تجرع أسى قد أقفر الجرع الفرد — Abu Tammam

تَجَرَّع أَسىً قَد أَقفَرَ الجَرَعُ الفَردُ

وَدَع حِسيَ عَينٍ يَحتَلِب ماءَها الوَجدُ

Drink down sorrow: the solitary sandflat has grown deserted.

And leave the eye's wellspring to longing, which milks its water.

إِذا اِنصَرَفَ المَحزونُ قَد فَلَّ صَبرَهُ

سُؤالُ المَغاني فَالبُكاءُ لَهُ رِدُّ

When the sorrowful turns away, his patience blunted

by questioning the dwellings, weeping is his refuge.

بَدَت لِلنَوى أَشياءُ قَد خِلتُ أَنَّها

سَيَبدَأُني رَيبُ الزَمانِ إِذا تَبدو

Separation conceived things I had thought

time's vicissitudes would first inflict upon me when they appeared.

نَوىً كَاِنقِضاضِ النَجمِ كانَت نَتيجَةً

مِنَ الهَزلِ يَوماً إِنَّ هَزلَ الهَوى جِدُّ

A parting like a star's plunge was born

from jest one day: indeed, love's jest is earnest.

فَلا تَحسَبا هِنداً لَها الغَدرُ وَحدَها

سَجِيَّةَ نَفسٍ كُلُّ غانِيَةٍ هِندُ

So do not think, you two, that Hind alone has treachery

as an inborn trait: every lovely woman is a Hind.

وَقالوا أُسىً عَنها وَقَد خَصَمَ الأُسى

جَوانِحُ مُشتاقٍ إِذا خاصَمَت لُدُّ

They urged solace for her absence; yet solace was defeated

by a yearning lover's ribs—fierce disputants when they contend—

وَعَينٌ إِذا هَيَّجتَها عادَتِ الكَرى

وَدَمعٌ إِذا اِستَنجَدتَ أَسرابَهُ نَجدُ

and an eye that, when you stir it, wars against sleep,

and tears whose streams, when summoned, stand ready to aid.

وَما خَلفَ أَجفاني شُؤونٌ بَخيلَةٌ

وَلا بَينَ أَضلاعي لَها حَجَرٌ صَلدُ

No stingy tear ducts lie behind my eyelids,

nor between my ribs a flinty stone to withstand them.

وَكَم تَحتَ أَرواقِ الصَبابَةِ مِن فَتىً

مِنَ القَومِ حُرٍّ دَمعُهُ لِلهَوى عَبدُ

How many a young man beneath passion's pavilions,

freeborn among his people, has tears enslaved to love!

وَما أَحَدٌ طارَ الفِراقُ بِقَلبِهِ

بِجَلدٍ وَلَكِنَّ الفِراقَ هُوَ الجَلدُ

No one whose heart separation carries away

is steadfast; it is separation that is steadfast.

وَمَن كانَ ذا بَثٍّ عَلى النَأيِ طارِفٍ

فَلي أَبَداً مِن صَرفِهِ حُرَقٌ تُلدُ

If anyone has newfound anguish over distance,

I forever have old, inherited burns from its reversals.

فَلا مَلِكٌ فَردُ المَواهِبِ وَاللُهى

يُجاوِزُ بي عَنهُ وَلا رَشَأٌ فَردُ

Neither a king peerless in gifts and bounty

can carry me beyond it, nor a peerless gazelle.

مُحَمَّدُ يا بنَ الهَيثَمِ اِنقَلَبَت بِنا

نَوىً خَطَأٌ في عَقبِها لَوعَةٌ عَمدُ

Muhammad, son of al-Haytham, we have been swept away

by an unintended parting, with deliberate anguish in its wake,

وَحِقدٌ مِنَ الأَيّامِ وَهيَ قَديرَةٌ

وَشَرُّ السَجايا قُدرَةٌ جارُها حِقدُ

and malice from the days, powerful as they are:

the worst of traits is power with malice as its neighbor.

إِساءَةَ دَهرٍ أَذكَرَت حُسنَ فِعلِهِ

إِلَيَّ وَلَولا الشَريُ لَم يُعرَفِ الشُهدُ

An injury from time recalled its kind treatment

of me—without bitter colocynth, honey would not be known.

أَما وَأَبي أَحداثِهِ إِنَّ حادِثاً

حَدا بِيَ عَنكَ العيسَ لَلحادِثُ الوَغدُ

Indeed, by the father of its calamities, the calamity

that drove the pale camels bearing me away from you was truly base,

مِنَ النَكباتِ الناكِباتِ عَنِ الهَوى

فَمَحبوبُها يَحبو وَمَكروهُها يَعدو

among the misfortunes that swerve from desire:

what we welcome in them crawls; what we hate in them runs.

