أعلمت طارقة الخطوب السود — Haidar Alheli

أعلمتِ طارقة الخطوب السودِ

بحمى الوصيّ صرعتِ أيَّ عميدِ

Do you know, O night-visitor of dark calamities,

what a chief you have felled in the Legatee’s sanctuary?

ونزعتِ يا نزعتْ يداك بنانَها

من قبّة الإسلام أيَّ عمود

And you have torn out—may your hands be stripped of their fingers—

what a pillar from the dome of Islam!

ونعم فهبكِ قرعتِه بمرَّنةٍ

صمّاء تأخذ من قوى الجلمود

Yes; suppose you struck him with a resounding calamity,

implacable, sapping the strength of solid rock—

أفطرتِ إلاَّ قلبَ حامية الهدى

وصدعتِ إلاَّ بيضة التوحيد

have you split anything but the heart of guidance’s defenders,

and shattered anything but the stronghold of divine unity?

وبللتِ إلاَّ في مدامع عينه

ذاك الصعيدَ على أجل فقيد

And have you wetted, save with the tears of its eye,

that earth above the noblest of the departed?

الآن مات العلمُ واندرس التقى

وعفا السماحُ وطاح كفُّ الجود

Now knowledge has died, and piety’s traces are effaced;

and liberality has vanished, and generosity’s hand has fallen.

فُجعتْ بنو الدنيا بزاد مقلّها

وبريِّ حائمة الرجا المطرود

The children of this world are bereft of their poor man’s sustenance,

and of a draught for the hovering bird of outcast hope.

وسرى فطبَّقها عليه مآتماً

ناعٍ تضيق به رحابُ البيد

And through the night there spread, covering the world with mourning for him,

a death-herald too vast for the wide expanses of desert.

صلّى الإلهُ عليك من مفقود

جلَّ المصاب به عن التحديد

May God bless you, O departed one,

whose loss is too great to measure.

شغلت رزيتُك الملائك فاغتدت

لك في هبوطٍ عن جوى وصعود

Your tragedy occupied the angels, and they came to be

descending and ascending for you in anguish.

وكفاك قدراً أنَّ نعيَك في السما

خلطته بالتقديس والتحميد

It suffices for your stature that your death-announcement in heaven

they mingled with sanctification and praise.

وبرفعها ذاك السريرَ تقرَّبت

زلفى إلى خلاّقها المعبود

And by raising that bier they sought

nearness to their worshipped Creator.

رفعت به الأخوين شخصَك والتقى

وتلته بالتسبيح والتمجيد

Upon it they raised the two brothers—your person and piety—

and followed it with glorification and exaltation.

وبكاك دينُ الله بالعين التي

قصمت قوى الإيمان والتوحيد

And God’s religion wept for you with the very eye that

shattered the strength of faith and divine unity.

ماذا يواري خطُّ قبركَ من حجىً

يزنُ الجبالَ ومن ندًى مورود

What wisdom the outline of your grave conceals,

weighing as much as mountains—and what bounty, sought like water!

إن تمس مهجورَ الفناء فطالما

وقف الرجاءُ ببابكَ المقصود

If your courtyard now lies deserted, how often

hope stood at your door, its sought destination!

أو إن تكن جمدت بنانُك بالردى

فعليك عينُ الجود غير جَمود

Or if your fingers have frozen in death,

generosity’s eye is never dry of tears for you.

أو قلَّ من أيام عمرك عدّها

فكثيرُ بِرِّك ليس بالمعدود

Or if the count of your life’s days was small,

your abundant kindness cannot be counted.

تبكيك عينٌ كم مسحت دموعَها

ببرود فضلٍ لا بفضل برود

An eye weeps for you whose tears you so often wiped

with cloaks of bounty, not with remnants of cloaks.

لم تبقَ بعدك للمطالب نجعةٌ

طُويَ الرجاءُ على حشا مكمود

After you, no pasture remains for those seeking their needs;

hope has been folded away within a grief-stricken heart.

هدم الردى بك ركنَ ملة أحمدٍ

ولطالما بك كانَ للتشييد

With your loss, death demolished a pillar of Ahmad’s faith,

though through you it had so often been built up.

