إذا عم صحراء الغمير جدوبها — Mihyar Al Daylami

إذا عمّ صحراءَ الغُمَيرِ جُدوبُها

كفى دارٌ هندٍ أنَّ جفني يصوبُها

If drought spreads throughout the desert of al-Ghumayr,

Hind's dwelling needs only my eyelid to rain upon it.

وقفتُ بها والطَّرفُ مما توحَّشتْ

طريدُ رباها والفؤادُ جَذِيبُها

I stood there; my gaze, because of its desolation,

was banished from its hills, while my heart was drawn to them.

وقد دَرسَتْ إلا نشايا عواصفٌ

من الريح لم يَفطُنْ لهنّ هُبوبُها

It had been effaced, save for remnants that storm gusts

of wind had overlooked in their blowing.

خليليَّ هذي دار أنسي وربما

يَبينُ بمشهودِ الأمور غُيوبُها

My two friends, this is the dwelling of my joy; sometimes

the unseen becomes clear through things we witness.

قِفا نتطوّعْ للوفاء بوقفةٍ

لعلّ المُجازِي بالوفاء يُثيبُها

Stop, both of you: let us freely offer fidelity a moment's pause;

perhaps the rewarder of fidelity will recompense it.

فلا دارَ إلا أدمعٌ ووكيفُها

ولا هندَ إلا أضلعٌ ووَجيبُها

No dwelling remains but tears and their dripping,

and no Hind but ribs and the pounding within them.

وعَيَّرتُماني زفرةً خَفَّ وَقدُها

مَليَّاً وعيناً أمسِ جفَّتْ غُروبُها

You both reproached me for a sigh whose fire had waned

for a long while, and an eye whose streams dried yesterday.

فإن تك نفسي أمسِ في سلوةٍ جَنَتْ

فقد رجع اليومَ الهوى يَستتيبُها

If yesterday my soul sinned through forgetfulness,

today love has returned to demand its repentance.

وإن يُفْنِ يومُ البين جُمَّةَ أدمعي

فعند جُفوني للديار نصيبُها

Though the day of separation exhaust my abundant tears,

my eyelids still hold the dwellings' allotted share.

تكلِّفني هندٌ إذا التحتُ ظامئاً

أمانيَّ لم تُنْهَزْ لِريٍّ ذَنُوبُها

When I grow parched, Hind burdens me

with hopes whose buckets have never been raised to quench thirst.

وأطلبُ أقصىَ ودّها أن أنالَهُ

غِلاباً وقد أعيى الرجالَ غَلوبُها

I seek to attain the utmost of her affection

by conquest, though conquering her has defeated men.

بمنعطِف الجِزعَيْن لَمْياءُ لو دَعَتْ

بمدينَ رُهباناً صَبَتْ وصليبُها

At the bend of the two valleys is a dark-lipped beauty who, if she called

monks in Madyan, would beguile them—by her cross!

إذا نهض الجاراتُ أَبطأَ دِعْصُها

بنهضتها حتى يخفَّ قَضيبُها

When her neighbors rise, her sand-dune hips delay

her rising, until her slender branch springs up.

تَبَسَّمُ عن بِيضٍ صوادعَ في الدجى

رِقَاقٍ ثناياها عِذَابٍ غُروبُها

She smiles, revealing white teeth that cleave the darkness,

slender in their incisors, sweet at their edges.

إذا عادتِ المسواكَ كان تحيَّةً

كأنّ الذي مسّ المساويكَ طِيبُها

Whenever she returns to the toothstick, it is a greeting,

as though her fragrance were what touched the toothsticks.

وكم دون هندٍ رُضْتُ من ظَهرِ ليلةٍ

أشدَّ من الأخطارِ فيها ركوبُها

How many a night's back I tamed on the way to Hind,

when riding it was more perilous than other dangers!

فنادمْتُها والخوفَ تُرْوِي عظامَها ال

مدامُ ويَرْوَي بالبكاء شَريبُها

I caroused with it and with fear; its bones were steeped in the

wine, while its drinking companion drank his fill of tears.

