قد تبلغ الأنفس في ارتيادها — Haidar Alheli

قد تبلغ الأنفسُ في ارتيادها

حصولَ ما تهواه من مرادها

Souls may attain, in their seeking,

What they desire of their aims.

وقد تديم السعيَ في تتمةِ

انتقاصها أو طلب ازديادها

Or they may persist in striving to make good

Their deficiency, or seek their increase.

ففاتها ما اعتقدت حصوله

وجاءها ما ليس في اعتقادها

Yet what they expected to attain eludes them,

And what they never expected comes to them.

وكلما قدّره اللهُ لها

في قربها يجري وفي بعادها

And whatever God has ordained for them

Runs its course, whether they are near or far.

هذا ابن أمَّ المكرمات من غدا

يرفل في الفاخر من أبرادها

This is the son of the mother of noble deeds, who now

Trails proudly in the finest of her mantles.

جوادُها وهل بمضمار العلى

أسبقُ من محمدٍ جوادها

Her steed—and on the racecourse of eminence,

Is any steed of hers swifter than Muhammad?

أنكر مسَّ الدهر من خشونةٍ

لا يرقد الحرُّ على قَتادها

He rejected time's harsh touch:

The freeborn man will not lie upon its thorn-bushes.

فانساب مثل الأيم عن بلاده

ينتجعُ العزَّة في بلادها

So he glided like a serpent away from his homeland,

Seeking honor in its own lands.

يطلبها بعين يقظانَ رأت

سهادَها أعذَب من رقادها

Seeking it with a wakeful eye that found

Its sleeplessness sweeter than its sleep.

مقتعداً من الإباء صعبةٌ

لا يقدر الدهر على اقتعادها

Mounted on an unruly she-camel of proud refusal,

Which time itself cannot mount.

حتَّى اصطفى من عزةٍ دارَ عُلى

ترفع كفُّ المجد من عمادها

Until, in dignity, he chose an abode of eminence,

Whose pillars the hand of glory raises.

فاحتلَّ منها في رباع شرفٍ

عادت نجوم الأُفق من حسادها

There he settled in quarters of nobility,

Whose enviers the horizon's stars became.

قد عقد النديَّ فيها للنهى

واصطنع العرفَ إلى قصّادها

There he convened an assembly for wisdom,

And bestowed kindness upon its visitors.

واستحلت الفرسُ له خلائقاً

أخلاقها المرةُ من أضدادها

The Persians found sweet dispositions in him,

The opposites of their own bitter manners.

فكان فيها كهلال فطرِها

وكلُّ يومٍ مرَّ من أعيادها

Among them he was like their fast-breaking crescent,

And every passing day was one of their festivals.

أمّل أن يعودَ وهو رافهٌ

بناعم العيش إلى بغدادها

He hoped to return, living at ease,

To Baghdad, enjoying life's comforts.

فعاد في نعشٍ حوى صفيّةً

أعزَّ في عينيه من سوادها

But he returned with a bier holding a cherished woman,

Dearer in his eyes than their own dark pupils.

خلتُ أهنّيه على قدومه

لا أن أعزّيه على افتقادها

I thought to congratulate him on his arrival,

Not console him for losing her.

وفيه في النادي لآل المصطفى

أقول قرَّت مقلتا أمجادها

And of him, in the gathering of the Chosen One's family,

To say: 'May the eyes of its illustrious men be gladdened,'

لا أنني أقول في مأتمها

صبراً وأين الصبرُ من فؤادها

Not to say, in its mourning gathering:

'Patience!' But where is patience in its heart?

يا خجلة الأيام من محمدٍ

صالِحها الزاجر عن فسادها

Oh, the days' shame before Muhammad,

Their righteous man, restraining their corruption!

قد صبغ العارُ لها وجوهَها

فلتستتر بفاضح اسودادها

Shame has dyed their faces;

Let them hide, for their blackening is disgraceful.

يا قصرتْ يدُ الليالي ما جنت

على أبي المهديّ في امتدادها

Ah, may the nights' hand be shortened! What wrongs it has done

To Abu al-Mahdi as it stretched out!

أليس دأباً كفَّها مملوَّةً

من كفِّه البيضاء في إرفادها

Was not its palm always filled

From his white palm when he supplied it?

مولىً على الأرض تراه رحمة

عمَّت جميعَ الأرض بانفرادها

A lord whom you see upon earth as a mercy

That, alone, encompassed all the earth.

أحيا ثراها وأمات جدبَها

بجوده وكان من أوتادها

He revived its soil and killed its barrenness

With his bounty, and was one of its anchoring pegs.

مقتصدٌ يسرف في بذل الندى

حيث الورى تسرف باقتصادها

Frugal, he lavishes gifts of bounty,

While mankind is extravagant in its thrift.

