أرى الأرض قد مادت لأمر يهولها — Haidar Alheli

أرى الأرض قد مادتْ لأمرٍ يهولُها

فهل طرقَ الدنيا فناءٌ يزيلُها

I see the earth swaying at an event that terrifies it.

Has annihilation knocked upon the world to sweep it away?

وأسمع رعداً قد تقصف في السما

لمن زمرُ الأملاك قام عويلها

And I hear thunder cracking in the sky.

For whom has the lament of the angelic hosts arisen?

تأمَّل فأما الساعةُ اليوم فاجأت

وأما التي في العالمين عديلها

Consider: either the Hour has come suddenly today,

or that which equals it among the worlds.

وإلاّ فما للدهر راع حشا الورى

بتقطيبه منها عراها ذهولها

Otherwise, why has Time frightened the hearts of mortals

with its scowl at this, leaving them seized by bewilderment?

بلى طرقتْ أختُ القيامة بغتةً

وتلك التي للحشر يبقى غليلها

Indeed, the sister of Resurrection has struck suddenly:

that calamity whose burning anguish lasts until the Gathering.

لها صعدت بالحزن للعرش رنَّةٌ

بأعلى بيوت الوحي كانَ نزولها

For it, a cry of sorrow rose to the Throne;

its descent was upon the highest houses of revelation.

نحت في رواق المجد صدراً من العُلى

يروع ملوكَ الأرض فيه مئولها

It struck a breast of eminence in glory's portico,

where eminence's abode awes the kings of earth.

ومالت بأرسى هضبةٍ ما تصوَّرت

جحاجحُ فهرٍ أن ترى ما يميلها

And it toppled the firmest mountain, whose overthrow

the magnates of Fihr never imagined they would see.

فدًى لعميد الغالبيين كلّها

وأيّ فريدٍ لو فداه قبيلها

All of them would be ransom for the chief of the Ghalibis;

what a peerless man, had their tribe ransomed him!

إذاً لافتدت طوداً لها ما تعلقت

بقنته للكاشحين وعولها

Then they would have ransomed their mountain, whose summit

the ibex of their spiteful enemies never clung to.

فإنَّ معزّ الدين مَن سُلَّ دونه

صوارمُ لا يخشى عليها فلولها

For Muʿizz al-Din is he in whose defense were drawn

swords whose edges need never fear chipping.

وقارعَ حتَّى كلُّ مضاء فكرةٍ

ثناه بحدِّ القول وهو كليلها

And he contended until every keen-edged thought

he turned back with speech's edge, though it was their bluntest.

وراش نبالاً لم تفت مقتل العدى

وأقتلُ سهمٍ ما يريش نبيلها

He feathered arrows that never missed the enemies' vital spot;

the deadliest arrow is what their archer feathers.

وسدَّد من أقلامه السمر صعدةً

بصعداتها للسمر قصّر طولها

He aimed a spear from his dark pens,

and with their shafts shortened the dark spears' reach.

فأدرك ما لا تدرك الشوسُ بالقنا

ونالَ بها ما لم تنلهُ نصولها

Thus he attained what fierce warriors cannot attain with lances,

and gained with them what their blades never gained.

أكاليء ثغر الدين قد عثر الردى

بيومك لكن عثرةً لا نقيلها

O guardian of faith's frontier, Death has stumbled

on your day—but a stumble we cannot remedy.

لأرخى يميناً منك شدَّ قوى الهُدى

وغمض عيناً بالحفاظ تجيلها

It has indeed slackened your right hand, which strengthened guidance,

and closed an eye you turned about in vigilant defense.

فمن مخبري كيف انتحتك منيةٌ

بطرفك لو ترمى لعزَّ وصولها

Who can tell me how a death came straight for you

that, had your gaze been aimed at it, could scarcely have approached?

أأنحلها خوفُ التقحم إذ مشتْ

إليك فأخفاها عليك نحولها

Did fear of venturing forward make it thin as it walked

toward you, so its thinness concealed it from you?

أم اقتادك التسليمُ لله طائعاً

مهل طاعةٌ إلاَّ وأنتَ فعولها

Or did submission to God lead you willingly?

Wait—is there any obedience of which you are not the doer?

