أين تريد يا مثيرَ الظُّعُنِ

أوطنٌ من رامةٍ بوطنِ

Where do you want to go, O stirrer of troubles,

A homeland better than Ramah in a homeland?

حبسا ولو زادك من مضمضةٍ

بَينَ الغِرارِ خائفا والوسنِ

Even if being imprisoned increased your rinsing

Fearfully between the gullies and the spearheads.

لعلَّها أن تشتفي بائحةً

بالعبراتِ أعينٌ من أعينِ

Perhaps it will be soothed by the lament

Of eyes from eyes with tears.

كم كبدٍ كريمةٍ في بُرةٍ

خزَمتَها ومهجةٍ في رسَنِ

How many noble livers in innocence

You wounded, and protected souls in bodies.

ومن دمٍ تخوضه بلا دمٍ

على ثنايا البين أيدي البُدُنِ

And from blood you wade without blood

On the folds of separation the hands of bodies.

قد ضمِنَ البارحُ عنهم فوفَى

ما ساءني إذ مرَّ غيرَ أيمَنِ

Yesterday evening brought what saddened me

When one other than Ayman passed.

وماظننتُ الطيرَ وهي بهُمٌ

على مواقيت الردى تدُلُّني

And I did not expect the birds, while they were worried,

To guide me to the times of perdition.

ونَفحَةٌ من الهوى تلُفُّنا

يومَ الوَداع غُصُنا بغُصُنِ

And a waft of passion twists us

On the day of farewell, a branch with a branch.

يا قاتَلَ اللهُ العُذَيبَ موقفا

على ثبوت قدمي أزلَّني

O may God destroy the shameful stance

That made my standing feet stumble.

وسرَّ حيّاً بالغضا إن سرَّهم

ذلُّ وقوفي بعدَهم في الدِّمَنِ

And he happily bid farewell while being dejected

My standing after them in the settlement saddened me.

فقيَّلوا ظِلالَ كلّ روضةٍ

وهجَّروا بي للجوى والحزَنِ

So they went into the shade of every garden

And deserted me to the hot wind and sorrow.

وما عليهم ولتذكارهُمِ

عفوُ الصَّبا وصفوُ ماء المزُنِ

And I do not blame them, but their memory

Is the pardon of the zephyr and the taste of sprinkled water.

لو أسأروا من جسدي بقيّةً

بذكرِ آثارهمُ تُنهِضُني

If they had left in my body a remnant

With the mention of their marks to invigorate me.

لقد أساءوا الملك لما ملكوا

قلبي فهلَّا أحسنوا في بدَني

They did wrong when they possessed

My heart, so why did they not do good to my body?

طاللتُ من رامةَ أشرافَ اللوى

لنظرةٍ لعلّها تَصدُقني

I languished from Ramah the best of passions

For a look that may believe me.

فما رفعتُ والمنى شعشعة

إلا على ليتيَ أو لو أنني

So I did not raise, and the wishes sparkled,

Except for my if only or if only I were.

يا زمني بالخَيفِ بل يا جيرتي

فيه وأين جيرتي وزمني

O my time of fear, rather O my neighbor

In it, and where is my neighbor and my time?

ليت الذي كان وطار شَعَثا

به الفراقُ بيننا لم يكنِ

I wish what was and flew raggedly

With it the separation between us had not happened.

أوليت ما باعد من أحبّتي

من الكرام إخوتي قرّبني

Or if only what distanced

My loved ones, my noble brothers, brought me closer.

مَن حاملٌ عنِّي تمطَّتْ تحته

وافيةُ الذَّرع رحيبُ العطَنِ

Who will carry for me, trotting under it

The perfect fulfillment, vast generosity?

طاويةٌ ما أبصرتْ وسمِعتْ

فالأرضُ بين عينِها والأذُنِ

Covering what it did not see or hear

So the land between its eye and ear.

ترى المراحَ والنجاءَ ما سرت

شخصيْنِ بين عَجْبِها والذَّقَنِ

It sees the places of rest and the saved

Two personalities between its wonder and beard.

تُعطي الطريقَ عفوَها وجهدَها

حتى تعود مُضغةً ولا تني

It gives the road its pardon and effort

Until it returns chewed up and does not complain.

لا تتقي الأرض بساقٍ منتقىً

ولا تشكَّى لذراعٍ يفَنِ

It does not fear the land with a careful foot

Nor complain of an arm that withers.

بزلاءُ عاميْن فإن أثرتَها

فثورةُ الغِرِّ وقمصاتُ الثَّني

With the ignorance of two years, so if you rouse it

The rebellion of pride and the folds of bending.

كأنما راكبُها تهفو به

طائرةً أمُّ فراخِ الوُكُنِ

It is as if its rider makes it float with him

Flying, or mother of the chicks of the nest.

