Sol 6.1

  1. أين ابتسامُكَ يا حبيبي

    فالثلج أقسى من مَشيبي

    Where is your smile, my beloved?

    For snow is harsher than my gray hair.

  2. في غُربتي لهفانُ أس

    ألُ عنك كل هوىً غريبِ

    In my exile, yearning, I ask

    every unfamiliar love about you.

  3. هيمانُ أنظر للسما

    ءِ فلا ترد على وجيبي

    Love-bewildered, I look to the sky,

    but it does not answer my heartbeat.

  4. ماتت أشعتها كمو

    ت الثلج في كَفنٍ رهيبِ

    Its rays have died, like the death

    of snow within a dreadful shroud.

  5. وغدت مناحتها مناح

    حةَ كلُ مغتربٍ كئيبِ

    Its mourning has become the mourning

    of every melancholy exile.

  6. ما لي وقد خُلقَ التف

    اؤل من حناني كالمريبِ

    Why am I—though optimism was born

    of my tenderness—like one beset by doubt?

  7. ما لي أُرجِّعُ آهتي

    سهمانَ كالروض الجديبِ

    Why do I echo my sigh,

    wan as a barren meadow?

  8. ما لي ظمئتُ وكُّل ما

    حولي مناهلُ للقلوبِ

    Why am I thirsty, when everything

    around me is a watering place for hearts:

  9. من كلّ فنٍ عبقر

    يٍ للمحِّب وللحبيبِ

    every work of inspired art

    for lover and beloved,

  10. خلقته آلهةُ الجما

    لِ لكلّ ذى وترٍ عجيبِ

    created by the deities of beauty

    for everyone with a wondrous string?

  11. وَحَبت فؤادي فوقَ مر

    جِّو المؤصَّل والجنيبِ

    And they endowed my heart beyond the hopes

    of the well-born and the outsider.

  12. مالي أُعُّب ولا أَبُ

    ل ظَماءَ روحي يا حبيبي

    Why do I drink deeply, yet cannot quench

    my soul's thirst, my beloved?

  13. وَعَلامَ تَسآلي وحو

    لي في الطبيعةِ من نحيبي

    And why my questioning, when around

    me nature holds my sobbing,

  14. ومنَ الأَسى لَفراقِ آ

    ياتِ الربيع المستجيبِ

    and grief at parting from the signs

    of the answering spring,

  15. ومنَ العذابِ بكل جا

    رحةِ لصمت العندليب

    and anguish in every limb

    at the nightingale's silence,

  16. ومن التجهم للغيو

    م بَدَت كأسرارِ الغيوبِ

    and the frowning of the clouds

    that appeared like secrets of the unseen?

  17. رضوانُ ناداني لجن

    تك الزكيةِ يا حبيبي

    Ridwan called me to your paradise,

    so pure, my beloved.

  18. حاشاهُ أن يَنسى عَذا

    بي من عنائِكَ أو لهيبي

    Far be it from him to forget my torment,

    from your suffering, or my burning,

  19. وَدَمي على شعري الجري

    حِ دميِ على الشَّفق الخضيبِ

    and my blood upon my wounded verse,

    my blood upon the blood-red twilight.

  20. ما قيمةُ الجنَّاتِ في

    داجٍ من البطِش العصيبِ

    What are paradises worth within

    a dark night of savage oppression?

  21. ليست وإن نُسبت إلي

    ك بها لسحرك غيرُ طيبِ

    Though they are ascribed to you, they hold

    nothing of your enchantment but a fragrance,

  22. ذكى بقايا من جلا

    لٍ غابَ في المجدِ السليبِ

    sweet-scented—remnants of a majesty

    lost amid plundered glory.

  23. يا قلما ألقى المدَا

    فِع عنه في وجه الخطوب

    O pen that hurled its defender

    into the face of calamities!

  24. يا قلما يَأسَى وذا

    كَ أساىَ جبَّاراً مُذيبي

    O pen that grieves—and that grief is

    my own, overpowering and melting me away!

  25. يا قلما ضَحَّى وقد حُمَ

    ملتُ من رُزئي صليبي

    O pen that sacrificed, while I was made

    to bear my cross through my affliction!

