أعيدي بديع النوح ويك أعيدي — Alluah

أَعيدي بديع النوح ويك أعيدي

فقد بلغ الغايات كل معيد

Repeat the wondrous lament—alas, repeat it!

For every repeater has reached the furthest bounds.

وشقي ثياب الصبر بالحزن واعفري

على قسمات الوجه ثوب صعيد

Rend the robes of patience in grief, and scatter

over the face's features a cloak of dust.

فقد بلغ الأَقصى الأسى وفني العزا

لموت العتيكي راشد بن سعيد

For sorrow has reached its limit, and consolation is exhausted

at the death of al-Atiki, Rashid ibn Sa'id.

فمن لائمي إِن قلت ذوبي لمهجتي

وقلت لعيني بالدموع فجودي

Who could blame me if I told my heart, 'Dissolve,'

and said to my eye, 'Pour forth your tears'?

فهذا هو البين المفرق بيننا

وهذا هو الاعدام بعد وجود

This is the separation that divides us;

this is annihilation after existence.

فليت دفينا بو حبيب بمقلتي

لألقي عليه الجفن عند رقودي

Would that Bu Habib lay buried within my eye,

so I could lower my eyelid over him when I sleep.

ومن لائمي إن عشت بالحزن ساهرا

سهيدا أراعي النجم أي سهيد

Who could blame me if I lived sleepless in grief,

wakeful, watching the stars—how utterly wakeful!

وليت بدمعي كان بالأمس غسله

وليت بذاك العطر سبط جسيد

Would that yesterday he had been washed with my tears,

and would that saffron had been spread with that perfume.

هنيئا لأكتاف تناقل سبحه

إِلى لحده المأنوس بين لحود

Blessed the shoulders that passed his form between them

to his welcoming grave among the graves.

فيا حاملي أعواده إن فوقها

لشمس وتلك الشمس بين سعود

O bearers of his bier's timbers, upon them

surely lies a sun—a sun among auspicious stars.

ويا دافنيه في الثرى إن قبره

مقر ذكاء ولا مقر لحيد

O you who bury him in the earth, his grave

is the abode of Dhuka, the sun, not of a buried man.

إِلى رحمة الرحمن روحك روحت

وفي وفده أقبلت صدر وفود

Your soul was borne to the All-Merciful's mercy,

and among His guests you arrived, at the head of the delegations.

حملت أذى الدنيا وغصة أهلها

وحيداً وأيم اللَه أَي وحيد

You bore this world's afflictions and its people's bitterness

alone—by God, how utterly alone!

تجلدت في الدنيا لطاعة ذي العلا

ويبلغ ما يهواه كل جليد

You were steadfast in this world in obedience to the Most High;

every steadfast man attains what he desires.

أمت نهار الصيف صوماً وميت الدّ

دياجي فتحييه بطول سجود

You put summer's day to death by fasting; and the dead of the—

dark nights you revived with long prostration.

وعشت وهم النفس في بذلك القرى

وترتيل قرآن هناك مجيد

You lived, your soul intent on offering hospitality

and on reciting there the glorious Qur'an.

كأنك لما كنت في الناس صالحاً

وهم لك في الانذار مثل ثمود

As though, when you lived among men, you were Salih,

and they, when you warned them, were like Thamud.

أَلا إِن بيض الدَهر بعدك أصبحت

وهن فسود في حبالة سود

Behold, after you, Time's bright days have changed;

now they are black, caught in a snare of darkness.

صددت عن الدنيا ودنياك واصل

كفى بصدود المرء أي صدود

You turned from the world, though your world sought your company;

a man's renunciation is enough—what renunciation!

عرفنا بأن الناس بعدك هامد

ثويب به في فاسطين همود

We learned that, after you, mankind is a lifeless

little garment, with stillness upon it in 'Fasitin' [unclear wording].

بكيناك لما أن فقدناك والتقى

فيا لفقيد عالق بفقيد

We wept for you when we lost you, and piety too;

alas for one lost, bound to another lost!

