ما هاجتِ الذكرى شجونَ شبابي
إلا أمام شبابكَ المتصابي
Memories did not stir my youthful yearnings
Except before your blooming youth.
يا حاملاً همَّ الهوى وعذابه
لا ذُقتَ همي في الهوى وعذابي
O you who carry the concerns of passion and its torment!
You have not tasted my passion and its agony.
لكَ عبرةٌ بي لو فقهت صبابتي
ودرستَ في عهدِ الغرام كتابي
If only you understood my youth,
And studied the book of love in the days of infatuation!
هو شرُّ ما كتبَ الشبابُ وخيرُ ما
يلقيه أستاذٌ على طلاب
It is the worst that youth has written, and the best
That a teacher imposes on his students.
هو روعةُ الأهواءِ في سكراتها
وقرارةُ الاهوالِ في الألباب
It is the intoxication of passions in their tipsiness,
And the bitterness of terrors in minds.
هو معرِضُ الشيطانِ شيطان الهوى
لغضاضةٍ ومضاضةٍ وتباب
It is the devil's turning away from the devil of love
Out of disgust, annoyance, and fatigue.
ألقيت فيه شواردي غصصاً على
غصصٍ واوصاباً على أوصابِ
Into it I cast my thoughts helter-skelter
Upon helter-skelter, and knots upon knots.
زفراتُ صدرٍ لو بثثت بها إلى
فلك الدجى أطفأتُ كل شهاب
The sighs of a breast which, had I uttered into
The night sky, would have extinguished every star.
ولو ان ليلى انشدت مجنونها
شعري لثاب إلى هدىً وصوابِ
Had I recited my poetry to Layla's Madman,
He would have returned to reason and propriety.
ولكان يُعرضُ عن هواها خائفاً
أن يبتلى منه بمثل مصابي
He would have turned away from his passion, fearing
To be afflicted with the likes of my torment.
قد ذاقَ قيسٌ من هواه صبابةً
وشربتُ اكواباً على أكوابِ
Qays tasted some sweetness in his love,
While I drank cups after cups of bitterness.
من قاس ما لاقيتُ من وجدٍ بما
لاقاه قاس جهنماً بثقابِ
Whoever compares what I have suffered of anguish
To what Qays suffered, has likened Hell to a firebrand.
لا العقلُ يُعدَلُ بالجنونِ ولا ابنةُ
السلطانِ تُعدَلُ بابنةِ الحطّاب
Neither can sanity be compared to madness,
Nor the sultan's daughter to the baker's daughter.
والهولُ أرهبه إذا لاقيته
وسراجُ ذهنكَ مشعلٌ لا خابِ
Horror is most terrifying when you meet it
While the lamp of your mind is shining bright.
وذِمارُ ليلى لم يكن كذِمارِ فا
تنتي تحفُّ به أسودُ الغاب
Layla's lovely voice was nothing like the lovely voice
Of a Fatina adorned with the blackest of forests.
كانت ثريا بنتَ أكرم عِترةٍ
موصولةَ الأنساب بالاحساب
She was Thurya, daughter of the most honorable lineage,
With pure ancestry and noble roots.
مقصورةً في خِدرها ولها أبٌ
عالي المُقام معظَّمُ الألقابِ
Secluded in her tent, her father
Was of high station and honored titles.
حسناءُ في شرخ الصبا وانا فتىً
يتلَّقطُ الغفلاتِ بالأهداب
A beauty in the prime of youth, while I was a lad
Who gathered distractions with eyelids.
فُتنت بشعري وافتتنتُ بحسنها
فأتى الهوى عفواً بغير حساب
She was infatuated with my poetry and I with her beauty,
So love came to us unbidden and unaccounted for.
ما كنتُ أحلمُ أن أرى وجهَ الثريا
هابطاً متعفراً بترابي
I did not dream I would one day see Thurya's face
Coming down to me covered in my dust.
ما كنتُ احلم في الكرى ان نلتقي
متساقيين رُضابها ورضابي
I did not dream that in Destiny we would meet
Quenching each other′s thirst and each other′s passion.
حتى أتاني في الظلام رسولها
فذهبتُ غيرَ مؤمّلٍ باياب
Until her messenger came to me in the dark,
And I left without hoping to return.
ولقد تلاقينا ولم يكُ سامعٌ
غيرَ الظلام خطابها وجوابي
We met with none but the darkness hearing
Her words and my replies.
قالت وربك ان شعرك قد سبى
قلبي وجاءَ به اليكَ السابي
She said, “By your Lord, your poetry has captivated
My heart, brought by you, its captor.”
