لله يومي بالثغر في الجوسق — Dhafer Al Haddad

للهِ يومي بالثغرِ في الجَوْسَقْ

والأرضُ تُجْلَى في روضِها المُونِقْ

God be praised for my day at the port, in the pavilion!

And the earth is unveiled in its delightful garden,

والنيلُ يحشُو حَشا الخليجِ وقد

كَساه زهرُ الربيعِ بإسْتَبْرَق

and the Nile fills the channel's belly, while

spring's blossoms have clothed it in brocade.

ودَرَّجتْ ماءَه الصَّبا فحكى

ثوبَ حريرٍ مُدَمْقَسٍ أزرق

The east wind rippled its water, so it resembled

a blue robe of finely woven silk.

وراقَ بين الرياض فهْو كما

فَرَّج فوق الغلالِة اليَلْمَق

It gleamed among the gardens, as when

the outer coat opens over a fine under-robe.

وحمرةُ الشمسِ في الغدير وقد

مرت عليه ريحُ الصَّبا تَعْبَق

And the sun's redness in the pool, while

the fragrant east wind has passed over it—

كأنه صدرُ فضةٍ قُصِّرت

حافته وهْو مُذْهَبٌ مُحْرَق

it is like a silver plate whose

rim is trimmed, gilded and fire-reddened.

كدرهمٍ حُطَّ فوقَ سُنْدُسةٍ

أَدقَّ فيه النَّقَّاش ما زَوَّق

Like a dirham laid upon a piece of fine silk,

its ornament worked by the engraver in finest detail.

كأنه والنباتُ يحصُره

عينٌ بها هُدْبٌ جفنُها محدِق

As though, with plants enclosing it,

it were an eye with lashes, encircled by its lid.

كالبدرِ في زرقِة السماء وقد

حَفته فيها النجومُ بالمشرق

Like the full moon in the blue of the sky, when

the stars surround it there in the east.

صَفا كودِّى وعَبْرتي وحكى

قلبي بتَمْويجه كما يخفِق

It was clear as my love and my tears, and resembled

my heart, its rippling like the heart's beating.

والغيمُ يبكي والبرقُ يضحك وال

رعدُ من الغيظِ صائحٌ مُحْنَق

The clouds weep, the lightning laughs, and the

thunder shouts, enraged with fury.

والبرق ثوب تشِفّ حمرتُه

والرعدُ تصويته إذا خُرِّق

The lightning is a robe whose redness shines through,

and thunder is its sound when it is torn.

كأنّ قوس الغمامِ حاشيةٌ

من سَفَط الخَزِّ بعدَ ما طَبَّق

As though the bow of the clouds were a border

of a silk-filled chest after it was shut,

أو كحواشي عَصائبٍ ظهرتْ

ألوانُها في جبينِ مَنْ يَعْشق

or like the borders of headbands whose

colors appear on the brow of one in love:

دوائرٌ صُبِّغتْ مُداخَلةٌ

فكلُّ لونٍ بضِدِّه مُلْصَق

Dyed circles, nested within one another,

each color joined to its contrasting hue;

أطواقُ لاذٍ في جِيدِ غانيةٍ

دَرَّج ألوانَهن مَنْ طَوَّق

necklaces of fine silk about a lovely woman's neck,

their colors graded by the one who adorned her.

والوُرْقُ بين ألأوراقِ صادحةٌ

فكلُّ ورقاءَ راسلتْ أَوْرَق

The gray doves sing among the leaves,

each gray female exchanging calls with a gray male.

يا ليتَ شِعْري غَنَّت أَمِ انتحبَت

بلِ الأغاني بحالِها أليق

If only I knew: did she sing or sob?

No—songs better befit her condition.

لو ادَّعتْ أنها بكتْ كَذَبت

وشاهدُ الحالِ صادقُ المنطق

If she claimed she wept, she would lie;

the witness of her condition speaks truth.

أين شهيقُ الباكي وعَبْرتُه

إذا بدتْ من جفونِه تسبق

Where is the weeper's sob, and where his tear,

racing forth when it appears from his eyelids?

تَرْتع في حُلَّةٍ مُصَنْدَلةٍ

والعِطْرُ في الروضِ عِطْرُها يَعْبَق

She grazes in a sandalwood-scented robe,

and the fragrance wafting through the garden is hers.

والطوقُ في جِيدِها وقد خَضَّب ال

حِناءُ أطرافَها إلى المِرْفَق

A necklace circles her neck, while the

henna has dyed her extremities up to the elbow.

وحولها من تحِبّ في وطنٍ

جناحُها في رياضِهِ مُطْلَق

Around her are those she loves, in a homeland

where her wing is free among its gardens.

خِلافُ حالِي في غربةٍ تَرَّحتْ

مُشتَّتَ الشملِ شائبَ المَفْرِق

Unlike my plight in an exile that has made me wretched,

my bonds scattered, the parting of my hair gray.

أبكى بدمعٍ كأنه مطرٌ

فكلَّما فاضِ كِدْتُ أنْ أغرق

I weep with tears that seem like rain,

and whenever they overflow, I nearly drown.

