حرقة الإنسان من كور الأمل

نار هذا الطين من نور الأمل

Humanity's burning fervor comes from hope's furnace.

This clay's fire comes from hope's light.

إنه الخمرة في كأس الحياه

وبه وقدة أنفاس الحياه

It is the wine in life's cup,

and through it life's breaths are aflame.

الحياة الحق تسخير الدني

وإلى التسخير تدعوها المنى

True life is mastery of worlds,

and aspirations call it to mastery.

هي للمقصود في الدنيا سبيل

وهي للعشق من الحسن رسول

They are a path to one's goal in this world,

and beauty's messengers to love.

أمل الإنسان أنى يظهر

كيف يشجو الحي هذا المزهر

Where does human hope reveal itself?

How does this lute enchant the living?

كل خير وبهيج وجميل

هو في بيدائنا نعم الدليل

All that is good, delightful, and beautiful

is an excellent guide in our wilderness.

حسنه في القلب نور يسطع

تجد الآمال منه تطلع

Its beauty is a light shining in the heart;

you find hopes rising from it.

خلق الحسن نضير الأمل

وأدام الحسن نور الأمل

Hope's fresh bloom created beauty,

and hope's light sustained beauty.

مطلع الحسن ضمير الشاعر

طوره صبح الجمال الباهر

The poet's heart is where beauty dawns;

his Sinai is the dawn of dazzling beauty.

زادت الحسن جمالا نظرته

زادت الفطرة حبا صنعته

His gaze increased beauty's loveliness;

his art made nature more lovable.

غرد البلبل من تلحينه

ضاء خد الورد من تلوينه

The nightingale sang from his melodies;

the rose's cheek shone from his coloring.

ناره كل فراش كاويه

قصص العشاق منه زاهيه

His fire scorches every moth;

through him, lovers' tales glow.

مضمر في خلفه بحر وبر

ألف كون محدث فيه استتر

Sea and land lie hidden behind him;

a thousand newly created worlds lie hidden within him.

كم شقيق في الحشا لم يطلع

وغناء وبكى لم يسمع

How many anemones in his breast have yet to bloom,

and songs and weeping have yet to be heard!

فكره للبدر والنجم نجي

يبدع الحسن وفي القبح عيى

His thought is confidant to full moon and star;

he creates beauty, yet cannot fashion ugliness.

خضر في ليله ماء الحياه

تزهر ألاكوان من ماء بكاه

He is Khidr; his night holds the water of life.

Worlds blossom from the water of his tears.

نحن أغرار بطاء الأرجل

ضل سارينا طريق المنزل

We are inexperienced, slow of foot;

our night-traveler has lost the way home.

لطفت في سيرنا حيلته

وعلت في ركبنا نغمته

His ingenuity works subtly in our journey,

and his melody rises among our caravan.

يحفز الركب لفردوس الحياه

ويتم الدور في قوس الحياه

He urges the caravan toward life's paradise

and completes the circuit along life's arc.

فمضى الركبان إثر الجرس

وشدا الحادي بصوت مؤنس

Then the riders went on, following the bell,

and the camel-driver sang in a heartening voice.

وسرت في زهرنا نفحته

مذ سرت في روضنا نسمته

His fragrance spread through our flowers

ever since his breeze stirred through our garden.

نفس منه حياة تزهر

حرة لوامة لا تصبر

A breath from him is life in blossom,

free, ever-reproaching, unable to rest.

يأدب الناس جميعا للقرى

ناره كالريح تسرى في الورى

He invites all people to the feast;

his fire sweeps like wind through humankind.

ويل قوم لهلاك طائره

صد عن ورد حياة شاعره

Woe to a people whose bird is bound for ruin,

whose poet turns away from life's watering-place!

كل حسن شاه في مرآته

في الجسوم السم من جرعاته

All beauty is disfigured in his mirror;

his draughts put poison into bodies.

تذبل الأزهار منه القبل

ويعاف الشدو منها البلبل

His kisses make the flowers wither,

and the nightingale shuns song because of them.

تهن الأعصاب من أفيونه

ويموت الحي من تلحينه

His opium weakens the nerves,

and the living die from his melodies.

يسلب السرو جميل الميل

ويرد الصقر مثل الحجل

He robs the cypress of its graceful sway

and makes the falcon like a partridge.

هو حوت نصفه كالآدمي

كبنات البحر تقتاد الغوى

He is a fish, half of him humanlike,

like the sea's daughters who lure the wayward.

يسحر الربان منها باللحون

ولقاع البحر تهوى بالسفين

One of them bewitches the helmsman with songs

and plunges with the ships to the seabed.

يسلب القلب ثباتاً لحنه

ويرى الموت حياة فنّه

His melody robs the heart of steadfastness,

and his art sees death as life.

يلبس النفع لباس الضرر

ويرى الحسن قبيح الصور

He clothes benefit in the garb of harm

and sees beauty as ugly in form.

في بحار الفكر يلقيك فلا

تشتهيه أو تطيق العملا

He casts you into seas of thought, so you neither

desire action nor have the strength for it.

شعره فينا يزيد الكللا

كأسه فينا تزيد المللا

His poetry increases our weariness;

his cup increases our boredom.

