Sol 6.1

  1. جزع الشرق، وأجرى أدْمُعَهْ!

    ليت شعري: أيُّ خطب رَوَّعه؟

    The East was distraught and let its tears flow!

    I wonder: what calamity has terrified it?

  2. لا تلوموه على تَذْرافها

    فيلسوف الشرق خَلَّى موضعه

    Do not blame it for shedding them:

    the philosopher of the East has left his place.

  3. شيَّع الفجرَ لعمري باسمًا

    والضحى في رأده من شَيَّعَه؟

    He saw the dawn off, by my life, smiling;

    and, with forenoon in its prime, who saw him off?

  4. كفِّنوا العقادَ في أسفاره

    وادفنوا المِرْقَم والطِّرْس معه

    Shroud al-Aqqad in his books,

    and bury the pen and writing sheet with him.

  5. لست أدري: أشهابًا كان، أَمْ

    عَيْلَمَا، أم راهِبًا في صومعة؟

    I do not know: was he a meteor, or

    a boundless sea, or a monk in a hermitage?

  6. عالم، بل عالَمٌ في رجل

    ليت شعري: أيُّ قبر وسعه؟

    A scholar—rather, a world within one man!

    I wonder: what grave could contain him?

  7. سائلوا العلَّة: هل أوْدَتْ به

    رغم سبعين وخمس مسرعه؟

    Ask the illness: did it carry him off

    in haste, despite his seventy-five years?

  8. لا تقيسُوا بالليالي عمرَهُ

    بل سلوا: في أي شيء قطعه؟

    Do not measure his lifetime by nights;

    rather, ask what he spent it on.

  9. لم يَسَلْهُ سائلٌ عن معضل

    حَيَّر الأَفهام إلاَّ أقنعه

    No questioner ever asked him about a problem

    that baffled minds without his convincing him.

  10. مَاله اليومَ طويلاً صمتُه؟

    أي شيء عن جوابي منعه؟

    Why is his silence so long today?

    What has kept him from answering me?

  11. صرَعَ الموتُ فتًى لم يستطع

    خصمُه في حَلْبَة أن يصرعه

    Death felled a man whom

    no opponent could fell in the arena.

  12. لستَ تدري: أهو يَحْشُو طرْسه

    أحْرفًا، أم هو يحثو مدْفعه؟

    You cannot tell: is he filling his page

    with letters, or loading his cannon?

  13. وسلاحاه: يَرَاعٌ مُرْهَفٌ

    ودليلٌ بَيِّنٌ، ما أنصعه!

    His two weapons: a keen pen

    and a clear argument—how brilliant it is!

  14. ذو يراع حين يأسو علَّةً

    يزدري كلُّ طبيبٍ مبضعه

    A master of the pen: when he heals an ailment,

    every physician disdains his own scalpel.

  15. دولة الألفاظ في خدْمَته

    إنْ دعا اللفظةَ، جاءت طيِّعَه

    The realm of words was at his service;

    if he summoned a word, it came obediently.

  16. نافذُ الطعنة، إن شاكَ به

    أضْلُعَ الجبَّارِ، تقْصِفْ أضلعه

    Piercing in thrust: if with it he pricked

    a tyrant's ribs, those ribs would shatter.

  17. إن يسلطه على نجْم هَوَى

    أو على أركان طوْد صَدَّعه

    If he turned it against a star, the star fell;

    or against a mountain's foundations, it split the mountain.

  18. رُبَّ حقٍّ صانه، أو بَائِس

    ذاد عنه، أو سَفيه رَدَعه

    Many a right he safeguarded, or a wretch

    he defended, or a fool he restrained.

  19. رب غِرٍّ رام منه لفْتةً

    فرماهُ بالنُّعُوت المقذعة

    Many a fool sought a glance from him,

    so assailed him with vile epithets.

  20. نخلةٌ دَبَّتْ عليها نَمْلَةٌ

    وَخضَمٌ فيه نَقَّتْ ضِفْدَعه

    A palm tree up which an ant crept,

    and a vast sea in which a frog croaked!

  21. شتم الأعرجُ طوْدًا شامخًا

    حينما أعجزه أن يطلعه

    The lame man cursed a lofty mountain

    when he found he could not climb it.

