مضى والتقى نجمين في أفق جدا — Mostafa Saadeq Al Rafe

مضى والتقى نجمين في أفق جَدَّا

وخلَّفني من نورهِ أنا والمجدا

He passed on and met two stars newly risen on a horizon,

And left behind, of his light, me and glory.

فإن ابكهِ تنهلَّ للشعر مطرةٌ

على كل أرض تفجرُ البرق والرعدا

If I weep for him, a rain pours down for poetry

Over every land, unleashing lightning and thunder.

وإن أرث من أوصافه هبت الصبا

مع الشمس ترمي في اشعتها وردا

And if I elegize his qualities, the east wind blows

With the sun, scattering roses among its rays.

ثكلتُ يراعي ان تركت على الشجى

ضنى كبدٍ لم استجدَّ لهُ وجدا

May I be bereft of my pen if I leave, in grief,

A liver's wasting for which I have not sought fresh anguish.

وما هو شعري يوم ينتثر البكا

اذا لم اساقط من لآلئهِ عقدا

And it is not my poetry, when weeping scatters,

Unless I let a necklace fall from its pearls.

ولا هو شعري يا أبي ان تركتهُ

ولم تحفظ الأيام منهً لك الحمدا

Nor is it my poetry, Father, if I leave it

And the days preserve from it no praise for you.

بكيتك بل نفسي فوالله ان أرى

بيومك إلاَّ ركن نفسي قد انهدا

I wept for you—rather, for myself; by God, I see nothing

On your day but my soul's pillar fallen.

بموتك قد مات لقلبي مواعدٌ

من الدهر كان الصبرُ من بينها وعدا

With your death, promises to my heart have died,

Promises from time, among which patience had been one.

فيا موثق الدنيا بآمالهِ اتئد

فما غيرُ هذي النفس تحكمها شدَّا

O you who bind the world with your hopes, take care;

It is only this soul that you bind more tightly.

ويا طالب الأيام صفواً أما ترى

ليومك ما يبيضُّ إلا ليسودَّا

And you who seek serenity from the days, do you not see

That your day grows white only to grow black?

تجزئنا الأيام في حركاتها

فإن تركت فرداً فقد أخذت فردا

The days divide us as they move;

If they leave one person, they have taken another.

فيا ليت هذا الموت يأتي بمرَّةٍ

ولكن لأمرٍ ما أعاد وما أبدى

If only this death would come just once!

Yet what it repeats and what it begins serves a purpose.

وأولُ موتِ الحيّ موتُ حبيبهِ

وكالفقد وجدانٌ طوى تحتهُ فقدا

A living person's first death is the death of his beloved,

And like loss is a finding that enfolds a loss beneath it.

يعيش الفتى بعد الحبيب كأنهُ

بقي خطأً مما يرى نكداً عمدا

A man lives on after his beloved, as though

He survived by mistake, seeing misery deliberately inflicted.

وما يعرف المفجوعُ طالت حياتهُ

أفي عيشهِ ما امتدّ أم موتهُ امتدَّا

The stricken man, though his life grows long, cannot tell

Whether his life has lengthened, or his death has lengthened.

كأن همومي من فراق احبتي

على قدر ما بيني وبينهم بعدا

It is as though my sorrows at parting from my loved ones

Match the distance between me and them.

أبيما أبي لو اسكن الله في الثرى

ملائكةً لاستحدثوا عندهُ ودَّا

My father—what a father! Were God to settle in the earth

Angels, they would discover new affection beside him.

ولو طلبت عيناك في الارض مشبهاً

مثالاً سماويًّا لا شبههُ جدَّا

And were your eyes to seek on earth one resembling

A heavenly ideal, it would greatly resemble him.

هدًى يفجرُ الليل الدَّجوجيّ سمته

فما كان الاَّ طلعةَ الفجر أو أهدى

A guiding light: his bearing cleaves the pitch-black night,

For he was only the face of dawn—or a surer guide.

وعلمٌ اذا رجَّافهُ انحلّ نوءهُ

رأى الناس معنى مايسمونهُ رشدا

And knowledge: when its thundering cloud released its rain,

People saw the meaning of what they call right guidance.

ومن زهر نور الله في روض قلبهِ

حديث لهُ لا اثم فيهِ ولا حقدا

And from the flowers of God's light in his heart's garden

Came his speech, with neither sin nor rancor in it.

يرى حاضروهُ أنما هو مسجدٌ

بما أُلبست اخلاقهُ الطهر والزُّهدا

Those in his presence see him as nothing but a mosque,

For his character has been clothed in purity and asceticism.

فيا موتُ ما قدَّمتَ منهُ لربهِ

سوى زهرة في كف خالقها تندَى

O Death, you have presented nothing of him to his Lord

But a flower dewy in its Creator's palm.

واروع في عليا معدٍّ اذا اعتزَى

وفي النَّفر الغرّ الكرام اذا عدّا

And a majestic man among Maʿadd's noblest when he declares his lineage,

And among the radiant, noble company when he is counted.

ترى الجبل الراسي بمثل وقارهِ

رسا فسما فاستجمع الخلُق الصَّلدا

You see the firmly rooted mountain, with dignity like his,

Rooted, then towering, gathering all its unyielding character.

تروعك منهُ هيبةٌ عمريةٌ

وحسبك من امسى لهُ عمر جدَّا

An awe like ʿUmar's strikes you from him;

Enough for you that ʿUmar was his grandfather.

وما هي الاَّ عن نزارِ ويعرُبٍ

حبا بطلٌ جعدٌ بها بطلاً جعدا

And it comes only from Nizār and Yaʿrub:

One sturdy hero bestowed it upon another sturdy hero.

