Sol 6.1

  1. تجهم وجه الموت وازورَّ حاجبه

    فراح يرينا كيف تجثو غياهبه

    Death's face scowled, and its brow turned askance.

    So it began to show us how its dark depths crouch.

  2. تعصب أو يمري القلوب مصمما

    ومازال حتى استفرغ الضرع عصابه

    It binds the hearts or milks them, resolute;

    and does not cease until its binding-cord has emptied the udder.

  3. ولن يرجع الموت الزؤام ابن نجدة

    على عقب أو يرجع الدرَّ حالبه

    And grisly death will never turn a son of valor

    back on his heels—unless the milker can return the milk.

  4. وما لبس الدرع الحصيدة حازم

    من القوم إلا بزّه الدهر سالبه

    No prudent man has donned closely wrought mail

    among the people but Time, his despoiler, has stripped him bare.

  5. هو الخطب لم تكفف بسلم كتائبه

    يحارب بالأرزاء من لا يحاربه

    It is calamity: no peace has stayed its battalions;

    it wars through misfortunes against those who do not war with it.

  6. له الويل كم يسعى بسود أراقم

    لبيض المساعي وهو تسعى عقاربه

    Woe to it! How often it comes with black serpents

    against white deeds, while its scorpions scurry.

  7. وشوهاً له يفري بحمر مخالب

    قلوب العلى والموت حمر مخالبه

    And shame upon it! With red claws it rends

    the hearts of glory—and death's claws are red.

  8. نعاتب هذا الدهر والدهر لم يزل

    يخيب من قد جاء يوماً يعاتبه

    We reproach this Time, but Time has never ceased

    disappointing anyone who ever came to reproach it.

  9. فلا تصحبن الدهر إن كنت كيسا

    فحسبك أن الدهر يخذل صاحبه

    So never befriend Time, if you are wise;

    for it is enough that Time forsakes its companion.

  10. عذيريَ من دهر إذا ما وجدته

    لدفع ملم أدركتني مصائبه

    Who will defend me against Time? Whenever I turn to it

    to ward off an affliction, its calamities overtake me.

  11. فيا لائميّ اليوم كفّا فما بقي

    مع القلب صبر يوم زمت ركائبه

    So, my two reproachers, desist today! No longer is there

    patience in my heart, since the day his camels were bridled.

  12. قضى البين ممن يزجر الطير قلبه

    بيوم غراب البين ينعق ناعبه

    Parting claimed the heart of one who reads the omens of birds,

    on a day when parting's crow raised its croaking cry.

  13. لقد قاد صرف الحتف للحتف قائداً

    تناقل بالسلب اللدن سلاهبه

    Indeed, death's turn has led a leader to death,

    whose tall steeds strode on supple, slender limbs.

  14. وقد كان ورد الفضل عذباً شرابه

    فمذ بان عاد الفضل رنقا مشاربه

    And bounty's watering-place once gave sweet drink;

    but since he departed, bounty's drinking places have turned murky.

  15. خليليّ ما الأيام صادقة الجدا

    تخيل مخيل البرق أومض كاذبه

    My two friends, the days are not truthful in their bounty:

    they promise like a lightning-cloud whose false flash gleams.

  16. وللمرء أحباب مضت وحبائب

    فافجعنه أحبابه وحبائبه

    And a man has friends now gone, and beloved women;

    and his friends and beloved women have bereaved him.

  17. هل غالمرء يلقى بالتصفح صحبه

    وقد أدرجت تحت الصفيح صحائبه

    Can a man find his friends by searching,

    when his companions lie enfolded beneath stone slabs?

  18. وما الناس إلا كالأنامل أن تقس

    تجد أصبعا من أصبع لا يناسبه

    And people are but like fingertips: if you compare them,

    you find one finger unlike another.

  19. فمن ظاعن يمضي وتبقى مناقبه

    ومن قاطن يبقى وتبقى مثالبه

    Some depart and pass away, while their virtues remain;

    and some stay and live on, while their faults remain.

  20. وليس ابن أم المجد إلا ابن قفرة

    ملوّح مبدي صحفة الوجه شاحبه

    And the son of glory's mother is none but a son of the wilderness,

    sun-scorched, revealing the pale surface of his face.

