أين تريد يا مثير الظعن — Mihyar Al Daylami

أين تريد يا مثيرَ الظُّعُنِ

أوطنٌ من رامةٍ بوطنِ

Where are you bound, O stirrer of the departing caravans?

Would you trade the homeland of Rama for another?

حبسا ولو زادك من مضمضةٍ

بَينَ الغِرارِ خائفا والوسنِ

Halt, even if your provision is only a mouth-rinse,

fearful, between fitful sleep and drowsiness.

لعلَّها أن تشتفي بائحةً

بالعبراتِ أعينٌ من أعينِ

Perhaps they may find relief, openly confessing—

eyes in tears, from the hurt of other eyes.

كم كبدٍ كريمةٍ في بُرةٍ

خزَمتَها ومهجةٍ في رسَنِ

How many a noble liver in a nose-ring

you have pierced, and a soul in a halter!

ومن دمٍ تخوضه بلا دمٍ

على ثنايا البين أيدي البُدُنِ

And how much blood, with no blood showing,

the camels' forelegs wade through on parting's passes!

قد ضمِنَ البارحُ عنهم فوفَى

ما ساءني إذ مرَّ غيرَ أيمَنِ

The left-crossing bird pledged for them, and fulfilled

what grieved me when it passed inauspiciously.

وماظننتُ الطيرَ وهي بهُمٌ

على مواقيت الردى تدُلُّني

I never thought birds, speechless as they are,

would show me the appointed hours of death.

ونَفحَةٌ من الهوى تلُفُّنا

يومَ الوَداع غُصُنا بغُصُنِ

And a breath of passion entwined us

on farewell's day, one bough with another.

يا قاتَلَ اللهُ العُذَيبَ موقفا

على ثبوت قدمي أزلَّني

May God smite al-Udhayb, that halting place,

which made me slip though my feet stood firm!

وسرَّ حيّاً بالغضا إن سرَّهم

ذلُّ وقوفي بعدَهم في الدِّمَنِ

And may He gladden a tribe at al-Ghada, if they rejoiced

in my abject vigil after them among the ruined camps.

فقيَّلوا ظِلالَ كلّ روضةٍ

وهجَّروا بي للجوى والحزَنِ

They took their noon rest in the shade of every meadow,

and drove me through noon's heat into anguish and sorrow.

وما عليهم ولتذكارهُمِ

عفوُ الصَّبا وصفوُ ماء المزُنِ

What harm to them—with their remembrance attended by

the gentle east wind and the clear water of rainclouds—

لو أسأروا من جسدي بقيّةً

بذكرِ آثارهمُ تُنهِضُني

if they had left some remnant of my body

that might rouse me at the memory of their traces?

لقد أساءوا الملك لما ملكوا

قلبي فهلَّا أحسنوا في بدَني

They ruled badly when they possessed

my heart; why did they not treat my body kindly?

طاللتُ من رامةَ أشرافَ اللوى

لنظرةٍ لعلّها تَصدُقني

I peered from Rama toward al-Liwa's heights

for a glimpse that might prove true to me.

فما رفعتُ والمنى شعشعة

إلا على ليتيَ أو لو أنني

But I raised my gaze—hopes being only a shimmer—

only toward my 'Would that!' or 'If only I...'

يا زمني بالخَيفِ بل يا جيرتي

فيه وأين جيرتي وزمني

O my days at al-Khayf—rather, O my neighbors

there! But where are my neighbors and my days?

ليت الذي كان وطار شَعَثا

به الفراقُ بيننا لم يكنِ

Would that what once was, and was scattered in tatters

by separation between us, had never been!

أوليت ما باعد من أحبّتي

من الكرام إخوتي قرّبني

Or would that what set me far from my loved ones,

my brothers among the noble, had brought me near!

مَن حاملٌ عنِّي تمطَّتْ تحته

وافيةُ الذَّرع رحيبُ العطَنِ

Who will carry a message from me, with beneath him stretching

a she-camel of ample stride, taking a broad space at rest?

طاويةٌ ما أبصرتْ وسمِعتْ

فالأرضُ بين عينِها والأذُنِ

She folds up all that she sees and hears,

so the earth lies between her eye and ear.

ترى المراحَ والنجاءَ ما سرت

شخصيْنِ بين عَجْبِها والذَّقَنِ

You see high spirits and swiftness, whenever she travels,

as two figures between her tailbone and chin.

تُعطي الطريقَ عفوَها وجهدَها

حتى تعود مُضغةً ولا تني

She gives the road her effortless pace and her utmost strength,

until she becomes a morsel of flesh, yet never slackens.

لا تتقي الأرض بساقٍ منتقىً

ولا تشكَّى لذراعٍ يفَنِ

She does not face the ground on a marrow-drained shank,

nor complain of an aged foreleg.

بزلاءُ عاميْن فإن أثرتَها

فثورةُ الغِرِّ وقمصاتُ الثَّني

Two years past her tusks' emergence; if you rouse her,

a youngster's surge, a young camel's bucking leaps!

