أغائر دمعك أم منجد — Haidar Alheli

أغائرٌ دمعك أم منجدُ

قد رحلَ الصبرُ ولا منجدُ

Are your tears descending to the lowlands or ascending to the uplands?

Patience has departed, and there is no helper.

يا رابط الأحشاء في راحةٍ

قد نضجت بالجمر ما تقصد

O you clasping your entrails in your palm,

they have roasted on embers—what do you seek?

لا تلتمسْ قلبك في جذوةٍ

ما بقيتْ منكَ عليها يد

Do not search for your heart within a glowing coal;

no hand of yours remains upon it.

أخلت يبقى لك قلبٌ على

فاغرة الوجد ولا يفقد

Did you think a heart would remain yours amid

passion's gaping maw, and not be lost?

وإنَّ قلباً بين أنيابها

طاحَ شظاياً كيف لا يزرد

And a heart that, between its fangs,

fell in shards—how could it not be swallowed?

حسبك منها زفرةً لو غدتْ

في جلدٍ منها نزا الجلد

One sigh from it would suffice: were it to enter

a skin, that skin would leap because of it.

كم هزَّ أضلاعَك من فوقها

حتَّى تلاقين جوًى مكمد

How often your ribs were shaken from above—

until they met—by a heart-darkening, burning grief!

فساقطت منك الحشا أدمعاً

حمراً على ذوب الحشا تشهد

Your vitals then fell from you as tears,

red, bearing witness to your vitals' melting.

لو تعلم الأيامُ ماذا جنت

إذاً لودَّت أنَّها تنفد

If the days knew what they had wrought,

they would wish to come to an end.

لقد أجلَّت رزءَ خطبٍ لها

في كلِّ قلبٍ مأتماً يُعقد

They have magnified a calamity's loss; for it

a mourning assembly is held in every heart,

إذ كوّرت شمساً بنو المصطفى

فيها ترجَّوا أُفقَهم يسعدُ

when they darkened a sun, the sons of al-Mustafa

having hoped through it that their horizon would prosper.

الله يا دهرُ أبيناهمُ

في زهو بشرٍ للعدى تكمد

God! O Time, was it while they

gloried in a gladness that saddened their foes,

وبينما في فرط إبهاجهم

فيها لأثواب الهنا جدَّدوا

and while, in the fullness of their delight,

there they renewed the garments of happiness,

وكلُّهم قد مدَّ عينَ الرجا

لفرقد الفخر بها يرصد

and all had stretched out the eye of hope

to watch therein for glory's Farqad star,

إذ يردُ الناعي إليهم بأن

جاءَ ابن نعشٍ ذلك الفرقد

that the death-announcer came to them with news

that that Farqad had come as Ibn Na‘sh, the Son of the Bier?

فيغتذي ذاك الهنا حنَّةً

فرائصُ الدنيا لها ترعد

And so that happiness feeds on lamentation,

at which the world's flanks tremble.

نعشٌ أتى يُحمل فيه الهنا

ميتاً عليه يندب السؤدد

A bier arrives, with happiness borne within it

dead, while nobility laments over it.

وخلفه العلياءُ في صرخةٍ

تدعو إلى أين به يقصد

And behind it, exalted honor, crying out,

calls, 'Where are they taking him?'

يا حاملي إنسانَ عيني قفوا

نشدتُكم بالله لا تبعدوا

O bearers of the pupil of my eye, stop!

I adjure you by God: do not go far.

دعوه لي حسبي لتجهيزه

عينٌ عليها طرفُها أرمد

Leave him to me; enough to prepare him for burial is

an eye whose lid is inflamed.

دموعها الغسلُ وأكفانه ال

بياضُ والجفنُ له ملحد

Its tears are his washing, and his shrouds the

white of the eye; its lid is his burial niche.

غدرتَ يا دهرُ ومنك الوفا

لا الغدرُ بالأمجاد مستبعد

You have betrayed, O Time; fidelity from you—

not betrayal of the noble—is what seems unlikely.

فاذهب ذميماً إنَّها غدرةٌ

وجهك ما عشتَ بها أسود

Go, then, despised: this is a betrayal

that blackens your face for as long as you live.