لَيالِيَنا بِالرَقَّتَينِ وَأَهلِها

سَقى العَهدَ مِنكِ العَهدُ وَالعَهدُ وَالعَهدُ

O our nights at al-Raqqatayn and with its people,

may rain, and rain, and rain water the time I knew with you!

سَحابٌ مَتى يَسحَب عَلى النَبتِ ذَيلَهُ

فَلا رَجِلٌ يَنبو عَلَيهِ وَلا جَعدُ

A cloud that, whenever it trails its skirt over the plants,

leaves neither straight nor curling growth untouched.

ضَرَبتُ لَها بَطنَ الزَمانِ وَظَهرَهُ

فَلَم أَلقَ مِن أَيّامِها عِوَضاً بَعدُ

I searched time's belly and back for their like,

but have yet to find a substitute for those days.

لَدى مَلِكٍ مِن أَيكَةِ الجودِ لَم يَزَل

عَلى كَبِدِ المَعروفِ مِن فِعلِهِ بَردُ

Beside a king from generosity's grove, there has always been

coolness from his deeds upon beneficence's liver.

رَقيقِ حَواشي الحِلمِ لَو أَنَّ حِلمَهُ

بِكَفَّيكَ ما مارَيتَ في أَنَّهُ بُردُ

Soft are the hems of his forbearance; were his forbearance

in your hands, you would not doubt it was a striped cloak.

وَذو سَورَةٍ تَفري الفَرِيَّ شَباتُها

وَلا يَقطَعُ الصَمّامُ لَيسَ لَهُ حَدُّ

He has a surging fury whose sharp points cut prodigiously;

and even a keen sword cannot cut without an edge.

وَداني الجَدا تَأتي عَطاياهُ مِن عَلٍ

وَمَنصِبُهُ وَعرٌ مَطالِعُهُ جُردُ

His bounty is close at hand; his gifts come from on high,

while his rank is rugged, its approaches bare.

فَقَد نَزَلَ المُرتادُ مِنهُ بِماجِدٍ

مَواهِبُهُ غَورٌ وَسُؤدُدُهُ نَجدُ

Thus the pasture-seeker has alighted with a noble host,

whose gifts are lowland and whose lordship is highland.

غَدا بِالأَماني لَم يُرِق ماءَ وَجهِهِ

مِطالٌ وَلَم يَقعُد بِآمالِهِ الرَدُّ

He left with wishes granted; the water of his face was not spilled

by delay, nor had refusal thwarted his hopes.

بِأَوفاهُمُ بَرقاً إِذا أَخلَفَ السَنا

وَأَصدَقِهِم رَعداً إِذا كَذَبَ الرَعدُ

With the truest of them in lightning when brightness fails its promise,

and the most truthful in thunder when thunder lies,

أَبَلِّهِم ريقاً وَكَفّاً لِسائِلٍ

وَأَنضَرِهِم وَعداً إِذا صَوَّحَ الوَعدُ

the moistest of tongue and palm toward a petitioner,

and freshest in promise when promises wither.

كَريمٌ إِذا أَلقى عَصاهُ مُخَيِّماً

بِأَرضٍ فَقَد أَلقى بِها رَحلَهُ المَجدُ

A generous man: whenever he lays down his staff to camp

in a land, glory has laid down its saddle there.

بِهِ أَسلَمَ المَعروفُ بِالشامِ بَعدَما

ثَوى مُنذُ أَودى خالِدٌ وَهوَ مُرتَدُّ

Through him, beneficence embraced Islam in al-Sham after

it had lain apostate ever since Khalid perished.

فَتىً لا يَرى بُدّاً مِنَ البَأسِ وَالنَدى

وَلا شَيءَ إِلّا مِنهُ غَيرَهُما بُدٌّ

A young man who sees no escape from valor and generosity,

and sees everything besides those two as dispensable.

حَبيبٌ بَغيضٌ عِندَ راميكَ عَن قِلىً

وَسَيفٌ عَلى شانيكَ لَيسَ لَهُ غِمدٌ

Habib is hated by whoever shoots at you out of loathing,

and is a sword against your hater, without a sheath.

وَكَم أَمطَرَتهُ نَكبَةٌ ثُمَّ فُرِّجَت

وَلِلَّهِ في تَفريجِها وَلَكَ الحَمدُ

How often has misfortune rained upon him, then been dispelled!

To God and to you belongs the praise for dispelling it.