إذا شربتْ كأساً سَقَتنْي بمثلها

من الدمع حتى غاض دمعي وكُوبُها

Whenever it drank a cup, it gave me its equal

in tears, until my tears and its cup ran dry.

حَمَى اللهُ بالوادي وجوها كواسياً

إذا أوجهٌ لم يُكْسَ حُسْناً سَليبُها

May God protect faces in the valley clothed in beauty,

when other faces, stripped bare, were not clothed in loveliness.

بَواديَ وَدَّ الحاضرون لو انها

مَواقِعُ ما أَلقتْ عليه طُنوبُها

Desert beauties: townsmen wished they themselves were

the ground upon which those beauties cast their tent ropes.

إذا وصَفَ الحُسْنَ البياضُ تطلَّعَتْ

سَوَاهِمُ يُفْدَى بالبياضِ شُحوبُها

When fair skin proclaims beauty, there appear

wan faces whose pallor fair skin would ransom.

ولله نفسٌ مِن نُهاها عذولُها

ومِن صَونِها يومَ العُذَيْبِ رقيبُها

God bless a soul whose reprover is its own reason,

and whose guardian at al-Udhayb was its own chastity.

لكلِّ محبٍّ يومَ يظفَرُ رِيبةٌ

فَسَلْ خَلَواتي هل رأت ما يريبُها

Every lover is suspect on the day he wins his desire;

ask my private hours whether they saw anything troubling.

إذا اختلطت لذَّاتُ حُبٍّ بعارهِ

فأنعَمُها عندي الذي لا أُصيبُها

When love's pleasures are mingled with its shame,

the sweetest to me are those I do not attain.

وساء الغواني اليومَ إخلاقُ لِمَّتي

فهل كان ممّا سَرَّهنّ قشيبُها

Today the beauties dislike the aging of my locks;

but were their fresh locks ever among their delights?

سواءٌ عليها كَثُّها ونَسيلها

وناصلها من عِفَّتي وخضيبُها

To them my hair's thickness and its shedding are alike,

as are, through my chastity, its undyed and dyed strands.

وتعجَبُ أن حُصَّتْ قوادمُ مَفرِقي

وأكثرُ أفعالِ الزمانِ عجيبُها

She marvels that the front locks of my parting have fallen;

yet most of time's deeds are its astonishing ones.

ومن لم تغيّره الليالي بعدّهِ

طِوالَ سِنيهَا غَيَّرته خُطوبُها

Whomever the nights do not change through his counting

their lengthy years, their calamities will change.

إذا سُلَّ سيفُ الدهر والمرءُ حاسرٌ

فأهون ما يَلقَى الرءوسَ مَشيبُها

When time's sword is drawn and a man is bareheaded,

the lightest thing to strike heads is their graying.

يعدِّد أقوامٌ ذُنوبَ زمانهم

فمن لِي بأيّامٍ تُعَدُّ ذُنوبُها

Some people count the sins of their age;

who can give me days whose sins can be counted?

يقولون دارِ الناسَ تَرْطُبْ أكفُّهم

ومَنْ ذا يدارِي صخرةً ويُذيبُها

They say, 'Humor people, and their palms will grow moist';

but who can humor a rock and melt it?

وما أطمَعَتْني أوجهٌ بابتسامها

فيُؤْيِسَني ممّا لديها قُطوبُها

No faces made me hopeful through their smiles,

so their frowns cannot make me despair of what they hold.

وفي الأرض أوراقُ الغنى لو جَذبتُها

لَرَفَّ علىأيدي النوال رطيبُها

The leaves of wealth are on earth; were I to draw them down,

their fresh growth would flutter over the hands of giving.

إذا إِبِلي أمستْ تُماطَلُ رَعْيَها

فهل يَنفَعنِّي من بلادٍ خَصيبُها

If my camels are kept waiting for their pasture,

what use is a country's fertility to me?

عَذيريَ من باغٍ يودّ لنفسِهِ

نزاهةَ أخلاقي ويُمسِي يَعيبُها

Who will excuse me against a wrongdoer who wishes for himself

the integrity of my character, yet keeps disparaging it?

