أوجست من جمر بخدك ساطع — Alarjani

أَوجستُ من جَمرٍ بخَدِّكِ ساطعٍ

خوفاً على بَرَدٍ بثَغرِك ناصعِ

I felt dread at the embers blazing in your cheek,

fearing for the bright white hailstones in your mouth.

فسلَبتُ هذا حَرَّه بأضالعي

ووَقَيْتُ ذلك ذَوبَه بمَدامعي

So I took away this one's heat with my ribs,

and protected that one from melting with my tears.

ورَضِيتُ إذ سَلِمتْ عليك مَحاسنٌ

مَفدِيّةٌ بمدامعي وأضالعي

And I was content, since your beauties remained unharmed,

ransomed by my tears and ribs.

لم أنسَ عهدَكَ يازَوردُ صبيحةً

زُرناك قبلَ نَوى الخليطِ الفاجع

I have not forgotten my encounter with you, O Zaward, that morning

we visited you before the companions' grievous departure.

وغصونُ بانِكَ في شُفوفِ غلائلٍ

وعيونُ وحشِك في خُروقِ بَراقع

Your moringa boughs were in translucent gowns,

and your gazelles' eyes in the openings of face-veils,

حتّى إذا جَدَّ الوداعُ وبيننا

سِرٌّ إلى الواشينَ ليس بذائع

until farewell grew earnest, while between us

lay a secret not divulged to the talebearers.

ما كان غيرَ إدارةٍ بحواجبٍ

تَسليمُنا وإشارةٍ بأصابع

There was nothing but a motion of eyebrows

in our greeting, and a gesture of fingers.

وغداةَ يومِ الجِزعِ قَلّبَ صابرٌ

طرْفاً فأعربَ عن ضمائرِ جازع

On the morning of the day at the valley bend, a steadfast man turned

an eye, revealing the inner feelings of one distraught.

وبدتْ بدورُ الحيِّ في أُفُقِ النَّوى

زُهْراً وهُنّ أوافلٌ كطوالع

The encampment's full moons appeared on the horizon of departure,

radiant, setting though they seemed to rise,

حتّى إذا هجَم الرقيبُ مُعارِضاً

منّا على سَرْحِ الِلّحاظِ الرّاتع

until, when the watcher burst in, intercepting

our freely grazing herd of glances,

غامتْ شموسُ وجوهِهمْ بأناملٍ

مطَرتْ غَمامتُها بدَمعٍ هامع

the suns of their faces grew clouded behind fingertips,

whose cloud rained streaming tears.

فبِكَمْ أَلَذُّ إذا رحيلٌ مانِحٌ

زاداً لِعينِكَ من مُقامٍ مانع

How much sweeter, then, is departure when it grants

provisions for your eye, than a stay that withholds them!

فَتكاتُ نابلةِ العيونِ عجيبةٌ

فاشْهَدْ وقائعَها بقلبٍ دارع

The deadly assaults of archer-eyes are wondrous;

so witness their battles with an armored heart.

لمّا رأتْ سَلْمى ظلامَ مطالبي

ما إن يُجلِّيه ضياءُ ذَرائعي

When Salma saw the darkness over my pursuits,

which the light of my means could not dispel,

وملوكُ أرضٍ حينَ عِفْتُ جِوارَهمْ

من جَورهمْ لم أُبْدِ صَفحةَ خاضع

and the kings of a land, when I loathed dwelling near them

for their tyranny, without showing a submissive face—

وإذا فَسادُ العُضْوِ أصبحَ زائداً

لم يَشْفَ منه غيرُ كَفِّ القاطع

and when a limb's corruption grows worse,

nothing cures it but the hand that cuts it off—

قالتْ لتُسمِعَني ولم أك مُرْعياً

لمُروِّعٍ يا صاح سَمْعَ الخاشع

she spoke to make me hear, though I was not lending

a submissive ear to an intimidator, my friend:

صانِعْ عدوّكَ تُكْفَه ومَنِ الّذي

للأعداءِ غيرَ مُصانع

Placate your enemy and be spared him; who

does not placate his enemies?

ودَعِ التّناهيَ في للعُلا

فلم أرَ مثْلَ عِزِّ القانع

And abandon going to extremes in pursuit of eminence,

for I have seen nothing like the dignity of the contented.

فبسابعِ الأفلاكِ لم يَحلُلْ سوى

زُحَلٍ ومَجْرَى الشمسِ وَسْطَ الرّابع

In the seventh celestial sphere none has settled but

Saturn, while the sun's course lies midway through the fourth.

فأَجَبْتُها ومن الخُطوبِ لَو أنّنِي

عند الخطوبِ أقولُ قولةَ ضارع

I answered her—and it would be a calamity if I

uttered a supplicant's words amid calamities:

تأْبَى مُقاميَ يا أُميمُ حوادثٌ

للدّهْرِ يَهزأُ خَرقُها بالراقع

My staying is forbidden, O Umaym, by calamities

of time, whose rents mock the patcher.