ورزئك ما هذي الدموع وإن جرت

بماءٍ ولا هذي السيولُ سيولها

At your loss, these tears, though flowing,

are not water, nor are these torrents their torrents.

ولكن حشاشات على الشوقِ لم تزلْ

تذوبُ إلى أن جاءها ما يسيلها

Rather, they are remnants of life that, in longing, never ceased

to melt, until something came that made them flow.

ستبكيك ما ناحَ ابنُ ورقاء أعينٌ

بفضلك من حيث التفتنا نجيلها

As long as a gray dove's son coos, eyes will weep for you,

eyes we turn upon your bounty wherever we look.

نرى لك آثار الغمامة لاطفت

ثرى الأرض حتَّى روَّضته هطولها

We see in your deeds the traces of a cloud that caressed

the earth's soil until its downpour made it a garden.

أبا صالحٍ ما العيشُ بعدكَ صالحاً

لنفسٍ هواها عنكَ لا يستميلها

Abu Salih, life after you is no good

for a soul whose desires cannot draw it away from you.

عفاءً على الفيحاء بعدك وحدها

وإن غالَ كلَّ الأرض بعدك غولها

Desolation upon al-Fayha alone after you,

even if its destroyer devours all the earth after you.

لقد لبست فيك الجمال وإنَّما

عليك تعرّى اليوم عنها جميلها

Through you she clothed herself in beauty; but

today, mourning you, her beauty has been stripped away.

غدت ثاكلاً تشجي بنيها وطالما

زهت فاجتلتها كالعروس بعولها

She has become a bereaved mother, grieving her sons; how often

she shone, and her husbands beheld her like a bride!

نعاكَ لها ناعٍ إليك أطارها

بدهياء راعَ الخافقينَ حلولها

A death-announcer told her of your death and sent her flying to you

with a calamity whose arrival terrified east and west.

أتت لك تشكو اليتم فيك بأدمعٍ

لها صنتها دهراً فأضحت تذيلها

She came to you complaining of her orphanhood through your loss, with tears

you had guarded for her for ages, which she now lets fall freely.

وشرفتها موتاً بحملك ضعف ما

رأتك من التشريف حيًّا تنيلها

And in death, through her bearing you, you honored her twice as much as

she had seen you bestow honor upon her in life.

أصاحِ إلى جنبي قف اليوم ممسكاً

عليَّ حشاً حان الغداة رحيلها

Friend, stand beside me today, holding fast

within me a heart whose departure is due this morning.

فقد كنتُ قبل اليوم أعهد لي يداً

هي اليوم لا منِّي فأنت بديلها

Before today I knew I had a hand;

today it is no longer mine, so you must take its place.

أزل بالنعيِّ الراسيات فقد سرى

يخفُّ على أيدي الرجال ثقيلها

Move the rooted mountains with the death-tidings, for he has journeyed,

their weighty one borne lightly upon men's hands.

وما خفَّ لمَّا أن تساوى بحمله

حقيرُ الورى فوق الثرى وجليلها

He grew light not because, in carrying him,

the lowliest mortal and the noblest upon earth were equal,

ولكن سرى الأملاك فيه يؤمّهم

بتكبيره فوق السما جبرئيلها

but because the angels journeyed with him, led

above the heavens by their Gabriel's cry of 'God is greatest.'

وغبراء من حثو التراب قد احتبى

بقاتمها حزنُ الفلا وسهولها

And a dust-gray pall from handfuls of earth—

the grief of wastes and plains had wrapped itself in its darkness.

مرت ماءها الأنفاسُ في صعداتها

فسالت وأسرابُ الدموع سيولها

Sighs, as they rose, milked its water,

so it flowed, and streams of tears were its torrents.

تدانى بها منَّا ابنُ نعيٍ يلوثها

على وجهه طوراً وطوراً يذيلها

In it a son of death-tidings drew near us, wrapping it

about his face at times, and at times letting it trail.

فقمنا له نخفي الذي منه هالنا

وهل طلعةٌ للشرِّ يخفى مهولها

We rose to meet him, hiding the terror he had stirred in us;

can the horror of an apparition of evil be concealed?

وقلنا زعيم الطالبيين أحدقت

بجنب علاه شيبها وكهولها

We said: 'The leader of the Talibis has been surrounded

beside his eminence by their graybeards and mature men.