إِن كنتَ براً بالسبيّ جعلتَني
وحدي عروس قريضك الصياب
“If you are righteous towards your captive, you have made
Me alone the bride of your talent in verse.”
فأجبتها وهواكِ وهو أليتي
وقفٌ عليكِ قريحتي وشبابي
So I answered her, “It is your love that is my inspiration,
My talent and youth are devoted to you.”
وتصرمت حججٌ ثلاثٌ والهوى
ما بيننا متعاقدُ الأسبابِ
Three arguments ensued, while love between us
Was tying up causes.
لاقيت من اهواله ما يردِع الطا
غي ويكسرُ شرَّةَ الوثابِ
I suffered horrors from it that would make the resolute
Shudder and break the firmness of the darting.
لو شاهد العبسيُّ بعض مواقفي
لروى لعبلاهُ حديثَ عجاب
If al-ʿUbsi had witnessed some of my tribulations,
He would have recounted to ʿAblah an amazing tale.
ولهاب عنترةٌ مخاطر كنت اغش
اها بقلبٍ ليس بالهباب
ʿAntara would have been wary of risks I undertook
Fearlessly with a heart devoid of cowardice.
إني بليت بفتيةٍ من قومها
لا يلتقون الناس غيرَ غضاب
I was afflicted by some of her kinsmen
Who spar with none but adversaries.
كم صادفوني في السبيل وانذر
وني بالمنون واغرقوا بسبايي
How often they crossed my path and threatened me
With death, and inundated me with their flood.
كم ليلة تحت الغمامِ سهرتها
وعيونهم حولي عيونُ ذئاب
How many nights under the clouds I stayed awake
With their eyes around me like the eyes of wolves.
وكم اقفتوا أثري إلى أبوابها
فرجعتُ مرجوماً عن الأبواب
How often they traced me to her doors,
So I returned repelled from the doors.
ما كنت أظفر مرةً بوصالها
إلا ودسُّ الموتِ تحت ثيابي
I never attained union with her
Without the garment of death touching my clothes.
وتبيت واجدةً واعلم ما بها
وابيتُ ملتاعاً وتعلم ما بي
I would spend the night passionate, knowing what ailed her,
And spend the night distraught, and she knew what ailed me.
حججٌ ثلاثٌ ما قضيت دقيقةً
منها خليَّ البالِ في محرابي
Three arguments - I did not spend a moment of them
With a mind free in devotion.
قطعتها متهتكاً بقصائدي
حتى خلعتُ على الهوى آدابي
I severed them heedlessly with my poems
Until I cast off all propriety for love.
ووضعت قدري واستبحت محرَّ
ماتِ الدين من سُكرٍ ومن ألعاب
I undermined my worth and deemed lawful
The sacrosanct passions for drunkenness and frivolity.
ذا ما جناه عليَّ شعري ليتني
لثَّمتُ وجهَ قريحتي بنقاب
This is what my poetry brought upon me. Would that
I had sealed my talent's mouth with a veil!
أما ثريا فاستقلَّ بامرها
كهلٌ كثير المالِ والاعتابِ
As for Thurya, she was married off
To an elderly man of wealth and prestige.
لم ترضه بعلاً لها إلا واهلوها
كماةُ خناجرٍ وحراب
She did not accept a husband but they married her off
Like a bundle of daggers and swords.
هي مهجتي عابت وطال غيابها
عني فطالَ عن الحياة غيابي
She is my entrails, but she disavowed me, and her long
Absence from me meant my long absence from life.
أنا ذلك الميتُ الذي يعظ الش
بابَ بشعره حياً على الأحقابِ
I am that dead man who preaches to the youth
With his poetry, alive through the ages.
وانا الذي ديوانه كأس اللظى
قد تُوجت من جمره بحبابِ
I am he whose book is like a cup of agony
Crowned by its embers with bubbles.
يا حاملين على الصبا آمالكم
هي عبءُ اوهامٍ على كذابِ
O you who carry your hopes in youth!
It is a burden of delusions upon a liar.
لا شارعٌ منكم على ماءِ ولا
كان الصبا في العمرِ غير سراب
None of you has a way to water, nor was youth
In life anything but a mirage.
لذاته تلد المصائب للفتى
ومتى ولدن مررنَ مرَّ سحاب
By its nature it begets afflictions for the lad,
And when they beget, they pass like clouds.
كأسٌ تذوق الشهدَ منها طافياً
أما قرارتُها فمرُّ الصاب
A cup whose surface you taste honey in,
While its dregs are bitter aloes.
من يقضِ في تعب الغرام شبابه
شدَّ المشيبُ عليه بالاتعاب
Whoever spends his youth in love's fatigue,
Old age yokes him with hardships.