  22. إن عرض الحر مرعًى مُخْصبٌ

    يجد الوالغ فيه مرتعه

    Indeed, a free man's honor is a fertile pasture

    where the lapping beast finds its grazing ground.

  23. سائلوا ذئب الغضى في جحره:

    مَنْ على الأُسْدِ الضواري شجَّعه؟

    Ask the wolf of the ghada thickets in its den:

    who emboldened him against the ravening lions?

  24. ينزل الليث إلى ليث، ولا

    تجمع الليثَ بهرٍّ مَعْمَعَة

    A lion comes down to face a lion; no

    battle pairs a lion with a cat.

  25. قلم العقاد سيفٌ باترٌ

    لم يجردْهُ ابتغاءَ المنفعة

    Al-Aqqad's pen is a cleaving sword;

    he never unsheathed it seeking gain.

  26. لم يجرعْهُ كُئوسَ الشَّهد، بَلْ

    كم كئوس من زُعَاف جَرَّعَه

    It gave him no cups of honey to drink; rather,

    how many cups of deadly poison it made him swallow!

  27. العصاميُّ الذي يأبى سوى

    كفِّه نحو العلا أن تدفعَه

    The self-made man who would accept none but

    his own hand to urge him toward the heights;

  28. العَيُوف النفس؛ لو ألبسه

    غيرُهُ ثوبَ خُلود خلعه

    fastidious of soul: were he clothed

    by another in immortality's robe, he would cast it off.

  29. يَابِسٌ، بل شَامِس؛ لم تستطع

    رغبة أو رهبة أن تخضعه

    Unbending—nay, untamable; he could not be

    subdued by desire or by fear.

  30. لا تلوموه على أخلاقه

    هكذا رَبُّ البَرَايا طَبَعَه

    Do not blame him for his character:

    thus the Lord of creation formed him.

  31. هكذا صوَّرهُ بارئهُ

    وعلى مقلتهِ قَدْ صنعه

    Thus his Creator fashioned him,

    and under His eye He made him.

  32. عاش في عصر الشفاعات؛ فما

    شقَّ إلا بِيَدَيْه مهْيَعَه

    He lived in an age of intercessions, yet

    he blazed his broad road with his own hands alone.

  33. وهْو كم من نَابه أخْمَلَهُ

    وأديبٍ من حضيض رفعه

    And he—how many a renowned man he eclipsed,

    and how many a writer he raised from the depths!

  34. لا يحط الدهرُ مَنْ يرفعُه

    لا، ولا يرفع قَدْرًا وضعه

    Time cannot bring down one whom he raises,

    nor elevate a standing he has lowered.

  35. يجد الأعداءُ فيه لدَدًا

    والأخلاَّء صفاءً وَدَعَه

    His enemies find in him fierce contention,

    and his close friends, sincerity and ease.

  36. شامخُ الرأسِ إذا الرأسُ انحنى

    أبغضُ الناس إليه الإمَّعَة

    Head held high when heads bowed low;

    the person he hated most was the yes-man.

  37. ليست العزة دينًا تبعَهْ

    إنما العزَّةُ دينٌ شرَّعه

    Dignity was no creed he merely followed;

    dignity was a creed he ordained.

  38. وتَقَاضَتْهُ المعالي حقْبَةً

    ثمنَ العزة فقرًا أدقَعه

    For a time, the heights exacted from him

    the price of dignity: poverty that left him destitute.

  39. رُبَّ يوم عضه فيه الطوى

    ورداء بيديه رَقَّعَه

    Many a day hunger sank its teeth into him,

    and many a cloak he patched with his own hands,

  40. في زمان أَلِفَ الذُّلَّ؛ فمَنْ

    رفع الهامةَ فيه، جَوَّعَه

    in an age accustomed to abasement: whoever

    raised his head in it was starved.

  41. لاَثمُ الأعتاب فيه آمرٌ

    والفتى الحرُّ به ما أضْيَعَه!

    The kisser of thresholds held command in it,

    while the free man—how forsaken he was!

  42. حسبُه السِّجْن أواه تسعةً

    وَهْو يشكو من سقام أو جعة

    Enough that prison housed him for nine [months],

    while he suffered from illness or pain.

  43. ونزول الماجدِ الحُرِّ به

    من قديم سُنَّةٌ مُتَّبَعه

    And a noble free man's lodging there

    has long been an established custom.