وأَلِيّتي مهما نَبا بي مَنزِلٌ

لا مَسَّ رَحْلَ مَطِيّتي يَدُ واضع

And I swear: whenever a lodging repels me,

no hand shall touch my mount's saddle to take it down.

كم ليلةٍ فَتقَ الجفونَ ظلامُها

منّي وخاطَ من الخَلِيِّ الهاجع

How many a night whose darkness pried my eyelids open

and stitched shut those of a carefree sleeper!

ليلاءَ يُمسي النّجمُ وهْو مُسامري

في جُنحِها والنّصْلُ وهْو مُضاجعي

Pitch-dark, with the star as my evening companion

beneath its wing, and the blade as my bedfellow,

في فِتيةٍ مُتوسِّدينَ لأذرعٍ

من ناجياتٍ للفلاةِ ذَوارع

among young men who pillow their heads on the forelegs

of fleet she-camels striding across the wilderness.

أبداً تَهاداني البلادُ تَهادِياً

كالنّجمِ بينَ مَغاربٍ ومَطالع

The lands forever give me to one another as a gift,

like a star between settings and risings.

فكأنّما أنا بيتُ شِعْرٍ سائرٍ

وكأنّما هي مُصغياتُ مَسامع

So it is as though I were a traveling line of verse,

and they were attentive, listening ears—

مِمّا به مُدِحَ الوزيرُ فلم يزَلْ

يُهدِيه دانٍ في البلادِ الشاسع

one of the verses praising the vizier, forever

sent by one nearby to one far off across the lands.

ومَديحُنا لكَ تاجُ رأْسِ القائلِ الْ

مُثْنِي عليك وقُرْطُ أُذْنِ السّامع

And our praise of you is a crown on the speaker's head—

the one extolling you—and an earring for the listener's ear.

نُعماكَ كالأطواقِ شاملةُ الوَرَى

والخَلْقُ فيها كالحمام السّاجع

Your blessings embrace all mankind like neck-rings,

and people within them are like cooing doves.

تُسدَى إليهم لا تزالُ صنائعٌ

لجَلالِ دين اللهِ بعد صنائع

Favors are bestowed on them unceasingly

from the Glory of God's Faith, favor upon favor.

أمّا الوِزارةُ فهْي كانتْ عانِساً

طلَباً لكُفْؤٍ للمفاخرِ جامع

As for the vizierate, it had remained a spinster,

seeking a worthy match who united noble distinctions.

كم رُمِّلتْ من أنْفِ خاطبِ مَعشرٍ

بدَمٍ ولم تُغْرَرْ بخِدْعةِ خادع

How often, from a clan's suitor's nose, she was stained

with blood, yet never duped by a deceiver's trick!

قُدعَتْ أُنوفُ الخاطبِينَ لها إلى

أنْ عنَّ فَحْلٌ لا يَذِلٌ لقادع

The noses of those who courted her were struck back, until

a stallion appeared who would submit to no restrainer.

فاستَشْفَعوا فأبَتْ وأنت أبَيْتَها

حتّى أتتْكَ لها بأوجَهِ شافع

They sought intercession, but she refused; you too refused her,

until she came to you with her most honored intercessor.

إنّ الزّمانَ لباخلٌ فإذا سخَا

يوماً أتَى من جُودِه ببدائع

Time is miserly indeed; but when it is generous

for a day, it brings marvels from its bounty.

خَلُّوا الفلا لأبي عَليٍّ فالعُلا

حَقٌّ له من دونِ كُلِّ مُنازع

Leave the wilderness to Abu Ali, for eminence

is his right, to the exclusion of every rival.

خُتِمَتْ به الوزراءُ خَتْم جَلالةٍ

من كُلِّ ذي سَبْقٍ بذِكْرٍ شائع

With him the viziers received a final seal of majesty—

all predecessors of widespread renown.

وأتَى عظيمُ غِنائه من بَعدِهمْ

وكذا أمامَ الجيشِ بَعْثُ طلائع

And his mighty service came after them,

just as scouts are sent ahead of the army.

ولَئنْ تأخَّر وارداً وتَقدَّموا

فَرَطاً له من مُبْطئٍ ومُسارع

Though he arrived later and they went ahead

as his forerunners, slow and swift alike,

فالفَجرُ يَطلُع كاذباً أو صادِقاً

ما زال قُدّامَ النّهارِ الماتع

the dawn, rising false or true,

has always come before the day at its height.

هولُجّةُ الكَرمِ الّذي مِن قَبلِه

كانوا أوائلَ مَوجِها المُتَدافع

He is the deep sea of generosity, before whom

they were the first surges of its tumbling waves.

