يا دار بين شراف فالنخلِ — Mihyar Al Daylami

يا دار بين شَرافَ فالنخلِ

درّت عليكِ حلائبُ الوبلِ

O dwelling between Sharaf and al-Nakhl,

may the milch clouds of downpour stream upon you,

وتلطّفت بك كلُّ غاديةٍ

وطفاءَ تُنهض عثرةَ المَحْلِ

and every morning cloud gently tend you,

dark and thick-fringed, lifting drought from its stumble.

تُحيِي إذا طفق الغمام على

عافي الطلول بكرِّه يُبلي

Bringing life when the clouds begin, upon

the fading ruins, to wear them down with repeated returns.

رعياً لما أسلفتِ من زمنٍ

سمحِ الخليقة غافلٍ سهلِ

May the time you once bestowed be cherished:

generous in nature, carefree and easy.

لا يهتدي هُجْرٌ إلى أذنٍ

فيه ولا هَجرٌ إلى وصلِ

No foul speech found its way to an ear

within it, nor estrangement into union.

أيامَ عقدُكِ عُقْلُ راحلتي

طرباً وأهلكِ عزّةً أهلي

Days when your bond was my riding beast's fetter

through joy, and your people, in honor, were my people.

ورباكِ ملعب كلّ آنسةٍ

حَمت الصِّبا لعفافها الكهلِ

Your hills were the playground of every lovely maiden

who guarded youth with her mature chastity.

تغشى كثيبَ الرمل جِلستُها

بمهيَّل متفاوتِ الثِّقلِ

Her seated form spreads over the sand dune

with a loose mound, uneven in its weight.

ترمى المقاتلَ لا تُقادُ بها

عن مقلةٍ موقوفةِ القتلِ

She strikes the vital parts, but suffers no retaliation,

with an eye devoted to killing,

مرهاءَ ما وهبت مَراودَها

وبحُقِّها فقرٌ إلى الكُحْلِ

unpainted—her kohl-sticks have bestowed nothing—

and her little box is in want of kohl.

تعنو الأسودُ لها فإن صدقت

خفقَتْ خصائلُها من الظّلِّ

Lions submit to her; yet, if I speak truly,

her tresses tremble at a shadow.

كان الشبابُ أخا مودّتِها

فرُميتُ في الأخوين بالثُّكلِ

Youth was brother to her love,

and I was struck with bereavement in both brothers.

نفرتْ ظباءُ العزلِ شاردةً

فأتى الشبابَ الشّيْبُ بالعزْلِ

The gazelles of seclusion fled, scattered,

and gray hair came to dismiss youth.

فاليومُ لا يدرِي البكاءُ على

شَعْري يُفيض الدمْعَ أم شَملي

Today my weeping knows not whether over

my hair it pours its tears, or my lost companionship.

يا قاتَل اللهُ الصِّبا سَكَراً

لو أنّ دولة سُكرِه تُملي

Ah, God confound youth for its drunkenness—

if only the reign of its drunkenness would linger!

قالوا صحوتَ من الجنونِ به

من ردَّ جِنّتَه على عقلي

They said, "You have sobered from your madness for it."

Who will restore its madness to my reason?

نُفضتْ من البيض الحسانِ يدي

وارتدَّ عنها ناصلاً حبلي

My hand was emptied of fair beauties,

and my cord slipped loose and recoiled from them.

وسعَى بِيَ الواشي وكان وما

يسطيعني بيدٍ ولا رِجلِ

The slanderer worked against me, though once he could not

reach me with hand or foot.

فكأنهنّ بما أذِنَّ له

يَلبسن أقراطا من العذلِ

It is as though, by lending him their ears,

they wear earrings made of reproach.

أشكو إلى الأيَّام جفوتَها

شكوى يدِ العاني إلى الكَبْلِ

I complain to the days of their harshness

as a captive's hand complains to its shackle.

وأريدُها والجَورُ سنّتها

أن تستقيمَ بسيرة العدلِ

I want them—though injustice is their custom—

to walk straight along the course of justice.

عُنُقٌ لعمرُ أبيك جامحةٌ

لم يثنها الرُّوَّاضُ من قبلي

A headstrong neck, by your father's life,

that no trainers before me could turn back.

وأبيتُ والأنباءُ طارئةٌ

بغريبةٍ سلِمتْ على النقلِ

I pass the night, while news arrives,

with a strange report preserved in the telling.

