فيلسوف الشرق — Mahmoud Ghoneim

جزع الشرق، وأجرى أدْمُعَهْ!

ليت شعري: أيُّ خطب رَوَّعه؟

The East was distraught and shed its tears!

If only I knew: what calamity terrified it?

لا تلوموه على تَذْرافها

فيلسوف الشرق خَلَّى موضعه

Do not blame it for shedding them;

the philosopher of the East has vacated his place.

شيَّع الفجرَ لعمري باسمًا

والضحى في رأده من شَيَّعَه؟

He bade the dawn farewell, by my life, smiling;

and was the forenoon, in its first bloom, the one who bade him farewell?

كفِّنوا العقادَ في أسفاره

وادفنوا المِرْقَم والطِّرْس معه

Shroud Al-Aqqad in his books,

and bury the pen and parchment with him.

لست أدري: أشهابًا كان، أَمْ

عَيْلَمَا، أم راهِبًا في صومعة؟

I do not know: was he a meteor, or

a vast ocean, or a monk in a hermitage?

عالم، بل عالَمٌ في رجل

ليت شعري: أيُّ قبر وسعه؟

A scholar—indeed, a world within one man!

If only I knew: what grave could contain him?

سائلوا العلَّة: هل أوْدَتْ به

رغم سبعين وخمس مسرعه؟

Ask the illness: did it carry him off

in haste, despite his seventy-five years?

لا تقيسُوا بالليالي عمرَهُ

بل سلوا: في أي شيء قطعه؟

Do not measure his lifespan by nights;

rather, ask: on what did he spend it?

لم يَسَلْهُ سائلٌ عن معضل

حَيَّر الأَفهام إلاَّ أقنعه

No questioner asked him about a knotty problem

that baffled minds without his convincing the questioner.

مَاله اليومَ طويلاً صمتُه؟

أي شيء عن جوابي منعه؟

Why is his silence so long today?

What has kept him from answering me?

صرَعَ الموتُ فتًى لم يستطع

خصمُه في حَلْبَة أن يصرعه

Death felled a young man who could not be

felled by his opponent in the arena.

لستَ تدري: أهو يَحْشُو طرْسه

أحْرفًا، أم هو يحثو مدْفعه؟

You cannot tell: is he filling his page

with letters, or loading his cannon?

وسلاحاه: يَرَاعٌ مُرْهَفٌ

ودليلٌ بَيِّنٌ، ما أنصعه!

His two weapons: a keen-edged reed pen

and a clear proof—how lucid it is!

ذو يراع حين يأسو علَّةً

يزدري كلُّ طبيبٍ مبضعه

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

every physician scorns his own scalpel.

دولة الألفاظ في خدْمَته

إنْ دعا اللفظةَ، جاءت طيِّعَه

The realm of words is at his service;

if he summons a word, it comes obediently.

نافذُ الطعنة، إن شاكَ به

أضْلُعَ الجبَّارِ، تقْصِفْ أضلعه

Piercing in its thrust—if he pricks with it

the tyrant's ribs, his ribs are shattered.

إن يسلطه على نجْم هَوَى

أو على أركان طوْد صَدَّعه

If he turns it upon a star, it falls;

or upon a mountain's pillars, he splits it.

رُبَّ حقٍّ صانه، أو بَائِس

ذاد عنه، أو سَفيه رَدَعه

Many a right he guarded, or a hapless soul

he defended, or a fool he checked.

رب غِرٍّ رام منه لفْتةً

فرماهُ بالنُّعُوت المقذعة

Many a callow fool sought a glance from him,

so he hurled vile epithets at him.

نخلةٌ دَبَّتْ عليها نَمْلَةٌ

وَخضَمٌ فيه نَقَّتْ ضِفْدَعه

A palm tree upon which an ant crawled,

and a vast sea in which a frog croaked.