إذا قَصَّرتْ عنِّي خُطاه أَدَبَّ لي

عقاربَ كيدٍ غيرُ جِلْدي نسيبُها

When his steps fall short of reaching me, he sends crawling toward me

scorpions of deceit whose kin is not my skin.

ومِن أَمَلِي في سيّد الوزراء لي

مطاعمُ يَغْنَى عن سواها كَسوبُها

From my hope in the chief of ministers I have

sustenance whose earner needs no other livelihood.

إذا ما حَمَى مؤيَّدُ المُلْكِ حَوزةً

من الصُّمِّ لم يقدِرْ عليها طَلوبُها

When Mu'ayyad al-Mulk protects a stronghold

of solid rock, its seeker cannot gain it.

عليَّ ضَوافٍ من سوالفِ طَوْلهِ

يجرِّرُ أذيالَ السحاب سَحوبُها

Upon me lie ample robes of his earlier bounty;

their trailing folds drag the clouds' skirts behind them.

وعّذراءَ عندي من نداهُ وثيِّبٍ

إذا جُلِيَتْ زانَ العُقودَ تَريبُها

A maiden and a matron of his generosity are with me;

when unveiled, her breast adorns the necklaces.

عوارفُ تأتي هذه إثْرَ هذه

كما رافدَتْ أعلَى القناةِ كُعوبُها

Benefactions come, this one following that one,

as the nodes of a spear's shaft support its upper end.

إذا عُدّدَ المجدُ انبريْنَ فوائتاً

عُقودَ البنانِ أن يَعُدَّ حسيبُها

When glory is counted, they come forth, exceeding

the finger joints with which their reckoner would count.

حلفتُ بُمسْتَنِّ البطاحِ وما حَوَتْ

أسابيعُها من مَنْسَكٍ وحَصيبُها

I swear by the coursing grounds of the valleys, and what is held

in their sevenfold circuits of ritual, and by their pebbled ground,

وبالبُدْنِ مُهداةً تُقادُ رقابُها

مُوَفَّقةً أو واجباتٍ جُنُوبُها

and by the sacrificial camels offered, led by their necks,

duly appointed, or fallen upon their sides:

لقام إلى الدنيا فقام بأمرها

على فترة جَلْدُ الحصا وصليبُها

surely a man rose to the world and undertook its affairs,

in a time of languor, tough and hard as stones.

وغَيْرانُ لا يُرضيه إصلاحُ جسمه

بدارٍ إذا كان الفسادُ يشوبُها

A zealous man, not content to mend his own body

in a land where corruption mingles with everything.

وقَاها من الأطماع حتى لو انه

جرى الدَّمُ فوق الأرض ما شَمَّ ذيبُها

He protected it from greed so completely that, even if

blood flowed over the earth, its wolf would not scent it.

ومدّ عليها حامياً يَدَ مُشْبِلٍ

له عصبةٌ بعدَ النذير وثُوبُها

He stretched over it, in protection, the paw of a lion with cubs,

whose band springs into action after the warning.

يَدٌ كلُّ ريح تَمترِي ماءَ مُزْنها

فما ضرّها ألاَّ تهُبَّ جَنُوبُها

A hand from whose rain clouds every wind draws water:

what harm if its south wind does not blow?

أرى شِبهَهُ الأيّامَ عادتْ بصيرةً

ومُذنِبَها قد جاءَ وهو مُنيبُها

He showed the days his likeness, and they regained their sight;

their offender came, now their penitent.

وذلّتْ فأعطاها يدَ الصفح ماجدٌ

إذا سِيلَ تَرَّاكُ الذُّحولِ وَهُوبُها

They humbled themselves, and a noble man offered them pardon,

one who, when asked, abandons grudges and freely relinquishes them.

لكَ اللهُ راعي دولةٍ رِيعَ سَرْحُها

وراح أمام الطاردين عَزِيبُها

God be with you, shepherd of a state whose herd was frightened,

whose strays fled before their pursuers.

طوتْ حُسنَها والماءُ تحت شفاهها

غِراثاً وأدنى الأرضِ منها عَشيبُها

It folded away its beauty, though water lay beneath its lips,

famished, though the nearest land was grassy.