كأنما راكبُها تهفو به

طائرةً أمُّ فراخِ الوُكُنِ

As though her rider were wafted away

by a flying mother-bird whose chicks are in their nests.

قل للعميدِ ووصلتَ غانما

شكوى حنينٍ وحدِيثَ شجنِ

Tell al-Amid—and may you arrive with gain—

a yearning complaint, a tale of grief.

علَّ الذي استرهنتَني بحبّه

ثمّ نأى عنّيَ أن يفكَّني

Perhaps he through whose love you took me in pledge,

having then withdrawn from me, will set me free.

ملَكتَني بالودِّ فوهبتَني

للشوق ألّا قبل أن تملِكني

You possessed me through affection, then gave me away

to longing—why not before you possessed me?

أَعجَبُ من ليني وأنتَ معرضٌ

عني ولو قلبُك لي لم ألِنِ

I marvel at my yielding while you turn away

from me; were your heart mine, I would not yield.

كم الجفاء لا أجازيكم به

والصدُّ والوجدُ بكم يعطِفُني

How much harshness I never repay you in kind,

and rejection—my longing for you draws me back!

وكم تبيتون طُروحَ الشكّ في

ودّكمُ ورجمِ سوءِ الظِّننِ

How often you leave me overnight abandoned to doubt about

your love, and to the conjectures of dark suspicion!

دعوَى هوىً كأننا لم نفترق

وغفلةٌ كأنما لم ترَني

A claim of love, as though we had never parted,

and heedlessness, as though you had never seen me!

هبِ النوى مدَّت لنا أقرانَها

فما لأيدينا وفتلِ القَرَنِ

Grant that separation stretched its tethers around us:

why should our hands help twist the rope?

وحَكَم الزمانُ بافتراقنا

فما لنا نعينُ صَرفَ الزمنِ

And time decreed our separation:

why should we aid the vicissitudes of time?

أشكو إليك مهجةً عَلوقةً

تودَّ لو تُودي ولمَّا تخنِ

I complain to you of a clinging soul

that longs to perish without ever betraying you;

وكبِدا متى أَسُمْها سَلوةً

عنك تَنَزَّى ناشزا وتزبُنِ

and a liver that, whenever I urge it toward forgetfulness

of you, leaps up in rebellion and kicks me away;

وعادة من الوفاء خيرُها

لمخبري وشرُّها لبدني

and a habit of fidelity whose good

belongs to my inward character, whose harm to my body.

تعلِقُني في حبلِ من أضاعني

عَلْقتَها في حبل من يحفظني

It binds me to the rope of one who neglects me

as firmly as to the rope of one who safeguards me.

فكيف ترضى والعلا دينُك أن

أهواك في المجدِ ولا تسعِدني

How can you accept—when loftiness is your creed—that

I love you for your nobility, yet you do not help me?

ذاك وقد قبلتَ من سريرتي

في الودِّ خيرَ ما ترى في العلَنِ

This, though you have accepted from my inward self,

in affection, the best of what you see openly;

وأنك استظهرتَ مِنّي بيدٍ

لم تؤتَ من ضعفٍ ولا من وهنِ

and though you have reinforced yourself with a hand of mine

never overcome through weakness or frailty.

قلتُ لدهري وهو قد نيَّبَ لي

رُقَى العميدِ دون أن تنهشني

I told my age, as it bared its fangs at me:

'Al-Amid's charms will stop you biting me!'

أروع بعتُ الناسَ والدنيا به

فما صفَقتُ في يمين الغَبَنِ

An awe-inspiring man for whom I sold mankind and the world:

I never clasped the right hand of loss.

وملتُ في الراجح من ميزانه

على الورى إذ قلتُ للفضل زِنِ

I sided with the heavier pan of his scales

against all mankind, when I told merit, 'Weigh!'

وكنتُ باللُّمعةِ من تجريبهِ

على يقين المستمرِّ المدمنِ

I had, from a mere glimpse in trying him,

the certainty of one who persists and perseveres.

فاجتمعتْ معي على توحيده

شتَّى القلوبِ وفُروقُ الألسنِ

So there joined with me in declaring him without equal

diverse hearts and tongues of many kinds.

وإن جفا بوصله فقد وفَى

بماله وفاءَ عَدلٍ محسنِ

And though he was distant in fellowship, he kept faith

with his wealth, with a just benefactor's fidelity.

وقام والأيامُ ينتشِلْنني

فكان لي حَصْداءَ أمَّ الجُنَنِ

He stood forth as the days were snatching me away,

and became for me close-woven mail, mother of shields.

وطالَعَ الخَلَّةَ حتى سدَّها

وافٍ من الجود بما لم يضمَنِ

He looked into my want until he remedied it,

faithful in giving even what he had never promised.

محكِّمٌ في ماله أمرَ الندى

بما قضى من معوزٍ أو ممكنِ

He gives generosity authority over his wealth

in whatever it decrees, scarce or within reach:

مكارمٌ محسوبةٌ أرقُبُها

وفاجئاتٌ بغتةً تبدَهُني

expected acts of bounty that I await,

and sudden ones that take me unawares.

