هدى سرت لا عينا منعت ولا أذنا — أحمد الكاشف

هدىً سرت لا عيناً منعتِ ولا أذنا

أحاديثكِ الحسنى ومطلعك الأسنى

Huda, you journeyed, denying neither eye nor ear

your lovely words and your most radiant appearance.

ذكرت بك الزهراءَ وهي ظعينةٌ

تحفُّ قريشٌ ركبَها الطهرَ والظعنا

Through you I remembered al-Zahra as she traveled in her litter,

Quraysh surrounding her pure caravan and the women in litters.

ركبت إلى المجد السفينةَ سمحةً

وسوف تقود السمحة ابنتك السفنا

You boarded the ship toward glory, gracious of spirit,

and your gracious daughter will one day steer the ships.

تظُلُّك أعلام البلادِ خوافقاً

وقد عانقتها الوافدات وقبَّلْنَ

The country's banners shade you, fluttering,

and the women delegates have embraced and kissed them.

تغربتِ في العيد الذي اعتاد مثله

جلالك والمعروفَ والرفق واليمنا

You spent the feast abroad—a feast whose like was accustomed to

your noble presence, beneficence, gentleness, and blessing.

خطبتِ فكانت حجةَ النسوة التي

طلبن بها ما للرجال وأدركن

You spoke, and your speech became the women's argument through which

they sought what men possessed and attained it.

رواها فأغلاها الزمان وشارفتْ

بها أممُ الغرب ابنةَ المشرقِ الأدنى

Time recounted it and made it precious; and there drew near,

through it, the nations of the West to the daughter of the Near East.

ولو لم تصوغِيها كلاماً لكان من

وقارِك معنىً ليس يبلغه معنى

Even had you not cast it into words, there would have arisen from

your dignity a meaning no other meaning could reach.

فما عدتِ حتى أعجبت كل أمة

بقومك وارتد العدوُّ لهم خدنا

So you did not return until you had impressed every nation

with your people, and their enemy had become their close friend.

ومثَّلتهم في كل واد ملائكاً

كراماً كما مثلتِ أرضَهم عدنا

You portrayed them in every valley as angels,

noble, just as you portrayed their land as Eden.

وما كنت في المدن التي بك رحبتْ

أقلَّ من الغازي الذي فتح المدنا

And you were not, in the cities that welcomed you,

less than the conqueror who conquered cities.

سرى البرق في الدنيا برأيك عالياً

فمن عالم أطرى ومن عالم أثنى

Lightning sped across the world, bearing your views aloft,

and one scholar extolled you, while another praised you.

رأيتكِ في المحرابِ أنقى سريرة

وأكبرت في الميدان شأوَك والشأنا

I saw you in the prayer niche, purest of heart,

and in the arena I esteemed your achievement and standing.

ولو كان في واديك عشر عقائلٍ

مثالك صرَّفن الأمورَ ودبرن

Had your valley held ten noble women

like you, they would have directed affairs and managed them.

أننسى وقد ثارت بمصرَ وأهلها

عواصفُ أفزعن الأنامَ وأزعجن

Can we forget, when there raged against Egypt and her people

storms that terrified mankind and shook them?

وسرتِ وسارتْ للجهاد حرائرٌ

إلى النار والفولاذ خلفك يتبعن

You marched, and freeborn women marched to the struggle,

into fire and steel, following behind you.

فكم قابلتِ عز الوجوه مواضياً

وكم لاقت الأعطاف خطارة لدنا

How often you, pride of all faces, faced keen swords,

and how often flanks met swaying, supple lances.

وربَّ شهيدٍ للحمى وشهيدةٍ

كفيتِ بما أوسيتِ أهلَهما الحزنا

Many a man and woman martyred for the homeland—

you spared their families sorrow through the comfort you gave.

فيا بنتَ سلطانٍ وأولِ واقفٍ

على مِنبرِ الشورى سموتِ أباً وابنا

O daughter of Sultan, the first to stand

on the council's rostrum—you stand exalted in father and son.

سعيتِ فأرضيتِ البلادَ وما خلت

مساعيك ممن ضلَّ فيها ومن جنَّا

You strove and pleased the country, though never free

were your efforts of those who strayed in them and those who did wrong.

وإن الذي يدعو البنوَّةَ فتنةً

خليقٌ به أن لا نقيم له وزنا

And whoever calls daughterhood a source of discord

deserves that we give him no weight.

فيا طيبَ دنياه ويا حسن دينهِ

حمى بالذي أوليتِه اعتز واستغنى

How blessed its earthly life, how fine its faith—

a homeland grown mighty and self-sufficient through what you bestowed on it!

سلاسلَ تقليدٍ وأغلالَ عادةٍ

كسرتِ ولا ضرباً شهدتِ ولا طعنا

Chains of imitation and shackles of custom

you broke, witnessing neither blows nor spear-thrusts.

محوتِ الذي خط القديم وما مضى

وجئتِ بما خط الجديد وما سنّا

You erased what the old and bygone had inscribed,

and brought what the new had written and ordained.

وما أنتِ إلا قدوة النسوةِ التي

عرفن بها حقَّ البلاد عليهن

You are nothing but the example for women, through which

they learned their country's rightful claim upon them.