ما لك بالسوء لأهل الحجى

وردتَ لا طاب لك المورد

What have you to do with bringing evil to the wise?

You have come to drink—may your watering-place never please you!

يا ناهداً بالشرِّ من جهله

تعلمُ بالشر لمن تنهد

O you who rise with evil out of ignorance,

do you know against whom you rise with evil?

وطارقاً بيتَ ندًى يلتقي

ببابه المتَّهمُ والمنجد

And you who knock at a house of generosity, where there meet

at its door travelers bound for Tihamah and Najd,

حسبك من بيتٍ عتيد القِرى

أن له في أُفق السما يحسد

Enough to know of a house ever ready for hospitality

is that it is envied on heaven's horizon.

تخمد شهبُ الأُفق لكن به

مواقدُ النيران لا تخمد

The horizon's stars go dark, but within it

the hearth fires never go out.

سواه ما للمجد من مهبطٍ

وما لذمٍّ نحوه مصعد

Apart from it, glory has no place to descend,

and blame finds no ascent toward it.

فمقعداه للتقى والندى

وحاجباه العزُّ والسؤدد

Its two seats are for piety and generosity,

and its two doorkeepers are might and nobility.

ألم تجده حرماً آمناً

يحجُّه الأبيضُ والأسودُ

Did you not find it a safe sanctuary,

visited in pilgrimage by white and black alike?

فكيف تسعى فيه لا محرماً

كأنَّما أنتَ به ملحد

How, then, do you walk within it unconsecrated as a pilgrim,

as though you were a profaner within it?

ما هو إلاَّ بيتُ فخرٍ له

قبيلةُ المعروف قد شيدوا

It is nothing but a house of glory, which

the tribe of kindness has built for him.

بيتٌ أبو الندب الرضا ربه

أكرمُ مَن تحت السما يُقصد

A house whose master is the father of gallant al-Rida,

the most generous man sought beneath heaven.

مولًى درت أهلُ العُلى أنَّه

دون الأنام العلمُ المفرد

A lord whom the people of eminence know

to be, alone among mankind, the peerless beacon;

وأنَّه لولا هداه الورى

ضلَّت فلا رشدٌ ولا مرشد

and that, without his guidance, mankind

would stray, with neither right guidance nor guide;

وأنَّه لولا ندى كفّه

لم يُرَ لا رفدٌ ولا مرفد

and that, without the bounty of his hand,

neither gift nor giver would be seen.

تلقاه طلقَ الوجه من هيبةٍ

يفرق منها الأسد الملبد

You meet him bright-faced, with a majesty

that fills the thick-maned lion with fear.

محببٌ من حسن أخلاقه

حتَّى إلى من مجده يحسدُ

Beloved for the beauty of his character,

even by those who envy his glory.

ما سهدت من خائفٍ مقلةٌ

إلاَّ وبالأمن لها يرقد

No fearful eye has ever kept vigil

but he has lulled it to sleep in safety.

من ذا سواه قام يدعو الورى

دونكم من بحر جودي ردوا

Who but he arose to call to mankind,

'Here is the sea of my generosity: come and drink!'

ومدَّ كفاً بغريب الندى

آلاؤها بين الورى تحمد

And he stretched forth a hand with wondrous bounty,

whose blessings are praised among mankind.

بخَّلت المزن ففي بخلها

حلائبُ المزن لها تشهد

It made the rain-clouds seem miserly; in their parsimony,

the clouds' milk-flows bear witness for it.

تبصر في راحته أبحراً

طافحةً أمواهها العسجد

In his palm you behold seas

brimming, their waters pure gold.

أسرَّة تُسمى ولكنَّها

بحارُ جود بالندى تزبد

Palm-lines they are called, yet they are

seas of generosity, foaming with bounty.

فهو لعمري حجةٌ في الندى

وآيةٌ في الفضل لا تجحد

By my life, he is a proof of generosity,

and a sign of excellence that cannot be denied.

قد قام لله بما بعضه

لكلِّ أمجاد الورى معقد

He has undertaken for God deeds, even a part of which

would confound all the nobles of mankind.

مكارمٌ ما لكريمِ سوى

عبد الكريم الندب فيها يد

Noble deeds in which no generous man but

the gallant Abd al-Karim has a hand.