إذا ما تراغت تقتضي نصرَ ربِّها

فليس سوى أصدائها ما يُجيبُها

Whenever it lowed, demanding its master's aid,

nothing answered it but its own echoes.

وقد غَلَب الطَّالِينَ عَرُّ جلودها

وفاتت أكفَّ المُلحِمينَ نُقُوبُها

The mange of its skins defeated those applying salves,

and its sores eluded the hands seeking to knit its flesh.

لها كلّ يومٍ ناشدٌ غير واحدٍ

تَقَفَّى المُنَى آثارَها فيُخيبُها

Each day it has seekers, more than one,

pursuing hopes along its tracks, then disappointing them.

ومُطَّلِعٌ يَفْلي طريقَ خلاصِها

فيعمَى عليه سهلُها وحَزيبُها

And an examiner searches through the path of its deliverance,

but both its easy and rugged stretches remain obscure to him.

نفضتَ وِفاضَ الرأي حتى انتقدتَها

وما كلُّ آراءِ الرجالِ مُصيبُها

You shook out the pouches of counsel until you appraised it;

not every man's judgment finds its mark.

مُحمَّلةً من ثِقْلِ مَنِّكَ أَوْسُقاً

ينوء بها مركوبُها وجَنيبُها

It is laden with heavy measures of your favors,

beneath which both its mount and its led beast stagger.

فعطفاً عليها الآنَ تَصْفُ حِياضُها

وتُبْقِلْ مَراعيها وتُدْمَلْ نُدوبُها

Show it kindness now: its watering pools will clear,

its pastures will sprout, and its scars will heal.

فما رأمَتْ أَبْواءَها عند مالكٍ

سواك ولا حنَّتْ لغيرك نِيبُها

It has never nuzzled its stuffed calves for any master

but you, nor have its aged she-camels yearned for another.

تَسربلْ بأثوابِ الوزارة إنها

لك انتُصِحت أردانُها وجيوبُها

Clothe yourself in the robes of the ministry, for

their sleeves and breast-folds are loyal to you.

وقد طالما منَّيْتَها الوصلَ مُعرِضاً

وباعدتَها من حيث أنتَ قريبُها

How long you promised it union while turning away,

and kept it distant, though you are its kinsman!

ومَن يك مولاها الغريبَ وجارَها

فأنت أخوها دِنْيَةً ونسيبُها

Whoever may be its alien patron and its neighbor,

you are its brother by blood and its relative.

بلطفِك في التدبير شابَ غلامُها

على السيرة المُثلَى وشَبَّ رَبيبُها

Through your gentle governance its youth grew gray

upon the finest course, and its fosterling grew to manhood.

وقد ضامها قبلُ الولاةُ وقصَّرتْ

قبائلُها عن نصرِها وشُعوبُها

Earlier governors had wronged it, and

its tribes and peoples fell short of aiding it.

فداك وقد كانوا فداءك منهُمُ

جبانُ يدِ التدبير فينا غَريبُها

May those among them be your ransom—they were already your ransom—

whose hand in governing was cowardly, alien among us.

رمَى بك في صدر الأمور ولم يخفْ

فُلولَ نيوبِ الليثِ مَن يستنيبُها

He thrust you into the heart of affairs, and feared no

blunting of the lion's fangs whose service he delegated.

حَملتَ له الأثقالَ والأرضُ تحته

وراعيته لما عَلَتْه جُنوبُها

You bore his burdens while the earth lay beneath him,

and watched over him when its sides rose above him.

وآخرُ أرخَى للنعيم عِنانَهُ

أخو الهزلِ مِمْراحُ العشايا لعُوبُها

Another loosened his reins for pleasure,

a companion of frivolity, merry and playful in the evenings.

تزخرَفتِ الدنيا له فصَبَا لها

مُقارَضةً يَخشَى غداً ما ينوبها

The world adorned itself for him, and he fell in love with it,

in mutual exchange, fearing what might befall it tomorrow.