  26. كمَ من تَمسَّح في الوفا

    ءِ ممثلاً زُهد الخطيب

    How many have put on a show of fidelity,

    acting out a preacher's asceticism,

  27. ووفاؤهم هو للحطا

    م الدّونِ والصَّلفِ الخلوبِ

    yet their loyalty is to the paltry

    goods of this world and beguiling arrogance!

  28. وطنيةٌ ملءُ اللسا

    نِ تُشامُ أو ملءُ الجيوب

    Patriotism fills the tongue,

    to be sniffed out—or fills the pockets.

  29. غَلبت منافعهم علي

    هم والنِّفاقُ على ضروبِ

    Their interests have overpowered

    them, and hypocrisy takes many forms.

  30. متهالكينَ على التظا

    هُرِ وهو كالفجرِ الكذُوبِ

    They throw themselves into pretence,

    which is like the false dawn,

  31. متآمرينَ على المواه

    بِ عُوقبت مِثلَ الذنوب

    conspiring against talents

    punished like sins.

  32. فاستهزوَؤا بالشعرِ وا

    لأدب اللبُّابِ واللبيبِ

    They mocked poetry and

    substantial literature, and the discerning person.

  33. وتفننوا في كلّ تز

    ويرٍ على حق الأريب

    They excelled in every kind of falsification

    against the discerning person's rights,

  34. وكأنمَّا التاريخُ والأح

    داثُ نَدَّت عن حسيبِ

    as though history and events

    had escaped all reckoning,

  35. وكأنّما الوطنُ الغبي

    نُ مراتعُ العبث الجليبش

    as though the wronged homeland

    were pastures for imported frivolity,

  36. وكأنّما الَّدخلاءُ أه

    لُ البيتِ من كلّ الشعوبِ

    and as though outsiders were the people

    of the house, from every nation.

  37. عابوا علىَّ تغربّي

    وأنا ببعدي كالتريب

    They faulted me for living abroad,

    while far away I am like a pauper.

  38. لكن غناىَ غنىً لرو

    حس لا تُفاخِرُ بالعيوبِ

    Yet mine is the wealth of a soul

    that does not boast of faults;

  39. صَلواتُها للموطنِ ال

    عانيً بأنواع الكروبِ

    its prayers are for the homeland

    suffering every kind of anguish.

  40. ما كنتُ نَاسيهث ولا المق

    دامُ بالثَّلبِ المعيبِ

    I have never forgotten it, nor am I one

    to rush into shameful slander:

  41. مَن لا يضحىّ بالمبا

    دىءِ وهو في بؤسِ الحريب

    one who does not sacrifice principles,

    though suffering the misery of the despoiled,

  42. بل يَحسبُ الخسرانَ إج

    لالاً على رغمِ الحسيبِ

    but counts loss as honor,

    despite the reckoner.

  43. يا ليتني ذاكَ الخبي

    رُ بكلِّ آياتِ الطبيب

    Would that I were that expert

    in every sign of the physician!

  44. يا ليتني من يستطي

    عُ اعادةَ المجدِ المهيبِ

    Would that I were one who could

    restore that awe-inspiring glory!

  45. قد ضاعَ بين الهازل

    ين من الحسيب إلى النسيبِ

    It has been lost among jesters,

    from the man of standing to the highborn.

  46. قد ذاقَ من نفيي وشا

    خَ ودبَّ في نفىٍ دبيبي

    It has tasted my exile and grown

    old, creeping in banishment as I creep.

  47. أكرم بنبلكَ يا أد

    يبٌ تاقَ للحرِّ الأديبِ

    How noble your spirit, O writer

    who longed for the free writer,

  48. وَأبى لمثلى الاغترا

    بَ فباتُ يشغلهُ أبيبي

    and would not accept exile for one like me,

    so my longing to return preoccupied him!

  49. هَون عليكَ فكُّل أر

    ضٍ أو سماءٍ من نَصيبي

    Be easy on yourself: every land

    or sky is part of my allotted share.

  50. هيهاتَ يسجنني نطا

    قٌ للغريب أو القريبِ

    No bounds can ever imprison me,

    whether a stranger's or a kinsman's.