شتم الأعرجُ طوْدًا شامخًا

حينما أعجزه أن يطلعه

The lame man cursed a towering mountain

when climbing it proved beyond him.

إن عرض الحر مرعًى مُخْصبٌ

يجد الوالغ فيه مرتعه

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

the lapping beast finds its grazing ground there.

سائلوا ذئب الغضى في جحره:

مَنْ على الأُسْدِ الضواري شجَّعه؟

Ask the wolf of the ghada trees, in his den:

Who emboldened him against the ravening lions?

ينزل الليث إلى ليث، ولا

تجمع الليثَ بهرٍّ مَعْمَعَة

A lion goes forth against a lion, and no

battle pits a lion against a cat.

قلم العقاد سيفٌ باترٌ

لم يجردْهُ ابتغاءَ المنفعة

Al-Aqqad's pen is a cleaving sword;

he never unsheathed it in pursuit of gain.

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 drink!

العصاميُّ الذي يأبى سوى

كفِّه نحو العلا أن تدفعَه

The self-made man who would have none but

his own hand propel him toward the heights.

العَيُوف النفس؛ لو ألبسه

غيرُهُ ثوبَ خُلود خلعه

Fastidious of soul: if he were clothed

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

يَابِسٌ، بل شَامِس؛ لم تستطع

رغبة أو رهبة أن تخضعه

Stern, indeed untamable: powerless were

desire or fear to subdue him.

لا تلوموه على أخلاقه

هكذا رَبُّ البَرَايا طَبَعَه

Do not blame him for his character;

thus the Lord of all creatures fashioned him.

هكذا صوَّرهُ بارئهُ

وعلى مقلتهِ قَدْ صنعه

Thus his Creator shaped him,

and fashioned him under His watchful eye.

عاش في عصر الشفاعات؛ فما

شقَّ إلا بِيَدَيْه مهْيَعَه

He lived in an age of patronage, yet

with his own two hands alone he blazed his broad path.

وهْو كم من نَابه أخْمَلَهُ

وأديبٍ من حضيض رفعه

And how many an eminent man he eclipsed,

and a writer he raised from the depths!

لا يحط الدهرُ مَنْ يرفعُه

لا، ولا يرفع قَدْرًا وضعه

Time cannot abase anyone he elevates;

no, nor raise a rank he has cast down.

يجد الأعداءُ فيه لدَدًا

والأخلاَّء صفاءً وَدَعَه

His enemies find in him fierce contention,

and his close friends, sincerity and gentleness.

شامخُ الرأسِ إذا الرأسُ انحنى

أبغضُ الناس إليه الإمَّعَة

His head is held high when heads bow;

the yes-man is to him the most hateful of men.

ليست العزة دينًا تبعَهْ

إنما العزَّةُ دينٌ شرَّعه

Dignity is not a creed he followed;

rather, dignity is a creed he himself ordained.

وتَقَاضَتْهُ المعالي حقْبَةً

ثمنَ العزة فقرًا أدقَعه

And lofty aspirations exacted from him, for a time,

dignity's price: poverty that reduced him to destitution.

رُبَّ يوم عضه فيه الطوى

ورداء بيديه رَقَّعَه

Many a day hunger gnawed at him,

and many a cloak he patched with his own two hands.

في زمان أَلِفَ الذُّلَّ؛ فمَنْ

رفع الهامةَ فيه، جَوَّعَه

In an age accustomed to servility, whoever

raised his head in it was made to starve.

لاَثمُ الأعتاب فيه آمرٌ

والفتى الحرُّ به ما أضْيَعَه!

The threshold-kisser commands in it;

and the free young man there—how forsaken he is!

حسبُه السِّجْن أواه تسعةً

وَهْو يشكو من سقام أو جعة

Suffice it: prison housed him for nine [months],

while he complained of an illness [that pained him].

ونزول الماجدِ الحُرِّ به

من قديم سُنَّةٌ مُتَّبَعه

And the noble, free man's lodging there

has long been an established custom.