نبّئتُ أن كلابَ مَعيبةٍ

يتعاقرون بها على أكلي

I was told that curs bent on faultfinding

maul one another over their feast on me.

أغراهمُ أني فضلتُهُمُ

ما أولع النقصانَ بالفضلِ

What incited them was that I surpassed them:

how enamored deficiency is of excellence!

يتباحثون طِلابَ عائرةٍ

عَصَدَتْ على القرطاس من نبلي

They search in pursuit of a stray shaft

that swerved at the target, among my arrows.

خفَّت مخالبُهم وما خدشَتْ

حدَّ الصفاةِ أكارعُ النملِ

Their claws are feeble; no scratches were left

on the rock's hard edge by the legs of ants.

إن عيّبوني صادقين فهم

من كلّ ما اخترصوه في حلِّ

If their faultfinding is truthful, they are

absolved of everything they have fabricated.

حسدوا إبايَ وعزّتي وهمُ

نهبى الهوان وأكلةُ الذلِّ

They envied my defiance and my pride, though they are

the plunder of abasement, a meal for humiliation.

والله أغلاني وأرخصهم

ما شاء وهو المُرخص المُغلي

God made me dear and cheapened them

as He willed: He cheapens and makes dear.

لا أشرئبّ إلى بُلَهنِيَةٍ

من عيشةٍ وطريقها يُدلي

I do not crane my neck toward ease

in a life whose path would lower me.

بيني وبينكِ يا مطامع ما

بين ابنِ عبد الله والبخلِ

Between you and me, O covetous hopes, lies what

lies between Ibn Abd Allah and stinginess.

ركب العلا فقضى السباقُ له

متعوّداً للفوز بالخَصلِ

He mounted the heights; the race ruled in his favor,

accustomed to victory with the winning shot.

ووفَى بنظم الملك رأيُ فتىً

طبٍّ بداء العَقدِ والحَلِّ

The judgment of a young man sufficed to order the realm,

expert in the maladies of binding and unbinding.

قطَّاع أرشية الكلام إذا

عُقِلَ اللسانُ بقوله الفصلِ

A cutter of speech's ropes, when

his decisive utterance fetters the tongue.

عجِلَ الرجالُ وراءه فوَنَوا

وأصاب غايتَه على مهلِ

Men hurried behind him and grew weary,

while he reached his goal at leisure.

لبسَ السيادةَ معْ تمائمهِ

وتفرّع العلياء عن أصلِ

He donned lordship along with his amulets,

and branched into the heights from his root.

ونَمى على أعراقِ دوحتِهِ

ورَقٌ يرفّ ومجتنىً يحلي

Upon the roots of his great tree grew

fluttering leaves and fruit sweet to taste.

حظٌّ بحقّ الفضل نيل إذا

ما الحظّ كان قرابةَ الجهلِ

Fortune attained through the rightful claim of merit, when

fortune was kin to ignorance.

لأبي الحسين يدٌ إذا حُلبتْ

غدت السماء بكيَّة الرِّسْلِ

Abu al-Husayn has a hand that, when milked,

makes the sky a scant giver of milk.

لا يُغبَط الدينارُ يحمله

وينوء بعدُ بأثقل الحِملِ

The dinar that bears him is not to be envied:

it strains, moreover, beneath the heaviest burden.

طُبعتْ من البيضاءِ غُرّتُهُ

وبنانه من طينة البذلِ

His radiant brow was minted from silver,

and his fingers from the clay of giving.

نصبَ الحقوقَ على مكارمهِ

حَكَماً يُريه الفرضَ في النفلِ

He set rightful claims over his generous deeds

as judge, showing him duty in voluntary gifts.

كنا نسيء الظنَّ في سِيرٍ

قُصّت عن الكرماء من قبلِ

We once thought ill of accounts

told of generous men in former times,

ونفسِّق الراوين من سَرَفٍ

ونشكُّ في الأخبارِ والنَّقْلِ

and called the narrators dishonest for exaggeration,

and doubted the reports and their transmission.

حتى نجمتَ فكنتَ بيّنةً

نَصَرتْ دعاوى القولِ بالفعلِ

Until you arose and became proof

that vindicated words' claims through deeds.

ولقد فضَلتَ بأنهم وهبوا

من كثرةٍ ووهبت من قُلِّ

You surpassed them, for they gave

from abundance, while you gave from little.