سيل برق ما حوى نيسانه

آل لون وشذى بستانه

A torrent of lightning is all his April holds;

his garden is a mirage of color and fragrance.

فنه بالحق لا يعترف

بحره ما فيه إلا الصدف

His art does not acknowledge truth;

his sea holds nothing but shells.

نومت ألحانه يقظتنا

أطفأت أنفاسه شعلتنا

His melodies have lulled our wakefulness to sleep;

his breaths have quenched our flame.

بلبل سم قلوب نغمه

ضغث ورد فيه يثوى أرقمه

A nightingale whose song poisons hearts,

a bunch of roses where his viper lies concealed.

خمره اللألاءة اترك واحذر

كأسه والطاس والدن اهجر

Leave his sparkling wine, and beware!

Shun his cup, his bowl, and his wine-jar.

يا صريعا خمره يغتبق

لك صبح من سناها مشرق

O stricken one who drinks his wine at night,

your dawn shines with its radiance.

يا برود القلب من ألحانه

قد شربت السم من تبيانه

O you whose heart is chilled by his melodies,

you have drunk poison from his eloquence.

يا دليلا للردى أفكاره

عطلت من نغم أوتاره

O you whose thoughts guide toward destruction,

your strings have been stripped of melody.

أنت للذل أرحت البدنا

أنت للإسلام عار في الدنى

You have given your body repose in abasement;

you are a disgrace to Islam among the worlds.

من نسيم مر يدمى خد كا

بعروق الورد يلوى قد كا

Your cheek bleeds from a passing breeze;

your frame is bent by the rose's veins.

أخزت العشق دجى صيحاتكا

غض من صورته بهزاد كا

Your cries in the dark have shamed love;

your Behzad has diminished its image.

شاحب الوجه بدا من ضر كا

بردت نيرانه من قر كا

It appears pale-faced from your harm;

its fires have cooled from your chill.

عاجز الهمة من ذلتكا

وعليل الروح من علتكا

Feeble in resolve because of your abasement,

and sick in spirit because of your sickness.

ادمع الأطفال في كاساته

كنزه ما اعتد من آهاته

Children's tears fill his cups;

his treasure is the sighs he has stored away.

آه من وغد ذليل يائس

هالك من ركلات الحارس

Ah, that base, abject, hopeless wretch,

undone by the watchman's kicks!

صار كالناي هزيلا نائحا

شاكى الأقدار جهلا صائحا

He has grown thin and wailing like a reed flute,

crying out in ignorance, complaining of fate.

ليس إلا الحقد في جوهره

ليس إلا العجز في مخبره

There is nothing but spite in his essence;

there is nothing but impotence in his inner nature.

يائس فسل حليف الخيبة

شقوة في خسة في ذلة

Hopeless, worthless, wedded to failure:

misery in baseness, in abasement.

نوحه روحك منه في سقام

قد حمى جيرانه طيب المنام

His lament leaves your spirit sick;

he has deprived his neighbors of sweet sleep.

ويح عشق قد ذكا في الحرم

ناره باخت ببيت الصنم

Alas for a love that blazed in the Sacred Sanctuary,

whose fire died in an idol's house!

صيرفي القول إن تبغ النجاه

فاجعلن معياره نار الحياه

Assayer of speech, if you seek deliverance,

then make life's fire its touchstone.

نير الفكر يقود العملا

مثل برق قاد رعدا جلجلا

Luminous thought leads action,

like lightning leading thunder that resounds.

من بفكر صالح في الأدب

ارجعن يا صاح شطر العرب

You who have sound judgment in literature,

turn back, my friend, toward the Arabs.

وسليمي العرب يا صاح اعشقا

لترى صبح الحجاز ائتلقا

And love the Arabs' Sulayma, my friend,

that you may see the dawn of the Hijaz blaze forth.

في رياض العجم قطفت الزهر

في ربيع الهند سرحت البصر

In the gardens of Persia you have picked flowers;

in India's spring you have let your gaze roam.

من حرور البيد فاشرب يا رفيق

واشربن من تمرها الراح العتيق

Now drink the desert's scorching heat, my companion,

and drink the aged wine of its dates.

أسلمن رأسك يوما صدرها

وألفن في حرها صرصرها

Entrust your head one day to its breast,

and, amid its heat, grow used to its howling wind.

قد لبست الخز طول الزمن

فألف الكرباس يوما واخشن

You have worn silk all this time;

so befriend coarse cotton for a day, and grow hardy.

كم وطئت الورد في طول المدى

غاسلا كالورد خدا بالندى

How often, through the years, you have trodden roses,

washing a rose-like cheek with dew!

فعلى رمل الصحارى المضرم

أقدمن يوما وغص في زمزم

So upon the deserts' burning sand

venture one day, and plunge into Zamzam.

فيم هذا النوح مثل البليل

وإلام العش بين الظلل

Why this lamenting like a nightingale?

And how long will your nest remain among the shades?

قد علا جد الهما من صيدكا

اجعلن في الطود مثوى عشكا

The Huma's fortune has risen by making you its prey;

make the lofty mountain your nest's abode.

ابن عشا حيث لا ترقى الأنوق

تختفى فيه رعود وبروق

Build a nest where the vulture cannot climb,

where thunder and lightning lie hidden.