وَكَم كانَ دَهراً لِلحَوادِثِ مُضغَةً

فَأَضحَت جَميعاً وَهيَ عَن لَحمِهِ دُردُ

How long he was a morsel for calamities,

until all of them became toothless against his flesh!

تُصارِعُهُ لَولاكَ كُلُّ مُلِمَّةٍ

وَيَعدو عَلَيهِ الدَهرُ مِن حَيثُ لا يَعدو

But for you, every disaster would wrestle him,

and time would assail him from where it never assails.

تَوَسَّطتَ مِن أَبناءِ ساسانَ هَضبَةً

لَها الكَنَفُ المَحلولُ وَالسَنَدُ النَهدُ

You hold the central height among the sons of Sasan,

its shelter open, its slope towering.

بِحَيثُ اِنتَمَت زُرقُ الأَجادِلِ مِنهُمُ

عُلُوّاً وَقامَت عَن فَرائِسِها الأُسدُ

Where their blue-eyed falcons have soared

aloft, and lions have risen from their prey.

أَلَم تَرَ أَنَّ الجَفرَ جَفرَكَ في العُلى

قَريبُ الرِشاءِ لا جَرورٌ وَلا ثَمدُ

Do you not see that the broad well—your well amid the heights—

has a short bucket-rope, neither deep nor scant of water?

إِذا صَدَرَت عَنهُ الأَعاجِمُ كُلُّها

فَأَوَّلُ مَن يُروى بِهِ بَعدَها الأَزدُ

When all the non-Arabs depart from it watered,

the first to drink their fill there after them are the Azd.

لَهُم بِكَ فَخرٌ لا الرِبابُ تُرِبُّهُ

بِدَعوى وَلَم تَسعَد بِأَيّامِهِ سَعدُ

Through you they have a glory that al-Ribab cannot claim

by assertion, nor has Sa'd rejoiced in its days.

وَكَم لَكَ عِندي مِن يَدٍ مُستَهِلَّةٍ

عَلَيَّ وَلا كُفرانَ عِندي وَلا جَحدُ

How many a hand of yours I have known, pouring rain

upon me! I harbor neither ingratitude nor denial.

يَدٌ يُستَذَلُّ الدَهرُ في نَفَحاتِها

وَيَخضَرُّ مِن مَعروفِها الأُفقُ الوَردُ

A hand in whose gusts of bounty time is humbled,

and whose kindness turns the rose-red horizon green.

وَمِثلِكَ قَد خَوَّلتُهُ المَدحَ جازِياً

وَإِن كُنتَ لا مِثلٌ إِلَيكَ وَلا نِدُّ

I have granted praise in recompense to one like you,

though you have neither equal nor peer.

نَظَمتُ لَهُ عِقداً مِنَ الشِعرِ تَنضُبُ ال

بِحارُ وَما داناهُ مِن حَليِها عِقدُ

I strung him a necklace of verse; drained dry are the

seas, yet no necklace of their jewels has matched it.

تَسيرُ مَسيرَ الشَمسِ مُطَّرَفاتُها

وَما السَيرُ مِنها لا العَنيقُ وَلا الوَخدُ

Its choice new verses travel the course of the sun,

yet their travel is neither a brisk pace nor a camel's trot.

تَروحُ وَتَغدو بَل يُراحُ وَيُغتَدى

بِها وَهيَ حَيرى لا تَروحُ وَلا تَغدو

They travel dusk and dawn—rather, people travel dusk and dawn

with them, while they, bewildered, travel neither dusk nor dawn.

تُقَطِّعُ آفاقَ البِلادِ سَوابِقاً

وَما اِبتَلَّ مِنها لا عِذارٌ وَلا خَدُّ

They cross the horizons of lands as racing steeds,

yet neither cheek-strap nor cheek of theirs grows wet.

غَرائِبُ ما تَنفَكُّ فيها لُبانَةٌ

لِمُرتَجِزٍ يَحدو وَمُرتَجِلٍ يَشدو

Rare marvels, in which there is ever something to desire

for a rajaz-chanter driving camels and an improviser singing.

إِذا حَضَرَت ساحَ المُلوكِ تُقُبِّلَت

عَقائِلُ مِنها غَيرُ مَلموسَةٍ مُلدُ

When they enter kings' courts, there are welcomed

noble maidens among them, untouched and supple.

أُهينَ لَها ما في البُدورِ وَأُكرِمَت

لَدَيهِم قَوافيها كَما يُكرَمُ الوَفدُ

For them, the treasure in money-bags is held cheap, and

their rhymes are honored before kings as a delegation is honored.