بأبي من زارني ملتثما — Mustafa Bin Zakari

بأبي من زارني ملتثماً

وجلاً من رقباء الحرس

My father be ransom for the one who visited me veiled,

fearful of the guards' watchers.

فهو كالبدر بدا مبتسماً

يتوارى تحت ذيل الغلس

He appeared smiling like the full moon,

hiding beneath the hem of predawn darkness.

جال ماء الحسن في وجنته

بين آس وبهار وشقيق

Beauty's water coursed through his cheek,

among myrtle, yellow daisies, and anemones.

وبدور التم من غرته

تتجلى في صباح من بريق

And full moons from his radiant brow

shine in a morning of radiance.

وشموس الراح من ريقته

في كؤوس من جمان وعقيق

And suns of wine from his saliva

are in cups of pearls and agate.

فترى الناس سكارى كلما

أسفرت فوق شقيق اللعس

You see people drunk whenever

they shine above the anemones of dusky lips.

يا حمى الله حمى ذاك اللمى

من شفاه الناظر المختلس

Ah, may God protect the sanctuary of those dusky lips

from the lips of the furtive gazer.

تعشق الألفاظ معناه فلا

تنكروا في وصفه اللفظ الرقيق

Words adore his essence; so do not

reject tender language in describing him.

يترك اللب لماه ثملاً

كلما مر بمعناه العتيق

His dusky lips leave the mind drunk

whenever it encounters his vintage essence.

ترشف الأسماع منه غزلاً

كمنت في جسمه روح الرحيق

Ears sip love poetry from him;

the spirit of pure wine lies hidden in his body.

هل رأيتم أو سمعتم كلما

يثمر الدر بروض المجلس

Have you seen or heard words

that bear pearls in the garden of the gathering?

فلماه قوت روح الندما

وجناه منية المغترس

His dusky lips nourish the souls of boon companions,

and his fruit is the planter's desire.

مستعيراً خصره من جسدي

غصن بان يزدري بالخيزران

His waist borrows from my body

a bān-tree branch that scorns bamboo.

كلما يفتر أوهى جَلَدي

بأقاح من ثناياه الحسان

Whenever he smiles, he weakens my endurance

with daisies from his lovely front teeth.

هل رأيتم عسكراً من بَرَد

في ثغور من عقيق وجمان

Have you seen an army of hailstones

in mouths of agate and pearls?

كلما يبدو لنا مبتسما

يغلب الوجد على المحترس

Whenever he appears to us smiling,

passion overcomes the wary.

فاصطباري قد مضى منهزماً

وسلوِّي معرض في عبس

My endurance has fled defeated,

and my solace turns away with a scowl.

تغرس الآمال في روض المنى

كل حين شجراً لن يثمرا

Hopes plant, in the garden of wishes,

trees at every moment that will never bear fruit.

طالما عللت لحظي بجنى

وجنتيه فاجتنيت السهرا

How often I beguiled my gaze with the fruit

of his cheeks, only to harvest sleeplessness.

رقّ في معناه شعري فانثنى

خجلاً قول رئيس الشعرا

My verse grew tender in expressing him; then recoiled,

in shame, the words of the chief of poets.

هل درى ظبي الحِمى أن قد حمى

قلب صب حله عن مكنس

Does the sanctuary's gazelle know how fevered

is a lover's heart he dwelt in instead of a thicket?

فهو في حرّ وخفقٍ مثلما

لعبت ريح الصبا بالقبس

So it burns and flutters, just as

the east wind plays with a flame.

بأبي من زارني مختلساً

فرصة من بعد عجز الحيل

My father be ransom for the one who visited me, stealing

a chance after all stratagems had failed.

ليت شعري مذ تجلى هل كسا

بدمي خدّيه أم بالخجل

Would that I knew: when he appeared, did he clothe

his cheeks in my blood, or in blushes?

يا رعى الله غزالاً ما غزا

مهجة إلا سباها ونفر

Ah, may God tend a gazelle who never raids

a heart without capturing it and fleeing.

