بالله ما سرت الجنوب نسيما — Alkadawi

باللّه ما سرت الجنوبُ نسيما

إلّا وأهدَت من سعاد شَميما

By God, the south wind never blew as a breeze

without bringing a fragrance from Su'ad.

أَو لاحَ برقٌ مِن تهامةَ خافق

إلّا وفجّر مَدمعيّ حَميما

Nor did flickering lightning flash from Tihamah

without making my two tear ducts gush scalding water.

خود إِذا ما لاحظَتني أوسعت

بينَ الأضالعِ كالكلومِ كلوما

A tender maiden—whenever she glances at me, she inflicts

wounds like gashes between my ribs.

وَتَبيت سالية الهَوى وأبيتُ في

ليلي لمتّقد الغرامِ غَريما

And she passes the night heedless of love, while I spend

my night a captive to passion's blaze.

كَم بتُّ في ليلي لعقربِ صدغها

وَلأرقمها السليمِ سليما

How often I lay at night, stung by her temple-lock's scorpion,

and bitten by her unscathed speckled serpent.

عِندي لَها عهدٌ عَلى طولِ النوى

وَالبينِ لَم يكُ شأنهُ مَذموما

I keep a pledge to her through long distance

and separation, a pledge that has never earned reproach.

تَهتزُّ في سكرِ الشبابِ قوامها

فَتراهُ كالغصنِ القويمِ قويما

Her figure sways in the intoxication of youth,

and you see it upright, like a straight branch.

حور مَدامِعها وسقم جفونها

وَمنَ الملاحةِ أَن يكونَ سقيما

Her eyes are dark against white, her eyelids languid;

and languor itself is a mark of beauty.

مَكحولةٌ بِالحسنِ تخجل إِن رنت

بِلِحاظِها الريم الأغنّ الريما

Kohled with beauty, when she gazes she puts to shame

with her glances the soft-voiced white gazelle.

هيفاء إِن نهَضت يجاذبُ خصرها

ردفٌ حكى الدعص الركيم ركيما

Slender-waisted, when she rises her waist is tugged by

hips like a sand dune, heaped and mounded.

ساغَت مجاجة رشفها في ريقها

فَحَكت رحيقاً طيّباً مختوما

The nectar of her kiss goes down sweetly with her saliva,

resembling a delicious, sealed wine.

يا هذهِ والحبُّ داءٌ للفتى

ما ضرَّ قلبك أَن يكون رحيما

O lady—love is an ailment for a young man—

what harm would it do your heart to be merciful?

لَم يبقِ مِن جسمي هواكَ ولم يدع

إلّا عظاماً خشّعاً وأديما

Your love has left nothing of my body, has spared nothing

but wasted bones and skin.

ما بتُّ مُذ أزمعتَ هجري ليلةً

إلّا أكابدُ حسرةً وهموما

Since you resolved to forsake me, I have spent no night

without struggling with sorrow and cares.

وَأراك يا ظميا الحَشا غادرت في

قلبي لجمرِ الوجدِ منك وشوما

And I see, O slender-waisted one, that you have left in

my heart brands from the embers of longing for you.

وَأقمت لي في روض حبّك جنّةً

وَمنَ التجافي والصدودِ جَحيما

And you have made me a paradise in the garden of your love,

and a hell from aloofness and aversion.

أَما وثغر منك أشنب يَحتوي

شهداً يسوغُ ولؤلؤاً مَنظوما

Ah, by your cool, fresh mouth, which contains

honey sweet to swallow and pearls strung in order,

إنّي على ما تعهدينَ منَ الهوى

لا حلت عنهُ ولن أزالَ مُقيما

I am steadfast in the love you know of me:

I have not turned from it, and shall forever remain.

أمهيّج الأشواقِ لي ومذكّري

عهداً جديداً للهِوى وقديما

O you who stir my longings and remind me

of days of love, both recent and long past,

لا ترث لي مِن بعدِ سفح غيرة

سفحاً ولا بعدَ الغميمِ غميما

after Ghayrah's slope, do not lament for me

any slope, nor after al-Ghamim another Ghamim.

رسمان في سوداءِ قلبي غادَرا

للظاعنين وللرسومِ رُسوما

Two ruined camps have left in my heart's dark core

imprints of those who departed and of the ruins.

كَم فيهما جرّرتُ ذيلَ شَبيبتي

وَكرعت حوضاً للهَوى مفعوما

How often in them I trailed the hem of my youth,

and drank deep from a basin brimming with love.

أيّام لَم أكُ في الهَوى مستنتجاً

فيما أحاولُ مِن هواهُ عَقيما

Days when I did not, in love, bring forth

a barren result in what I sought of my beloved's love.

وَمفازة مجهولة ما أثّرت

فيها الرَواسمُ مسلكاً مَرسوما

And an unknown desert, where no

swift-striding camels had traced a marked path,

جاوَزتُها بجلالةٍ تطوي الفلا

عوجاء تخلطُ بالوشيجِ رَسيما

I crossed on a great she-camel that folds up the wastes,

lean, blending a brisk trot with a swift pace.

مفتولة الضبعينِ تَحسبُها إذا

خاضَت بِراكبها السراب رَسيما

Corded in both upper forelegs—you would think her, when

she wades with her rider through the mirage, a sketched figure.

مُتوجّهاً تاجَ المفاخرِ حمير

مُستسقياً مِن راحتيهِ غيوما

Heading toward Himyar, the crown of glories,

seeking rain clouds from his two palms.

ملكٌ إِذا لاحَت كواكبُ فخرهِ

كشفت بنورِ ضياءِها اليَحموما

A king whose stars of glory, when they appear,

dispel the black murk with their radiant light.

وَفتىً سَمت شرفاً سماءُ فخارهِ

فَوقَ السماءِ أهلّةً ونُجوما

And a youth whose heaven of glory rises in honor

above the sky, with crescents and stars.

عمّت سياستهُ ودولةُ عدلهِ

مِن ملكهِ المخصوصِ والمعموما

His governance and the reign of his justice embrace

both the particular and the general within his realm.

لا يَشتكي عبءَ الزمانِ ولا يرى

مِن شأنهِ الخطر العظيم عَظيما

He never complains of time's burden, nor considers

a mighty peril in his affairs to be mighty.

لا العسرُ في وقتِ المغارمِ عندهُ

عسرٌ ولا الخطب الجسيم جسيما

Hardship, in times of heavy expense, is to him

no hardship; nor is a grave calamity grave.

لكَ يا اِبن يشجب في الأعادي سطوة

وسياسة تذرُ السفيه حَليما

You, O son of Yashjub, have might against your enemies,

and statecraft that makes the fool forbearing.

وَعزائم ما من رجيم زارَها

إلّا وأتبعت الرجيمَ رجوما

And firm resolves that no accursed outcast approaches

without their sending pelting missiles after that outcast.

أَولاك ربُّ العرشِ مِن دونِ الورى

في مُلكك التأخيرَ وَالتقديما

The Lord of the Throne has granted you alone among mortals

power, within your kingdom, to hold back and advance.

وَعدت أقاليم الممالكِ كلّها

إِقليمها بك يحسد الإقليما

And all the provinces of the kingdoms have come to this [uncertain reading]:

each province envies another because of you.