الغروس

carrying lovely flowers that held

the wondrous beauty found in growing plants,

وَهُوَ يَبكي ربة الحسن الَّتي

بعده أَمسَت إِلى الدود عروس

while he wept for the mistress of beauty who,

after him, had become a bride to the worms,

لاعنا أَخلاقنا مُستَبشعا

عادة آباءنا كانَت تدوس

cursing our conduct, finding abhorrent

our fathers' custom, which had trampled her down.

هَكَذا أَمسَت تناجي روحة

روحها بين انقباض وَعبوس

Thus his soul came to be addressed

by her soul, amid anguish and gloom.

يجمع الأزهار لكن يا ترى

للتي في قبرها أَم للشموس

He gathers flowers, but one wonders:

for the one in her grave, or for the suns?