  51. ولقد أعيشُ بعالَمٍ

    هو من خيالي أو نسيبي

    Indeed, I may live in a world

    made from my imagination or my love-poetry,

  52. مُستصغراً ذاك التنا

    حُرَ للزَّعيمِ وللنقيبِ

    disdaining that mutual strife

    for the leader and the chief.

  53. فَرضاَ على الأدباءِ

    اذلال المبايِعِ والمنيب

    The two imposed upon writers

    the abasement of allegiance and submission,

  54. وتمرَّغا في حمأ

    ةٍ مفضوحةٍ للمستريبِ

    and both wallowed in a mire

    exposed to every doubting eye.

  55. مالي وهذا الخبثَ شُ

    غلاً لابن آوى أوِ لذِيبِ

    What have I to do with this foulness, work

    for a jackal or a wolf?

  56. مالي وساعاتي أَج

    لٌ من التطاحُن والحروبِ

    What have I to do with it? My hours are worthier

    than strife and wars,

  57. ومنَ الحياةِ وإن بَدت

    حيناً كفاتنةٍ لعوبِ

    and than life itself, though it may appear

    at times a playful enchantress.

  58. رُوحي بإيحائي وما عُم

    رِي سوى لحنىِ وطيبي

    My spirit is in my inspiration; my life

    is only my melody and fragrance.

  59. إن سَاءَني قومي فُهم

    قومي تعالوا عن ضريبِ

    If my people hurt me, they are still

    my people, exalted beyond any equal.

  60. نقدىٍ لعَّزِتهم كَصو

    نِ التُبرِ من شَوبِ الغريب

    My criticism guards their honor as one guards

    pure gold from an alien admixture.

  61. أَخلصتهم جُهدى فَصُّ

    وني بإرهاقٍ رتيبِ

    I devoted my efforts to them; they wore

    me down with monotonous harassment.

  62. وكأنّما سُخفُ الدَّعىِ

    ى أَجلِ من فكرِ المصيبِ

    And as though the pretender's foolishness

    were loftier than the thought of one who is right!

  63. وطني حبيبي هل تَظُّ

    ن تَعمُّى هَجرِ حبيبي

    My homeland, my beloved—do you think

    my blindness means forsaking my beloved? [Text uncertain.]

  64. حاشاكَ يَا من شع

    رُهُ مَجنىً من الشَّهد الصبيب

    Far be that from you, O you whose verse

    is a harvest of freely flowing honey.

  65. أنا ما نَزَحتُ لغيره

    ما دامض في البؤسِ الرتيبِ

    For its sake alone I departed,

    while it remained in unrelenting misery,

  66. وكأنَّ مَدحَ الحاكمي

    نَ لصبره جودُ المثيبِ

    as though the rulers' praise

    for its patience were a rewarder's bounty,

  67. وكأنّما عهدُ الفراعي

    نِ استطالَ بلا رقيبِ

    and as though the age of the Pharaohs

    had stretched on without a watcher.

  68. يَرضَى الفتاتَ جوائزاً

    والموتَ كالعيشِ القشيبِ

    It accepts crumbs as rewards,

    and death as though it were a splendid life.

  69. وأظلُ عمري مَن يناِ

    فحُ دون عونٍ أو مُجيبِ

    And all my life I shall go on defending,

    without help or anyone to answer.

  70. حَسبيِ ندائي للشبا

    بِ إذا تَثاقَلَ خطوُ شيبِ

    Enough for me is my call to youth,

    when the steps of old age grow heavy.

  71. سيصونُه سمعُ الزما

    نِ وجائلُ النسَّمِ الرَّطيبِ

    Time's hearing will preserve it,

    and the wandering, moist breeze.

  72. وَلئن يُزفَّ لىَ الجحو

    د فليس بالحظِّ العجيبِ

    And if ingratitude is ushered in for me,

    it is no astonishing lot.

  73. ولئن توسَّدتُ الترا

    بَ فليس موتى كالمغيبِ

    And if I lay my head upon the dust,

    my death will not be a disappearance.

  74. ستظل أحلامي تُطوَ

    وفُ كالأشعة والطيوبِ

    My dreams will continue to roam,

    like rays of light and perfumes,

  75. ويظلِ شعري بعد أن

    فاسيِ كإلهامِ الغروب

    and my verse will endure beyond my breaths,

    like the inspiration of sunset.