ألا من لليلى وهي حالفة الخدر — Ibn Nabata Al Saadi

أَلا من للَيلى وهي حَالِفةُ الخِدرِ

تروحُ وتَغدو بالنميمةِ أَو تَسري

Ah, who will deal with Layla, sworn companion of the curtained chamber?

She goes at dusk and dawn with gossip, or travels through the night.

تُؤَرِّشُ ما بيني وبين معرِّضٍ

لأَقطعه وهو النخاع من الظهرِ

She sows discord between me and a man who makes insinuations,

so I may cut him off, though he is the marrow of my spine.

دعى لي أَخي لا تتبعيه ملامة

وكوني له في السر مثلكِ في الجهرِ

Leave my brother to me; do not pursue him with blame,

and be to him in private as you are in public.

لعلكِ يوماً أَنْ يسرَّم قُربُه

اذا كان وِرْدُ الموتِ أَقربَ من شِبرِ

Perhaps one day his nearness will gladden you,

when death's watering-place is nearer than a handspan.

أَأُعدِلُ قوماً في التمول والغِنى

بقومٍ رموني بالخَصَاصةِ والفقرِ

Shall I equate a people in affluence and wealth

with people who cast me into destitution and poverty?

طويتُ فلم أَنشر صحيفةَ ودهم

ولو نُشروا بالسيفِ ما نشِروا سِرّي

I folded away, and did not spread abroad, the page of their affection;

even if sawn apart by swords, they would not divulge my secret.

وَمَنْ فتش الاخوانَ أَفردَ نفسَه

وعاشَ بلا بيت يُزارُ ولا قَبْرِ

Whoever scrutinizes his brothers leaves himself alone,

and lives with neither a home nor a grave that others visit.

سلى الشائمَ المخدوعَ أَيُّ مخيلَة

جناني اذا ظن السحائب بالقطرِ

Ask the deluded cloud-watcher what rain-promising cloud

my heart is, when he looks to the clouds for rain,

وأيهما في المجد أبعد غايةٍ

عشيةَ تَقريني الأَسنةُ أَو أَقري

and which of the two reaches farther into glory,

on an evening when spearheads entertain me, or I entertain them.

رقدت على زأر الأُسودِ ولم أَهب

لظى النار لما أَنْ وطئتُ على الجمرِ

I slept to the roar of lions, and did not fear

the blaze of fire when I trod upon the embers.

وهل أَنا اِلاَّ من فوارس عَسْعَسٍ

اذا اتجروا في الطعن رحت مع التجرِ

Am I not one of the horsemen of 'As'as?

When they trade in spear-thrusts, I go with the traders.

ميامينُ حلوا من حياطةِ جارهم

محلَّ جناحِ الصقرِ من بيضةِ الوكرِ

Blessed men, who in protecting their neighbor occupy

the place of a falcon's wing over the egg within its nest.

اذا كاثَرتْهُم بالسوامِ قبيلةٌ

ثروها بأَيام المكارمِ والفخرِ

If a tribe vies with them in grazing herds,

they surpass it with days of noble deeds and glory.

تُسدُّ وتَعرورى بهم كل ثُلمة

وثغر كأَنيابِ الهزبر بلا ثَغرِ

Through them every breach is sealed and manned,

and every frontier is like a lion's fangs, without a gap.

وعهدي بهم في كل حرصٍ ومارنٍ

يلوُّون أعطاف المثقفة السمرِ

I have known them amid every spearhead and supple shaft,

bending the flanks of the straightened brown lances.

اذا لبسوا النعماءَ لم ينظروا لها

وانْ جُهدوا حل البلاء مع الصبرِ

When they put on prosperity, they pay it no heed;

if hard-pressed, affliction lodges with patience.

فويلهُم لو يسلمون من الردى

ويستنفدون العيش من عَتَب الدهرِ

Alas for them—if only they could escape death

and live life out free of Time's reproaches!

أَرى اِبلي بينَ الفراتِ وجازرٍ

كأَنَّ بها وخزَ الرماحِ من الذعرِ

I see my camels between the Euphrates and Jazir,

as though spears pricked them, so great their terror.

دعت ويلها واستصرختْ كلَّ غاصبٍ

على الأَرضِ من أَملاكها السودِ والحمرِ

They cried their woe and called on every usurper for aid

on earth, among its kings, the black and the red.

وما زادها عورانُ آلِ مقلدٍ

على النظرِ المشفونِ والكلمِ النزرِ

The one-eyed men of Muqallad's house gave them no more

than sidelong looks and scant words.

فذو النون لم يفضُل عن الماءِ نصرُه

وضبَّةُ لم تُصطد بحرشٍ ولا حَفرِ

Dhu al-Nun's aid did not extend beyond the water,

and Dabba was caught neither by burrow-scratching nor by digging.

