ليسَ على الصبِّ المغنّى جناحْ
إن باح الشكوى فمن ضيمَ باحْ
No blame lies on the lover who complains of passion;
If he makes known his ardour, who suffers torment complains.
أصبحتُ مشدوهاً بخالي الخشى
أحور مجرى الدمع طامي الوشاحْ
Bewildered I became through fear of my belovèd;
I made my tears to flow in the bed of my streaming robe.
يلوح كالبدر ويختال كالغصن
وإن وافى فكالمسك فاحْ
She appears like the full moon and sways like a branchlet;
Yet, if she favours, ‘tis like musk exhaling perfume.
غدا بخيلاً بوصالي وإنْ
أمسى بأشجاني خدين السَّماحْ
Today she is niggardly of my union, though erewhile
She spent the night awake to the tale of my yearning.
أسكرني الحبُّ بأجفانه
وأنت يا صاحِ من الحبِّ صاحْ
Love made me drunk with her eyelids’ sorcery,
While you, my censurer, are vexed with love’s ardour.
أيسرُ ما في حبّه إنها
جوارحٌ في كل قلب جراحْ
The easiest thing in loving her is that she
Has tender limbs that harbour wounds in every heart.
يقتلها آمنةً يا لها
من قاتل ليس عليه جناحْ
She kills them unsuspecting—far from her
To kill one undeserving of such wrong!
سكرى فما تعرف صحواً ولا
خمراً مراضٌ وهي فينا صحاحْ
My drunkenness knows not sobriety or wine;
In us it is diseased, in her but mirth and jest.
يطيبُ في الحبِّ افتضاحي به
يا حبّذا في حبّه الافتضاحْ
My shamefacedness delights in union with her;
Well done my shamefacedness in loving her!
أشكو إلى الليل سهادي وقد
نام عن الشكوى وعن لحى لاحْ
I complain to the night of my bed, but it
Has slept from listening to me and dawn gleams.
يا قلبُ أين الصبرُ عن حسنه
وأنتَ يا جفنيَ أين الصباحْ
O my heart, where is your patience with her beauty?
And you, my eyelid, where is the dawn?
أيه حمامَ الأيكِ أنتَ الذي
أحزنهُ وجدي فغنَّى وناحْ
Ah, turtle-dove of the sandhill, you are she
Whose love makes me sad; then you sang and plained.
أغرَّكَ الدمع وقد شفَّني
الشوقُ إليه فأعرني الجناحْ
The tears have emboldened you, and longing for her
Has wasted me, so grant me your wing’s protection!
وجدك بالأغصان وجدي بها
أقسمت ما الممنوع مثل المباحْ
Your love for the branches and mine for her amount to this:
I swore the forbidden is like the permissible.
يشوقني وادي الحمى واللوى
أي مراح قد حمتهُ الرّماحْ
The valley of ardour and love-desire attracts me;
What encampments has it harboured, pierced with spears!
وغادة هجري لها عادةٌ
تلك سجايا كل رودٍ رداحْ
Her estrangement has a wonted practice,
Such are the traits of every gently nurtured gazelle.
كم حاز ذلك الشعبُ من طفلةٍ
غيداء حلوٌ جدُّها والمزاحْ
How excellent is the black-eyed gazelle possessed by that tribe,
Sweet her throat, jesting and graceful her gait!
لحنَ عشاء باسماتٍ فشمْ
غصونَ بانٍ مثمراتٍ أقاحْ
She sang a Lahn of swooning and I inhaled
The fragrance of the budding branches of the ban.
في كل يومٍ عاشقٌ يستبي
بعد امتناع أو حمى يستباحْ
Each day a lover is slain after refusal
Or fever, then gains his desire and takes it by force.
قل للتي تسألُ أهل الحمى
عنّي عجباً لا سؤال ارتياحْ
Say to her who asks the people of passion about me
In wonderment: “Do not ask, seeking to please!”
تعجباً أن عشتُ من بعدهم
لو مات من حبّكم لاستراحْ
Wonderful that I have lived after them!
Had one like you died of love, he would have found rest.
وإنما أحيته نعمى يد الفاضلِ
خدن الجودِ تربِ السَّماحْ
But I was kept alive by the favour of the noble one
Of gentle birth, well-bred, endowed with clemency.
ربّ المراد الخصبِ المجتلى
والموردِ العذب الفرات القراحْ
Lord of wishes, fertile, beautiful,
And of the sweet, pure Euphrates, brigand of souls.
لو لم يرد بحر نداهُ الورى
لسار يبغيهم نداه وساحْ
Had the sea of his munificence not flowed to mankind,
It would have journeyed to seek them, wandering about.
يا ابن أجلِّ الناس بيتاً
على النجم وأزكاهم جميعاً مزاحْ
O best of men in dwelling, and most chaste in character,
Pleasantest in jest of all the deadly serious!
لأثبتُ من رضوى جناناً إذا
رضوى دحتهُ ريحُ خوفٍ فطاحْ
I would establish, if you were pleased, gardens of contentment
Which, if the wind of fear blew on, would be laid waste.
مغتبقٌ بالحمد نشوانُ من
قهوتهِ صبٌّ إلى الاصطباحْ
Exultant in praise of the giver of his morning draught,
Which takes from his love what the dawn takes from joy.
يأخذهُ من وجده بالعلى
ما يأخذ الصبَّ من الابتياحْ
He seizes thereby from the Exalted
What the dawn takes from delight and pleasance.
وكل غيرانَ أغار القرى
في دوره فاغتال حمر اللقاحْ
And every jealous one in his abode
Exulted in him, then assaulted the red camels.
