تَبيتُ لَهُ مِن شَوقِهِ وَنِزاعِهِ
أَحاديثُ نَفسٍ أَوشَكَت مِن زِماعِهِ
Through his longing and yearning, there linger all night for him
Sleepless I remain yearning for him and contending,
a soul's inward whispers, hastened by his resolve.
With thoughts from my soul nearly undone by his absence.
وَما حَبَسَت بَغدادُ مِنّا عَزيمَةً
بِمَكتومِ مانَهوى بِها وَمُذاعِهِ
Baghdad did not hold back our resolve
Not for lack of will did Baghdad restrain our resolve -
with what we loved there, hidden or proclaimed.
But for the beloved we concealed, and his hold over us.
جَعَلنا الفُراتَ نَحوَ حِلَّةِ أَهلِنا
دَليلاً نَضِلُّ القَصدَ مالَم نُراعِهِ
We took the Euphrates, toward our people's encampment,
We set the Euphrates toward our people's abode
as a guide—we lose the right course unless we heed it.
As guide, though we strayed from the path unless we clung to it.
إِذا ما المَطايا غُلنَ فُرضَةَ نُعمِهِ
تَواهَقنَ لِاِستِهلاكِ وادي سِباعِهِ
Whenever the mounts crossed the landing of its bounty,
When our steeds were slowed by the glut of his gifts,
they matched strides to swallow up the valley of its beasts.
They rivaled the wadi’s beasts in their gorging.
فَكَم جَبَلٍ وَعرٍ خَبَطنَ قِنانَهُ
وَمُنخَفَضٍ سَهلٍ مَثَلنَ بِقاعِهِ
How many a rugged mountain's peaks they trod,
How many a mountain we scaled and desert we roamed,
and how many a smooth lowland's floor they stood upon!
And valley we crossed through its flattened expanse.
وَلَمّا اِطَّلَعنا مِن زُنَيبَةَ مُشرِفاً
يَكادُ يُوازي مَنبِجاً بِاِطِّلاعِهِ
And when, from Zunayba, we ascended a height
When from Sinjar we gazed out, overlooking
that nearly matched Manbij in its elevation,
Mosul, so close its features seemed within grasp.
رَأَينا الشَآمَ مِن قَريبٍ وَأَعرَضَت
رَقائِقُ مِنهُ جُنَّحٌ عَن بِقاعِهِ
we saw Syria close at hand, and there spread out
Still we pressed on, from dusk to dawn’s first light,
slender stretches of it, slanting away from its plains.
Ushering darkness away, enveloped in its folds.
وَمازالَ إيشاكُ الرَحيلِ وَأَخذُنا
مِنَ العيسِ في نَزعِ الدُجى وَاِدِّراعِهِ
We kept hastening to depart and drawing
Until nearness obeyed, after holding aloof,
on the pale camels, shedding the dark and donning it,
And the Hayy's ridge yielded, after resisting.
إِلى أَن أَطاعَ القُربُ بَعدَ إِيابِهِ
وَلوئِمَ شَعبُ الحَيِّ بَعدَ اِنصِداعِهِ
until nearness yielded after its return,
So ask not after where I lay down my head,
and the clan's company was reunited after its sundering.
In my own land, or how I sleep while debarred from it.
فَلا تَسأَلَن عَن مَضجَعي وَنُبُوِّهِ
بِأَرضي وَعَن نَومي بِها وَاِمتِناعِهِ
So do not ask about my bed and its discomfort
I pine while my family awaits me expectant,
in my own land, or my sleep there and its refusal to come.
Hearing and sight set on my return.
أَرانِيَ مُشتاقاً وَأَهلِيَ حُضَّرٌ
عَلى لَحظِ عَينَي ناظِرٍ وَاِستِماعِهِ
I find myself yearning, though my family is present,
An exile abroad, my steed wanders unleashed
within an onlooker's eyesight and hearing;
Through Sajur's valleys or over its hillocks.
وَمُغتَرِبِ المَثوى وَسَرحِيَ سارِبٌ
بِأَودِيَةِ الساجورِ أَو بِتِلاعِهِ
and a stranger in my dwelling, though my herd roams
Parted from those I left behind, my life now bereft,
in the Sajur's valleys or on its slopes.
My honor resides with them, their refuge in tribulation.
لِفُرقَةِ مَن خَلَّفتُ دُنيايَ غَضَّةً
لَدَيهِ وَعِزّي مُعصَماً في يَفاعِهِ
For I am parted from him, leaving my world fresh and green
No yearning for home overcame my resolve
at his side, and my honor sheltered upon his heights.
To provide for it, by dwelling in its environs.
وَما غَلَبَتني نِيَّهُ الدارِ عِندَهُ
عَلى رِفدِهِ في ساحَتي وَاِصطِناعِهِ
Nor has distance from his dwelling deprived me
Too grave seemed the hardship of living apart -
of his bounty in my courtyard, or his favor.
Even the thought drew tears of lament from me.