قضى حجَّةً واستأنف السير فانبرت

تعطّف منه حول فحلٍ فحولها

He completed a pilgrimage and resumed his journey; they hastened,

their mighty men gathering around a mighty one among them.

وهذا بشيرٌ لو وهبنا نفوسنا

لقلت له والفضلُ منه قبولها

This is a bearer of good news; if we offered our souls

to him, I would say the favor lay in his accepting them.'

فلمَّا ألمَّ استلَّها من لسانه

صفيحة نعيٍ كلُّ قلبٍ قتيلها

But when he arrived, he unsheathed from his tongue

a blade of death-tidings whose victim was every heart.

شكت عندها الأسماعُ وقراً أصمّها

وما وقر الأسماع إلاَّ صليلها

At that, ears complained of a weight that deafened them;

the weight upon their hearing was nothing but its clang.

وقال امسحوها اليوم عمياء من جوًى

بشلاّء فيها لم يُكفكفْ همولها

He said: 'Wipe them today, blinded by anguish,

with a palsied hand that cannot staunch their downpour.

فذاك على الأعواد سيدُ هاشمٍ

بجنب العُلى منه مسجى كفيلها

There upon the bier is the lord of Hashim;

beside eminence lies, shrouded, its guardian.

وذي هاشمٌ جاءتْ بأثقالِ همّها

ومهديّها محمولة لا حمولها

And here is Hashim, come with heavy burdens of grief,

and her Mahdi—borne, no longer her burden-bearer.

نضتها السرى أسيافَ مجدٍ صقيلةً

وعادت وفي قلب المعالي فلولها

Night journeys unsheathed them as polished swords of glory;

they returned with their broken edges in the heart of eminence.'

أما وسريرٍ تحته قد تزاحمت

فطاشت كما طاشت خطاها عقولها

Indeed, by the bier beneath which they crowded,

their minds reeled just as their steps reeled.

لقد هالها الإقدامُ فيه لتربةٍ

على روحها بالراحتين تهيلها

They dreaded advancing with him toward soil

they would heap with both hands upon their own soul.

فقد قبرت في اللحد واحد عصرها

وأقسم ما المقبورُ إلاَّ قبيلها

They buried in the grave the peerless one of their age;

I swear, what was buried was their very tribe.

تجللتها يا دهرُ سوداء فانطوت

عليك ليوم النشر تضفو ذيولها

You donned it, O Time—a black calamity—and it wrapped

about you, its skirts trailing until Resurrection Day.

خطمت بها قسراً عرانينَ هاشمٍ

فقدها تساوى صعبُها وذلولها

With it you forcibly bridled the proud noses of Hashim;

lead them now: their unruly and their tame are alike.

وقلْ لعوادي الحتف شأنك والردى

مضى الفضلُ والباقون منها فضولها

Tell Death's onslaughts: take your course with destruction;

excellence is gone, and those remaining are mere excess.

فما جولة عند الردى فوقَ هذه

فنخشاه يوماً في كريم يجولها

Death has no feat beyond this

that we should fear it performing one day against a noble man.

ويا رافعيه في الأكفِّ نصبتمُ

بها علماً يشأى العُلى ويطولها

O you who lift him in your hands, you have raised

with them a standard that outstrips and overtops eminence.

قفوا وانظروا كيف الورى لو تحاشدت

وضاق بأبناء السبيل سبيلها

Stand and see how mortals, even if they all assembled

and their roads grew crowded with wayfarers,

تشيِّع نعشاً ليس تدري إمامها

إلى القبر محمولٌ به أم رسولها

escort a bier, not knowing whether their imam

is borne upon it to the grave, or their messenger.

فتًى طبَّق الدنيا علاءً وعمَّها

سخاءً وأبقى بعده من يعولها

A man who filled the world with eminence and embraced it

with generosity, leaving after him someone to sustain it.

كفى خلفاً منه بأشبال مجده

وهل تخلف الآساد إلاَّ شبولها

The cubs of his glory suffice as successors to him;

do lions leave successors other than their cubs?

مصابيحُ رشدٍ والمصابيح في الورى

يكون إليها ليس عنها عدولها

Lamps of right guidance—and people's turning

is toward such lamps, not away from them.