إن تثنّى أو رنا أو برزا

ترَ غصناً وظبياً وقمر

If he sways, gazes, or appears,

you see a branch, a gazelle, and a moon.

فاق في الحسن فلما غمزا

قيل بدر التم في ليل الشعر

He surpassed all in beauty; and when he winked,

they said, “A full moon in the night of his hair.”

ها أنا من حبه مت أسى

وهو عن إعراضه لم يحل

Here I am, dead of grief from loving him,

while he has not relinquished his aversion.

ليته متَّع سمعي بعسى

أن تراني يا حليف العلل

Would that he delighted my hearing with “Perhaps

you will see me, O companion of ailments.”

أجتني التفاح من خدّ المليح

إن تبدّى بأكف الحدق

I pluck apples from the fair one's cheek

when he appears, with the palms of my eyes.

وأرى من ذلك الوجه الصبيح

فلقاً ينسخ نور الفلق

And in that radiant face I see

a dawn that eclipses the light of dawn.

آل ودّي أن لي قلباً جريح

هائماً في حبكم لم يفق

O people dear to me, I have a wounded heart,

wandering in love for you, never coming to its senses.

فارحموا بالوصل صباً يئسا

من سوى السقم وقرب الأجل

So pity, through union, a lover who has despaired

of all but illness and death drawing near.

فهو ساه ساهر ما أنسا

بأنيس بعدكم يا أملي

He is distracted and sleepless, finding no solace

in a companion after you, O my hope.

ضاع صبري في هوى الغزلان ضاع

وهو لم يسعفوا قلبي بشيّ

My patience is lost in love of gazelles—lost!

Yet they have given my heart no help at all.

تركوني هائماً يوم الوداع

وكووا قلبي بنار الهجر كي

They left me distraught on the day of farewell,

and seared my heart with separation's fire—a searing!

شاع شأني فيهم بالحب شاع

وأبوا أن يعطفوا يوماً عليّ

My tale of love spread among them—spread!

Yet they refused ever to show me kindness.

فمنامي من جفوني خلسا

وغرامي زائد لم يزل

So my sleep was stolen from my eyelids,

and my passion keeps increasing without cease.

آه من ذكر زمان عبسا

وتولى بعد صفو مقتل

Ah, the memory of a time that frowned

and turned away after bliss, bringing death.

يا أهيل الودّ قد ذاب الفؤاد

من لظى الهجران والدمع رقا

O dear people of affection, my heart has melted

from separation's blaze, and my tears have ceased.

هل ترى ترجع أيام الوداد

ونعود مثل ما قد سبقا

Do you think the days of affection will return,

and we will be again as we were before,

ويرى طرفي عياناً من أراد

وأراني طيبه منتشقا

and my eye will see plainly the one it desires,

and I will find myself inhaling his fragrance?

وترى منه إقاحاً حرسا

ذلك الريق الشهي السلسلي

And you see in him daisies standing guard

over that delicious, smoothly flowing saliva.

وأرى طرفاً سقيماً نعسا

فاخر الكحل بغنج الكحل

And I see a languid, drowsy eye,

outshining kohl with the coyness of its natural darkness.

ليته أبقى لعيني الوسنا

علني أحظى بطيف الحلم

Would that he had left my eyes some drowsiness,

that perhaps I might attain a dream-vision.

فاشتياقي قد أضرّ البدنا

وبكائي شاب دمعي بدمي

For my longing has harmed my body,

and my weeping has mingled my tears with my blood.

يا لصب ذاب وجداً وضنا

وأسير في قيود الألم

Alas for a lover melted by passion and wasting sickness,

and a captive in the fetters of pain.

قال بعض الناس لما أنسَ

حرق الشوق وفرط العلل

Someone said, when he perceived

the burning of longing and the excess of ailments,

اعتزله فلقد ذبت أسى

قلت دعني لست بالمعتزلي

“Withdraw from him; you have melted away in grief.”

I said, “Leave me be; I am no Muʿtazilite.”