وليس بها فقرٌ الى متلومٍ

قصيرُ الخُطى والباعِ يغنى عن الشكرِ

They have no need of a procrastinator,

short in stride and reach, who gives no cause for thanks.

أراكَ بصدرِ العَينِ يا ابنَ يزيد

وأَنتَ تراني بالتشاوسِ والشَّزْرِ

I look at you straight on, O son of Yazid,

while you regard me with haughty, sidelong glances.

دواليكَ من هنديةٍ انْ سللتَها

سللتَ عليها حَدَّ اٍخوتها البُترِ

Blow for blow with an Indian blade: if you draw it,

you draw against it the edge of its keen-cutting brothers.

وأنتَ الذي يُلحى على الذنبِ مرةً

وانْ يعتذر يُلحى مِراراً على العُذْرِ

You are one reproached once for a fault,

but if he offers an excuse, repeatedly reproached for the excuse.

فلا دنستْ أَحسابُ قومٍ سليمةٍ

نَفَوكَ كما يُنفى الشَّرارُ عن الجمْرِ

May the people's unblemished ancestral honors never be stained—

they cast you out as sparks are driven from embers.

هم نَصلوا من لؤمكم بعد خُلْطَةٍ

كما نصل النبعُ الكريمُ من القِشرِ

They slipped free of your baseness after close association,

as noble bow-wood slips free of its bark.

وجبهانُ لم يغضب لها فَحَضَضْتُهُ

ولا خيرَ في جارٍ يُحضُّ على النَّصرِ

Jabhan felt no anger for them, so I urged him on;

there is no good in a neighbor who must be urged to help.

وأُغرىَ بها أَنباطُ دجِلةَ عادةً

تصنَّع مِقلاتُ البنين من الظَّهرِ

The Nabataeans of the Tigris were habitually set upon them;

a mother bereft of sons is fashioned out of the riding herd.

رآها تضاغي في الجبالِ وتجتوي

مباركُها بين التخمطِ والقَسرِ

He saw them crying in the mountains and loathing

their kneeling-places, amid overbearing fury and coercion.

فأَعجلها من طيّها رُكباتُها

وقيدَها فوقَ المَعَاقمِ بالعَقرِ

So he gave them no time to fold their knees,

and fettered them above the joints by hamstringing.

وقال أَبو رمحٍ بسَمْعِي وَقْرَةٌ

فقلتُ تأَملْ هل بعينكَ مِن وَقْرِ

Abu Rumh said, 'There is deafness in my hearing.'

I said, 'Look closely: is there deafness in your eye?'

حَماها من الأَعداءِ ثم بدا لَهُ

كما نَدِمَ الصاحي على هبةِ السُّكْرِ

He protected them from enemies, then changed his mind,

as a sober man regrets a gift made in drunkenness.

وكنت كأَني اذْ عَلِقْتُ بحبله

عِلِقْتُ بأَطرافِ الخيالِ الذي يسري

When I clung to his rope, I was as though

I had clung to the fringes of a phantom passing by night.

له من رواء الغيث والسيفِ منظر

يَروق ولكن لا يجود ولا يَفري

He has the fair outward look of rain and sword,

pleasing to the eye, but he neither showers bounty nor cleaves.

فيا ليتَ لي من كلِّ جاءٍ بلوتُه

ولم أَبله يوماً فتىً من بني الفِزرِ

Would that, in place of every comer I have tested

or never tested, I had a youth of Banu al-Fizr.

كريمُ الغنى والفقر يتبع لونَه

تَحوّلُ لوني في العبوسِ وفي اليسرِ

Noble in wealth and poverty; his color is followed

by my own changing color, in grim times and in ease.

له من يديهِ حينَ يطلُب ساعداً

هصورٌ وان يُطلَب فقادمتا نسرِ

He has in his hands, when he seeks a helping arm,

a lion; when he is sought, an eagle's two foremost pinions.

وكم دونَ سعدٍ من بلادٍ بليدةٍ

بها الشفق المحمر أدهى من الفجرِ

How many lifeless lands lie between me and Sa'd,

where the reddening twilight is more dreadful than dawn!

وفرج غَوانٍ طُلقت فهي أَيّمٌ

لاخرى من الركبان خاويةٍ بكرِ

And many a pass of fair women, divorced and left unwed,

for another, empty of riders and still virgin.

بها العِينُ والظُلمانُ ترضع بنتها

وترضع فيها نبتَها حلب القطرِ

There, wide-eyed wild cows and ostriches nurse their young,

and there its plants are nursed on the milk of rain.

