كبا طرف أشعاري على الأسد الضاري — Ibrahim Tabatabai

كبا طرفُ أشعاري على الأسد الضاري

يدلُّ بأنياب ويفري بأظفارِ

The steed of my poems stumbled upon the fierce lion,

who vaunts his fangs and rends with claws.

جرى قدرٌ جارٍ عليه محتَّم

وهل قدر جارٍ على القدر الجاري

An irrevocable decree ran its course against him;

and can any decree prevail over the decree that runs its course?

أدار الحمى قد جارَ دهركِ فاضرعي

لقد أزمع الترحال عنك حمى الجارِ

O dwelling of the sanctuary, your age has wronged you: plead humbly!

The neighbor's refuge has resolved to depart from you.

لقد كان قبل اليوم ليلك مبهجا

ترٌّ حواشيه برقَّة أسحارِ

Before today, your night was indeed joyous,

its fringes tender with the softness of predawn hours.

وقد كان عهدي أمس ربعك مربع

بصوب أخي الشؤبوب يزهو بأزهارِ

Yesterday, as I remember, your dwelling was a springtime pasture,

resplendent with blossoms beneath the rain of the downpour's brother.

مسارب أسراب وملعبُ ربربٍ

حدائق أنوار خمائل نوّارِ

Paths for flocks and a playground for herds of gazelles,

gardens of light, thickets of blossom,

وأبطح فياح المهابط نافح

أغارت به الحواذن نافحة الغارِ

and a valley-bed, broad in its descents, wafting fragrance.

Through it swept the ḥawādhin [unclear term], wafting laurel's scent.

وهل درت الفيحاء لا فاح طيبها

تحمل فياحا شذا طيبها الداري

Did al-Fayha know—may its perfume waft no more—

that it bears a fragrance-spreader, the scent of its Darin perfume?

بكرى اليُّ حزناً والعراق لعارضٍ

تقشع ريّاً بل وارياً لمشتارِ

Rayy and Iraq wept in sorrow for a raincloud [opening text uncertain],

that dispersed, slaking thirst—nay, giving sparks to a honey-gatherer.

لحقَّ الصفا والمروتين وطيبة

له ادّرعت حزناً مدارع من قار

Indeed, al-Safa, the two Marwas, and Tayba

donned, in sorrow for him, robes of pitch.

سرى وعجيج الناس خلف سريره

عجيج حجيج البيت في يوم تناحار

He traveled by night; the people's cries behind his bier

were the cries of pilgrims to the House on a day of sacrifice.

أبا شبَّر واهاً شقيق شبيرها

أو حسن ثاوٍ بسبعة أشبار

O father of Shabbar—alas!—full brother of her Shubayr,

or Hasan, lying within seven handspans.

يصافح بالصلت الصفيح كأنه

وقد أكل البوغاء صفحة دينارِ

He greets us with his smooth, broad brow, as though he were,

though he has eaten dust, the face of a dinar.

فيا نكبةً أخلت لهاشم منكباً

وقد خزلت ظهراً بأغلب مغوارِ

O calamity that left Hashim without a shoulder,

and crippled a back by felling a mighty, battle-bold lion!

ويا ثلمة الثغر المخوف بخرقها

فما بعده انسدَّت ثغورٌ لأمصار

O breach in the frontier, dreaded for the opening it leaves,

for after him, no breaches in cities' defenses were closed.

لحلَّت حبا الأعلام ستّاً بواحدٍ

له انعقدت أعلام سبعة أقطار

It surely loosened the ties of six banners through the loss of one,

for whom the banners of seven regions had been bound.

لوت من لويّ البطش كفّاً وساعدا

بأبيض مصقول وأسود خطار

It twisted away from Lu'ayy a mighty hand and forearm,

armed with a polished white blade and a swaying black spear.

وناعٍ نعي بالأمس هاشم هشمها

طعاماً لأنفار وطعماً لأطيار

And a herald yesterday announced Hashim's death, shattering her

into food for men and feed for birds.

فواهاً لبحر الشعر جزرا عروضه

لمن بعد ذاك المد اعرض أشعاري

Alas for the sea of poetry, its meters ebbing!

To whom, after that flood tide, shall I present my poems?

ذكرتك والدنيا بعيني خطة

فما وسعت همّي عليك وتذكاري

I remembered you, and the world in my eyes was a patch of ground;

it could not contain my grief for you and my remembrance.

أيصدقني طيف لصالح طارقٌ

تمثل لي زورا على النأي زوار

Can a phantom of Salih, visiting by night, be true to me?

He appeared to me on a visit, often calling despite the distance.

خبث نار مقرورين صالح والندى

محمد أوقدها فأنت سنا النار

Salih, the fire for the shivering, went out [reading uncertain]; and generosity—

Muhammad—kindled it, and you are the fire's radiance.

أخو خلقٍ زاك كأنّ تجاره

تقلبُ بالأيدي مفتقة الفارِ

A man of pure character, as though his merchants

turn split-open musk pods over in their hands.

وأخبار فضلٍ عنك صحَّ ابتداؤها

ومبتدآتٍ عنك صحت بأخبار

And reports of your excellence proved sound from their beginning,

and opening statements about you were confirmed by reports.

وحسبُ حسين الفضل فضل يزينه

بتصعيد آراء وتصويب أفكار

And for Husayn of excellence, enough is the virtue that adorns him,

by elevating opinions and directing thoughts aright.

فما غرا إلا ريث أنجد فكره

فطوراً بأنجادٍ وطوراً بأغوارِ

He scarcely descended [reading uncertain] before his thought rose to the highlands,

now in highlands, now in lowlands.

وبحرَين زخّارين لجّاً وساحلا

فلجة زخّار تُلطُّ بزخّار

And two surging seas, in depth and shore:

one surging sea's depths are overlaid by another.

أخيَّ فما الدنيا بخير لطالب

ولا طالب الدنيا عليها بمختار

My dear brother, the world is no good to its seeker,

nor does the world's seeker have his choice over it.

وكم قائل لي دون قدرك بسطُه

فقلت هي الأقدار تجري بأقدار

Many have told me, 'His bounty falls short of your worth.'

I replied, 'These are fates, running their course in allotted measures.'

ومن باع عرضاً واشترى المال دونه

فقيراط عرضي لا يباع بقنطار

And whoever sells honor and buys wealth in its place—

a carat of my honor will not be sold for a quintal.

وما المرء ألا وهو يومان دهره

فيوماً بأفراح ويوماً بأكدارِ

A person's lifetime is nothing but two days:

a day of joys and a day of sorrows.

ومن قد رأى الدنيا الدنيَّة كاعباً

فإني أراهازيّ شمطاء معطار

And whoever has seen the base world as a budding-breasted maiden,

I see her in the guise of a gray-haired woman, heavily perfumed.

عزاءً بني الوحي الكرام فإنما

هو الموت رصدٌ بين وردٍ وإصدار

Take solace, noble sons of revelation, for it is only

death, lying in wait between coming to water and being sent away.

لئن غابَ بدرٌ مقمرٌ فلأنتم

منابت أزهارٍ ومطلع أقمارِ

If a shining full moon has vanished, then you are surely

beds of blossoms and the place where moons rise.

وإن غاب عنكم حيث أزهر رمسُه

به ميتاً أحياه معروفه الساري

And though he has vanished from you, where his grave has blossomed

with him in death, his far-reaching kindness has brought him to life.