وكان فتى أيامِهِ وابنَ لينها

وأنت أبوها المتَّقَى ومَهيبُها

He was the young man of his days, the son of their softness;

you are their father, guarded against and held in awe.

وقاسٍ كأنَّ الجمرَ فلذةُ كبدهِ

يَرَى بالدماءِ نَحْلَةً يستذيبُها

And a cruel man, as though an ember were a piece of his liver,

sees blood as an offering in which to melt it.

مَخُوقُ نواحي الخُلْقِ عُجْمٌ طباعُهُ

إذا عولجت مُرُّ اللحاظِ مُريبُها

His character is hollow at its edges, his nature unyielding;

when handled, his glances are bitter and suspicious.

إذا هَمَّ في أمرٍ بعاجلِ فتكةٍ

على غَرَرٍ لم يلتفِتْ ما عَقِيبُها

When he intends a sudden act of violence in some affair,

recklessly, he never considers what follows it.

وذو لُوثةٍ مَنَّاهُ سلطانُ رأيه

مُنىً غَرَّهُ محداجُها وكَذوبُها

And a man of folly, whom the sovereignty of his judgment promised

hopes whose miscarrying and lying ones deceived him.

ولم يك ذا خيرٍ فشاورَ شرَّهُ

وما الشرَّ إلا أرضُ تيهٍ يجوبُها

He possessed no goodness, so he consulted his evil;

evil is nothing but a wilderness through which he wanders.

يواثب من ظَهْر الوزارة رَيِّضاً

زلوقاً وقد أعيَا الرجالَ ركُوبُها

He lunges onto the ministry's back, an unbroken mount,

slippery, though riding it has already baffled men.

ومدّ بكفِّ العنفِ فَضلَ عِنانها

فعادتْ له أفعَى حِداداً نُيوبُها

With a violent hand he pulled the slack of its reins;

it became a serpent for him, its fangs sharp.

رَمَى الناسَ عن قَوسٍ وأعجبُ مَنْ رمَى

يدٌ أرسلتْ سهماً فعادَ يُصيبُها

He shot at people with a bow; the strangest shooter

is a hand that loosed an arrow which returned to strike it.

تَوقَّ خُطاً لم تدرِ أين عِثارُها

فكم قَدَمٍ تسعَى إلى ما يَعيبُها

Beware steps whose stumbling places you do not know:

how many a foot hastens toward what disgraces it!

ولا تحسَبَنْ كلَّ السحابِ مَطِيرةً

فحاصبُها من حيث يُرجَى صبيبُها

Do not suppose that every cloud bears rain;

its hail of stones comes from where its downpour is hoped for.

وكم أَصْرَمَتْ تحت العصائبِ لِقحةٌ

ودرَّتْ لغير العاصبين حُلوبُها

How many a milch camel has run dry beneath the bindings,

while its milk flowed for people other than those who bound it!

أَبَى اللهُ أن يُشقي بك اللهُ أمَّةً

أردتَ بها سُقْماً وأنت طبيبُها

God refused that, through you, God should bring a people misery:

you wished them sickness, though you were their physician.

تَطَأطأْ لِمنْ لو قمتَ نالك جالساً

فما كلَّ أولادِ الظنون نجيبُها

Bow before one who, seated, could reach you if you stood;

not every offspring of conjecture is its noble one.

فقد دانت الدنيا لربِّ مَحاسنٍ

مَحاسنُ قومٍ آخرين عُيوبُها

The world has submitted to a master of virtues

whose faults are other people's virtues.

فيا ناظماً عِقدَ الكلام تَملَّه

ويا ناشر النعماءِ حيَّاكَ طِيبُها

O stringer of speech's necklace, enjoy it long;

O spreader of blessings, may their fragrance greet you!

إذا الأنفس اختُصَّتْ بحبِّ فضيلةٍ

سموتَ بنفسٍ كلُّ فضلٍ حبيبُها

When souls are distinguished by love for a single virtue,

you rise with a soul that loves every excellence.

توافَقَ فيك الناسُ حُبّاً وأَمطَرتْ

بشكرك سُحبُ القولِ حتى خَلوبُها

People agree in loving you, and there have rained

clouds of speech in your praise—even their rainless ones.

