إن الزمان ولا أقول زماني

بين الطوابع والرسوم رماني

Indeed, time—and I do not call it my time—

has cast me among stamps and fees,

وأحال لذاتي وساوس حاسب

يهذي بضرب ثلاثة بثماني

and turned my pleasures into an accountant's obsessions,

raving about multiplying three by eight.

فانظر إلى الندمان كيف تفرقوا

بعدي وكيف علا الغبار دناني

Look, then, at my drinking companions, how they scattered

after my departure, and how dust covered my wine jars;

وإلى قريضي كيف أصبح تافهاً

وإلى بليغ القول كيف عصاني

and at my verse, how it has become trivial,

and at eloquent speech, how it has defied me;

وإلى اماني العذاب يسومها

سوط الحساب مهانة العبدان

and at my sweet hopes, subjected

by accountancy's lash to the humiliation of slaves.

قانون هوبر حال بعض جريضه

دون القريض ودون كل بيان

The Huber Code—some of its choking anguish has stood

in the way of poetry and every eloquent utterance.

فاستكتبوا قعوار نص تميمة

غراء تذهب عقده بلساني

So ask Qa'war to write the words of a charm,

a radiant one to undo its knots in my tongue,

وتشد ازر هواجس شعرية

من كل فاكهة بها زوجان

and lend strength to poetic stirrings,

bearing two kinds of every fruit,

وتعيد أحلام الشباب ضحوكة

كالزهر يبسم في سهول معان

and bring back youth's laughing dreams,

like flowers smiling on the plains of Ma'an.

يا أخت واد قد دعوتك باسمه

وله نسبت تبركاً ديواني

O sister of a valley, I have called you by its name,

and to it I linked my poetry collection, seeking blessing.

قومي وقومك في الصغار وجهلهم

معنى الحمية كفتا ميزان

My people and yours, in abasement and their ignorance

of the meaning of honor, are the two pans of a balance.

وأَنا وأَنت علىْ أختلاف قبيلنا

في عرف بيك وجيشه سيان

And you and I, though our tribal stock differs,

are alike in the eyes of Peake and his army.

فادني كؤوسك إن بعض عزائنا

فيها وفي هذا القوام الباني

So bring your cups close; some of our solace

lies in them, and in this figure slender as a bān tree,

وبهذه الزفرات وقع لحنها

صدري وصعدها صداك أغاني

and in these sighs, whose melody was scored

by my breast, and which your echo raised into songs.

يا أَخت سلمى في غناك عذوبة

تبكي ويغرق دمعها أحزاني

O sister of Salma, in your singing is a sweetness

that weeps, its tears drowning my sorrows.

ما شمت ومض اليأس في نبراتها

إلا استبنت بشجوها ألحاني

Never did I glimpse despair's flash in its tones

without discerning my own melodies in its plaintiveness.

ورأيت في مرآة بؤسك صورتي

وقرأت فوق اطارها عنواني

And I saw my image in the mirror of your misery,

and read my own title above its frame.

وعرفت فيما أنت فيه من الأذى

ومن الصغارة والهوان هواني

And I recognized in the suffering you endure

and in your abasement and humiliation my own humiliation.

أَهلوك قد جعلوا جمالك سلعة

تشرى وباع بنو أَبي أوطاني

Your family have made your beauty merchandise

to be bought, while my father's sons have sold my homelands.

وذووك قد منعوك كل كرامة

وأنا كذلك حارسي سجاني

Your kin have denied you all dignity,

and I am the same: my guardian is my jailer.

يا بنت في إسبال جفنك محمل

للإِشتباه بأن طرفك جاني

Girl, in the lowering of your eyelid there is ground

for suspecting that your gaze is a culprit,

وبأن هذا القلب عاث بامنه

عينان واقلباه سوداوان

and that this heart's peace has been ravaged by

two eyes—oh, my heart!—black eyes.

لا مدعي عام اللواء أجارني

من سحرهن ولا طلال حماني

Neither the district's public prosecutor sheltered me

from their spell, nor did Talal protect me.

يا بنت تحقيق العدالة ركنه

ولع القضاة براحة الوجدان

Girl, dispensing justice rests

on judges' devotion to peace of conscience.

ولعي بكأس في ارتشاف رحيقه

سكر يحيل النائبات أماني

My devotion is to a cup whose nectar, when sipped,

brings intoxication that turns calamities into hopes,

ويريك فقه الشيخ أقوالاً بها

ما أنزل الرحمن من سلطان

and shows you the sheikh's jurisprudence as sayings for which

the All-Merciful has sent down no authority.

فإِذا جهنم جنة وإِذا الأسى

نعمى وإِذ نوب الحياة أغاني

Then Hell is a garden, and sorrow

is bliss, and life's calamities are songs;

وإذا بعفو اللّه يفتح مغلقا

عبود أوصده على الغفران

and God's pardon opens a door

that Abboud had barred against forgiveness.

يا شيخ قولك ما أشد عقابه

غمز بوصف الراحم الرحمان

O sheikh, your saying, 'How severe His punishment!'

impugns His description as Compassionate and All-Merciful.

للّه قومي كيف عكر صفوهم

طيش الشيوخ وخفة الشبان

God help my people! How their serenity is muddied

by the elders' recklessness and the youths' frivolity,

وتسول المتزعمين حقوقهم

من زمرة الأذان والغلمان

and by would-be leaders begging for their rights

from a clique of 'ears' and boys,

وتظاهر المتصدرين لبيعهم

لا عن تقى بحماية الأديان

and by the posturing of those ready to sell them,

as protectors of religions, not out of piety.

يا رب إن بلفور أنفذ وعده

كم مسلم يبقى وكم نصراني

Lord, if Balfour fulfills his promise,

how many Muslims will remain, and how many Christians?

وكيان مسجد قريتي من ذا الذي

يبقي عليه إذا أزيل كياني

And my village mosque's existence—who is there

to preserve it if my own existence is erased?

وكنيسة العذراء أين مكانها

سيكون إن بعث اليهود مكاني

And the Virgin's church—where will its place

be, if the Jews are raised up in my place?

هات اسقني قعوار ليس يهمني

قول الوشاة عرار صكرانان

Come, pour me a drink, Qa'war; I do not care

for the slanderers' words: 'Arar is drunk.'

فالكأس لولا اليأس ما هشت له

كبد ولا حدبت عليه يدان

For the cup, were it not for despair, would never be welcomed

by a heart, nor tenderly cradled in two hands.

والخمر لولا الشعر ما أنست به

شفة الأديب وريشة الفنان

And wine, were it not for poetry, would bring no delight

to the writer's lip or the artist's brush.