كأنَّ من وقاره حبوتُه

تضمنُ منه الطودَ في انعقادها

Such is his gravity that his knee-binding seems

To enclose a mountain when it is knotted.

سدَّت لأهل الأرض فيه ثلمة

ما ظفرتْ لولاه بانسدادها

Through him a breach was closed for earth's people,

Which, without him, would never have found closure.

خافتْ ولما التجأتْ لعزِّه

أقرّها والأرض في مهادها

It feared, but when it sought refuge in his might,

He steadied it—the earth—upon its bed.

يُنمى إلى قبيلة المجد التي

طريفها يعربُ عن تلادها

He traces his descent to the tribe of glory, whose

Newly acquired honor speaks of its inherited honor.

إن عدّدت لمفخرٍ ودَّت بأن

تدخلُ زهر الشهب في عدادها

When it is numbered for glory, they long

To enter its number—the radiant meteors.

تواترت عنها رواياتُ الندى

من ولدها تنقل في آحادها

Accounts of its bounty have followed one another,

Transmitted from its offspring among its individual members.

في كل ذي نفسٍ تزكَّت بالتقى

لا تعلق الآثامُ في أبرادها

In each possessor of a soul purified through piety,

Sins do not cling to its mantles.

تديم ذكرَ الله بل كاد لها

يقوم ما عاشت مقامَ زادها

It sustains remembrance of God; indeed, it almost

Serves, throughout its life, in place of its provisions.

هذا أبو المهدي فانظر في الورى

هل كأبي المهديّ في عبادها

This is Abu al-Mahdi: look among mankind—

Is any worshipper like Abu al-Mahdi?

كأنَّ في جنبيه نفسَ ملكٍ

تستنفد الأوقات في أورادها

Within his sides there seems to be an angel's soul,

Spending every hour upon its daily devotions.

أتعبها في طاعة الله لكي

تفوزَ بالراحة في معادها

He wearied it in obedience to God, so that

It might win rest upon its final return.

حسبُك ما ترويه عن آبائها

أن التقى والبرّ في زهّادها

Sufficient is what you recount of its forefathers:

That piety and righteousness dwell in its ascetics.

بل كيف لا تثبت دعوى شرفٍ

أبو الأمين كانَ من أشهادها

Indeed, how could a claim of nobility not be proven,

When Abu al-Amin was among its witnesses?

ندبٌ حياض الجود منه نعمةٌ

تروى بها الوفدَ على احتشادها

A noble man, whose pools of bounty are a blessing

That slakes the visitors, however crowded their gathering.

يزداد ورياً زندُ مكرماته

إن زادت الجدوب في أصلادها

The fire-stick of his noble deeds glows ever more brightly

When droughts increase in their barren hardness.

صلّى إلى العلياء خلفَ سابقٍ

كانَ هو النخبة من أمجادها

He ran second toward eminence, behind a forerunner

Who was the choicest of its illustrious men.

ذاك أخوه وأبو النجب التي

قد أخذ الفخارَ في أعضادها

That is his brother, father of the noble ones

Whom glory has taken by the arms.

منها الرضى للوفد حيث سخطت

من بخل أهل الأرض في ارتيادها

From them comes contentment for visitors angered

By earth's people's stinginess during their quest.

محببُ الأخلاق محسود العُلى

دامت له العلياء مع حسّادها

Beloved in character, envied for eminence—

May eminence endure for him despite its enviers.

قد خلط البشرى لذي ودادها

بهائل السخط لذي أحقادها

He mingled glad tidings for those who love it

With terrible wrath for those who harbor hatred of it.

مثلَ البحار الفعم يروي عذبُها

ويغرق الجائشُ في إزبادها

Like brimming seas, whose sweet water slakes thirst,

While their surging water drowns amid their foam.

أو كالقطار السجم يُرجى برقُها

ويُرهب القاصفُ من إرعادها

Or like pouring showers, whose lightning inspires hope,

While the crashing of their thunder inspires dread.

له الندى المورودُ عبًّا وندى

سواه مثلُ المصّ من ثمادها

His bounty is a watering place drunk from deeply; another's

Is like sipping from its scant pools.

أزهرُ بسّام العشيِّ إن دجت

أوجهُ أقوام على قصّادها

Radiant, ever-smiling in the evening, when darken

The faces of other people toward their visitors.

يلتمع السرورُ في جبينه

عند قِرى الأضياف وازديادها

Joy gleams upon his brow

When entertaining guests, and as their numbers grow.

قد طاول الأنجمَ هادي مجده

حتَّى سما الكاهل من أفرادها

The neck of his glory has vied in height with the stars,

Until its shoulder towered above each of them.

