صدق الوشاة العهد عندك ضائع — Mihyar Al Daylami

صدق الوشاة العهدُ عندكِ ضائعُ

لو كان يوعَظُ فيكِ قلبٌ سامعُ

The slanderers spoke truly: with you the pledge is lost.

If only a listening heart could heed counsel about you.

قُلت التعاتبُ وهو هجرةُ ليلةٍ

ثم استمرَّ وزاد فهو تقاطعُ

I called it mutual reproach, when it was one night's estrangement;

then it persisted and grew, becoming a severing of ties.

تَحّتكِ نفسٌ تطمئن إذا الهوى

ترك النفوسَ إليكِ وهي نوازعُ

Beneath you is a soul at peace whenever love

leaves souls yearning toward you;

ومدامع يُبْس النواحي كلّما

بَلَّت عليك من الحفاظ مدامعُ

and eyes whose corners stay dry whenever

eyes grow wet over you out of fidelity.

أهَوَى المليحة كلُّ ما أحرزتهُ

بك ضائرٌ أفأنت يوماً نافعُ

O love for the fair woman, all I have gained

through you is harmful—will you ever be of benefit?

قسماً لئن رَدَّ الشبابَ وجاهَه

ما قد علمتَ فما إليها شافعُ

I swear: if youth and its prestige have been turned back

by what you know, there is no intercessor with her.

أعدوّةً والحُبُّ أنتِ وإنما

تَعصينَ فيه إن أحبَّك طائعُ

O enemy—yet you are love itself—you only

rebel against it if someone obedient loves you.

شهد الوفاءُ بأنني لو خنته

ما كان يجمعني وعهدَك جامعُ

Fidelity testified that, were I to betray it,

nothing would bind me to your pledge.

عاداتُ أيامي اللئيمةِ غادرت

نِعَمِي بمن أهوى وهنّ فجائعُ

The ways of my wretched days have left

my blessings with the one I love transformed into calamities.

دمِيَتْ قروحُك يا جريحَ زمانِهِ

تحت الحمول أما لِخَرقك راقعُ

Your sores have bled, O one wounded by his time,

beneath the burdens—is there no one to patch your rent?

نظراً لنفسك ما حياؤك كاشفٌ

عنك الهوان وما احتشامك دافعُ

Take thought for yourself: your modesty does not lift

humiliation from you, nor does your reserve repel it.

سالمتُ دهري قبلَ أعلم أنه

فيمن يهادنه السلامةَ طامعُ

I made peace with my time before I knew that it

seeks safety among those who make truce with it.

فالآن أصميه بسهمٍ ماله

في قلبه إلا المنيّةَ نازعُ

Now I strike it dead with an arrow that none

but Death can draw from its heart.

يَزدانَفَادارٌ وليس بمدّعٍ

من قال لابن الشمس نورُك ساطعُ

Yazdanafadar—and no false claimant is he

who tells the son of the sun, 'Your light is radiant.'

لا قِرن لي وعليَّ منه وفي يدي

درعٌ مضاعفةٌ وسيفٌ قاطعُ

I have no rival, with his gifts upon me and in my hand:

a double-layered coat of mail and a keen-edged sword.

في فارسٍ نسبٌ يجاذب فخرهُ

ما فيه لابن المَرزُبانِ منازعُ

In Persia is a lineage that vies with his glory;

Ibn al-Marzuban has no rival in it.

للّه درّك واهباً متبرّعاً

وسواك مرغوبٌ إليه مانعُ

How admirable you are, giving freely of your own accord,

while others, though petitioned, withhold.

لم يؤتَ من حظّ الشجاعة ساهرٌ

فيها الذي تؤتَى وطرفُك هاجعُ

No wakeful man has been given such a share of courage

as you are granted while your eye is asleep.

وكم انتضيتَ من الدواة مهنّداً

خطراتُه بالدارعين وقائعُ

And how often you have drawn from the inkwell an Indian-steel blade,

whose strokes are battles against armored men.

مَيْتٌ له بالنِّقس نفسٌ حيَّةٌ

ظامٍ وفي شفتيه ماءٌ مائعُ

Dead, yet through ink it has a living soul;

thirsty, yet between its two lips is flowing water.

يجري غداة النَّيْلِ أسودَ كالحاً

وكأنه للنقع أصفرُ فاقعُ

It runs, on the morning of bounty, black and scowling,

yet amid battle dust it seems a brilliant yellow.

يفديك قوم يستغيثك كلما

خابت وسائلُ عندهم وذرائعُ

May those people ransom you who seek your help whenever

their means and expedients fail them.

باعوا المحامدَ بالثراء وحسبهم

خسرانُ صفقة ما اجتناه البائعُ

They sold their virtues for wealth; enough for them

is a losing bargain—all the seller has reaped.

اليومَ عيدُ مَن الملوكُ جدودُه ال

ماضون حقٌّ مستفيضٌ شائعُ

Today is the feast of one whose forebears are kings

of the past—a truth widely known and widespread.

كم من نصيبٍ للخلافةِ عندنا

في مثله رمضانُ منه مانعُ

How many a share the caliphate has among us,

which Ramadan forbids on a day like this!

فالبس له حُلَلَ المعمَّر بعدَه

في العزّ ما نَجَمَ الهلالُ الطالعُ

So don for it the robes of one long-lived thereafter

in glory, as long as the rising crescent appears.

واسمع كما انتظم الفريدُ ورقَّ ما

ءُ غمامةٍ وصفا الفِرِندُ اللامعُ

And hear, like strung choice pearls, delicate as

cloud-water, clear as a blade's gleaming pattern,

بنتَ الليالي السود أسهرني لها

حفظُ الأيادي البِيض وهي ودائعُ

the daughter of black nights; for her I was kept awake

by guarding white-handed favors, for they are trusts.

لما رأيت الدهرَ ضاق وأهلَه

عني وعندك لي فِناءٌ واسعُ

When I saw that time and its people had no room

for me, while with you I had a spacious courtyard,

حصَّنتُ باسمك جانبيَّ تعوُّذا

فليصنع الحَدثَانُ ما هو صانعُ

I fortified both my flanks with your name, seeking refuge;

so let time's vicissitudes do whatever they will.