وعدنا بطي الأَرض والأَرض طيها

كذا لا بغور تنطوي ونجود

We were promised the folding of the earth; the earth is folded

like this—not by lowlands and highlands folding up.

حددت كفاة القاسطين وأصبحت

كفات البواقي غير ذات حدود

You hemmed in the defenders of the unjust, and now

the enclosure of those remaining has no bounds.

فأف لذي الدنيا خلافك راشد

وناسيك منا فهو غير رشيد

Fie on this world after you, Rashid!

Whoever among us forgets you is not rightly guided.

إِذا زارك الراجي رأى الوعد حاضراً

وما خاف في عقباه سوء وعيد

When a hopeful man visited you, he found the promise fulfilled,

and feared no dreadful threat in its aftermath.

تقدست حيا ثم قدست ميتاً

حميداً ففي الكونين أَي حميد

You were holy in life, then hallowed in death,

praiseworthy—how praiseworthy in both worlds!

رحلت وأبقيت الثنا الجم والأَسى

ففيك وفينا صار أَي شهيد

You departed, leaving abundant praise and sorrow;

what a witness each has become, in you and in us!

تنوشد فيك الحمد في كل محفل

وكل فؤاد من أساك عميد

Praise of you has been recited in every gathering,

and every heart is stricken by grief for you.

فلا مهجة إِلا كواها لظى الأَسى

ولا دمع إِلا مندب بخدود

No heart but sorrow's blaze has seared it,

and no tear but leaves its mark on cheeks.

تناديك إشفاقاً وتدعوك شافعاً

فيا خير من عند الإِرادة نودي

They call to you out of concern and invoke you as an intercessor;

O best of those invoked when something is desired!

سقى قبرك المأنوس باللطف وابل

إِذا راح فيه بالسعادة غودي

May a downpour gently water your welcoming grave;

whenever it comes there at dusk, may bliss greet the grave at dawn.

سقاه فرواه وسقى حياله

قبوراً بنخل في ربى ووهود

May it water and drench it, and water around it

the graves at Nakhl, on hills and in hollows.

فإن كريم القوم حي وميت

يجود ولم تبخل يداه بجود

For a people's noble man, alive or dead,

gives freely; his hands have never withheld generosity.

أَيا آل شوال لكم ولنا العزا

فما هذه الدُنيا بدار خلود

O house of Shawwal, consolation to you and to us;

this world is no abode of immortality.

مضى وسنمضي إثره مثلما مضى

على إثر آباء مضت وجدود

He went, and we shall go after him, just as he went

in the footsteps of fathers and grandfathers who passed away.

فما الموت إِلا منهل كلنا له

ورود على إرغامه لورود

Death is but a watering-place to which all of us

come to drink—compelled by it, we surely come.

لئن مت قبلي راشد انني بكم

قطار فحيني قائم بوصيدي

Though you died before me, Rashid, I am with you,

following in the train; my death stands at my threshold.

ولست براض قبلك اليوم عاضدا

ولو كان بوزيد يكون عضيدي

I will accept no supporter ahead of you today,

even if Bu Zayd himself were to be my helper.

صحبت المنايا راحلاً وتركتني

بدار كأني ناقف لهبيد

You departed in death's company, leaving me

in a dwelling, like one cracking colocynth seeds.

فآها ولو يجدي لي الآه ما مضى

لحددت تأويهي بكل جديد

Ah! If sighing could help me with what has passed,

I would intensify my sighs with every new occasion.

لئن عشت مطروداً بحزني عن العزا

فإني عن الأعوال غير طريد

Though I live banished by grief from consolation,

I am not banished from lamentation.

سأملأ بالتأبين فيك دفاترا

وأكثر بالاعوال فيك نشيدي

I shall fill notebooks with elegies for you,

and make my song for you abundant in wails.

وأقصد مغناك الذي أَنت نازل

لأسمع سكان القبور قصيدي

I shall seek your dwelling, where you now abide,

to make the grave-dwellers hear my verse.

وتسلوك سكان العتيك ولوعتي

عليك وحزني في أَسى ومزيد

The inhabitants of al-Atik may forget you, but my anguish

for you, and my sorrow, remain in grief and ever increase.