غسلت سوادَ عيونها بدموعها

فصبغن أردية الكرام الصيد

She washed the blackness from her eyes with her tears,

and they dyed the cloaks of the proud nobles.

صبغت بها تلك الثيابَ فسوَّدت

وجهَ الزمان بذلك التسويد

With them she dyed those garments, blackening

the face of time with that black dye.

ورأت بقية فخرها قد أدرجت

في برد شخصٍ بالفخار وحيد

And she saw the last vestige of her glory wrapped

in the cloak of a man unrivalled in honor.

كم رَدَّ غربَ الخصم وهو مركَّبٌ

منها بثغرة نحرها والجيد

How often he repelled the enemy’s edge, while he was set

upon her, at the hollow of her throat and neck!

ووقى بمهجته الكريمة قلبَها

من أسهم الأعداء كلَّ مبيد

With his noble lifeblood he shielded her heart

from every deadly arrow of the enemies.

فكأنها في صبرها دون الهدى

مع فرط رقَّتها مجنُّ حديد

Thus, in its steadfast defense of guidance, it seemed,

despite its utter tenderness, a shield of iron.

بأبي الذي عقدوا عليه رداءَه

والخيرُ تحت ردائه المعقود

My father be ransom for him whose cloak they tied about him,

while goodness lay beneath his fastened cloak.

لبس الحياةَ فصان طاهرَ بردها

بصلاحه وعفافه المشهود

He wore life, guarding the purity of its cloak

through his righteousness and his witnessed chastity,

حتَّى استجدَّ سواه ثوباً للبلى

ومضى على كرمٍ نقيَّ العود

until he took another, new garment for decay,

and passed away in nobility, of pure stock.

يا ثاوياً خلف الصعيد كفى جوىً

أنى دعوتكَ من وراء صعيد

O you who dwell behind the earth, it is anguish enough

that I call to you from beyond the earth.

لثراك أستسقي ثلاثَ سحائبٍ

متكافئاتٍ كلّها في الجودِ

For your soil I ask rain from three clouds,

all equal in their generosity:

فسحابة وطفاء منك تعلّمت

للأرض سقَى تهائم ونجود

one, a thick rain-cloud that learned from you

to water the earth’s lowlands and uplands;

وسحابة من جود كفِّكَ أنبتت

شكرَ العفاة بدرِّها المحمود

and one, from the bounty of your hand, that brought forth

the gratitude of supplicants through its praiseworthy downpour;

وسحابة من عبرتي ما أن ونت

إلاَّ وقالَ لها افتقادكَ جودي

and one from my tears, which never slackened

without your absence telling it, ‘Pour generously!’

هي بالزفير إليك ذاتُ بوارقٍ

ومن الحنين عليك ذاتُ رعود

Through sighs toward you it has flashes of lightning,

and through longing for you it has peals of thunder.

فاذهب حميداً في الجنان مخلداً

فالعيشُ بعدك ليس لي بحميد

So depart, praised, to dwell forever in Paradise,

for life after you is no praiseworthy life for me.

ولقد دعوت الدينَ بعدك دعوةً

يستكُّ منها سمعُ كلِّ حقود

After you, I called upon religion with a cry

that deafens every spiteful ear:

لا تخشَ ضعفاً في الزمان وإن غدا

يرسو بداهيةٍ عليك كؤود

‘Do not fear weakness in time, even if it comes

to bear down upon you with an overwhelming calamity.

فبه لك المهديُّ أمنعُ قوَّةٍ

تأوي لركنٍ من علاه شديد

For in it, al-Mahdi is your most impregnable strength;

you find refuge in a mighty pillar of his lofty stature.

نسجت حميتُه عليك صنيعةً

لم تقضِ نثرتها يدا داود

His protective zeal wove around you a benefaction

whose chainmail David’s two hands never completed.

فإذا دجا ليلُ الخطوب فلقته

من ضوء صبح جبينه بعمود

And when the night of calamities darkens, you cleave it

with a shaft of light from the dawn of his brow.’

