دمع تحدر في انسيابه — Al Ahnaf Alakbari

دمع تحدّر في انسيابه

من جفن مكتئب لما به

Tears streamed down in their flow

from the eyelid of one dejected by his plight.

يبكي أسى لنوائب

نزلت فغرّد عن ثقابه

He weeps in sorrow for calamities

that befell him, so he sang of his fire.

أنساه أيام الشبا

ب وما تقضّى من خطابه

He was made to forget the days of youth

and his bygone discourse

خطب ألمّ فأقبلت

نوب المنايا في جنابه

by a calamity that struck; then came

death's visitations to his side.

شابت ذوائب لمّتي

والفقر يمرح في شبابه

The tresses of my hair have turned gray,

while poverty frolics in its youth.

فقر مقيم طارق

أصبحت أبكي من عذابه

Abiding poverty, a visitor at night—

I have come to weep from its torment.

وغلاء سعر قاتل

في كل يوم بانقلابه

And a deadly rise in prices,

with their fluctuations every day.

وزمانه قد قصّرت

أملي فقصّر عن طلابه

And chronic infirmity has curtailed

my hope, so it falls short of its quest.

وتكسب قد شفني

ما فيه من ذل اكتسابه

And seeking a livelihood has wasted me,

with the humiliation involved in earning it.

والغيث يهطل دائبا

عن غيمه وحيا ضبابه

And the rain pours incessantly

from its clouds and the showers of its mists.

محن قد اجتمعت على

حر تحيّر في اغترابه

Trials have gathered upon

a freeborn man bewildered in his exile.

لو أنها حطت على

أحد لعاثت في هضابه

Had they descended upon

Uhud, they would have ravaged its heights.

فغر الزمان علي فا

ه وعضّني حنقا بنابه

Time opened its mouth against me

and angrily bit me with its fang.

ثمّ انتضى سهما عليّ

فقد تمكن في ركابه

Then it drew an arrow against me,

for it had braced itself firmly in its stirrups.

ففررت منه إلى فتى

ما خاب معتصم ببابه

So I fled from it to a young man

at whose door no seeker of refuge is disappointed.

في ساعة يحفو الفتى

فيها أخاه على مصابه

At an hour when a man withholds aid

from his brother amid his misfortune,

ويضنّ مسؤول النوا

ل ولو بكوز من شرابه

and one asked for bounty begrudges

even a mugful of his own drink.

فوجدته مستهدفا

لي قد أمنت من احتجابه

I found him openly accessible

to me—I had no fear of his shutting me out—

متعرّضا لحوائج ال

إخوان ماض في احتسابه

offering himself to meet the needs of the

brothers, steadfast in seeking divine reward.

اسمع أبا عبد الإل

ه مقال مثن في صوابه

Listen, Abu Abd al-Ilah,

to the words of one whose praise is true.

جدواك أنفع من جدا

غيث تحادر في انسيابه

Your bounty is more beneficial than the bounty

of rain cascading in its flow.

لما أضرّ الغيث بي

بدوامه وحيا سحابه

When the rain harmed me

with its persistence and its clouds' showers,

كتب الغياث عليه لي

ولأمت أمري في انشعابه

relief against it was decreed for me,

and you mended my affairs amid their disarray.

وكفيتني ثوب الزما

ن مع الوقوف على كلابه

And you spared me the garment of Time,

as well as standing before its dogs.

فملكت شكر ملدّد

وجمعت أجرك في ثوابه

Thus you won a harried man's gratitude

and secured your recompense in the reward for it.

أصدرته متنكبا

بوروده لا من إيابه

You sent him away safe from harm

through his coming, not through his return,

فرحا يكاد مشاشه

يبتلّ رشحا في ثيابه

so joyful that his very joints almost

grew moist with sweat beneath his clothes.

نفسي فداؤك من أخ

حدب يغار على صحابه

My soul be your ransom—what a brother,

tenderhearted and protective of his companions!

ما استميحك برّما

أقرضت من غيث ذهابه

I do not ask you for the gift of what

you lent, or for the rain's departure [syntax unclear];

بل استميحك فيه تأ

جيرا على استصعابه

rather, I ask you for recompense concerning it

for its stubborn resistance.