الرسول .. مرة أخرى — مسار رياض

يا كاتب الدهر .. أوقف عندك القلما

و ارجع قليلا إلى أسلافك القدما

O chronicler of time, still the pen at your side.

And go back a little to your ancient forebears.

نقّب عن الوجع المخبوء .. ربّ فم

يبوح بعضا من السرّ الذي كتما

Probe for the hidden pain—many a mouth

Reveals some of the secret it concealed.

من بحّة الحزن .. من روح ذوت سقما

و من إشارات دمع طالما لجما

From sorrow's hoarseness, from a soul withered by sickness,

And from the signs of tears so often restrained,

من غربة عشّشت فيهم .. و من قلق

أنّ الدروب دهاليز ومحض عمى

From estrangement that nested in them, and from anxiety

That the roads are labyrinths and sheer blindness,

من رغبة طفلة في صدر صاحبها

تلح أن ثمّ فجر ربّما قدما

From a childlike longing in its bearer's breast,

Insisting that there is a dawn that may have come,

من ذلك الأسف المكتوب أسئلة

لم التواريخ تروي الهمّ و الألما

From that sorrow written as questions:

Why do the chronicles recount anguish and pain?

يا كاتب الدهر .. هل أمر تفسره

عن الذي نحوه كل الوجود نما

O chronicler of time, is there something you can explain

About the one toward whom all existence grew?

لما تجلى ضياء قال قائلهم

بأن للأرض لو شاء الضمير سما

When he shone forth as radiance, one of them said

That earth could have a heaven, if conscience so willed.

هذا الأجابة كان الله هيأها

عن الكمال و معنى العدل كيف هما

This was the answer God had prepared

To perfection and the meaning of justice—what they are.

يداه تفتح أبوابا مغلّقة

على البياض لتمحو كلّ ما نظما

His hands open closed doors

Onto whiteness, to erase all that was fashioned

من القيود و دين الشارعين لها

و كلّ طعم مرار سطر الزعما

Of shackles and the creed of their lawgivers,

And every bitter taste the leaders inscribed,

و كل نبضة ضيم .. كان نابضها

يتيه في غابة الدنيا بغير حمى

And every throb of oppression, whose beating heart

Wandered lost in the world's forest without a refuge.

أتى .. فصادف جيل الصمت يرقبه

فراح ينقش في وجه السكوت فما

He came and found a generation of silence watching him,

Then began carving a mouth into silence's face.

محمد كان .. فاحذر ما تخط هنا

فكل وصف سيبدو عنده قزما

He was Muhammad—so beware what you write here:

For every description will seem a dwarf beside him.

أفدي اليتيم الذي فاضت أبوّته

على ارتباكات صدر الكون فانتظما

I would give my life for the orphan whose fatherhood overflowed

Over the turmoil in the universe's breast, and it fell into order.

أفديه من حامل هما يكتّمه

لو جزؤه مسّ قلب الخلق ما سلما

I would give my life for him, bearer of a sorrow he conceals;

Were a part of it to touch creation's heart, it would not survive.

أفدي ملامحه لمّا تجول بها

آلامنا كلّما غول الأسى هجما

I would give my life for his features, when across them wander

Our pains, whenever sorrow's ogre attacks.

يبدو الصباح متاحا لو هي اتّقدت

آياته حدّ أن سال الندى نغما

Morning seems within reach, were they to blaze—

His signs—until the dew flowed as melody.

أفديه فأسا سماويا برحمتها

أهوت تكسّر في أفهامنا الصنما

I would give my life for him, a heavenly axe that, in its mercy,

Swung down, shattering the idol in our understanding.

يا نكهة النور .. ليل لا يفارقنا

و أفقنا دون بدر منك قد هرما

O flavor of light, a night never leaves us,

And our horizon, without a full moon from you, has grown old.

معبّأون بما شاءت مصائبنا

و موجة اليأس فينا أغرقت أمما

We are filled with whatever our calamities have willed,

And the wave of despair within us has drowned nations.

و كم شكينا .. لنبدو حين تبصرنا

شكوى يتيم لقوم تدّعي الصمما

And how often we have lamented, so that when you behold us, we seem

An orphan's complaint to a people feigning deafness.