قل للعميدِ ووصلتَ غانما

شكوى حنينٍ وحدِيثَ شجنِ

Say to the chief when you arrive safe

The complaint of longing and talk of sadness.

علَّ الذي استرهنتَني بحبّه

ثمّ نأى عنّيَ أن يفكَّني

For he who mortgaged me with his love

Then shunned me, to release me.

ملَكتَني بالودِّ فوهبتَني

للشوق ألّا قبل أن تملِكني

You possessed me with affection, so you gifted me

To longing, without possessing me first.

أَعجَبُ من ليني وأنتَ معرضٌ

عني ولو قلبُك لي لم ألِنِ

I am astonished at my softness while you turn

Away from me, even if your heart is soft to me.

كم الجفاء لا أجازيكم به

والصدُّ والوجدُ بكم يعطِفُني

How much estrangement that I do not repay you with

While the rejection and pain inclines me to you.

وكم تبيتون طُروحَ الشكّ في

ودّكمُ ورجمِ سوءِ الظِّننِ

And how much you spend the night covered in doubt

In your love, and the stoning of bad thoughts.

دعوَى هوىً كأننا لم نفترق

وغفلةٌ كأنما لم ترَني

Claiming love as if we did not separate

And heedlessness as if you did not see me.

هبِ النوى مدَّت لنا أقرانَها

فما لأيدينا وفتلِ القَرَنِ

The intents offered their reins to us

So why do our hands loosen the knot?

وحَكَم الزمانُ بافتراقنا

فما لنا نعينُ صَرفَ الزمنِ

And time has ruled our separation

So why do we try to change time?

أشكو إليك مهجةً عَلوقةً

تودَّ لو تُودي ولمَّا تخنِ

I complain to you of an intimate liver

That wishes it could be intimate but does not become intimate.

وكبِدا متى أَسُمْها سَلوةً

عنك تَنَزَّى ناشزا وتزبُنِ

And a liver, whenever I call it intimate,

Keeps away from you, revolting and buzzing.

وعادة من الوفاء خيرُها

لمخبري وشرُّها لبدني

And a habit of loyalty, its best

For my conscience, and its worst for my body.

تعلِقُني في حبلِ من أضاعني

عَلْقتَها في حبل من يحفظني

It ties me to the rope of one who lost me

You tied it to the rope of one who will protect me.

فكيف ترضى والعلا دينُك أن

أهواك في المجدِ ولا تسعِدني

So how can you accept, and high morals are your religion,

That I love you in glory and you do not make me happy?

ذاك وقد قبلتَ من سريرتي

في الودِّ خيرَ ما ترى في العلَنِ

That, when you accepted the best of what you saw

In my affection, in secret from my conscience.

وأنك استظهرتَ مِنّي بيدٍ

لم تؤتَ من ضعفٍ ولا من وهنِ

And that you gained support from me with a hand

You were not given from weakness or from flimsiness.

قلتُ لدهري وهو قد نيَّبَ لي

رُقَى العميدِ دون أن تنهشني

I said to my time, and it scolded me

To ascend to the chief without you eroding me.

أروع بعتُ الناسَ والدنيا به

فما صفَقتُ في يمين الغَبَنِ

I amazed people and life with him

So I did not clap my hands in pleasure of deceit.

وملتُ في الراجح من ميزانه

على الورى إذ قلتُ للفضل زِنِ

And I inclined in the heavier of his balance scale

Above people when I said to virtue, weigh!

وكنتُ باللُّمعةِ من تجريبهِ

على يقين المستمرِّ المدمنِ

And I was, with the glimmer of testing him,

Certain of the lasting, regular certainty.

فاجتمعتْ معي على توحيده

شتَّى القلوبِ وفُروقُ الألسنِ

So different hearts and variations of tongues

Gathered with me upon his uniqueness.

وإن جفا بوصله فقد وفَى

بماله وفاءَ عَدلٍ محسنِ

And if he cuts off with his connection, then he has fulfilled

With his money, the fairness of a benefactor.

وقام والأيامُ ينتشِلْنني

فكان لي حَصْداءَ أمَّ الجُنَنِ

And he stood while the days try to save me

So he was for me, a barn at the mother of insanity.

وطالَعَ الخَلَّةَ حتى سدَّها

وافٍ من الجود بما لم يضمَنِ

And he reached opportunities until he blocked them

With fairness from generosity that he did not guarantee.

محكِّمٌ في ماله أمرَ الندى

بما قضى من معوزٍ أو ممكنِ

An arbiter in his money, he commanded the call of light

However he judged, from the poor or the able.

مكارمٌ محسوبةٌ أرقُبُها

وفاجئاتٌ بغتةً تبدَهُني

Noble qualities I monitor them

And sudden surprises that make me stare.

لم يلتحمْ بِعذرةٍ معروفُها

ولا أتت مكدودةً بالمننِ

His favors were not mixed with an excuse their people know

Nor did they come, brought low with favors.