فشمسُ الهُدى والأمر لله إن تغبْ

وراع الورى شرقاً وغرباً أفولها

If the sun of guidance—for all command is God's—has set,

and its setting terrified mortals east and west,

فدونكها موروثةً نبويَّةً

وخلفَك باغيها فللأُسد غيلها

then take it, inherited and prophetic,

while its seeker stands behind you: lions have their thickets.

إمامة حقٍّ إن تكن أمس ودعت

أباها فعند اليوم نابَ سليلها

A rightful imamate: if yesterday it bade farewell

to its father, today its offspring has taken his place.

ستعلم روَّادُ الشريعة إذ جرت

بسلسلٍ علمٍ فيك ما سلسبيلها

Seekers of the Law shall know, when it flows

with limpid knowledge from your mouth, what its Salsabil is.

لقد سمعت بالوحيِ تنزيلَ آيها

وسوف ترى من فيك كيف نزولها

They have heard its verses sent down through revelation;

they shall see how they descend from your mouth.

ألا إنَّما العليا قواعدُ سؤددٍ

لك اللهُ أرساها فمن ذا يزيلها

Indeed, eminence is but the foundations of lordship

that God established for you—who, then, can remove them?

ومجد قدامى الفخر مدَّ على الورى

سماءً لها عرض السماء وطولها

And the glory of ancient pride has stretched over mortals

a heaven with heaven's breadth and length.

عفاةَ الورى لا يقعد اليأسُ فيكم

فأثقال أهل الأرض قامَ حمولها

O supplicants among mortals, let despair not settle within you:

the bearer of earth's people's burdens has arisen.

أبلّ بني فهرٍ لواشجةٍ حشاً

إذا الشتوةُ الغبراء هبَّ بليلها

The tenderest-hearted of Fihr's sons toward kindred,

when the dust-gray winter's chill wind blows,

أتى باليد البيضاء تقطر نعمةً

وبالطلعة الغرَّاء يبهى جميلها

he comes with a white hand dripping blessing

and a radiant face whose beauty shines.

لقد جاءَ في عصرٍ به عقر الندى

سوى مذقةٍ يعيي الرجاءَ حصولها

He has come in an age when generosity was hamstrung,

save for a watered-down draught whose obtaining defeats hope.

فما هو إلاَّ صالحٌ وثمودُه

وبالجودِ إلاَّ ناقةٌ وفصيلها

He is none but Salih, with his Thamud,

and in generosity, none but a she-camel and her calf.

أنر أبا الهادي دجى كلِّ مشكل

فما شبهةٌ إلاَّ وأنت مزيلها

Abu al-Hadi, illuminate the darkness of every difficulty;

there is no doubt but you dispel it.

وأمطر بناناً يا محمدُ في الورى

وقد روَّضوا حالاً توالت محولها

Let your fingertips rain upon mortals, O Muhammad,

while they have tended a condition whose droughts came in succession.

فأقسمُ لو لم ترو عاطشة المنى

لدبَّ بأغصان الرجاء ذبولها

I swear, had you not watered thirsty wishes,

withering would have crept through hope's branches.

صنايع من عرفٍ لنا بك فخرها

وللناس مشكوراً لديك جزيلها

Benefactions of kindness, in which through you we take pride,

and whose abundance with you people gratefully acknowledge.

قد اكتست الدنيا فتاهتْ بزهوها

خلائقَ أخلاقُ الرجال سمولها

The world has clothed itself, strutting in its splendor,

in virtues whose worn-out rags are other men's morals.

إذا استبقت فهرٌ بفخرك في مدًى

غدت غررُ العليا لها وحجولها

When Fihr races through a course with your glory,

eminence's white blazes and fetlock marks become theirs.

وليس الخطاب الفصلُ إلاَّ مقالةً

لسانُ قريشٍ وهو أنت قؤولها

Decisive speech is nothing but an utterance

whose eloquent speaker is Quraysh's tongue—and that is you.

بك ارتاشَ عافيها وقرَّ مروعها

وأُدني قاصيها وعزَّ ذليلها

Through you its supplicant prospered and its frightened one found rest;

its distant one was brought near and its humbled one gained honor.

