أبصرت عيني عشاء ضوء نار — عدي بن زيد

أَبصَرَت عَيني عشَاءً ضَوءَ نَارِ

مِن سَناها عَرفُ هِنديٍّ وغارِ

My eye saw firelight at nightfall.

From its glow came the fragrance of Indian aloeswood and laurel.

أَرَّثَت في عَرَفٍ مَوقِدَها

فأَضاءَت لَمعَ كَفٍّ بِسِوارِ

She kindled her hearth amid fragrance,

So it shone with the gleam of a bracelet-bearing hand.

مَيُّ إنيِّ بِكُمُ مُرتَهَنٌ

غيرَ ما أَكذِبُ نَفسي وأُماري

Mayy, I am held in pledge to you,

Without deceiving myself or disputing it.

أَبلِغِ النُّعمانَ عَنِّي مَالُكاً

أَنَّهُ قَد طالَ حبَسي وانتظاري

Convey to al-Nuʿmān a message from me,

That my imprisonment and waiting have grown long.

لَو بغَيرِ الماءِ حَلقي شَرِقٌ

كُنتُ كالغَصَّانِ بالماءِ اعتِصاري

Were my throat choking on anything other than water,

Like one choking, I would find relief in water.

لَيتَ شِعري عَن دَخيلٍ يَفتَري

حَيثُما أَدرَكَ لَيلي ونَهاري

Would that I knew about an interloper who fabricates lies,

Wherever he reaches into my night and day.

قاعِداً يَكرُبُ نَفسي بَثُّها

وحَراماً كانَ سِجني واحتِصاري

As I sit, my soul is oppressed by its grief,

And my imprisonment and confinement were unlawful.

أَجلَ نُعمَى رَبَّها أَولُكُم

ودُنُوِّي كانَ مِنكُم واصطِهاري

Because of a favor your forebear nurtured,

And because I was close to you and kin by marriage;

أَجلَ أَنَّ اللهَ قَد فَضَّلَكُم

فَوقَ مَن أَحكَأَ صُلباً بإِزارِ

Because God has favored you

Above all who gird their loins with a waistcloth.

نَحنُ كُنَّا قَد عَلمِتُم قَبلَكُم

عُمُدَ الَبيتِ وأَوتادَ الإِصارِ

We were before you, as you well know,

The pillars of the tent and the stakes of its ropes.

نُحسِنُ الهِنءَ إذا استَهنَأتَنا

ودفِاعاً عَنكَ بالأََيدي الكِبارِ

We give generously when you ask us for gifts,

And defend you with mighty hands.

وأَبُوكَ الَمرءُ لَم يُشنَا بِهِ

يَومَ سِمَ الخَسفَ مِنَّا ذُو الخَسارِ

And your father was a man not hated for it,

The day the unfortunate man among us was subjected to humiliation.

وعِداتي شَمِتَت أَعجَبَهُمُ

أَنَّني غُيِّبتُ عَنهُم في أَسار

And my enemies gloated; it pleased them

That I was hidden away from them in bondage

لاِمرِئٍ لَم يَبلُ مِنِّي سَقطَةً

إن أَصابَتهُ مُلِمَّاتُ العِثارِ

To a man who never knew a failing on my part,

If misfortunes ever made him stumble.

فَلئِن دَهري تَوَلَّى خَيرُهُ

وَجَرت بِالشَّرِّ لي مِنهُ الَجواري

Yet if my fortune's goodness has departed,

And its currents have flowed with evil for me,

لَبِمَا أَلهُو بِخَودٍ كاعِبٍ

تَمَلأُ العَينَ عَنِ الفُحشِ نَوارِ

Surely, often I have dallied with a tender, budding-breasted maiden,

Who fills the eye, chaste and far from lewdness.

رُبَّ دَهرٍ قَد تَمَتَّعتُ بها

وقَصَرت اليَومَ في بَيتِ عِذاري

Many a time I have taken delight in her,

And made the day seem short in my house of revelry,

بَسمَاعٍ يَأذَنُ الشَّيخُ لَهُ

وحَديثٍ مِثلِ ماذِيٍّ مُشارِ

With singing to which the old man listens,

And talk like pure white honey drawn from the comb.

فَقَضَينا حاجَةً مِن لَذَّةٍ

وحَيَاةُ الُمرءِ كالشَّيءِ الُمعارِ

So we satisfied our desire for pleasure,

And a man's life is like a thing on loan.

لَثِقِ الرِّيشِ تَدَلَّى غُدوَةً

مِن أَعَالي صَعبَةِ الَمرقَى طِمارِ

Sodden-feathered, it descended at daybreak

From the heights of a lofty crag, hard to climb.