  44. كاتِبٌ تلمح في أُسلوبه:

    وجهَه، بل يدَه، بل أصبعَه

    A writer in whose style you glimpse

    his face—indeed, his hand, indeed, his finger.

  45. ذو بيان لم يقلِّده الحلَي

    من رَأى الأُسلوب فَلاًّ، سجعه

    Master of an eloquence not decked with jewels

    by one who deemed style barren and made it rhyme.

  46. لم يُوَشَّعْ بجُمَان قولُه

    بل بفكر فيه عمقٌ وشَّعَه

    His speech was not embroidered with pearls;

    rather, he embroidered it with thought of depth.

  47. رُبَّ نثرٍ بَرْقعَتْهُ زينةٌ

    هو زيفٌ حين يَنْضُو بُرْقُعَه

    Many a piece of prose, veiled in ornament,

    proves counterfeit when it casts off its veil.

  48. رب نظم ما له من هدَف

    ليس يدري ناظموه موقعَه

    Many a verse has no aim;

    its versifiers do not know where it lands.

  49. ومن الشعرِ غثيث فاترٌ

    تأنفُ الآذان من أن تسمعه

    And some poetry is feeble, lifeless stuff

    that ears disdain to hear.

  50. ماله من أبْحُر، أو تُرَع

    أو عيون. لست تدري مَنْبَعه!

    It has no seas, no channels,

    no springs; you cannot tell its source!

  51. لفَّفَتْه عصبةٌ ما وردت

    بحرَه؛ بل وردت مُسْتنْقَعه

    It was swaddled by a band that never reached

    its sea, but reached only its swamp.

  52. هل درى الشمَّاخُ في صحرائه:

    أن قومًا ألبسوه قُبَّعة؟

    Did al-Shammakh know, out in his desert,

    that some people had put a hat on him?

  53. يا دعاةَ الشعر، ماذا قلتمو؟

    أنا لا أسمع إلا جعجعة!

    O advocates of poetry, what have you said?

    I hear nothing but clatter!

  54. أيها الذؤْبَان، قد حَلَّ الشرى

    واستْبِيحَت حرماتُ المسبعة

    O wolves, the lion's thicket now lies open,

    and the sanctities of the lions' haunt are violated.

  55. فأحلُّوا الشعر من أوزانه

    واقطعوا كل لسان قطعه

    So free poetry from its meters,

    and cut off every tongue that scans it.

  56. عبقريُّ العبقريات قضى

    فهْيَ من حُزْنِ عليه جزعه!

    The genius of the Genius books has died;

    and they are distraught with grief for him!

  57. إن بَكتْه العبقريات دَمًا

    فَهْي من أوصافه منتزعه

    If the Genius books weep blood for him,

    they are drawn from his own qualities.

  58. خَالدٌ خلَّد أبطال الورى

    أي معنى بهمُو قَدْ جمعه؟

    Immortal himself, he immortalized humanity's heroes;

    what quality had united him with them?

  59. ادفنوه بين دور العلم، أو

    بين دور الكُتْب خُطُّوا مضجعه

    Bury him among the houses of learning, or

    among libraries mark out his resting place.

  60. طلَّقَ الدُّنيا ثلاثًا، واصطفى

    من بنات الفكر حُورًا أربعه

    He divorced the world thrice, and chose

    from the daughters of thought four houris.

  61. ما بني إلا بموسوعاتها

    وتبناها؛ فكانت منَعه

    He wed only its encyclopedias,

    and adopted them; they became his protection.

  62. عاش كالنحل دَءُوبًا بينها

    يَنْتَقَي من كُلِّ زَهْر أينعه

    He lived like bees, tireless among them,

    choosing from all blossoms the ripest.

  63. أغلبُ الظَّنِّ، لعمري، أنها

    خيرُ مَنْ صاحَبَه أو ودَّعه

    Most likely, by my life, they were

    the best to keep him company or bid him farewell.

  64. مات عباسٌ! وتبقى أُمَمٌ

    تجتني من بعده ما زرعه

    Abbas has died! Yet nations remain

    to reap, after him, what he sowed.

  65. مات عباس! جزاه ربه

    رحمةً عن كلِّ معنىً أبدعه!

    Abbas has died! May his Lord reward him

    with mercy for every thought he created!