أقسى من الظلم أن تدري بمن ظلما

و أن تراه و لا درب لتنتقما

Crueler than injustice is knowing who committed it,

And seeing him, with no way to take revenge,

و أن ترى كفّه في كل ناحية

و لست تملك لا كفا و لا قدما

And seeing his hand in every quarter,

While you possess neither a hand nor a foot.

يا أيها الكوكب الدريّ شعّ لمن

لا ظهر أبقى لديه القهر فانهدما

O radiant star, shine for the one

Whose back oppression did not spare, and so he collapsed.

أتيت وعد انتظار حيث لا أمل

للمعتمين الذي اسّاقطوا ظلما

You came as a promise awaited where there was no hope,

For those in darkness who fell through injustice.

للكاتمين أساهم كنت بسملة

تتلى .. فيكتمل العمر الذي ثلما

For those concealing their sorrow, you were a basmala,

Recited, making whole the life that had been chipped away.

و المرهقون إذا مرّوا ابك انطفأت

آهاتهم كلما لاقوك مبتسما

And the weary, when they pass by you—quenched are

Their sighs whenever they meet you smiling.

تمدّ روحك ظلا فوق من تعبوا

و تمنح المعوزين الصبر و الحلما

You spread your soul as shade above those grown weary,

And grant the needy patience and forbearance.

و كلما العسر ألقى نرد لعبته

فدون جودك يطوى معجم الكرما

And whenever hardship casts the dice of its game,

Without your generosity, the lexicon of the generous is folded shut.

أنبيك عنّا .. و أدري أن ستعذرني

إذا تلعثمت .. مذبوحا و متهما

I tell you of us, and know that you will excuse me

If I stammer, slaughtered and accused.

فوضى الموازين سندان و مطرقة

و نحن نجني ثمار الطرق بينهما

The chaos of the scales is an anvil and a hammer,

And we reap the fruits of the hammering between them.

نحن المصابون دوما من أسنّتها

دنيا تكركر لو نزّ الأبيّ دما

We are those forever wounded by its spearheads—

A world that guffaws if the unbowed man oozes blood.

ضاعت روايتنا في ألف راوية

و كل قولة زور تدّعيك فما

Our story was lost among a thousand narrators,

And every utterance of falsehood claims you as its mouth.

أعوذ باسمك من سيف إذا حكما

و من سفيه على صدر الورى جثما

I seek refuge in your name from a sword when it rules,

And from a fool crouching upon the breast of humankind.

حربا فحربا تذّرينا رغائبه

رمى بنا نحو ثغر الموت حين رمى

War after war, his cravings scatter us;

He hurled us toward death's mouth whenever he hurled.

و الحكم كالبحر .. خدّاع بهيأته

يزيد شاربه مهما أستزاد ظما

And power is like the sea, deceptive in its appearance:

It makes its drinker thirstier, however much more he seeks.

يا نفس هذا مثال الله فاتخذي

من دفء عينيه لو ما جئته حرما

O soul, this is God's exemplar; so make

A sanctuary from the warmth of his eyes, even if you have not come to him.

و أفرغي عنده الأحزان لا خجل

فالحرّ للحرّ يشكي الهمّ حيث همى

And pour out your sorrows before him, without shame;

For the free confide their grief to the free wherever it pours down.

و البرد في شرعة العشاق منقصة

فأبعدي عنك لو خاطبته التهما

And coldness, in the law of lovers, is a failing;

So cast accusations away from yourself if you speak to him.

و حدثيه عن الدنيا و محنتها

و خبّريه عن الغلّ الذي اضطرما

And tell him of the world and its ordeal,

And tell him of the rancor that has blazed up,

عن أخوة نصبوا أجسادنا هدفا

مذ الخراب على أرواحهم ختما

Of brothers who set up our bodies as a target,

Since ruin stamped its seal upon their souls,

عن الدم الليس يدري ما جريرته

على السكاكين في أيديهم أقتسما

Of blood that does not know what its crime was,

Shared out upon the knives in their hands.

هذا حديث رزايانا و أفظعها

من الذي مدّ في ما بيننا رحما

This is the tale of our calamities, and the worst of them

Come from the one who stretched a bond of kinship between us.

يا من تخيره محبوبه حكما

إني ارتضيتك في جور الملا حكما

O you whom your beloved chose as arbiter,

I have chosen you as arbiter amid the people's injustice.