عجبت لمر النفس كيف يضام — Mihyar Al Daylami

عجبتُ لمُرّ النفسِ كيفَ يُضامُ

وحرٍّ يخاف العتبَ وهو ينامُ

I marvel how a man of unyielding spirit can be wronged,

and how a freeborn man can fear reproach yet sleep;

وراضٍ بأوساطِ الأمور فقاعدٌ

وفيه إلى غاياتهنَّ قيامُ

and at one content with middling aims, sitting idle,

though he has the power to rise to their furthest ends.

سقى الله حرّاً عارفا بزمانه

تجاربُهُ قد شِبنَ وهو غلامُ

May God send rain upon a noble man who knows his age,

whose experiences have grown gray while he is still a youth.

يخاطر من علياه خُبْراً بنفسه

وإن شَلَّ أقدامٌ وطُؤطىءَ هامُ

Knowing his own high worth, he stakes his life,

even when feet are crippled and heads bowed low.

يُسمّون عيشا في الخمول سلامةً

وصحّةُ أيام الخمول سَقامُ

They call a life of obscurity safety,

but health in days of obscurity is sickness.

ويستعذبون الرزقَ طالت يدٌ بِهِ

إذا أسمنَ الأجسام وهوَ سِمامُ

They relish sustenance that gives another's hand power over them,

if it fattens bodies, though it is deadly poison.

دع الناسَ فيما أجمعوا وامض واحدا

فنقصُك ممن لا يعدُّ تمامُ

Leave people to what they agree upon, and go on alone:

for your absence among those of no account is perfection.

وغِظْهم لعلّ الغيظ أن يتنَّبهوا

عليك به فالغافلون نِيامُ

Anger them; perhaps their anger will awaken them

to take notice of you through it, for the heedless sleep.

تقدّمْ إذا ما أخَّروك عليهمُ

ولا تك مأموما وأنت إمامُ

Take the lead over them when they put you behind;

and do not be led when you are a leader.

تغرَّب وراء العارفين فربّما

أفاد رحيلٌ ما أفاد مُقامُ

Go abroad in search of men of discernment; perhaps

a journey may bring gains that staying never brought.

عسى هذه الأرضُ الولودُ بماجدٍ

تُطَرِّقُ واذكر كيف ساد عِصامُ

Perhaps this fertile earth has a noble man

to bring forth; remember how Isam rose to lordship.

فإن التي جاءت بمثل محمّدٍ

لَيَخرُجُ منها طيبون كرامُ

For the earth that brought forth one like Muhammad

will surely produce men pure and noble.

رويدَك بي يا رائدي إن مرتَعا

إذا صدَق الوُرَّاد فيه أقاموا

Gently with me, my scout! A pasture

where water-seekers stay when its promise proves true

جميمٌ على قدْر المشافرِ نابتٌ

وماءٌ على حكم السُّقاة جِمامُ

has fresh grass growing to suit the camels' lips,

and abundant water at the water-drawers' command.

نشَدتُك قرِّبْ لي معوَّدةَ الطَّوى

عليها سوى الماء العليق حرامُ

I adjure you: bring me her who is accustomed to hunger;

for her, all fodder save water is forbidden.

إذا ظهر طرف لم يطق غير فارس

ففُرسانُها المستبطنون زحامُ

If a noble steed's back can bear only one rider,

yet her riders within her belly are a throng.

تَسَرَّبُ شَقَّ الأَيْمِ في التُّربِ طَرْقَهُ

لها زبَدٌ من شدّها ولُغامُ

She slips along as a serpent cleaves its path through dust,

with foam and mouth-froth from her racing.

كأن صفاءَ الماء ينفرج القَذَى

بها عنهُ وجهٌ عُطّ عنه لثامُ

As though the water's clear surface, its debris parted

by her, were a face with its veil torn away.

من الحبشيات اللواتي إذا انتمت

أسَّر لها سامٌ وأظهرَ حامُ

She is one of those Abyssinians whose lineage, when she declares it,

Shem conceals, while Ham proclaims it.

إذا رحلَتْ بالشُّرْع مرَّت كأنّها

جوافلُ من طَرْد الشَّمال نَعامُ

When she sets out under sail, she passes like

ostriches fleeing the north wind's pursuit.

فإمّا ركِبناها فبلَّ غليلَه

فؤادٌ به إلى الكرام أوامُ

Should we board her, quenched will be the burning thirst

of a heart consumed with longing for the noble.

وإما عدانا للمقادير عائقٌ

فما تمنع الأقدارُ كيف ترامُ

But if fate sets a hindrance to keep us away,

how can what the fates withhold be pursued?

