أبو قير والأمس لا يرجع — Khalil Shayboub

أبو قير والأمسُ لا يرجعُ

عفت فيك من بعدنا الأربعُ

Abu Qir—and yesterday does not return.

Since our departure, your campsites have been effaced.

وهُدَّت خيامُ المصيف فلا

ظلالَ بأكنافها يطمع

The summer tents were dismantled, so

no shade beside them can be hoped for.

وقد طرد الناسَ عنك الخريفُ

فأَوحشكَ المؤنسُ المقلع

Autumn has driven the people away from you,

and the departing companion has left you lonely.

وأغضبِ بحرَكَ هجرانُنا

فجاش به الموجُ يستدفع

Our desertion angered your sea,

and its waves seethed, striving to ward it off.

ورُوِّعَ حصنُك وهو الأشم

يحاذره البطلُ الأروع

Your fortress was frightened, lofty though it is,

feared even by the dauntless hero.

ولم يخفق العلمُ المستطيلُ

عليك وحراسُه هجع

The long banner no longer fluttered

above you, while its guards lay asleep.

وقد صرتَ يأوي إلى شجراتك

وحشُ فلاةٍ بها يظلع

And now your little trees give refuge

to a wilderness beast limping among them.

فجرَّت على وجهك الرامساتُ

ذيولاً هي الكفنُ المفجع

The dust-bearing winds dragged across your face

trains that are a grievous shroud.

ليالي أبو قير أين الليالي

وأين النجومُ التي تلمع

Nights of Abu Qir—where are those nights?

And where are the stars that shine?

وأين الهلالُ وكان مساءً

مُكَوِّنُ بهجته المبدع

And where is the crescent, whose beauty at dusk

was fashioned by the wondrous Creator?

وتسرح فوق الرمالِ الظباءُ

على شاطئ البحر تستتبع

Gazelles roamed over the sands

along the seashore, drawing followers after them:

عيونٌ تغازلها أعين

قدودٌ تطوقها أذرُع

eyes courted by other eyes,

slender figures encircled by arms;

نواعمُ كالأغصن الناعماتِ

فوائحُ كالعطر يَضَّوَّع

tender as tender boughs,

fragrant as perfume wafting abroad;

طوالعُ بع العشي شموساً

ترافقُها النجُم التبع

rising like suns at evening,

accompanied by attendant stars;

نواشرُ فوق المتونِ ليالي

الشعورِ وهنَّ الدجى الرُوَّع

spreading over their backs the nights

of their hair—those enchanting darknesses;

جوالسُ فوق الصخور غصوناً

على الصخر نضرتُها تمرع

sitting upon the rocks like branches

whose freshness flourishes upon the stone;

سوافرُ عن فاضحات البدور

ضواحكُ عن درر تسطع

unveiling faces that put full moons to shame,

smiling to reveal gleaming pearls;

سواحرُ لبٍ سواءٌ أخو

الهداية والعاشقُ المولع

bewitching minds, alike for the man

of right guidance and the infatuated lover;

سواهٍ لواهٍ بملكِ الجمالِ

لهن الخلودُ وما يتبع

carefree, playful in the kingdom of beauty,

theirs was immortality and all that follows it.

وليل به بتُّ مستلقياً

على الرمل والجفنُ لا يهجع

And a night when I lay reclining there

upon the sand, my eyelids finding no sleep;

تحيَّرُ فيه النجومُ كما

تَتَحيَّرُ في المقل الأدمع

the stars wavered in it, just as

tears waver within the eyes.

يداعبُ وجهي نسيمُ المساءِ

وترمقني الخيم الخشع

The evening breeze caressed my face,

and the low-bowed tents gazed at me

بما علٌّقوا من سراجٍ منيرٍ

على بابها نورُه اسفع

through the shining lamp they had hung

at their doors, its glow dusky-red.