فجاءَ كنصل السيف يهتزُّ مصلتاً

يدالله منهُ وحدها سنَّت الحدَّا

So he came like a sword blade, quivering unsheathed;

God's hand alone honed his edge.

كما اعتصرتهُ انفسٌ عربيةٌ

رماحاً وأسيافاً وألسنة لدا

Just as Arab souls had distilled him

Into spears, swords, and combative tongues.

فمن يلقهُ يلق الزمان بملئهِ

جحا جحةَ بل ملئهِ حسباً عدَّا

So whoever meets him meets the age in all its fullness:

Chieftains—rather, its full measure of nobility, reckoned.

ومن يتأملهُ يميناً وشمأَلاً

رأى ههنا مجداً ومن ههنا مجدا

And whoever examines him to right and left

Sees glory here, and glory on this side too.

ومن كان في التاريخ لحدُ جدودهِ

تجدهُ من التاريخ قد ورث المهدا

And one whose forefathers' tomb lies in history,

You find has inherited his cradle from history.

وكم شيمة كالعضب منهُ انتضيتها

وألغيتها في غيرهِ طبعت غمدا

And how many a quality, like a keen sword, I unsheathed from him,

And dismissed it in others, where it was fashioned as a scabbard.

بما بلغت نفسُ الفتى يعرف الفتى

وذو الجدّ ان يهزل فما ان عدا جدَّا

A man is known by what his soul has attained;

And a serious man, even when he jests, never goes beyond seriousness.

وفي الناس ابطال ترى الفرد منهمُ

وحيداً ومن اخلاقهِ حشد الجندا

And among people are heroes: you see one of them

Alone, yet from his qualities he has mustered troops.

ولن تبصر الليث الغضنفر في امرىءٍ

اذا لم تشاهد انفساً خلقت أُسدا

And you will never see the mighty lion in a man

Unless you behold souls created as lions.

على أنهُ أندى حناناً من الندى

واعطفُ من رد النسيم اذا ردَّا

Yet he was more generous in tenderness than dew,

And gentler than the breeze's return when it returns.

وما كنت ادري اهوَ في برده اغتدى

ام الملك البسامُ قد لبس البردا

And I did not know whether it was he setting out in his cloak,

Or the smiling angel who had put on the cloak.

وما قبلهُ للحب قبلٌ عرفتهُ

ولا بعدهُ اُلفي لذاك الرضا بعدا

Before him I knew no 'before' for love,

Nor after him do I find an 'after' for that contentment.

وللروح عيش من وجوه تحيطها

فوجه يرى بؤساً ووجه يرى رغدا

And the soul draws its life from the faces surrounding it:

One face is seen as misery, another as ease.

واشهد ما في الارض من صنع ربها

كقلب اب برٍّ يحبُّ بهِ الولدا

I bear witness: nothing on earth of its Lord's making

Is like a good father's heart, with which he loves his child.

فلولا حنانُ الوالدين لما رأى

بنو الارض شيئاً يعقلون بهِ الخلدا

For without parents' tenderness, never would

Earth's children see anything by which to comprehend eternity.

ومن حبِّ آباءِ الصغار صغارهم

تعوَّدُ روح الطفل ان تسكن الجلدا

And through the love fathers of little ones bear their young,

The child's spirit grows accustomed to inhabiting its skin.

ولو نظر القومُ الغلاةُ لأيقنوا

معادَهُم ما دام آباؤهم مبدا

Were the extremists to reflect, they would know with certainty

Their return, so long as their fathers were their beginning.

نعاك لسان الغيب في مسمع التقى

من البضعة الغراء يقصدها قصدا

The tongue of the unseen announced your death to piety's ear,

Of that radiant part of your flesh, deliberately seeking her.

يؤذنها في مطلع الفجر مخبراً

بموت ابيها وهي تسمعُ ما اهدى

It informed her at dawn's rising, bringing news

Of her father's death, while she heard what it brought.

فلولاك لم ترجع الى الارض رجعةٌ

تذكرها جبريل والوحيَ والعهدا

But for you, there would have been no return to earth

To remind her of Gabriel, revelation, and the covenant.

وان ذكروا ندًّ لعلمك في الورى

فلن يذكروا في هذه أبداً ندَّا

If they name an equal to your knowledge among humankind,

They will never name an equal in this.

على فضلك البرهان جاءَت بهِ السما

ففي الأرض من هذا يطيق لهُ جحدا

Heaven brought the proof of your excellence;

Who on earth, then, is capable of denying this?

ويا ابتي إن الوداع لغايةٍ

أكدُّ إليها الدهرَ في سيرهِ كدا

And Father, this farewell has an end;

Toward it I drive time hard upon its course.

ومن اركبته الأرض انعمها انتهى

بحيث انتهى من يركب العيشةَ النكدا

And whoever earth sets riding on its blessings ends

Where one riding a wretched life ends.

بدائرة الاعمار شرقٌ ومغربٌ

ولكن يسمى ذاك نحساً وذا سعدا

The circle of lives has an east and a west,

But that is called ill fortune, and this good fortune.

ومن حيثما يممت نحو محيطها

تراهُ على كل الجهات ارتمى سدا

And from wherever you turn toward its circumference,

You see it flung across every direction as a barrier.

خلقنا بارض كوّرت وتقلبت

فمهما يدُر فيها فمنقلبٌ ضدَا

We were created on an earth made round and set turning;

Whatever turns upon it turns into its opposite.

عليك سلامُ الله ما بين روحهِ

وقبركَ يمضى من رواح إلى مغدى

May God's peace be upon you, as long as between His mercy

And your grave it journeys from evening to morning.

ويا خيرَ مولًى انت ارحمُ رحمةً

واكرمُ من تجزي مكارمهُ عبدا

O best of masters, You are the most merciful in mercy,

And the most generous of those whose bounty rewards a servant.