غريبةٌ حازَ بها فرضَ الندى

سبْقاً إلى أنفاله والسُّنَنِ

Strange, with it he won the duty of the call of light

Preceding its spoils and traditions.

ولم يكن كمبرقينَ غُرِّرتْ

منهم رجالٌ ببناتِ الدِّمنِ

And he was not like those who deceived

Some men with the daughters of the settlements.

أرسلتُه سَجْلا إلى غُدرانهم

فأيبسوا وفاضَ حتى بَلَّني

I sent him barefaced to their treachery

So they withered while it overflowed until it reached me.

تُشبُّ نيرانُهمُ لا للقِرى

بل شَرَهاً إلى انتشاق الدَّخَنِ

Their fires spark not to burn the villages

But only to spread the smoke.

لا ينزلُ الضيفُ وإن تموَّلوا

بمتمِرٍ منهم ولا بمُلبِنِ

The guest does not alight, even if they pretend

Generosity, from them, nor with curdled milk.

لهم من الأعراب كلُّ ما ادّعوا

غيرَ الوفاء والندى واللَّسَنِ

They have from the Bedouins all that they claim

Other than loyalty, light, and wit.

لا شرَفٌ في مُضرٍ يجذِبُهم

إلى العلا ولا نُهىً في اليمنِ

There is no honor in Mudar that attracts them

To the heights, nor prohibition in Yemen.

لا رقّةُ البَدوِ جَنتْ إخلافَهم

لِمدَحي ولا حُلومُ المدُنِ

Neither the Bedouin's tenderness brought about their betrayal

Of my praise, nor the sweetness of the cities.

أهنتُ في أبياتهم كرائما

لو أُنكحتْ أكفاءَها لم تَهُنِ

I disgraced in their verses nobilities

That if married to their equals would not be disgraced.

تقلّدوا منها عقودَ حمدهم

وهي على أجيادهم تذمُّني

They wore from it necklaces of their praise

While it, on their steeds, dispraised me.

إذا استُضيمتْ صاح بي ذليلُها

ألم تكن يا أبتي تُعِزّني

If it was mistreated, its lowly one yelled at me

"Did you not, my father, honor me?"

أذلتَني في أنفس مغمورةٍ

وأوجهٍ حُمسٍ وأيدٍ خُشُنِ

You humiliated me among lowly souls

And grim faces, coarse hands, and rough fingers.

فمن لها منّي وإن عقَّت أباً

بناتُهُ فالحقُّ أن تعُقَّني

So who does it have against me, even if it blames

A father whose daughters blame me?

إلا فتاةً بينهنّ حظِيتْ

عند العميد بالأريب الفَطنِ

Except for a girl among them who enjoyed

Distinction with the chief, wise and cunning.

صرنا إلى ضنكٍ وصارت وحدَها

إلى مَراحٍ ما اشتهتْ ودَدَنِ

We came to hardship and she alone came

To places of rest she wished for and wanted.

وولدَتْ من جُوده أياديا

شرطَ المنى وقُرّةً للأعينِ

And she gave birth by his generosity to hands

That fulfill wishes and delight the eyes.

في كلِّ يومٍ قادمٍ يَصبِحُني

به بشيرُ الخير أو يغبِقُني

Every coming day, the giver of glad tidings awakens me

With it, or the gloom overwhelms me.

ما ضرَّني منهم أصمُّ لَحِزٌ

وأنت من كسورهم تجبرُني

No loss from them harmed me, I am deaf to sorrow,

While you from their fragments have healed me.

كنتَ إليهم سُلَّما فقعدوا

فهدَموا المجد وقمتَ تبتني

You were a ladder to them, so they sat

And they destroyed glory while you stand accusing me.

فمن رأى قبلَ صداي شفةً

جفَّ القَليبُ فارتوت بالشَّطَنِ

So who before saw my companions a lip

That dries the heart and is watered with yearning?

فغمرتنا ولأعراضِهمُ

ما ساءها في فالقٍ ومدجِنٍ

So we were flooded for their denial

With what saddened it, in separation and estrangement.

كلُّ مُشِيهٍ للوجوهِ فاضح

للذكر في شِراده والعطنِ

Every walker to the faces disgraced

Remembrance by his hosted wanderings and twistings.

وعندك المرصوع من حُليِّهِ

والمصطفَى من سرّه المكتمنِ

And you have the studded of his jewelry

And the elite of his secret, treasured.

والسارياتُ بعلاك ما انتهتْ

بوعُ المهارى وقلوعُ السفُنِ

And the ships reaching your heights did not cease

With the skill of the skilled and the maneuvers of ships.

لا تأتلي تحفِرُ عن كنزٍ لها

تُنفِقُ منه عاجلا وتَقتَني

Do not worry, digging for a treasure for it

To spend from immediately, and store.