وقد وقَفَ الحصن طوداً منيعاً

يؤَمِّنُ منن قلبُهُ يهلع

The fortress stood, an impregnable mountain,

reassuring anyone whose heart was trembling.

وساد السكوتُ كأَن البرايا

مظنّاتُ أنفاسها تنزع

Silence reigned, as though all creatures

were places from which their breaths were being torn away.

فحدَّثني الصخرُ عما رأى

واسمعني الماءُ ما يسمع

Then the rock told me what it had seen,

and the water let me hear what it hears:

حوادثَ ملءَ الزمان استقلَّت

على البحر أحرفُها تطبع

events filling the ages, borne

upon the sea, their letters imprinted,

مسطرةً بالدماءِ خطوطاً

عصيٌّ بها الناظر الطيَّع

inscribed in lines of blood,

before which even the willing gaze rebels.

فتقراها في الظلام عيونُ

الفؤادِ وتضمَنُها الأضلع

So in the darkness they are read by the eyes

of the heart, and held within the ribs:

أساطيل تحسدها الراسخاتُ

تسير الرياحُ بها الأربع

fleets envied by the immovable mountains,

borne onward by the four winds;

تَروع البحارَ إذا ما جرت

ففي قلبها الحوتُ مستفزع

they terrify the seas when they sail,

and in their depths the whale is panic-stricken;

تُقِلُّ جيوش المنايا استثارت

ومصرُ لنَسرِهم موقع

they carry armies that have roused death,

and Egypt is where their eagle alights.

رمى بالمماليك حتى تشتت

شملُهم فهو لا يجمع

He struck the Mamluks until their fellowship broke,

their unity never again to be restored.

وجاءَته كلُّ وفودِ البلاد

تباعاً لإِمرته تخضع

Delegations from every land came to him,

one after another, bowing to his command.

ولكن كبارُ الرجال يرون

بأتباعهم صمماً أن دعوا

But great men find

deafness in their followers when they call.

كذلك خالف أمرَ الكبيرِ

أميرُ المياه فما يسمع

Thus the great man's order was defied

by the commander of the waters, who would not listen.

وألقى مراسيه فيكَ لا

يبالي العدوَّ ولا يفزع

He cast his anchors in you, not

heeding the enemy or taking fright.

فيا يومَ فاجأه الإنكليزُ

على رأسه حُوَّمٌ شُرَّع

Ah, the day the English took him by surprise,

hovering above his head, poised to strike!

فدمدمَ في أفقيكَ الرصاصُ

وارعد في بحرك المدفعُ

Bullets rumbled across your two horizons,

and the cannon thundered in your sea.

وطبَّقَ في جانبيك الدخانُ

كأَنَّ الجهاتِ لُهى جُوَّع

Smoke blanketed both your flanks,

as though all directions were ravenous gullets.

فروّى بحارَك قاني النجيعِ

وإن العُطاشَ لها أنجع

Crimson gore quenched your seas,

and the thirsty were still more nourishing to them.

وأطعمها من تجاليدهم

لحومَ الألوف وما تشبع

And it fed them, from their bodies,

the flesh of thousands, yet they were not sated.

وأَخَّرَ نجدتهم جاهلٌ

من الخوف مهجتُه تخلع

An ignorant man delayed their relief,

his heart wrenched loose by fear.

فحلق الدمارُ بهم وكذلك

تهوي الجبالُ وتصَدَّع

So destruction hovered over them; thus

mountains fall and split apart.

شفى نفسهم أَنهم أَدركوا

بك الثأرَ والموتُ لا يقنع

It soothed their souls that they had won

revenge in you, though death is never satisfied.

أتى التركُ من بعد حولٍ لكي

يردّوا البلاد ويستنزعوا

A year later the Turks came to

reclaim the land and wrest it back.

عديدَ الرمالِ أتاهم بونابارتُ

والنارُ في قلبه تلذع

They numbered like the sands; Bonaparte came upon them,

with fire searing in his heart.