ذو لوعةٍ كاللهيب صادعةٍ

تحرِقني بالزفير أو تخنُق

Mine is a rending anguish like a flame;

it burns me with sighing or chokes me.

مالي وللدهرِ لا يَصِحُّ له

عهدٌ وعقدٌ عندي ولا مَوْثِق

What have I to do with Time? It honors no

pledge or pact with me, nor any binding covenant.

ترمى فؤادىَ أيدي حوادثِه

بأَسْهمٍ عن قِسِيِّها تُرْشَق

The hands of its calamities shoot at my heart

with arrows loosed from their bows.

مأوىً لما دَبَّ من مَصائبها

وغاص تحت البحار أو حَلَّق

I am a refuge for their calamities that creep,

dive beneath the seas, or fly aloft.

يَنْتابُني من جيوشها أُمَم

إذا مضى فَيْلقٌ أتى فيلق

Multitudes from their armies beset me;

when one legion passes, another arrives.

فَرِقت منها حتى أَنِستُ بها

مع التمادى فصرت لا أَفْرَقُ

I feared them, until I grew familiar with them;

as they persisted, I came to fear no more.

لغربتي غربةُ النَّوى خُلِقتْ

فلا غرابٌ إلا بها يَنْعِقَ

The estrangement of distance was created for my exile,

and no raven croaks but of it.

فهْي لشَمْلي مذ كنت شاملة

وهْو أسير في قَيْدِها مُوثَق

It has encompassed my fellowship since I came to be,

and that fellowship is captive, fettered in its chains.

فليتَها إذ حَوَتْه كان إذا

رَقَّ شبابي من أَسْرِها مُطْلَق

Would that what it held had been—while

my youth was tender—freed from its captivity.

لكنها عَبَّرتْهُ عالمةً

بأنّ صدري لفَقْدِه أضيق

But it carried my youth away, knowing

that my breast would be more constricted by its loss.

وغادرتْ عنديَ المشيبَ فما

أَشيب من بعده لما يَطْرُق

It left gray hair with me, so I do not

grow grayer afterward at whatever comes knocking.

فثوبُ عيشى أَضْحى به خَلَقا

وهْو جديدٌ عليه لا يَخْلُق

Thus the robe of my life has become threadbare through it,

while it remains new upon it, never wearing out.

رافَقني وهْو لا يفارِقني

إلى الرَّدَى وهو منه لي أوفَق

It has accompanied me, and it will never leave me

until death—which suits me better than it.

ما أَرْغَب الناسَ في الحياةِ ولا

ترغب في راغبٍ ولا تُشْفِق

How eagerly people desire life, yet it does not

desire those who desire it, nor pity them.

تُذيقُنا شهدها اليسيرَ وكم

نَغَصُّ من أجله وكم نَشْرَق

It lets us taste its scant honey; how often

we choke because of it, how often we sputter!

ليت أبا الخَلْقِ آدمَ اتَّهمَ ال

شيطانَ في قوله وما صَدَّق

Would that Adam, father of humankind, had mistrusted the

Devil's words and had not believed him,

وفَرَّ عن أكلِ ما غَواهُ به

حزما فما ذاقه ولا ذَوَّق

and had shunned eating what he tempted him with,

resolutely, neither tasting it nor giving others a taste.

أو قَرَّ في الخلدِ ثم يُرْزَقُنا

أو عَقَّمتْه الدنيا فلم يُرزَق

Or had remained in Paradise and then been granted us,

or the world had made him barren, so he had none.

أو ليت حَوَّافي في الأصلِ ما خُلِقت

أو ليتها لم تَلد ولم تَعْلَق

Or would that Eve had never been created in the first place,

or that she had neither given birth nor conceived.

لكنْ دُفِعنا فيها إلى مِحَنٍ

تَصْبَحنا بالهموم أو تَغْبُق

But we were thrust into it, into afflictions

that give us sorrows to drink at morning or evening.

طِباعُها السُّوء واللبيبُ بها

أسوأُ حالا فيها منَ الأحمق

Its nature is evil, and in it the wise man

is worse off than the fool.

مأوَى الرَّزايا من حينِ يَنْبِذه ال

ظهرُ إلى حيث لَحْدُه الموبِق

A refuge for calamities from when he is cast forth by the

loins until he reaches his ruinous grave.

من سَلَّمت من جَنينها وقضى

سَقطا فقد وُفِّقتْ وقد وُفِّق

She who is freed of her fetus, and it dies

as a miscarriage, is fortunate, and so is it.

هَمَّت بتحصيله كما حَصَّلتْ

بغير نفعٍ يُرْجَى ولا مَرْفَق

She strove to obtain him, as she did,

with no hoped-for benefit or comfort.

تصرخ إنْ مات مثلما صَرختْ

وهْي به في مَخاضِها تُطْلَق

She cries out if he dies, just as she cried

while in labor with him, gripped by contractions.

وهْو إذا عاش في محاربة

يُطْعَن بالحادثات أو يُرْشَق

And if he lives, he is at war,

stabbed by calamities or shot with arrows.

فالعيشُ نفسُ الهلاكِ والمُقْبِلُ ال

مسعود من لم يَعِش ولم يُخْلَق

Life is destruction itself; the fortunate, the

blessed one is he who neither lived nor was created.