فَلْيَهْنِ آفاقَ السِّيادة أنّها

نَجَمتْ ثَنيّتُها ببَدْرٍ طالع

Let the horizons of lordship rejoice that

a rising full moon has appeared above their mountain pass.

في حُسنِه أبداً وفي إحسانِه

نُزَهٌ تَلَذُّ لِمُبْصِرٍ ولسامع

In his beauty, always, and in his beneficence

are delights pleasing to the eye and ear.

وصَل العلاءَ له بدولةِ هاشمٍ

سَببانِ لا عَلِقَتْهُما يَدُ قاطع

His eminence was joined to the dynasty of Hashim

by two bonds—may no severing hand ever seize them!

شَرفانِ من قُرْبٍ ومن قُرْبَى له

جُمِعا كنَظْمِ اللُّؤْلُؤِ المُتَتابع

Two honors, of closeness and of kinship, were his,

joined like pearls strung one after another.

أُفُقٌ سِماكاه ونَسْراه عُلاً

ما منهما مِن أَعزَلٍ أَو واقع

A horizon whose two Simaks and two Eagles stand high,

none among them unarmed or fallen.

قُلْ للأفاضلِ غِثْتُمُ ما شئتُمُ

فثِقوا لِغُلّتِكمْ بِرِىٍّ ناقع

Tell the worthy: you have rain as much as you wish;

so trust in a draught that fully quenches your thirst,

مُتفيِّئينَ ظلالَ أَبيضَ ماجدٍ

عن رِفْدِه بالعُذْرِ غَيرِ مُمانع

sheltering beneath the shade of a radiant, noble man

who never withholds his bounty behind excuses.

خِرْقٌ مواهبُ كفِّه ولسانهِ

تأْتي بغيْرِ وسائلٍ وشوافع

A masterful man, whose hand's and tongue's gifts

come without means of approach or intercessors.

ثَبْتٌ إذا طاشَ الحُلومُ كأنّما

في عَقْدِ حُبْوتهِ جُنوبُ مُتالع

Steadfast when minds reel, as though

Mutali's flanks lay in the knot of his knee-wrap.

لمّا غدا وَزَرَ الخِلافةِ رأْيُه

مدَّ الزّمانُ إليه كفَّ مُبايع

When his counsel became the caliphate's refuge,

time stretched toward him the hand of one pledging allegiance.

وأطاعَه الدهرُ العَصيُّ ولم يكُنْ

من قبْلِه الدَّهرُ العصِيُّ بطائع

And unruly time obeyed him; never

before him had unruly time been obedient.

توقيعُه في الكُتْبِ من أقلامِه

يُغْنِى الكتائبَ عن شهودِ وَقائع

His endorsement in documents, traced by his pens,

spares battalions the need to witness battles

في مأْزِقٍ قد جَنّ ليلُ قَتامِه

فالخيلُ فيه ناصِباتُ سوامع

in a strait where the night of its dust has fallen,

and horses stand with ears pricked.

وسرَتْ تَهاوىَ بينهمْ شُهُبُ الظُّبَي

رَجْماً بهِنّ لنَحْرِ كلِّ مُقارع

The shooting stars of blades darted down among them,

hurled at the throat of every challenger.

يَرْدِى به نَهْدٌ كأنّ لَبانَه

في الرَّوعِ قِبلةُ كلِّ رمحٍ راكع

A sturdy steed gallops with him, as though its breast

in battle were the qibla of every bowing spear.

ويَهزُّ مَصقولَ الحديدةِ ماضياً

كوَميضِ بَرقٍ في الغمامةِ لامع

And he brandishes polished iron, keen-edged,

like the gleam of lightning flashing in a cloud.

أعميدَ دولةِ هاشمٍ ما عُدَّتي

إلاّ رَجاؤك والخُطوبُ روائعي

O pillar of Hashim's dynasty, I have no resource

but hope in you, while calamities terrify me.

لولاك يا بَحْرَ المكارمِ لم يكُنْ

عَهْدُ النّدى أبدَ الزّمانِ براجع

Without you, O sea of noble deeds, there could be

no return of the age of bounty for all time.

يا ماجداً عمَّ الورَى إفضالُه

وازدادَ في الفُضَلاءِ حُسْنَ مَواقع

O noble man whose bounty embraces all mankind

and grows still more gracious in its effects upon the worthy,

دُمْ للمكارمِ والمعالي باسِطاً

يَدَ ضائرٍ لذوي العِنادِ ونافع

remain for noble deeds and high honors, extending

a hand that harms the obstinate and brings benefit.

واسْعَدْ بدَهْرٍ قد عَلِمتَ بأنّه

ما الحُرُّ فيه إذا سَلِمْتَ بضائع

And prosper in an age you know to be one

in which no noble man is lost, so long as you are safe.