ذاك أبو الكاظم غيثُ الندى

تربُ المعالي نجمها الأسعد

That is Abu al-Kazim, the rain of generosity,

the peer of eminence, its most auspicious star.

أين بنو العلياءِ من مجده

ومجدُه ما ناله الفرقد

Where are the sons of eminence beside his glory,

when even Farqad has not attained that glory?

فقل لهم لا تطلبوا نهجَ مَن

لطُرقه في المجد لن تهتدوا

Tell them, then: do not seek the path of one

whose roads to glory you will never find.

قفوا جميعاً حيثُ أنتم فما

لكم إلى عليائه مصعدُ

Stop, all of you, where you stand, for

you have no ascent to his lofty heights.

هيهات أن يعلق في شأوه

إلاَّ الرضا فرع العلى الأمجد

Far from possible is matching his course,

except for al-Rida, eminence's most glorious scion.

مباركُ الطلعة في يمنها

جميعُ مَن صبَّحه يسعد

Blessed in his appearance: through its auspiciousness

everyone who greets him at dawn prospers.

يرى سمات الخير في ماله

بأنه خيرُ الورى تشهد

One sees the marks of goodness in his wealth,

testifying that he is the best of mankind.

مهذّبٌ رشحه للعُلى

زعيمها الأكبرُ والسيِّد

A refined man, nominated for eminence

by its greatest leader and lord.

فجاء فرداً في النهى كاملاً

يُثنى عليه الفضلُ والمحمد

And he proved peerless in intellect, complete,

praised for excellence and praiseworthiness.

شمسُ عُلىً هادٍ لآفاقها

بدرٌ له بدرُ السما يسجد

A sun of eminence, a guide to its horizons,

a full moon before whom heaven's full moon bows.

وشهبُها الزهر حسين الندى

من طاب منه في العُلى المولد

And its bright stars: Husayn of generosity,

whose birth amid eminence was noble;

وفخر أرباب النهى المصطفى

مَن هو أزكى من نما محتد

and al-Mustafa, pride of the masters of intellect,

the purest in lineage of all who have grown;

وكوكب الرشد أمينُ التقى

وكاظمُ الغيظ الفتى الأمجد

and the star of right guidance, Amin, keeper of piety,

and Kazim, restraining anger, the most glorious youth;

وباقرُ الفضل وروحُ العلى

عيسى فهل فخرٌ كذا يوجد

and Baqir of excellence, and the spirit of eminence,

Isa—can any glory such as this be found?

قومٌ هم شهبُ الفخار التي

منها بكلٍ ترجم الحسَّد

A people who are the stars of glory,

with each of which the envious are pelted.

أنجمُ فضلٍ زهرتْ فاهتدى

بنورها الأقربُ والأبعد

Stars of excellence that shone, and so

by their light the nearest and farthest found their way,

حتَّى لقد قال جميع الورى

هذا لعمري الشرف المتلد

until all mankind declared,

'By my life, this is inherited nobility!'

يا أسرةَ المعروف لا نابكم

من بعد هذا الرزء ما يكمد

O family of kindness, may nothing befall you

after this loss to deepen your sorrow.

وهذه النكبة مع إنها

فيها ثوابُ الصبر لا ينفد

And this calamity, although

the reward for patience in it is inexhaustible,

لا يحمد الصبر على مثلها

لكنَّه من مثلكم يُحمد

patience at such a loss is not praised,

yet from those like you it merits praise.

وإنَّ من عنكم طواه الردى

في جنَّة الخلد له مقعد

And he whom death has folded away from you

has a resting place in the Garden of Eternity.

قرَّ بها الطرفُ وطرف العلى

شوقاً إلى مرآه لا يرقد

There his eye rests content, while eminence's eye,

longing to behold him, cannot sleep.

ودمعُ عين المجد مذ أرخوا

المهدي فيها غاب لا يجمد

And the tears of glory's eye, since they recorded the date,

'Al-Mahdi vanished therein,' do not congeal.

فعيشه في ظلِّ فردوسها

تالله أرخ لهَوَ الأرغد

His life in the shade of its Paradise—

by God, record its date: 'It is indeed the most blissful.'