وأطيب واد ما تزكَّت نساؤه

وأفضل ملك ما على خلق يبنى

The finest valley is that whose women have grown virtuous,

and the best realm is one built on good character.

ولولا نساء الحي هِجنَ رجاله

لما رفعوا رأساً ولا فتحوا جَفنا

Had the community's women not roused its men,

they would neither have raised a head nor opened an eyelid.

سلام على الحور الحسان نواهضاً

خفافاً بما أعيا الرجال وما أضنى

Peace upon the beautiful, dark-eyed women as they rise,

lightly shouldering what exhausted and wearied men.

أرى بطلاً في خلقها غادةَ الحمى

وإن أشبهتْ في خَلقها البدرَ والغصنا

I see the homeland's graceful maiden as a hero in character,

though in form she resembles the full moon and a bough.

أنخشى عليها وهي أكبر خشية

ونحرسها وهي التي تهب الأمنا

Do we fear for her, when she inspires the greatest fear,

and guard her, when she is the one who grants safety?

ونأبى عليها من خباءٍ خروجَها

وكم سيرتْ جيشاً وكم فتحت حصنا

And forbid her to leave a tent,

though she has sent forth so many armies and taken so many fortresses?

أيزهَد في الحسن السفور منزهاً

ويغري بذات الحسن إخفاؤها الحسنا

Does unveiling lessen desire for untainted beauty,

while concealing her beauty arouses desire for the beautiful woman?

وهل لامستْ شمساً يد أو تسلمت

وكم بهرت عيناً وكم شغلت ذهنا

Has a hand ever touched a sun or taken hold of it?

Yet how many eyes it has dazzled, how many minds it has occupied!

وليس الحجابُ الصائنُ الخدرَ محكماً

وليس النقابُ الحافظُ الخزَّ والقطنا

The veil that guards the secluded chamber is not impregnable,

nor is the protecting face-veil silk and cotton.

وما عفَّة الحسناءِ إلا غريزةٌ

وما كان طبع النفس علماً ولا فنّا

A beautiful woman's chastity is nothing but an instinct,

and the soul's disposition was never a science or an art.

ورب أبٍ ألقى إلى الزوج بنتَه

لما ساق بيعاً ما تمَلَّكَ أو رَهْنا

Many a father has handed his daughter to a husband

as he offered what he owned for sale or as a pledge.

فإن صانها حرصاً عليها وَغيرة

أعدَّ ولم تذنب لها بيتَه سجنا

And if he guarded her out of concern and jealousy,

he made his house a prison for her, though she had done no wrong.

تكاد لما تلقى من الرَيب عنده

تسائله في كل هاجسةٍ إذنا

Such are the suspicions she meets from him that she all but

asks his permission for every passing thought.

إذا طلبت حقاً من المرء مرأةٌ

فمن حقها أن لا يسيء بها الظنا

If a woman asks a man for a right,

it is her right that he not think ill of her.

أتصنع ما لا يملك المرء صنعَه

ويمنحها ربع الجزاء أو الثمنا

Does she accomplish what a man cannot accomplish,

yet he grants her a quarter of the reward, or an eighth?

لها ما له قولاً وفعلاً وغايةً

فلا البغيَ يلقى الجانبان ولا الغبنا

She has what he has—in speech, action, and purpose—

so neither side suffers oppression or unfair loss.

إذا كان إنسياً فإنسية له

وإن كان جنّاً أصبحت عنده جنا

If he is human, there is a human woman for him;

and if he is a jinn, she becomes a jinn beside him.

إذا عوّد الإنسان يسراهُ مثلما

تعودتْ اليمنى استوت هي واليمنى

If a person trains his left hand just as

the right was trained, it and the right become equal.

مضى مع أحبابي شبابي وصحتي

فما شاقني روضٌ ولا راقني مَغنى

My youth and health departed with my loved ones,

so no garden stirred my longing, nor any dwelling delighted me.

سلام على القلب الذي أوشك الضنى

يشاغله من بعد ما شَغَل البطنا

Peace upon the heart that wasting sickness is about

to trouble, after it has afflicted the belly.

رضيت بأن تلقى وتَفنى جوانحي

سقاماً ولا يبلى يقيني ولا يفنى

I accepted that my breast should suffer and waste away

with sickness, while my certainty neither fades nor perishes.

وعفت الرحيق السلسبيل وعدت من

دمي ودموعي أجرع المالح السخنا

I spurned sweet-flowing nectar, and once more, from

my blood and tears, I gulp a hot, salty draught.

وعودني سقمي المبيتَ على الطوى

ولو عرضوا السلوى أماميَ والمنّا

My illness accustomed me to spending the night hungry,

even if they offered quail and manna before me.

وما بيَ إلا رحمةٌ لمغرِّبٍ

أحن إلى ملقاه شوقاً كما حنا

Nothing ails me but compassion for one gone far away;

I yearn to meet him, longing as he has longed.

ولم أنسه يوماً ولم ينسني وما

ضننت عليه بالحياة ولا ضنا

I never forgot him for a day, nor did he forget me; nor

did I begrudge him my life, nor did he begrudge me his.

وكل عليل يسترد حياته

إذا ردّت الأيام ما أخذتْ منا

Every ailing person regains his life

when the days return what they took from us.