  21. إذا ثار في الصفين نقع عجاجة

    يخوض عجاج النقع شعثاً ذوائبه

    When a whirling dust-cloud rises between the two ranks,

    he plunges into the swirling dust, his locks disheveled.

  22. هل المشهد الأعلى قضى بابن مشهد

    بلى بعليّ فيه قامت نوادبه

    Has the Loftiest Shrine claimed a son of Mashhad?

    Yes—for Ali, his mourning women have risen there.

  23. فتى أغرب المطري المطيل بوصفه

    فاعجزت المطري المطيل غرائبه

    A youth whose panegyrist speaks at length in wondrous terms of him;

    yet his marvels baffle even the panegyrist who speaks at length.

  24. فتى بث في الآفاق بيض مناقب

    فسارت مسير النيرات مناقبه

    A youth who spread white virtues across the horizons;

    so his virtues traveled the course of the luminaries.

  25. فتى إن رجونا منه دفعا لفاقة

    أمدت بدفاع العطاء رواجبه

    A youth—if we looked to him for relief from want,

    his finger-joints supplied a torrent of gifts.

  26. إذا غربت عن عينه نفس طالب

    إنما له عيناً عليها تطالبه

    When a petitioner's person vanishes from his sight,

    indeed, he has an eye upon them, pressing their claim upon him.

  27. فتى رد بالكتب الكتائب فانبرت

    تثير عجاجاً كتبه لا كتائبه

    A youth who repelled battalions with books; then sprang forward

    his books, not his battalions, raising clouds of dust.

  28. فتى العزم إن أجرى العدو مقانبا

    فعزمته في الجحفلين مقانبه

    A youth of resolve—if the enemy sent cavalry squadrons galloping,

    his resolve was his squadrons amid the two great armies.

  29. وذي قلم قد عاض عن كل لهذم

    إذا خط في الخطي أوجز كاتبه

    And a wielder of a pen that replaced every keen lance;

    when it wrote upon the Khatti spear, its writer was concise.

  30. وهوب إذا استر فدت إحدى هباته

    أتتك ثبا ملء الفجاج مواهبه

    A lavish giver—if a single gift of his was sought,

    his gifts came to you in throngs, filling the mountain passes.

  31. طلوب لأسباب العلى مدرك لها

    وقد يدرك المطلوب من هو طالبه

    An avid seeker of the means to glory, attaining them;

    and one who seeks a goal may attain it.

  32. لقد نال أقصى ما ينال من العلى

    وقد تجلب الشيء البعيد جوالبه

    Indeed, he attained the utmost glory one can attain;

    and even a distant thing may be brought within reach by its means.

  33. بعيد عن الأقران من ذا يقاربه

    ومن ذا يجاريه ومن ذا يغالبه

    Far beyond his peers—who can approach him?

    And who can keep pace with him, and who can best him?

  34. فمن ينزل الفج الذي هو نازل

    ومن يركب النهجل الذي هو راكبه

    So who can settle in the pass where he settles,

    and who can travel the broad road that he travels?

  35. فما زال يرعى المجد في المهد يافعا

    ويكلؤه طفلاً لدن طرّ شاربه

    He ever tended glory in the cradle, already a youth,

    and guarded it as a child, since his mustache first sprouted.

  36. أعاد وأبدى في الجميل ولم تزل

    أوائله محمودة وعواقبه

    He renewed good deeds and initiated them, and always

    his beginnings and his endings remained praiseworthy.

  37. سأبكيه مبكى الفاقدات ثواكلا

    بدمع جرت مجرى العزالي سواكبه

    I shall weep for him as bereft, grieving mothers weep,

    with tears pouring in streams like water from waterskin spouts.

  38. وذي عصبة أمسى مقيماً بحفرة

    عشية لا تجدي فتيلاً عصائبه

    And a man with kinsmen came to dwell at dusk in a grave-pit,

    on an evening when his clans could not avail him a single fiber.

  39. ومحتمل فوق المناكب زاحمت

    مناكب رضوى يوم سارت مناكبه

    And one borne upon shoulders—his shoulders rivaled

    the shoulders of Radwa on the day his own shoulders journeyed.

  40. لتعول بالويلات بعدك فتية

    يجاوبها فيك الصدى وتجاوبه

    Young men will surely wail with cries of woe after you;

    the echo answers them in mourning you, and they answer it.