هَذا كِتابُكَ فيهِ الجَهلُ وَالعُنفُ
قَد جاءَنا فَفَهِمنا كُلَّ ماتَصِفُ
This is your letter, filled with ignorance and harshness;
This is your book, within it ignorance and violence
it has reached us, so we have understood all that you describe.
It has come to us, so we understand all it describes
أَما تَخافُ القَوافي أَن تُزيلَكَ عَن
ذاكَ المُقامِ فَتَمضي ثُمَّ لاتَقِفُ
Do you not fear the rhymes, lest they dislodge you from
Do you not fear the rhymes will remove you
that station, so you depart and then never halt—
From that position, then you will go and not stop
وَشاعِراً لايَكُفُّ النِصفُ غَضبَتَهُ
إِن هُزَّ وَاللَيثُ يَرضى حينَ يَنتَصِفُ
and a poet whose anger fair treatment cannot quell
And a poet whose wrath half will not suffice
if provoked, though the lion is content once it gains redress?
If shaken, and the lion is content when halfway appeased
تَعيبُني بِهَناتٍ لَستُ أَعرِفُها
مِنّي وَأَنتَ بِها جَذلانُ مُعتَرِفُ
You fault me for failings I do not recognize
You blame me for deficiencies I do not know
in myself, while you gladly admit to them.
While you are with them, an avowed coward
لا تَجمَعَنَّ عَلَينا رِدَّةً وَبَذا
قَولٍ فَذَلِكَ سوءُ الكَيلِ وَالحَشَفُ
Do not inflict on us both ugliness and foulness
Do not gather against us aversion and the
of speech: that is short measure and shriveled dates.
Evil of words, for that is the flaw of measuring and sifting
ما لي وَلِلراحِ تَدعوني لِأَشرَبَها
وَلي فُؤادٌ بِشَيءٍ غَيرِها كَلِفُ
What have I to do with wine, that you invite me to drink it,
What business have I with comfort, you call me to drink it
when my heart is enamored of something other than it?
While my heart is burdened with something else
إِنَّ التَزاوُرَ فيما بَينَنا خَطَرٌ
وَالأَرضُ مِن وَطأَةِ البِرذَونِ تَنخَسِفُ
Indeed, visits between us are perilous,
Indeed, our frequenting each other is dangerous
and the earth caves in beneath the stout riding horse's tread.
And the earth from the weight of evidence sinks
إِذا اِجتَمَعنا عَلى يَومِ الشِتاءِ فَلي
هَمٌّ بِما أَنا لاقٍ حينَ أَنصَرِفُ
When we meet on a winter's day, I am
When we gather on a winter's day, I have
anxious about what I shall face when I depart.
No care for what I encounter when I leave
أَبِالغَديرِ إِذا ضاقَ الطَريقُ بِهِ
أَم بِالطَريقِ المُعَمّى حينَ يَنعَطِفُ
Is it the pool, when the road is narrowed by it,
By the pond, when the path is too narrow for it
or the obscured road as it bends?
Or by the twisting path when it turns
وَقُلتَ دَجنٌ يَروقُ العَينَ رَيِّقُهُ
مِن كُلِّ غادِيَةٍ أَجفانُها وُطُفُ
And you said, 'Cloud-gloom's first freshness delights the eye,
And you said a black-eyed gazelle pleasing to the eye its slenderness
from every morning raincloud with thick-lashed eyelids.'
From every passing one whose eyelids and glance
فَكَيفَ يَطرَبُ لِلدَجنِ المُقيمِ إِذا
سَحَّت سَحائِبُهُ مَن بَيتُهُ يَكِفُ
How, then, can lingering cloud-gloom bring joy, when
So how can the resident be troubled by the black-eyed one when
its clouds pour down, to one whose house leaks?
The clouds have combed, the one whose house shelters him
لا أَقرَبُ الراحَ أَو تَجلو السماءَ لَنا
شَمسُ الرَبيعِ وَتَبهى الرَوضَةُ الأُنُفُ
I will not approach wine until the sky is cleared for us
Neither is comfort near or the sky clears for us
by the spring sun, and the fresh meadow shines,
The spring sun and the meadows smell fragrant
وَيَفتُقُ الوَردُ خُضراً عَن مُعَصفَرَةٍ
وَيَكتَسي نورَهُ القاطولُ وَالنَجَفُ
and the rose splits green calyxes to reveal safflower-colored blooms,
And the roses bloom green over yellowing
and al-Qatul and al-Najaf clothe themselves in its blossoms.
And the daisy and meadow saffron don its light
هُناكَ تَجميعُ شَملٍ كانَ مُفتَرِقاً
مِنّا وَتَأليفُ رَأيٍ كانَ يَختَلِفُ
There is a gathering of a company once scattered
There the gathering of a kinship that was separated
among us, and a harmonizing of views once at odds.
And the reconciling of an opinion that disagreed
Sol 6.1