وإِن تتقدَّمني فصِلْ وهديَّتي

صلاةٌ إلى سمع العلا وسلامُ

Should you precede me, reach him; my offering

is a prayer and a salutation to the ear of greatness.

فبلِّغْ وقل لا طامعا في رجوعه

إلامَ على فرط السماح تلامُ

Deliver it and say, without hoping he will turn back:

How long will you be blamed for giving without bounds?

وكم يطمع الأعداءُ فيك بهزِّهم

وقد جلَّ عن شَمِّ التراب شَمامُ

How often your enemies hope to prevail by shaking you,

though Shamam towers too high to smell the dust!

ألم يكفهم يوم رجوه فخيبوا

ويوم وعام جربوه وعامُ

Did not the day they hoped to shake him, but failed, suffice them,

and another day, a year of testing him, and another year?

وما أعلم الحسَّادَ للشمس أنهم

فناءٌ على الأيّام وهي دوامُ

What can teach those who envy the sun that

they perish with the days, while she endures?

أبى اللهُ والفضل الذي فيك والتُّقَى

وكفٌّ إذا جفَّ السحابُ سِجامُ

God forbids it, as do the excellence within you and piety,

and a hand that pours when the clouds run dry,

وسيفانِ هذا حاسم الغيِّ ما جرى

وقُطَّ وهذا كيف قَطَّ حسامُ

and two swords: one severs error whenever it runs

and is trimmed; the other is a keen blade however it cuts.

وعارضةٌ من عارض الغيث أُرضعتْ

خواطرُها فما لهنّ فِطامُ

And an eloquence: suckled from a rain cloud

are its inspirations, for which there is no weaning.

إذا ترجمتْ عن بحر علمك أعجمت

لها ألسن عُربٌ وناب كلامُ

When it interprets the sea of your knowledge,

Arab tongues become inarticulate before it, and speech takes their place.

وكُتْبٌ تفضُّ الروضَ نَشرا ومنظرا

إذا فُضَّ من مَطْوِيِّهنَّ خِتامُ

And letters that outdo gardens in fragrance and sight,

when the seal upon their folded pages is broken.

أبا حسنٍ أمطرتَ منّيَ دوحةً

تطولُ وتنمِي والغمَامُ جَهَامُ

Abu Hasan, you have rained upon a spreading tree in me,

which grows tall and flourishes while the clouds are rainless.

مباركة تجنَى لأوّلِ حَوْلِهَا

ويذَوي أراكٌ حَولَها وبَشامُ

Blessed, its fruit is gathered in its very first year,

while arak and balsam trees wither around it.

وضعتُ سِنانا دون عِرضك والغا

دَماً ولسانا إن أُجِدَّ خصامُ

I have set a spearhead to shield your honor, lapping

blood, and a tongue should dispute grow earnest.

وأسمنتَ أيّامي فعدن بدائنا

وهنّ جلودٌ من ضَناً وعظامُ

You have fattened my days, and they have grown stout,

though wasting sickness had left them skin and bones.

وكم مُدّ بين المجدِ لمّا دعوتُهم

وإيّاك في الجُلَّى شرقتَ وعاموا

How often the distance to glory stretched out, when I summoned them

and you for a great ordeal: you shone forth, while they swam.

فلا يُعدِمنك الحمدُ مني شواردا

لهنّ على بعد المسير مُقامُ

May praise never deny you my far-roaming verses,

which have an abiding place, however far they journey.

من الكَلِم المختصِّ يعلم ما أتى

وفيه كما فيه قائليه طَغامُ

Of choice words: he knows what he has wrought,

and what lies in them, just as it is—though their speakers are rabble.

مولّدة ما بين كسرى ويعرُبٍ

وفي السيف ماء كامن وضرامُ

Of mixed birth, between Kisra and Ya'rub,

and in a sword lie hidden water and flame.

أصولٌ لها قصرُ المدائن خُطَّةٌ

وفرعٌ بها بالأبطحين خيامُ

Their roots have the palace of al-Mada'in as their ground,

and a branch whose tents stand in the two Abtahs.

فمُلِّيتَها كفئاً عَروفا بحقّها

لها منك كِفْلٌ ناهضٌ وقِوامٌ

May you long enjoy them, a fitting match who knows their due;

in you they have an able guardian and support.

وعشتَ وعاش الحاسدوك بدائهم

فإن حياة الحاسدين حِمامُ

May you live, and may your enviers live with their disease,

for the life of the envious is death.