رماهم بموج الحديدِ قضاءً

عليهم وعنهم لا يدفع

He hurled waves of iron at them—a doom

decreed against them, not to be warded off.

فسل عن بسالتهم مصطفى

وقد جاءَ موراً به يشفع

Ask Mustafa about their valor,

when Murat brought him in, interceding for him.

رمى بطبنجته مصطفى

فتىً قلبه الصخر لا يهلع

Mustafa fired his pistol at

a youth whose heart was rock, never trembling.

فقطَّ أنامله بالحسام

موراً وجاء به يظلع

So his fingers were severed with the sword

by Murat, who brought him in limping.

وأرسل فرسانه كالصقور

والخليل في شوطها تمزع

He sent his horsemen forth like falcons,

and the horses raced swiftly along their course.

ومزَّق شملَ الجنودِ فما

تَبَقّى لهم أثرٌ يتبع

He shattered the soldiers' ranks, until

no trace of them remained to be followed.

فكانوا طعامَك في الحالتين

لهم وعليهم بكَ المصرع

So they were your food on both occasions,

in victory and defeat, their death-ground in you.

مضوا وبقيتَ تحدث عما

أتوه فلم ينضبِ المنبع

They passed away, and you remained to tell what

they had done; the wellspring has not run dry.

فقل لي هل يرجعُ الغائبون

وقل لي هل يفطم المرضع

So tell me: do the absent return?

And tell me: can the suckling be weaned?

يقولون عنك غداً بلعاً

على أن عمرهم البلقع

They say of you, 'Tomorrow, a wasteland,'

yet their own lives are the barren waste.

أرى الجامداتِ أطول عمراً

من العاقلات فما نصنع

I see inanimate things outliving

rational beings—what can we do?

وأنهم في المقال افتروا

بما لفقوه وما شنَّعوا

And they have uttered falsehoods in their speech,

through their fabrications and their slanders.

وأعجبهم طالعٌ مشرقٌ

وأعجبهم مورِقٌ مفرع

A radiant rising light delighted them,

and a leafy, branching tree delighted them.

فراحوا وشاعرهم مفلقٌ

لهم وخطيبهم مِصقع

They went their way, their poet a master

on their behalf, and their orator eloquent.

فماذا أفاداهم في الحياة

والدهر في سيره يسرع

Yet what did those two gain them in life,

while time hastened on its way?

وكلهم في البلى صائرُ

وذكرهم سُحُبٌ قشع

All of them are bound for decay,

and their memory is clouds dispersed.

أبو قير أنت سمير الجليس

ووعظك أبلغ ما يسمع

Abu Qir, you are your visitor's evening companion,

and your counsel is the most eloquent thing one hears.

ورغم العفاءِ أراك رياضاً

تسير بها النسم الضُوَّع

Despite effacement, I see you as gardens

where fragrant breezes wander.

سماؤك صافيةٌ وهواكَ

يعيد الشباب ويسترجع

Your sky is clear, and your air

brings youth back and restores it.

وبحرك أجملُ ما يجتلي

وماؤك أعذبُ ما ينبع

Your sea is the loveliest thing to behold,

and your water the sweetest ever to spring forth.

وحصنكَ عالٍ يرفُّ عليه

لواءٌ هو الشرفُ الأَمنع

Your fortress is lofty, and above it flutters

a banner that is honor most unassailable.

فدم سارحاتٍ بكَ الظبياتُ

ودم كاملاً بدُرك المُبدَعُ

So endure, with gazelles roaming through you,

and endure with your wondrous moon at the full;

ودم وارفاتٍ عليك الظلالُ

وغُلَّةُ رائدها تنقع

and endure with ample shade spread over you,

and the thirst of its seeker quenched.

تُرى راجعاتٍ لياليَّ فيك

أبو قير والأمسُ لا يرجع

I wonder, will my nights in you return,

Abu Qir? And yesterday does not return.