لم يلتحمْ بِعذرةٍ معروفُها

ولا أتت مكدودةً بالمننِ

Their kindness was never entangled in an excuse,

nor did they come worn down by reminders of obligation.

غريبةٌ حازَ بها فرضَ الندى

سبْقاً إلى أنفاله والسُّنَنِ

Rare gifts through which he won bounty's due,

racing ahead to its extra gifts and voluntary acts.

ولم يكن كمبرقينَ غُرِّرتْ

منهم رجالٌ ببناتِ الدِّمنِ

He was not like those who flash empty promises,

by whom men were beguiled with 'daughters of dung-heaps.'

أرسلتُه سَجْلا إلى غُدرانهم

فأيبسوا وفاضَ حتى بَلَّني

I sent him as a brimming bucket to their pools:

they ran dry; he overflowed until he drenched me.

تُشبُّ نيرانُهمُ لا للقِرى

بل شَرَهاً إلى انتشاق الدَّخَنِ

Their fires are kindled not for hospitality,

but from a greedy craving to inhale smoke.

لا ينزلُ الضيفُ وإن تموَّلوا

بمتمِرٍ منهم ولا بمُلبِنِ

No guest, however wealthy they become, finds lodging

with anyone among them who provides dates or milk.

لهم من الأعراب كلُّ ما ادّعوا

غيرَ الوفاء والندى واللَّسَنِ

They have every Bedouin quality they claim,

except fidelity, generosity, and eloquence.

لا شرَفٌ في مُضرٍ يجذِبُهم

إلى العلا ولا نُهىً في اليمنِ

No nobility in Mudar draws them

toward greatness, nor any wisdom in Yemen.

لا رقّةُ البَدوِ جَنتْ إخلافَهم

لِمدَحي ولا حُلومُ المدُنِ

Neither the desert's poverty caused their broken pledges

to my praise, nor the judgment of the cities.

أهنتُ في أبياتهم كرائما

لو أُنكحتْ أكفاءَها لم تَهُنِ

I dishonored noble maidens in their houses,

who would not have been debased had they married their equals.

تقلّدوا منها عقودَ حمدهم

وهي على أجيادهم تذمُّني

They wore necklaces of their own praise from them,

yet there upon their necks those maidens reproach me.

إذا استُضيمتْ صاح بي ذليلُها

ألم تكن يا أبتي تُعِزّني

When wronged, their humbled one cried to me:

'Father, did you not once honor me?

أذلتَني في أنفس مغمورةٍ

وأوجهٍ حُمسٍ وأيدٍ خُشُنِ

You humbled me among obscure souls,

stern faces and rough hands!'

فمن لها منّي وإن عقَّت أباً

بناتُهُ فالحقُّ أن تعُقَّني

Who will defend them against me? Though a father be disowned

by his daughters, they are right to disown me.

إلا فتاةً بينهنّ حظِيتْ

عند العميد بالأريب الفَطنِ

Except one maiden among them who won favor

with al-Amid, the astute and discerning.

صرنا إلى ضنكٍ وصارت وحدَها

إلى مَراحٍ ما اشتهتْ ودَدَنِ

We fell into straits, while she alone went

to all the mirth she desired, and play.

وولدَتْ من جُوده أياديا

شرطَ المنى وقُرّةً للأعينِ

She bore, from his generosity, favors

that met desire's terms, a comfort to the eyes.

في كلِّ يومٍ قادمٍ يَصبِحُني

به بشيرُ الخير أو يغبِقُني

Each coming day, I am given a morning draught

of it by a herald of good, or he gives me an evening one.

ما ضرَّني منهم أصمُّ لَحِزٌ

وأنت من كسورهم تجبرُني

No deaf, miserly man among them has harmed me,

when you mend the breaks they made in me.

كنتَ إليهم سُلَّما فقعدوا

فهدَموا المجد وقمتَ تبتني

You were a ladder toward them, but they stayed seated:

they tore down glory, while you rose to build.

فمن رأى قبلَ صداي شفةً

جفَّ القَليبُ فارتوت بالشَّطَنِ

Who, before my thirst, has seen a lip

drink its fill from the rope when the well ran dry?

فغمرتنا ولأعراضِهمُ

ما ساءها في فالقٍ ومدجِنٍ

You flooded us with bounty; as for their reputations,

what afflicts them comes in clear sky and clouded:

كلُّ مُشِيهٍ للوجوهِ فاضح

للذكر في شِراده والعطنِ

every face-disfiguring thing, a disgrace

to their name, in its wanderings and at its watering-place.

وعندك المرصوع من حُليِّهِ

والمصطفَى من سرّه المكتمنِ

With you are the jewel-set pieces of its ornament,

and the choicest of its concealed secrets;

والسارياتُ بعلاك ما انتهتْ

بوعُ المهارى وقلوعُ السفُنِ

and night-traveling verses carrying your glory as far as

Mahri camels' strides and ships' sails reach.

لا تأتلي تحفِرُ عن كنزٍ لها

تُنفِقُ منه عاجلا وتَقتَني

They spare no effort, digging for a treasure of their own,

spending from it now and laying riches by.