كيف التعاقد.. إما ليس ينعقد — مصطفى الشليح

كيفَ التعاقدُ .. إمَّا ليسَ ينعقدُ

وليسَ منجردًا .. ما شأنُه العُقَدُ

How can there be a pact ... if it is not concluded?

And what has knots for its concern ... is not stripped bare.

حتَّى إذا وثَّقُوا أشياءَ واستبقُوا

والذِّئبُ ينظرُ والأسماءُ تنفردُ

Until, when they bound things fast and raced one another,

And the wolf looks on, and the names stand apart.

والذِّئبُ يسفرُ لولا البيدُ منسأةٌ

أكانَ يرفعُ حجبًا، والعصاةُ يدُ؟

And the wolf would show itself, were the wastelands not a staff.

Would it have lifted veils, with the rebels a hand?

دمُ أضاءَ نداءَ اللَّيل.. فانتبهتْ

كرامةُ الفجر.. في أعذاقها البلدُ

Blood lit up the night's call ... then awoke

The dignity of dawn ... the country in its date clusters.

ودمدمَ الخطوُ.. حتَّى اربدَّ أولُه

واشتدَّ ساعدُه .. واحتدَّ معتقَدُ

And the tread rumbled ... until its beginning darkened.

And its forearm grew strong ... and conviction grew fierce.

وامتدَّ آخرُه.. ظلا.. كأنْ.. سُوَرٌ

تتلى.. كأنْ سِيَرٌ أحوالُها عَمَدُ

And its end stretched out ... as a shadow ... as though ... surahs

Were being recited ... as though life stories whose circumstances are pillars.

يا ذَا المقام دمًا انهضْ إليكَ يدًا

هذا التعاقدُ .. أشلاءٌ .. ومفتقدُ

O holder of the station, rise as blood, toward yourself as a hand.

This pact ... is dismembered remains ... and something missing.

وذاكَ شلَّتْ به الأوتادُ.. حين لغا

وإذ طغى.. وتمطَّى حوله الزَّبدُ

And that one ... the stakes were paralyzed by it ... when it babbled.

And when it overstepped bounds ... and the foam stretched itself around it.

قفْ على البحر واقرأ: ها هنا أبدٌ

من التحدِّي، وبعدَ الوالدِ الولدُ

Stand by the sea and read: behold, here is an eternity

Of defiance; and after the father, the son.