علمَ الهدى السَّامي الذي هو في كلا

حسبيه سادَ على الكرام الصيد

The lofty standard of guidance, who in both

his lines of descent surpassed the proud nobles,

ومفيد فضلٍ لو أتى العصر الذي

فيه المفيدُ لقالَ أنتَ مفيدي

and a bestower of excellence: had he reached the age

in which al-Mufid lived, he would have said, ‘You are my benefactor.’

هو آيةُ الله التي قد أبطلت

في العالمين عنادَ كلِّ جحود

He is God’s sign, which has annulled

throughout the worlds the obstinacy of every denier.

وأبو المصابيح التي شهبُ السما

رمقت مطالعَها بطرف حسود

And father of the lamps: the meteors of heaven

gazed at their rising places with an envious eye.

لو فاخرت نهرَ المجرَّة في السما

غلبت بجعفر جودها المورود

Were they to vie in glory with the river of the Milky Way in heaven,

through Ja‘far they would outdo its bounty, sought like water.

ذاك الذي في الجود أرسل صالحاً

لكن لأهل الفضل لا لثمود

He is the one who, in generosity, sent forth Salih,

but to people of excellence, not to Thamud.

ومحمدٌ منه الحسينُ فعاذرٌ

إن قلتُ أرسل خاتماً في الجود

And Muhammad, from whom came al-Husayn—so pardon me

if I say he sent forth the seal of generosity.

أقمار تمٍّ في بروج سما العُلى

شرفاً يضيءُ على الليالي السود

Full moons in the celestial towers of the heaven of eminence,

with honor shining upon the dark nights;

وأسودُ غيلٍ في المهابة لو حموا

مأوى الظباءِ لكانَ غيل أسود

and forest lions in their awe-inspiring might: were they to guard

the gazelles’ abode, it would become a forest of lions.

وترى المكارمَ من مناقب فضلهم

تختالُ بين قلائدٍ وعقود

You see noble virtues, among the merits of their excellence,

strutting amid necklaces and strung ornaments,

من كلِّ محتلب البنان رقيقها

في كلِّ جامدة الضروع صلود

from each tender-fingered man whose hand yields milk of bounty,

whenever udders are barren and unyielding.

ويقولُ للكفِّ الكريمة كلَّما

بدأت بعارفةٍ بدارِ أعيدي

And he says to his noble hand whenever

it begins a kindness, ‘Quickly—do it again!’

يا عترةَ الوحي الذين توطَّدت

بهم دعائم ملَّة التوحيد

O family of revelation, through whom stood firm

the pillars of the faith of divine unity,

دمتم لنا والعزُّ فوق رواقكم

والفخر تحت رواقه الممدود

may you endure for us, with honor above your canopy,

and glory beneath its outstretched canopy.

وبحسبكم علمُ الشريعة جعفرُ ال

إحسان عن عَلم الهُدى المفقودِ

And sufficient for you is the standard of the Law, Ja‘far of

benevolence, in place of the departed standard of guidance,

والغرُّ من آل المكارم من سَموا

شرفاً بفضلِ طارفٍ وتليدِ

and the radiant men of the house of noble virtues, who rose

in honor through excellence both newly earned and inherited.

قد رُدَّ عقدُ الفخر في جيد العُلى

بأبي محمد وهو عقدُ الجيد

The necklace of glory has been restored to eminence’s neck

through Abu Muhammad, himself the necklace of that neck.

وأعاد يا دار الهُدى لك جدّه

فكأنَّه لم يُطوَ في ملحود

He has restored his grandfather to you, O house of guidance,

as though he had never been folded into a burial niche.

أحيا مآثرَه الحسان وزادها

لو كانَ فيها موضعٌ لمزيد

He revived his beautiful deeds and added to them—

if there had been any room in them for increase.

لو لم تبت أُمُّ السماح طروقة

لندى يديه لم تكن بولود

Had the mother of liberality not lain as mate

to the bounty of his hands, she would never have borne offspring.

يا من وجوهُهم مصابحُ للهدى

وأكفُّهم في الجودِ سحبُ الجود

O you whose faces are lamps for guidance,

and whose hands, in generosity, are clouds of bounty,

ماذا أقولُ معزِّياً بنشائدي

قطعت مهابتُكم لسان نشيدي

what can I say in condolence through my poems?

Your majesty has cut off the tongue of my song.