كأَن أَخاها من مجاوبةِ الصدى

اذا زجر الوجناءَ يزجر بالزجرِ

Its companion, with the echo answering him, seems,

when he urges his thick-cheeked she-camel, to be urged by his own shout.

وحدبٍ كأن العصم في قذفاتها

سفينُ خَريقٍ لاطمت حَدَبَ البحرِ

And hills, with white-footed ibex on their jutting peaks like

ships in a gale, battering the sea's crests.

أنا ابن الذين استرفدوا المجد والعلا

فضنوا وجادوا بالحياةِ وبالوفرِ

I am the son of men who were asked to yield glory and eminence,

and withheld those, but freely gave life and wealth.

مضى عَرضُ الدنيا ولم يمض ذكرهم

وليس على الأيام أَبقى من الذكرِ

The world's fleeting goods have passed, but their renown has not;

nothing endures through the days longer than renown.

يربُّونَ نعماهم ولا يلحقونها

كما تفعلُ الشمسُ المضيئة بالبدرِ

They nurture their favors and do not pursue them,

as the radiant sun does with the full moon.

أَزاحوا الرَّبابَ من اِسارِ جوارِهمْ

وكلُّ جِوارٍ يستضيمكَ كالأَسْرِ

They freed al-Ribab from the bondage of their protection-pact;

any protection-pact that oppresses you is like captivity.

غزا الأَضبطُ اسلعدي صنعاءَ ترتمي

به عُقُبُ الأيامِ شهراً الى شَهْرِ

Al-Adbat al-Sa'di raided Sana'a, borne onward

by the days' successive turns, month after month.

ففكَ رقابَ اليُتمِ من أَسْرِ حميرٍ

فتىً بأسهُ فيهم كنائلِة الغَمْرِ

He freed the necks of orphans from Himyar's captivity,

a youth whose might among them was like a lavish giver's bounty.

ويومَ الكلابِ نحن فُزنا بِعُسرهِ

وفازت تميمٌ من مساعيه باليُسْرِ

On the day of al-Kulab, we won its hardship,

while Tamim gained ease from its exploits.

يَزيدُ بني الدَّيانِ يركبُ عُرفَه

يزيدُ بني المأمونِ يا لكَ من مَجْرِ

Yazid of Banu al-Dayyan—upon his mane rides

Yazid of Banu al-Ma'mun: what a mighty host!

ولمّا دعا الابطالُ يالَ مقاعسٍ

تقاعسَ عنا مالكٌ وبنو عَمْرو

When the champions cried, 'Help, Muqa'is!'

Malik and Banu 'Amr hung back from us.

وما فَتِئَتْ خيلٌ تجُرُّ رعالها

دوابرهم بين اليمامة والقهْرِ

And the cavalry kept on, its squadrons dragging

their rear ranks between al-Yamama and al-Qahr.

ويومَ النَّقا لم يَدرِ بسطامُ أَنَّه

يُلاقي غلاماً لا يحيد عن النَّذْرِ

On the day of al-Naqa, Bistam did not know that he

would meet a youth who would not swerve from his vow.

فلا عاصِمٌ عنه فشكَّ صِماخَه

بذات جدالٍ لا يناظرُ بالسَّبْرِ

No protector could save him; he pierced his ear-canal

with a stout-shafted spear, allowing no respite for probing.

لقد هجرتْ شيبانُ في أَرضِ هاجرٍ

فتى ليس يَدري بالوصالِ وبالهَجْرِ

Shayban abandoned, in the land of Hajar,

a youth who knows nothing of union or estrangement.

ويومَ جَدُودٍ شَدَّ قيسُ بنُ عاصمٍ

على ابن شريكٍ شِدَّةَ الحازمِ الغمْرِ

On the day of Jadud, Qays ibn 'Asim charged

at Ibn Sharik with a resolute, formidable man's onslaught.

وأفلتَ منها الحَوفَزانُ برجلهِ

شِكال أُمِرَّ الفتك منه على شَزْرِ

Al-Hawfazan escaped it, with upon his leg

a fetter, its deadly force twisted tightly crosswise.

ويومَ أَجاءَ ابنُ الضنيمِ أَميرَه

وفرَّ عبيدُ اللهِ من شُرَفِ القَصْرِ

On the day Ibn al-Dunaym put his emir to flight,

'Ubayd Allah fled from the palace battlements.

غمزنا جموعَ الأزدِ حتى تكثَّرَتْ

ببكرٍ وما هذا بيومكَ في بكْرِ

We pressed al-Azd's hosts until they swelled their ranks

with Bakr—and this is not your day against Bakr.

فأكرهتْ مسعوداً على حِلْفِ وائلٍ

كما يُكره العظمُ الكسيرُ على الجبْرِ

So it forced Mas'ud into an alliance with Wa'il,

as a broken bone is forced to be set.