شاقَ الحمامَ برامتين فغردا
جيدُ القضيب يزينهُ عقد النّدى
The doves at Rāmatayn were stirred to longing and sang,
The pigeons cooed on the roof ridge twice and sang,
by the bough's neck, adorned with a necklace of dew.
The smooth stick adorned with dew beads.
هزَّت معاطفهُ تحياتُ الصّبا
كالقدِ جاذبهُ الصّبا فتأودوا
The east wind's greetings swayed its limbs;
His garments fluttered with the morning breeze's greetings,
like a slender figure tugged by youthful ardor, they swayed.
Attracting them like a thread attracts the morning breeze and they cooed.
شلّت سهام المزن في هضباتها
فكأنَّ جدولها حسام جردا
The rainclouds' arrows streamed down among its hills,
The arrows of rain weakened on its slopes,
so its rivulet seemed a sword unsheathed.
As if its streams were bare swords.
يمضي فيغمد في الغدير شباته
فلأجل ذلك لايزال مزرّدا
It flows onward, then sheathes its point in the pool,
It flows and sheaths itself in the pond with its youth,
and for that reason remains clad in chain mail.
That's why it remains always polished.
صدأ الظلال يزيد رونق حسنه
أرأيتَ سيفاً قطُّ يصقل بالصّدأ
The rust of shadows heightens its beauty's sheen.
The rust on its shadows increases its beauty,
Have you ever seen a sword polished with rust?
Have you ever seen a sword polished by rust?
ما كان أغنى راحتيك بسفحها
لو كان يمكن جمع ما قد بدّدا
How rich your palms would have been at its foot,
Your footsteps on its plains would not have been richer,
if one could gather what it had scattered!
If it were possible to gather what they had scattered.
خلع الحيا طرباً على أعطافها
بالنهر ثوباً بالنسيم مجّعدا
The rain, in rapture, bestowed upon its flanks
The snakes slid in rapture over its slopes,
a robe of river-water, creased by the breeze.
With the river a garment and with the breeze rumpled.
مازال يبكي باسمات ظبائه
حتى رأيتَ البرق جفناً أرمدا
It kept weeping over its smiling gazelles,
The gazelles still weep until you see
until you saw the lightning as an inflamed eyelid.
The lightning become a blind eyelid.
شغل البكاءُ على الشباب وعصره
جفنيَّ أن أبكي الحسان الخرَّدا
Weeping for youth and its days has kept
Crying over youth and its era has preoccupied my eyes,
my eyelids from weeping for the fair, bashful maidens.
Too sad to cry over the faded beauty.
خان الصّبا والغانيات كلاهما
عهدَ الوصال وأخلفاني الموعدا
Youth and lovely women both betrayed
The morning breeze and the singers both
the covenant of union, and both broke their promise to meet me.
Broke the promise of union and missed the appointment.
لو كان يمكن ردُّ ما هو فائتٌ
لوددت أو يفدى بذلت له الفدى
If what is gone could be brought back,
If it were possible to regain what is past,
I would wish it back; or, if it could be ransomed, I would pay its ransom.
I would have wished or ransomed it with my soul.
ولكم منيت بليلةٍ مسودةٍ
لو أمّها ضوءُ الصباح لما اهتدى
And how often I was afflicted with a pitch-black night:
How I wished for a pitch-black night,
had morning's light sought it, it would not have found its way.
Even if the light of dawn could not find its way.
علقت كواكبُ أفقها فكأنّما
شربت وطال بها السهاد الرقدا
The stars of its horizon hung suspended, as though
The stars on its horizon hung as if
they had drunk, and wakefulness had outlasted sleep for them.
Drunk, plunged in deep slumber.
وكأنَّ ساري البرق خاف بجنحها
أمراً فسلَّ من الوميض مهنداً
And it seemed the night-roving lightning feared, in its gloom,
As if the lightning rod feared its wings
some peril, and drew an Indian-steel sword from the flash.
And descended, retiring from flashing.
صمتت رواعد سحبه فكأنّما
ريعت قلائصها فسرنَ بلا حدا
The rumblings of its clouds fell silent, as though
The foundations of its clouds fell silent as if
their young she-camels had taken fright and went on without a driver's chant.
Their quivers were emptied, flowing without limit.
وأجبتُ هاتفةَ الغرامِ ولو دعا
طيف الخيال لما أجاب به الصدى
And I answered love's calling voice; yet had a call come
And I answered the lover's call even if
from a phantom vision, no echo would have answered it.
The echo of imagination would not respond to it.
كلفاً بهاجرةٍ جفاني طيفها
فشقيتُ وسناناً بها ومسهدا
Enamored of a woman who forsakes me, whose phantom shunned me,
Burdened by an emigrant whose apparition abandoned me,
so I suffered because of her, drowsy and sleepless alike.
So I suffered, and a set of teeth and pillow.
وحديثها نعم الغناء يهزُّني
هزَّ الأراكة مطلقاً ومقيدا
And her speech—what lovely singing!—sways me,
Her talk is beautiful singing that shakes me,
as an arak-tree is swayed, whether I am free or bound.
Shaking the litter unleashed and tied down.
يحلو فيقصر في المسامع طوله
ويزيد حسنَ نضارةٍ ما ردّدا
It is sweet, so its length seems brief to the ears,
It is sweet and shortens in the ears by its length,
and gains in fresh beauty whenever repeated.
Increasing the beauty of delicate repetition.
وكأنّهُ لفظ الهناءِ بمقدمِ الـ
ـملك العزيز الذّه ما جدّدا
And it is like words of congratulation at the arrival of the
As if it were the utterance of bliss with the advent of
king al-ʿAzīz—its sweetest words are those renewed.
The mighty king who renewed and did not perish.
Sol 6.1