أحَيا وَأَيسَرُ ما قاسَيتُ ما قَتَلا
وَالبَينُ جارَ عَلى ضَعفي وَما عَدَلا
The easiest and happiest of what I endured was that which killed me,
Am I alive? For the easiest of my sufferings is fatal, / And separation has oppressed my weakness with no justice.
And separation has been unfair to my weakness, not just.
Passion grows mighty as the distance between us grows, / While patience wastes away within my frame as my body wastes.
وَالوَجدُ يَقوى كَما تَقوى النَوى أَبَداً
وَالصَبرُ يَنحَلُ في جِسمي كَما نَحِلا
Yearning strengthens forever, like the strength of will,
It is only through the parting of loved ones / That fatal dooms find pathways to our souls.
And patience dissolves in my body like beeswax.
By the magic within your eyelids, grant union to a suffering soul / Who desires life—yet if you turn away, desires it not.
وَلا مُفارَقَةُ الأَحبابِ ما وَجَدَت
لَها المَنايا إِلى أَرواحِنا سُبُلا
The parting from loved ones that I experienced
Though his hair be not gray, his very heart has aged within him, / A whiteness that would not fade even if dyed by solace.
Death found ways to our souls.
He is driven mad with longing; were it not for a scent / That visits him upon the eastern breeze, he would lose his reason.
بِما بِجَفنَيكِ مِن سِحرٍ صِلي دَنِفاً
يَهوى الحَياةَ وَأَمّا إِن صَدَدتِ فَلا
With the magic in your eyelids, pray gently
Behold! Look upon me or imagine my state to see such burning / That he who has not tasted a fragment of it has truly escaped.
To the one who desires life, but if you are stern, then not.
Perhaps the Prince will see my abasement and intercede for me / With her who has left me as a cautionary tale of love.
إِلّا يَشِب فَلَقَد شابَت لَهُ كَبِدٌ
شَيباً إِذا خَضَّبَتهُ سَلوَةٌ نَصَلا
Aside from growing white hair, for it has indeed turned white,
I became certain that Sa'id was seeking my blood / When I beheld him gripping his spear in readiness.
When dyed by the droplets of spears.
I cannot number the virtues of his noble father, / And attempting to describe him is harder than reaching Saturn.
يُجَنُّ شَوقاً فَلَولا أَنَّ رائِحَةً
تَزورُهُ في رِياحِ الشَرقِ ما عَقَلا
He goes mad with longing, and were it not for
A chieftain whose abode is Manbij, yet his bounty roams / The horizons, seeking out those who have asked of others.
A breeze that visits him from eastern winds, he would not be rational.
The full moon of the dark night shines upon his brow, / Yet he wields death itself when he charges into the fray.
ها فَاِنظُري أَو فَظُنّي بي تَرى حُرَقاً
مَن لَم يَذُق طَرَفاً مِنها فَقَد وَأَلا
So look, or suspect me, you will see burning
The dust of his march is kohl for the eyes of Kilab, / And against Janab, his sword strikes before blame can be cast.
One who has not tasted a bit of it has missed out and perished.
His light has pierced a path in the heaven of glory; / Were thought to ascend it forever, it would never descend.
عَلَّ الأَميرَ يَرى ذُلّي فَيَشفَعَ لي
إِلى الَّتي تَرَكَتني في الهَوى مَثَلا
I wished the prince would see my humility and intercede for me
He is the Prince by whose hand the tribe of Tamim perished of old, / When he drove their fated destruction straight toward them.
To her who left me as an example in love.
When they saw him approach with the steeds of victory, / In a war unforgiving, they surrendered their very dwellings.
أَيقَنتُ أَنَّ سَعيداً طالِبٌ بِدَمي
لَمّا بَصُرتُ بِهِ بِالرُمحِ مُعتَقِلا
I was certain that Sa’eed was seeking my blood
The earth became so narrow that their fleeing fugitive, / Upon seeing a shadow of nothing, would mistake it for a man.
When I saw him clutch his spear.
Since that day, were cavalry to gallop / Through the sensitive throat of a child, he would not even cough.
وَأَنَّني غَيرُ مُحصٍ فَضلَ والِدِهِ
وَنائِلٌ دونَ نَيلي وَصفَهُ زُحَلا
And that I am not safe from the excellence of his father,
You left those you encountered as carrion for the birds, / And slew those you did not meet with the sheer force of terror.
While he attains without attaining as fate has ordained.
How many a perilous wasteland, where the guide’s heart beat / Like the heart of a lover, consumed me after long delay.
