إلمامُها أهدَى إلى الصَّبِّ لَمَمْ
إذ طَرَقَتْ وهْناً فَحَيَّتْ من أَمَمْ
Her brief visit brought the lovesick lover a touch of madness,
Her knowledge led to perseverance against hardships,
When she came late at night and greeted him from nearby.
When she knocked weakly, so she was revived from worries.
لاعِبةٌ زارَتْ مُجِدّاً لَعِبَتْ
به السُّرى والأرحبيَّاتُ الرُّسُمْ
A playful woman visited an earnest man, whom
A playful one visited glory, she played
Night travel and swift-paced Arhab she-camels had toyed with.
With it the paths and spacious roads evenly.
باتَتْ تُريه البانَ وهو مُغْرِبٌ
في حَمْلِه الوردَ الجنيَّ والعَنَمْ
She spent the night showing him a bān tree, wondrous
She spent the night showing him the full moon while he was setting,
In bearing freshly picked roses and red ʿanam fruit,
In his presence the picked roses and meadows.
وطَلعةً سالَم ضوءُ صُبحِها
ظلامَها والصُّبحُ حَربٌ للظُّلَمْ
And a face whose dawnlight made peace
And at dawn the light of her morning greeted,
With its darkness, though dawn is the enemy of darkness.
Her darkness, and the dawn is war against the darkness.
وقد عفا مَنزِلُها بقلبِه
كما عفا منزلُها بذي سَلَمْ
And her dwelling had flourished in his heart,
His home has forgiven her in his heart,
As her dwelling at Dhū Salam had faded away.
As her home forgave the one from Salam.
أحَلَّها منه مَحَلاً صَدَداً
لا الرِّيحُ تَعفوهُ ولا صَوبُ الدِّيَمْ
He lodged her within it, in a place close at hand,
She made him a place of high and rugged terrain,
Which neither wind nor the downpour of steady rains can erase.
Neither does the wind subside it nor the blowing rain.
يا كَذِبَ القُربِ المُفيدِ نِعمةً
منها ويا صِدْقَ البُعادِ المُنتَقِمُ
O falsehood of nearness, granting a blessing
Oh lies of nearness that brings benefit,
From her, and O truth of separation, taking revenge!
And oh truth of distance that takes revenge!
لا تُنْكِرا فَرطَ سَقامي إنما
حَمَلْتُ عن أجفانِها بَعضَ السَّقَمْ
Do not, you two, find my extreme sickness strange; I have only
Do not deny the excess of my sickness, I only
Taken upon myself some of her eyelids' languor.
Carried from her eyelids some of the sickness.
آنستُ منها بخَيالٍ آنسٍ
يُسابِقُ الغُمْضَ إذا الغُمْضُ ألَمّ
I found comfort in a comforting apparition of her,
I felt comfort from her imagination that comforts,
That outraces sleep whenever sleep draws near.
Competing with drowsiness when drowsiness hurts.
وعارضٍ أكلاُ منه بارِقاً
كالنارِ شبَّتْ في ذُرى طَوْدٍ أشَمّ
And a storm-cloud whose lightning I watch,
And opposing I see lightning flashing from it,
Like fire blazing on the peaks of a lofty mountain.
Like fire kindled in the fuel of pressed perfume.
إذا ادلهمَّ ابتسمَتْ لشائمٍ
أقطارُه فاختلَفتْ منه الشِّيَمْ
When it darkened, there smiled for a lightning-watcher
When cares frown, the horizons of her smile differed,
Its far reaches; its moods were thus at odds.
And so her reproaches departed from her.
كأنه نَشوانُ جَرَّ ذَيلَه
فكلَّما رِيعَ انتضَى عَضْباً خَذِمْ
As though it were a drunken man trailing his train,
As if it is the waving of a tail by an angry lion,
So whenever startled, he unsheathed a keen, cleaving sword.
So whenever it roared it ignited rage and resentment.
حتى إذا الرَّعدُ انبرَتْ ألسُنُه
كأنما يَخلِطُ لَحْناً بكَلِمْ
Until, when thunder's tongues broke forth,
Until when the thunder sounded its tongues,
As though mingling melody with words,
As if mixing tunes with speech.
فاطَّرَدَ الماءُ على أرجائِه
ونارُه من كلِّ أفقٍ تَضطَرِمُ
Then water streamed across its reaches,
So the rain poured upon its edges,
And its fire blazed from every horizon.
And its fire blazed from every horizon.
Sol 6.1