فليهنِ كفَّك وهي خاتمةٌ

ما أحرزتْ من رتبةِ الفضلِ

May your hand rejoice, as the crowning seal,

in the rank of excellence it has attained.

أنت المعَدُّ لكلِّ مزلقةٍ

ترتاب فيها الساقُ بالرِّجلِ

You are the one prepared for every slippery place

where the shin mistrusts the foot.

قد جرّبوك أصادقاً وعداً

وبَلَوك تحتَ الخِصبِ والأزلِ

They tested you: were you true to your promise?

And tried you under plenty and privation.

وتعرّفوا خُلُقَيْكَ من غزِلٍ

لينٍ ومن متحمِّسٍ جَزْلِ

They came to know your two natures: an amorous man's

gentleness, and an ardent warrior's strength.

فرأَوك امنعَهم حِمَى شرفٍ

وأشدَّهم عَقْداً على إِلِّ

They found you strongest in guarding honor's sanctuary,

and firmest in binding a covenant,

وأخفَّهم سَرْجاً إلى ظَفَرٍ

متعجَّلٍ ويداً إلى نصلِ

and quickest to saddle for a victory

swiftly won, and to set hand to a blade.

وعلى الصليق غداةَ إذ نفرت

كفُّ الشّقاق مريرةَ الفتلِ

And at al-Saliq, on the morning when there sprang forth

the hand of discord, tightly twisted,

والحرب فاغرةٌ تَنَظَّرُ ما

تُهدِي الظُّبا لنيوبها العُصْلِ

while war gaped open, awaiting what

sword-edges would offer to its crooked fangs,

في موقفٍ غدَرَ السلاحُ به

غدرَ القِبالِ بذمَّة النعلِ

on a field where weapons betrayed their trust

as a sandal-strap betrays its pledge to the sandal,

وقد امتطى سابور غاربها

متمسكاً بمغارز الرحلِ

while Sabur had mounted its withers,

clinging to the saddle's anchoring points,

واسترعفتْ أيدي عشيرتِهِ

أوصالَها بالطَّرد والشلِّ

and the hands of his clan had made

its limbs bleed with pursuit and driving.

وافى فخادعَ عن طرائِدها

حتى رددن عليهِ بالخَتْلِ

He arrived and schemed to seize its quarry,

until they turned his guile back upon him.

فثبتَّ فاستنزلت ركبته

بيدٍ تُردِّي كلَّ مستعلِي

You stood firm and brought his riders down

with a hand that topples everyone who rises high.

وجد الفرارَ أسدَّ عاقبةً

مع ذِلّةٍ من عزّة القتلِ

He found flight sounder in its outcome,

despite its shame, than the honor of being slain.

تتنكَّبُ النهجَ البصيرَ إلى

عافي المياهِ وميّت السُّبْلِ

They shun the clearly marked road, turning toward

vanished watering places and dead paths.

وعوى ابن مروانٍ وأكلُبهُ

فُرُمُوا بمشبوحٍ أبي شِبلِ

Ibn Marwan howled with his curs,

and they were struck by a broad-limbed sire of a cub,

طيّان لا يرضى لجوْعته

بسوى فريستِهِ من الأكلِ

gaunt with hunger, who accepts for his hunger

no food other than his prey.

من بعد ما افترشوا الإمارة وال

تحفوا ظلائل عيشها الغُفلِ

After they had made rulership their bedding and

wrapped themselves in its untroubled shades of life,

ألحقتَهم بشذوذِ قومهمُ

يتساهمون مطارحَ الذلِّ

you consigned them to their people's outcasts,

casting lots for the resting places of humiliation.

بَرُدَتْ حِذاراً منك ألسنُهم

وصدورُهم بحقودها تَغلي

Their tongues grew cold for fear of you,

while their breasts boiled with their rancors.

تركوا لواشجةِ المناسب في

طرقِ الفرار حميّة الذَّحْلِ

They left to the bonds of kinship, on

the roads of flight, their zeal for blood revenge.

من كلِّ رِخو المفِصلين وقد

لفَّ القناةَ بساعدٍ عبَلِ

Each slack in both joints, though he had

clasped the spear with a thick forearm.

تعيى بحمل السيف راحتُهُ

فكأنّها خلقت بلا حَبلِ

His palm falters under the weight of a sword,

as though it had been made without a sinew.