واتقدت من فوقها أنوارها

حتَّى شكت إليه من إخمادها

And its lights blazed above them,

Until they complained to him of their dimming.

قد خلّف المهديُّ خير من مشى

في هذه الأرض على مهادها

Al-Mahdi has left behind the best of those who walked

Upon this earth, upon its bed.

وقام في دار علاهُ حافظاً

له ذمامَ الجود في وفّادها

And he stood in the house of his eminence, preserving

For him bounty's covenant toward its visitors.

وبعضهم كالنار لا يخلفها

منها سوى ما كانَ من رمادها

Some are like fire: nothing succeeds it

Of its substance except what remains of its ashes.

أبلج لا يشبهه البدرُ لأن

تشينه الكلفةُ في سوادها

Radiant, he is unmatched by the full moon, for

Its black mottling blemishes it.

من فئة فيها الوقارُ والنهى

ساعة تستهلُّ في ميلادها

Of a company endowed with gravity and wisdom

From the moment it gives its first cry at birth.

كمصطفى الفخر وناهيك به

في شرف النفس وفي إرفادها

Like Mustafa of glory—he is enough for you

In nobility of soul and in its generosity.

جلَّ فلولا صغرُ النفس إذن

لقيل هذا مصطفى أجدادها

He is exalted; were it not for his youth, then

One would say: 'This is the Mustafa of its forefathers.'

مَن مثله وأين تلقى مثله

يا رائد المعروف في أجوادها

Who is like him, and where can you find his like,

O seeker of kindness among its generous men?

هذا الذي قد وجدت عفاتُه

برد الندى منه على أكبادها

This is he whose petitioners have found

The coolness of his bounty upon their livers.

وعن حسينٍ جودُه تحدَّثت

تحدّثَ الروضة عن عهادها

And his bounty spoke of Husayn

As a garden speaks of its recurrent rains.

كالغيث في دنوه والبدر في

علوِّه والشمس في اتقادها

Like rain in his nearness, and the full moon in

His height, and the sun in its blazing.

بل في أمين الحلم نفسُ كاظمٍ

للغيظ مما ساء من حسّادها

Rather, in Amin of forbearance is the soul of Kazim,

Restraining wrath at the wrongs of its enviers.

جعفرُ فضلٍ والجواد جعفرُ ال

فضل وذا حسبُك من تعدادها

Ja'far of bounty—and the generous one is Ja'far of the

Bounty; this suffices you in their enumeration.

قد ولدتْ أمُّ المعالي غيرَها

لكن هي الصفوةُ من أولادها

The mother of high honors has borne others besides them,

But they are the choicest of her children.

تهوى سما أن تغتدي فراشها

والشهبُ أن تكون من وسادها

Heaven longs to become their bedding,

And the meteors to become part of their pillow.

حيث أبو المهديّ قد رشَّحها

للفخر والسؤدد من ميلادها

For Abu al-Mahdi has prepared them

For glory and lordship from their birth.

يا فئةً أحلامها ما زحزحت

راجفة الخطوب من أطوادها

O company, whose forbearance has never been shifted

From its mountains by the quaking of calamities!

إليكموها غرراً وإن تكن

بدت من الأحزان في سوادها

Take these bright-blazed verses, though they

Have appeared in sorrow's blackness.

وسمتها بمدحكم فأقبلت

سماتها تنيرُ في أجيادها

I branded them with your praise, and then

Their marks shone upon their necks.

بلطفها من القوافي نزلت

منزلة الأرواح من أجسادها

Through the delicacy of its rhymes, it has taken

The place of souls within their bodies.

جاءتك ثكلى غير مستأجرةٍ

تستقصر الخنساء في إنشادها

It came to you bereaved, no hired mourner,

Deeming al-Khansa's chanting inadequate.

لو رددت نوحاً لصخرٍ لأرت

كيف انفطارُ الصخر في تردادها

Had it repeated a lament for Sakhr, it would have shown

How rock itself splits under its repeated cries.

ناحت فأبكت شجناً عينَ العُلى

بأدمعٍ تذوب من فؤادها

It lamented, making eminence's eye weep with grief,

With tears melting from its heart.

ثم دعت لا طرقت ربعَكمُ

إلاَّ المسرّات مدى آبادها

Then it prayed: may nothing visit your dwelling

Except joys throughout endless ages.

ولا وعي غيرَ التهاني سمعُكم

أو مدحاً تطرب في إنشادها

And may your hearing take in nothing but congratulations,

Or praise that delights in its recitation.

ومنكم لا برحت آهلة

عرينةُ العزَّة في آسادها

And through you may it never cease to be inhabited—

Honor's lair, with its lions.