ملكتَ مكانَ الودّ من كلّ مهجةٍ

كأنك لُطفاً في النفوس قلوبُها

You have possessed the place of affection in every heart,

as though, through your gentleness, you were the hearts within souls.

إذ الشمس لم تطلُعْ علينا وأمرُنا

بكفّك معقودٌ فدامَ مَغيبُها

When the sun did not rise upon us, while our affairs

were bound in your hand, let its absence endure.

أنا العبدُ أعطتك الكرامةُ رِقَّهُ

وجاءت به عفواً إليك ضُروبُها

I am the slave whose bondage generosity gave you;

its many forms brought him freely to you.

رفعتَ بأوصافي طريفاً وتالداً

كواكبَ لي عمَّ البلادَ ثُقُوبُها

Through my descriptions you raised, both new and ancient,

stars of mine whose piercing light filled the lands.

وميّزَتني حتَّى ملكتُ بوَحْدَتي

نواصيَ هذا القولِ يضفو سبيبُها

And it distinguished me until, alone, I mastered

the forelocks of this speech, their mane flowing abundantly.

وكم أملٍ أسلفتُ نفسي ودعوةٍ

قنِطتُ لها واللهُ فيك مجيبُها

How many a hope I advanced to my soul, and a prayer

of whose fulfillment I despaired, though God answers it through you!

بلغتُ الأماني فيك فابلغ بِيَ التي

تُنَفِّسُ نَفْساً ملءُ صدري كُروبُها

Through you I attained my wishes; bring me now to that one

which relieves a soul whose sorrows fill my breast.

وللدهرِ في حالِي جُروحٌ وإنه

بلحظك إن لاحظتَ يوُسَي رغيبُها

Time has inflicted wounds upon my condition, and indeed

their wide gashes are healed by your glance, if you look.

ومهما تُعِرْ من نِعمةٍ فجزاؤها

على الله ثُمَّ الشعرُ عن يُثيبُها

Whatever blessing you lend, its recompense

rests with God; then poetry repays it in turn,

بكلّ شَرودٍ يقطعُ الريحَ شَوطُها

ويَسرِي أمامَ الغاسِقات دبُوبُها

with every far-ranging verse whose course outstrips the wind,

whose advance travels ahead of the darkening nights.

تَزِمُّ لِيَ الأصواتُ يومَ بلاغِها

إذا ما علا أعوادَ شِعرٍ خطيبُها

Voices are bridled for me on the day my verses arrive,

when their orator ascends the wooden pulpit of poetry.

يروقُكَ منها جَزلُها وحَميسُها

إذا راقَ من أبياتِ أُخرَآ نسيبُها

Their robust and valiant strains delight you,

when the love preludes of other verses delight others.

ترى الناسَ خَلْفي يلقُطون بَديدَها

ويُعجِبُهم من غير كدٍّ غُصُوبُها

You see people behind me gathering their scattered pieces,

pleased by what they seize without toil.

جواهرُ لي تصديفُها من بحورها

صِحاحاً وللعادِي المُغيرِ ثُقُوبُها

They are my jewels: I gather them in shells from their seas,

intact; their piercing belongs to the raiding plunderer.

يَمُرُّ بها لا بائعاً يستحلُّها

بِملْكٍ ولا مستوهباً يستطيبُها

He passes by them, not as a buyer entitled to them

through ownership, nor as one granted them who enjoys them.

بَقِيتَ لها مستخدِماً حِبرَاتِها

ومنتقِداً ما حُرُّها وجَليبُها

May you remain, employing their fine brocades,

and discerning their trueborn verses from their imported ones.

موسَّعةً أيّامُ مُلكِكَ مُعوِزاً

على الحادثاتِ أن يَضيقَ رَحيبُها

May the days of your rule remain spacious, making it impossible

for calamities to narrow their breadth.

وأعداكَ من شمسِ النهار خُلُودُّها

وإشراقُها لكن عَدَاك غُروبُها

May the daylight sun impart to you its permanence

and its radiance, but may its setting pass you by.