أبكاء في الدار بعد الدار — Albohtry

Weeping at dwelling after dwelling,

and finding solace in Zaynab, forgetting Nawar?

May the new distraction at Huzwa bring you no joy,

away from the desolate traces at Ramatayn.

Before you, I never thought loves could be erased

from lovers' breasts as dwellings are erased.

A glance turned love's east to west,

and diverted the course of flowing tears.

Many a lush life was ours at Rama,

and nights there, long yet short.

Before gray hair came on, and there appeared

the follies of youth, in retreat.

Every sin has its excuse, but

no excuse is found for the whitening of the cheek-hair.

This love was sweet; now I see it

turned bitter—drunkenness precedes the hangover.

And when a land grows strange to me,

and a close friend, I still have a choice:

the swift trot of young she-camels, squint-eyed as they face

squint-eyed stars of the predawn hours.

They shimmer like a mirage, having plunged

into the depths of the flowing mirage.

Like bent bows—no, like arrows,

whittled down—no, like bowstrings.

We have tired of you, boy: depart in the morning,

in peace—or in the evening, or by night.

Thefts from me alone—then why not

from an enemy, a friend, or a neighbor?

I am for Yasir, Yusr, and Sa'd,

not for Amir, nor Ammar.

I do not want an equal whom abuse drives

to argument and boasting.

And if I frighten him with the tip of the whip

for a fault, he frightens me by fleeing.

There is no noble man in Iraq, my people,

to ransom me from serving free men.

Is there a generous giver of a fair-skinned boy of the Banu al-Asfar,

of great forebears and pure lineage?

No raiding parties frightened his people; none invaded

them but a mighty, sweeping host,

or an army, as though they were raided by it

at night, or attacked at dawn in daylight.

In its throng is Abu Sa'id, on the tracks

of cavalry that had assailed him at dawn in vengeance.

So spears brought him low, supple and well-knit,

with a short girdle and an ample loincloth.

He blazes, as though among the various captives

in an army he were a meteor of fire.

Above children's weakness, if a task is entrusted

to him, yet below the cunning of grown men.

A gazelle fawn: the tunics upon him tell

of a firelike glow shining beneath the edging.

From his mouth and cheeks you have whatever you wish

of chrysanthemums and pomegranate blossoms.

Foreign-tongued, save for a fleeting utterance

in Arabic, like the unfolding of blossoms.

And it is as though intelligence sends forth from him

a flame of fire amid the darkness of affairs.

O Abu Ja'far, you are not called upon

except for every weighty affair.

The sun of Shams, and the full moon of the house of Humayd,

when suns and moons are counted.

And the young champion of Tayyi', and chief of Banu al-Samit,

men of noble pedigree and high standing.

From Hatim, Aws, and Zayd you have

a heritage of nobility and a heritage of glory.

Generous men, between a pot of apportioned meat

tilting over, and a bowl of broken bread,

and swords forged for death,

falling where fate falls.

Such were their deeds from time immemorial;

thus they were streams issuing from seas.

My hope is in you, and my claim is upon you;

and to you are my evening and morning journeys,

and my restless roaming among men, until I returned

in need—so you are my final resort.

By my life, generosity to people in gifts of people

differs from generosity in garments and dinars.

And hard, except with you, is using this

snare to catch boys with poems.