كانوا الفِصالَ خبت جَراجرُها

لما سمعنَ تَقطُّمَ الفحلِ

They were weaned camel-calves whose rumblings died away

when they heard the stallion's rutting bellow.

أحييت في مَيسانَ داثرةً

شيمَ الوفاءِ وسُنَّةَ العدلِ

You revived in Maysan what had vanished:

the traits of loyalty and the practice of justice.

ونشرتَ في قصياءِ دجلَتها

عزَّ البيوت بجانب الرملِ

You spread in the farthest reaches of its Tigris

the honor of the houses beside the sands,

فكأنّ سافلةَ النبيط بها

عُليا تميمٍ أو بنى ذُهلِ

as though the lowly Nabat there

were the nobles of Tamim or Banu Dhuhl.

يَفديك كلُّ مُزنَّدٍ يدُه

من ثِقلِ جمع المال في غُلِّ

May every miser ransom you, his hand

shackled by the weight of amassed wealth.

لايَنْتَهُ الأخلاقَ من كرمٍ

فاغترّ منك بمِشيةِ الصِّلِّ

You softened your manners toward him out of generosity,

so your viper's gait lulled him into false confidence.

حسد الكمالَ فظلَّ يقتله

يا ذلَّ مقتولٍ بلا عَقْلِ

He envied perfection, which kept killing him—

oh, the shame of one killed without blood-money!

كم مِنّةٍ لك لم يزن يدَها

شكري ولم ينهض بها حَملي

How many a favor of yours whose bounty was not equaled

by my thanks, whose weight I could not bear!

مطبوعةٍ خفّت مواردها

ومن الندى متكلّف الكَلِّ

Natural gifts, easy in their coming,

while some generosity is strained and wearisome.

ومودّةٍ أطرافُها عُقِدتْ

بعُرى وفاء غيرِ منحلِّ

And affection whose ends were tied

with bonds of loyalty that never come undone.

ألبستني خضراءَ حلّتُها

تضفو بها كتفي على رِجلي

You clothed me in its green robe,

which falls amply from my shoulder to my foot.

أيقظتَ هاجعَ همّتي وسرى

حظِّى الحرون بِقادِمَىْ حبلي

You woke my slumbering ambition, and onward went

my balking fortune, led by my rope's two front ends.

وتعلَّم الإنجازَ في عِدتَي

من كنتُ أقنع منه بالمطلِ

And learned to fulfill the promises made me

one from whom I had been content with delay.

فلتقضيَنَّك كلُّ وافيةٍ

بالحقّ شافيةٍ من الخبلِ

Let every full-measured ode repay you

your due, healing disordered minds,

محبوبةٍ لو أنّها هَجرتْ

أغنتْ فكيف بها مع الوصلِ

beloved: even if it were to shun us,

it would enrich us—how much more in union!

تستوقفُ الغادي لحاجتهِ

ويعيدُ كاتبُها فمَ المُملي

It stops the morning traveler on his errand,

and its scribe makes the dictating mouth repeat.

ترتدُّ للسالي صبابتَه

وتعلِّل المشتاقَ أو تُسلي

It restores the forgetful lover's longing,

and soothes the yearning lover, or consoles him.

تُضحي المسامعُ والعقولُ لها

أسراءَ وهي طليقةُ العُقْلِ

Ears and minds become its

captives, while it is free of fetters.

وإذا رويتُ بها مقامَ علاً

نهضتْ فأبلتْ مثلما أُبلي

When I recount through it a lofty exploit,

it rises and proves its worth as I prove mine.

تسرِي وذكرُك في صحائِفها

كالوسم فوق حَوارِكِ الإبْلِ

It travels by night, with your renown upon its pages

like the brand upon the withers of camels.

في كلّ يومِ هديّةٍ لكُمُ

عِرْسٌ بها تُهدَى إلى بعلِ

Each day a gift is presented to you,

a bride is thereby offered to a husband.

فتملَّها واعرف لغربتها

هجرَ الديارِ وفُرقةَ الأهلِ

Enjoy it long, and recognize in its exile

the abandonment of home and separation from kin.

واعلم بأنّ الشعرَ في قُلُبٍ

عوراءَ إلا مااستقى سَجلي

And know that poetry is in wells

gone blind, except what my bucket draws.

يستلّ نابَ الليث من فمه

ويرى العُقوقَ ولا يرى مثلي

It draws the lion's fang from its mouth,

and sees ingratitude, but sees no one like me.