قد عوّدتْ راحته راحة العافي
وفي الحرب صفاح الصفاحْ
His rest has accustomed restfulness to dwell with well-being,
And in war, the clashing of arms with arms.
إنْ لفحت حرب بأبياتهم
قالوا لأطراف القنا لا براحْ
If war’s lightning flashed around their abodes,
They said to the lance-bearers: “Do not go away!”
قد بدلوا أموال أعدائهم
بحيث أمَّا قدح أو قداحْ
They exchanged the wealth of their enemies
For that they should have either a wine-flask or cups.
ما شئت من ظبي حمى مورد
الحياء من خدّيه ليثٌ وقاحْ
You may take at will from the gazelles that pasture
At the spring of modesty, lion and insolent.
أولي الوجوه والأنوف الشمّ
والأنفسِ الزُّهر من الارتياحْ
Choice in countenance and nose,
In soul flowers of joy and comfort.
كم أمَّهُ من مقعدٍ حظهُ
وراش بالجود جناح النجاحْ
How often he brought bliss to an assembly whose portion
Was misery, and sprinkled with bounty the wing of success!
ومستغيث من زمانٍ حوى
عدلاً صريحاً بعد ظللم صراحْ
And saved many a man of the age from the
Injustice, after grievous wrong, with patent equity.
يجود كالغيث على الحزن
من أحوالنا منه كحظّ البطاحْ
He bestows generously, like rain, upon grief
From our woes—such as is the portion of outcasts.
يا آمناً جرح اختلالي بنعماهُ
وقد أثخن فيَّ الجراحْ
O you whose favour has healed my sickness of estrangement
And it had multiplied wounds within me!
عاندني دهري ومن ذا الذي
أنزلهُ الدهرُ على الاقتراحْ
My fortune opposed me—and who is it
That fate casts down despite his will?
عبيدكَ الأيامُ قد حاربتْ
صبري وقد ألقى إليها السلاحْ
The days, your servants, have warred
Against my endurance, and I have cast away my arms.
حمت عليَّ الشعر مذ أعوز
الأجيادُ حاشاك وعزَّ الملاحْ
Poetry protected me when the noble steeds
Failed me—God forbid the boats should fail!
لولاك لم أنسب ولم أعرف
الدهر على دهر ولا الامتداحْ
Had it not been for you, I would not have attributed
Lineage to past time or praise to the present.
ما شئتَ عاقبني به عامداً
سوى بعادي عنك والانتزاحْ
Whatever you have decided to afflict me with,
Apart from separation from you and avoidance.
لا تطرحني إنَّ لي منطقاً
ماضي الشَّبا يأبى لي الافتضاح
Do not cast me off, I have a reason
For which my past flow of youth refuses disgrace.
فجنح آمالي كوجه الضُّحى
مذ لاح في ناديك أمَّ الفلاحْ
So may the wings of my hopes, like the face of dawn,
Gleam, since the mother of well-being shone in your circle!
تضيق أبوابك عني وقد
أضحتْ على العالمِ جمعاً فساحْ
Your doors are closed to me, yet to
The world they have opened wide.
كم لك في العافينَ والوفد منْ
عرضٍ مصونٍ ونوالٍ مباحْ
How many noble and how many suppliant
For inviolable honour and lawful portion!
حسَّنتَ بالفضل وجوهَ العلى
وقبل تحسينك كانت قباحْ
You have beautified by your goodness the faces
Of the noble, and before your beautifying they were ugly.
فيا بني الآمال إني أمروءٌ
كففتُ عن شيم الأكفّ الشحاحْ
So, O son of hopes, I am a man
Who has curbed the greed of close-fisted hands.
كافحتُ بالقنع ليليَّ وللقنعُ
وإن جلَّ ضعيفُ الطفاحْ
I have struggled with contentment by night, and contentment,
Though the going is hard, spurns being carried.
فقدتني قودَ ذليل وقد كنتُ
عليهنَّ شديدَ الجماحْ
Loss of me made an abject man mighty,
When I had been harsh and ungentle toward them.
كم من نبيهٍ قد عفا ذكرهُ
كأنما عاجلهُ محو ماحْ
How many a wise man has time blotted out,
As though dispatching him with erasure!
تحدَّثت عنهُ الليالي ألا
إنَّ أحاديث الليالي صحاحْ
The nights have spoken of him—but
The nights’ discourses are veridical.
عجماءَ ألاَّ أنَّ أفعالها
في كونها تعربُ عنها فصاحْ
Dumb, but verily their deeds
In respect of them are eloquent.
فليتَ من ليست لهُ نعمةٌ
قابلها بالشكر لا الاجتراحْ
Would that he who has no favour
Should reciprocate, not complain!
فكنْ لقلبٍ قلبٍ صبرهُ
غدا عليه كلُّ همٍ رواحْ
So be as a heart to a heart whose patience
Was lost when every sorrow came to it by turns.
واسمعْ قريضاً هام وجداً بهِ
بيضُ المقاصير وبيضُ الأداحْ
And listen to aperc ̧u of a love-sick, heart-stricken one,
Purer than the full moons, or than white tumblers!
يثملُ من يثملُ في سمعهِ
كأنما سقيتهُ كأس راحْ
Let him be choked who is choked
By listening, as though you made him drink lees.
وقلْ لمن حاول نظمي أتَّئد
ليس زئيرُ الأسدِ مثلَ النباحْ
And say to him who has tried to censure me: “Does the
Roaring of lions resemble the barking of curs?”