وما قصرتْ باعُ العُلى عن رزيَّةٍ

رغت كرغاء المثقلات نكولها

The arm of eminence has not fallen short before a calamity

whose balking ones bellowed like heavily burdened camels.

وذا صالحُ الدنيا وأنت كلاكما

تمدَّان منها والحسينُ مطيلها

Here is the world's Salih, and you: both of you

extend its reach, and al-Husayn stretches it further.

فتًى لا أقولُ الغيثُ يحكي بنانه

سماحاً لأنَّ الغيثَ فيه عذولها

A man whose fingers I will not say rain resembles

in generosity, for rain reproaches those fingers in him.

شمائله تحكي النسيمَ لطافةً

وأخلاقه الصهباء رقَّت شمولها

His traits resemble the breeze in gentleness;

his character is red wine, its draught refined.

بني الغالبيين الذين أكفُّهم

تريك الغوادي الغرَّ كيفَ مخيلها

Sons of the Ghalibis, whose palms

show you how bright morning rainclouds promise rain,

ألستم لقومٍ تملأ الأرض رجفةً

إذا هي للهيجاء سارَ رعيلها

are you not of a people who fill the earth with trembling

when their companies march to battle?

ضراغمُ تخشى رقدة الموت من غفا

إذا استيقظتْ للضربِ يوماً نصولها

Lions—whoever slumbers fears the sleep of death

when their blades one day awaken to strike.

يطولُ نعيُّ الثاكلات لقومها

إذا صهلتْ للطعنِ شوقاً خيولها

Bereaved mothers' lament for their people grows long

when their horses neigh in longing to thrust.

بهاليلُ أما هجرت يوم معركٍ

فتحت ظبات المشرفيِّ مقيلها

Noble men: when they march at noon on a battle day,

their resting place lies beneath the edges of Mashrafi swords.

لها الحربُ لم تبرحْ تقلِّل عدَّها

ويكثر في عين العدوِّ قليلها

War has never ceased diminishing their number,

yet their few grow many in the enemy's eye.

لكم صبرُها تحت السيوف وحملها

إذا نوبُ الدهر أرجحنَّ جليلها

Yours is their patience beneath swords and their endurance

when the weightiest of Time's calamities bear down.

فما شيمةُ الحسَّاد فيكم وليتها

عفت معفوِّ المجدِ منها طلولها

No envious trait is yours; would that

its ruins were effaced like glory's effaced remains.

وقدركم في الموت يعلو نباهةً

وما الموت كلُّ الموت إلاَّ خمولها

Your standing rises in renown through death;

death—all death—is nothing but oblivion.

ألا أنتم القوم الذين قبابُهم

على شهب الخضراء ترخي سدولها

Indeed, you are the people whose pavilions

let their curtains fall over the meteors of green heaven.

فروعُ عُلًى لا يدرك الوهم طائراً

سوى إنَّها فوقَ السماء أصولها

Branches of eminence that even soaring imagination cannot grasp,

save that their roots are above the sky.

لها فوقَ الأرض مجدٌ تكافأتْ

عمومتها في فخرها وخؤولها

Theirs is glory upon earth in which

their paternal and maternal uncles are equal in pride.

خذوها بني العلياء خنساء عصرها

وإلاّ فبنت الدوح مرَّ غليلها

Take her, sons of eminence: the Khansa of her age,

or else the daughter of the bough, her yearning bitter.

فلو أنَّها ناحتْ لصخر أرتْكه

تفطّرُ ممَّا قد شجاه هديلها

Had she lamented Sakhr, she would have shown him to you

split apart by the pain her cooing had caused him.

لها قربُ عهدٍ بالولادة لا تخل

أتى قبلُ أو من بعدُ يأتي مثيلها

She has only lately been born; do not suppose

her equal came before, or will come afterward.

تطول قوافي الشعر منها قصيدةٌ

زهيرٌ بحوليَّاته لا يطولها

A poem from her outstrips the rhymes of verse;

Zuhayr, with his year-worked odes, cannot surpass her.

ألا إنَّما يبقى الهُدى ببقائكم

فسؤلُ المعالي أن تدوم سؤولها

Indeed, guidance endures through your endurance;

so eminence's wish is that its cherished ones endure.