قَيلٌ بِمَنبِجَ مَثواهُ وَنائِلُهُ
في الأُفقِ يَسأَلُ عَمَّن غَيرَهُ سَأَلا
It is said his dwelling is Manbij, and his attainment
In its wilderness, I bound my gaze to the guiding stars, / And exposed my noble face to the sun’s heat when they set.
In the horizon, asking about others, has asked.
I wedded its silent pebbles to the hoof-pads of a she-camel / That charged blindly with me toward you, over plain and mountain.
يَلوحُ بَدرُ الدُجى في صَحنِ غُرَّتِهِ
وَيَحمِلُ المَوتُ في الهَيجاءِ إِن حَمَلا
The full moon of nighttime shines in the basin of darkness,
Had you been within my shirt as I rode upon her saddle, / You would have heard the clamor of Jinn in those desolate valleys.
And death carries in tumult, if it carries at all.
Until I arrived with a soul that had mostly perished— / Would that I might live on with the fragment that remains!
تُرابُهُ في كِلابٍ كُحلُ أَعيُنِها
وَسَيفُهُ في جَنابٍ يَسبِقُ العَذَلا
His dust is in bay horses, kohl to their eyes,
I hope for your bounty and fear no delay in its coming, / O you who, were he to gift the whole world, would still be deemed a miser.
And his sword in his sheath precedes responding to the slain.
لِنورِهِ في سَماءِ الفَخرِ مُختَرَقٌ
لَو صاعَدَ الفِكرُ فيهِ الدَهرَ ما نَزَلا
For his light in the sky of pride has pierced through,
If thought rose in it for eternity, it would not descend.
هُوَ الأَميرُ الَّذي بادَت تَميمُ بِهِ
قِدماً وَساقَ إِلَيها حَينُها الأَجَلا
He is the prince by whom Tameem1 perished,
When time led it to him, foot and leg.
لَمّا رَأَتهُ وَخَيلُ النَصرِ مُقبِلَةً
وَالحَربُ غَيرُ عَوانٍ أَسلَموا الحِلَلا
When it saw him and the horses of victory approaching,
And war without helpers, they submitted their swords.
وَضاقَتِ الأَرضُ حَتّى كانَ هارِبُهُم
إِذا رَأى غَيرَ شَيءٍ ظَنَّهُ رَجُلا
The land narrowed until their fugitive,
If he saw anything other than a man, thought it was a man.
فَبَعدَهُ وَإِلى ذا اليَومِ لَو رَكَضَت
بِالخَيلِ في لَهَواتِ الطِفلِ ما سَعَلا
So after him, and to this day, if the horses raced
Playfully like a child’s, they would not overexert themselves.
فَقَد تَرَكتَ الأُلى لاقَيتُهُم جَزَراً
وَقَد قَتَلتَ الأُلى لَم تَلقَهُم وَجَلا
You left the fortresses, I met them as bridges,
And you killed the fortresses, you did not meet them diffident.
كَم مَهمَهٍ قَذَفٍ قَلبُ الدَليلِ بِهِ
قَلبُ المُحِبِّ قَضاني بَعدَما مَطَلا
How many concerns the guide’s heart has harbored,
That have split the lover’s heart after procrastinating.
عَقَدتُ بِالنَجمِ طَرفي في مَفاوِزِهِ
وَحُرَّ وَجهي بِحَرِّ الشَمسِ إِذ أَفَلا
I shackled my eyelids to the stars in their deserts,
And my face blushed from the heat of the sun when it set.
أَنكَحتُ صُمَّ حَصاها خُفَّ يَعمَلَةٍ
تَغَشمَرَت بي إِلَيكَ السَهلَ وَالجَبَلا
I married deaf steps whose anklets
Rumbled over me the plains and mountains to you.
لَو كُنتَ حَشوَ قَميصي فَوقَ نُمرُقِها
سَمِعتَ لِلجِنِّ في غيطانِها زَجَلا
If you were the stuffing of my shirt above its patches,
You would have heard the jinn wailing in their singing.
حَتّى وَصَلتُ بِنَفسٍ ماتَ أَكثَرُها
وَلَيتَني عِشتُ مِنها بِالَّذي فَضَلا
Until I reached with a soul most of which had died,
And would that I had lived on that which remained.
أَرجو نَداكَ وَلا أَخشى المِطالَ بِهِ
يا مَن إِذا وَهَبَ الدُنيا فَقَد بَخِلا
I wish for your help, and do not fear requesting it,
Oh you, who when you grant the world you are still stingy!
