نوب تجد وبعدها نوب
وتظن أن صروفها لعب
Turns come upon you, and after them other turns;
and you think their reversals are only a game.
لا تعتبنَّ على الزمان وقد
أردى عداك اللوم والعتب
Do not reproach time, when already
blame and reproach have laid your enemies low.
كم ذا يضعضع أخشباً ونرى
متسندين كأننا خشب
How often it shakes a rugged mountain, while we see
men leaning upright as though they were timber,
حتى إذا اغتالت حوادثه
ندباً لدى اللاواء ينتدب
until, when its accidents treacherously snatch away
a noble man who rises to answer hardship’s call—
هو حجة الإسلام من نشرت
فوق المنابر باسمه الخطب
he is the Proof of Islam, he in whose name
sermons were proclaimed from the pulpits—
فليبكه الإسلام منصدعاً
بجفون ثكلى دمعها صبب
then let Islam weep for him, shattered,
with bereaved eyelids pouring tears.
من للمدارس بعده فلقد
أمست بها تتناوب النوب
Who will tend the schools after him? For now
calamities take turns upon them.
ذهب الذي تزهو العلو به
فامتاز عما دونهُ الذهب
Gone is the man in whom high station used to glory,
as gold stands apart from all beneath it.
قل للرياسة بععده احتجبي
فلقد تساوى الرأس والذنب
Tell primacy to veil itself after him:
head and tail have now become equal.
لم يلف ندٌّ في الزمان لهُ
ما كل دوح طلعه عنب
No peer to him was ever found in time;
not every great tree bears grapes.
ميت له العلياء نادبة
دون الورى والمجد ينتحب
He died—with high glory mourning him
above all mankind, and majesty sobbing.
أحيي عليه الليل مضطرباً
ولحزنه القلب مضطرب
I keep the night awake for him, distraught,
my heart convulsed with grief for him.
لم يجر ذكر حديثه بفمي
إلا انثنيت ومدمعي سرب
No mention of his discourse crosses my lips
but I bend over, my tears streaming in torrents.
عجباً أقام بمدجن حرج
صدر لهُ سع التقى رحب
Strange that he should dwell in a cramped enclosure,
when his breast, spacious with piety, was so broad.
ويبيت يفترش الثرى ترباً
يا ليت خدي دونه ترب
He spends the night with bare earth for bedding—dust;
would that my cheek were dust beneath him.
وذوي بطي رمال جندلها
غصن يلاعبه الصبا رطب
And folded beneath the sands around his gravestone lies
a fresh bough the east wind once played with.
بكل يوم ظفر نائبة
في مهجة العلياء ينتشب
Each day the claw of some calamity
sinks into the very heart of high nobility.
سلبت رقادي نكبة شرعت
تندق منها الشرَّع السلب
A calamity has robbed me of sleep—a blow beneath which
the lofty and unyielding are crushed.
طرقت تجر كتيبة ضربت
فوق الضراح لنقعها قبب
It came by night, trailing an army that pitched
domes of its dust above the celestial heights:
جرّارة خرس زماجرها
ينهار منها الفيلق اللجب
a massive host whose would-be restrainer was struck dumb;
before it, the clamorous legion collapses.
حطمت ظهور المجد وانعثت
كالسيف ملء بطونها كرب
It broke the backs of glory and surged forth,
like a sword whose hollow is filled with sorrows.
قم بي نعزي من بني مضر
حبراً له بحر العلوم أب
Rise with me: let us console one of Banū Muḍar,
a learned sage whose father was an ocean of knowledge;
علامة الدنيا العلي ومن
نطقت بفيصل حكمه الكتب
the exalted savant of the world, he whose
books pronounced the decisive word of his judgment.
لسِنٌ متى هدرت شقاشقه
غبطت سنان لسانه القضب
Eloquent—whenever his oratory thundered,
pliant spears envied the point of his tongue.
أضحت تزاحم تحت منبره
غلب تكدس فوقها غلب
Beneath his pulpit there came jostling
crowds piled densely upon crowds.
يمضي الأمور بفاتك ذرب
وكذاك يمضي الفاتك الذرب
He dispatched affairs with a deadly, keen edge,
just as the deadly, keen blade cuts through.
يسطو على الجلى فيقعدها
بأساً بسطوة باسل يثب
He sprang upon momentous matters and subdued them
with the force of a valiant lion’s leap.
طود رسا في يعرب فغدت
تأوي إليه العجم والعرب
A mountain stood rooted in the land of the Arabs, and so
non-Arabs and Arabs alike took refuge in him.
شمخت إلى الشرف الأشم به
شم المعاطس معشر نجب
Through him, toward honor most lofty, rose
a noble band, proud in bearing.
يتهللون باوجهٍ شرقت
لولا رضا الرحمن ما غضبوا
They beam with radiant faces;
they grow angry only for the Merciful’s good pleasure.
تلقى الأماني البيض أن نزلوا
وترى المنايا السود أن ركبوا
White hopes meet you when they dismount,
and black deaths appear when they mount.
لا الجود نزر من أكفهم
يلفي ولا المعروف يحتسب
Generosity is never scant in their hands,
nor is any good deed of theirs kept to account.
إن طاولوا طالوا بمجدهم
أو غالبوا بنوالهم غلبوا
If others vie in height, they surpass them through glory;
if challenged, they prevail through largesse.
يتذاكرون بكل منقبةٍ
حتى إذا ذكر الندى طربوا
They recount every noble quality,
until generosity is named—and then they thrill.
طلبوا بجدهم العلوم وقد
نالوا لعمري فوق ما طلبوا
They pursued the sciences with earnest purpose, and
by my life, attained more than they had sought.
ضربوا بمدرجة العلى قبباً
أطنابها المعروف والأرب
They pitched domes along the rising road of eminence,
their guy ropes beneficence and sound judgment.
سارت بأفق سمائها شهب
عثرت بلمع سنائها الشهب
Meteors crossed the horizon of their sky;
the very meteors stumbled at the flash of their splendor.
يا ابن الأولى لبس الزمان بهم
أبراد عزٍّ كلها قشب
O son of those through whom time donned
robes of glory, each one fresh and new:
إن غاب بدر عنك محتجب
وافاك بدر ليس يحتجب
if one full moon has vanished from you, veiled,
another full moon has come to you, never to be veiled.
فلك السلو بجعفر وله
فيك السلو عدا كما النصب
For you, in Jaʿfar, there is solace; and for him,
in you is solace—may sorrow pass you both by.
وسقى من الغفران حيث سقى
مثوى النقي العارض السكب
May forgiveness water the place where he lies,
the pure one’s resting place, with a pouring rain cloud.
غنّى النسيم بروضة فثنى
عطفاً عليه المندل الرطب
The breeze sang in a garden, and bent
the dew-fresh sandalwood bough tenderly over him.