كاتِبٌ تلمح في أُسلوبه:

وجهَه، بل يدَه، بل أصبعَه

A writer in whose style you glimpse

his face—indeed his hand, indeed his finger.

ذو بيان لم يقلِّده الحلَي

من رَأى الأُسلوب فَلاًّ، سجعه

A man of eloquence who did not deck it with jewels;

whoever finds style a wasteland gives it rhyme.

لم يُوَشَّعْ بجُمَان قولُه

بل بفكر فيه عمقٌ وشَّعَه

His speech was not adorned with pearls;

rather, he adorned it with thought possessing depth.

رُبَّ نثرٍ بَرْقعَتْهُ زينةٌ

هو زيفٌ حين يَنْضُو بُرْقُعَه

Many a piece of prose is veiled in ornament;

it is a sham when it sheds its veil.

رب نظم ما له من هدَف

ليس يدري ناظموه موقعَه

Many a poem has no purpose;

its versifiers do not know where it lands.

ومن الشعرِ غثيث فاترٌ

تأنفُ الآذان من أن تسمعه

And some poetry is feeble and tepid;

ears disdain to hear it.

ماله من أبْحُر، أو تُرَع

أو عيون. لست تدري مَنْبَعه!

It has no seas or canals,

or springs; you cannot tell its source!

لفَّفَتْه عصبةٌ ما وردت

بحرَه؛ بل وردت مُسْتنْقَعه

A clique swaddled it, though they never came to

its sea; instead, they came to its stagnant pool.

هل درى الشمَّاخُ في صحرائه:

أن قومًا ألبسوه قُبَّعة؟

Did al-Shammakh, in his desert, know

that some people had put a hat on him?

يا دعاةَ الشعر، ماذا قلتمو؟

أنا لا أسمع إلا جعجعة!

O advocates of poetry, what have you said?

I hear nothing but clatter!

أيها الذؤْبَان، قد حَلَّ الشرى

واستْبِيحَت حرماتُ المسبعة

O wolves, the lions' thicket is now fair game,

and the sanctity of the lions' haunt has been violated.

فأحلُّوا الشعر من أوزانه

واقطعوا كل لسان قطعه

So release poetry from its meters,

and sever every tongue that scanned it.

عبقريُّ العبقريات قضى

فهْيَ من حُزْنِ عليه جزعه!

The genius of the 'Geniuses' has died;

and they are distraught with grief for him!

إن بَكتْه العبقريات دَمًا

فَهْي من أوصافه منتزعه

If the 'Geniuses' weep blood for him,

they are drawn from his own qualities.

خَالدٌ خلَّد أبطال الورى

أي معنى بهمُو قَدْ جمعه؟

An immortal who immortalized mankind's heroes—

what quality bound him to them?

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.

طلَّقَ الدُّنيا ثلاثًا، واصطفى

من بنات الفكر حُورًا أربعه

He divorced the world three times, and chose

four houris from the daughters of thought.

ما بني إلا بموسوعاتها

وتبناها؛ فكانت منَعه

He wed none but its encyclopedias,

and adopted them; they became his protection.

عاش كالنحل دَءُوبًا بينها

يَنْتَقَي من كُلِّ زَهْر أينعه

He lived industriously among them, like bees,

choosing the ripest of every bloom.

أغلبُ الظَّنِّ، لعمري، أنها

خيرُ مَنْ صاحَبَه أو ودَّعه

Most likely, by my life, they were

the best of those who accompanied him or bade him farewell.

مات عباسٌ! وتبقى أُمَمٌ

تجتني من بعده ما زرعه

Abbas has died! Yet nations will remain,

reaping after him what he sowed.

مات عباس! جزاه ربه

رحمةً عن كلِّ معنىً أبدعه!

Abbas has died! May his Lord reward him

with mercy for every idea he created!