كَفاني مِنَ التَقسيطِ فَحشُ عِيانِهِ
وَقَد ذَعَرَتني مُندِباتُ سَماعِهِ
He spared me the levy’s hideous spectacle,
Take on the great task with purpose and cease not
though the laments at hearing of it had already terrified me.
To water the thirsty from outpouring's abundance.
تَعَمَّدهُ في الأَمرِ الجَليلِ وَلا تَقِف
عَنِ الغَيثِ أَن تَروى بِفَيضِ بَعاعِهِ
Seek him out in weighty affairs, and do not hold back
The world entire cannot overwhelm him,
from the rain, but drink your fill of its abundant flood.
So expansive the field of his capabilities.
فَلَن تَكبُرَ الدُنيا عَلَيهِ بِأَسرِها
وَقَد وَسِعَتها ساحَةٌ مِن رِباعِهِ
For the whole world will never be too large for him,
How many days of ill fate for God's servants
when a courtyard of his dwellings has encompassed it.
Were lit up by his leadership's radiance!
وَكَم لِعُبَيدِ اللَهِ مِن يَومِ سُؤدُدٍ
يُجَلّى طَخا الأَيّامِ ضَوءُ شُعاعِهِ
How many a day of glory belongs to Ubayd Allah,
How they searched in him for the nature of nobility,
whose radiant light dispels the murk of the days!
Bringing low the age through his towering grace.
وَكَم بَحَثوهُ عَن طِباعِ تَكَرُّمٍ
يَرُدُّ الزَمانَ صاغِراً عَن طِباعِهِ
How often they probed him for generous traits—
Ask the ministers about his precedence,
he turns Time, humbled, away from its ways.
And how he was missed when gone from their midst.
سَلِ الوُزَراءَ عَن تَقَدُّمِ شَأوِهِ
وَعَن فَوتِهِ مِن بَينِهِم وَاِنقِطاعِهِ
Ask the ministers how far his course leads theirs,
Did they ever truly weigh his full measure,
and how he outstrips them and breaks away from their ranks.
Or value his worth by the gauge of his greatness?
وَهَل وازَنوهُ عِندَ جِدِّ حَقيقَةٍ
بِمِثقالِهِ أَو كايَلوهُ بِصاعِهِ
Have they weighed themselves against him in sober truth,
A chief whose vision opened solutions when affairs were blocked,
with his weight, or measured against him with his grain measure?
And brought concord when ties were ruptured.
زَعيمٌ بِفَتحِ الأَمرِ عِندَ اِنغِلاقِهِ
عَلَيهِم وَرَتقِ الفَتقِ عِندَ اِتِّساعِهِ
He undertakes to open an affair when it closes
His judgment surpassed the mind's reach, beyond grasp
against them, and to mend a breach when it widens.
In remoteness and loftiness when viewed from afar.
عَلا رَأيُهُ مَرمى العُقولِ فَلَم تَكُن
لِتَنصُفَهُ في بُعدِهِ وَاِرتِفاعِهِ
His judgment rose beyond the reach of minds; they could not
He drew near until even the abyss was tempted
reach halfway to its distance and its height.
To self-deception, cloaked in guile.
وَقارَبَ حَتّى أَطمَعَ الغُمرَ نَفسَهُ
مُكاذَبَةً في خَتلِهِ وَخِداعِهِ
Yet he drew close enough to give the novice hope of besting him—
Never did I see him refuse humility when embraced
a false hope of outwitting and deceiving him.
By any man, except from excess of modesty.
وَلَم أَرَهُ يَأبى التَواضُعَ واحِدٌ
مِنَ الناسِ إِلّا مِن غَلُوِّ اِتِّضاعِهِ
I have never seen humility rejected by a single one
While he is occupied, time's turns go neglected,
among men, save for the excess of his self-abasement.
And tribulations wane in the scope of his care.
تَضيعُ صُروفُ الدَهرِ في بُعدِ هَمِّهِ
وَتَتوى الخُطوبُ في اِتِّساعِ ذِراعِهِ
The turns of Time are lost in his far-reaching purpose,
The burdens of authority know they are sustained
and calamities perish within his arm's wide reach.
When borne by him, though weigh heavily.
وَتَعلَمُ أَعباءُ الخِلافَةِ أَنَّها
وَإِن ثَقُلَت مَوجودَةٌ في اِضطِلاعِهِ
The burdens of the caliphate know that they,
No ordeal befell him, but its edge was dulled -
heavy though they are, lie within his capacity to bear.
Its breadth no rival for his greater expanse.
فَما طاوَلَتهُ مِحنَةٌ عَن مُلِمَّةٍ
فَتَنزِعَ إِلّا باعُها دونَ باعِهِ
No trial born of calamity ever challenged his reach
God protect him in whom the flock find solace,
without withdrawing, its armspan shorter than his.
Relying on his care over their own.
رَعى اللَهُ مَن تُلقي الرَعِيَّةُ أُنسَها
إِلى ذَبِّهِ مِن دونِها وَدِفاعِهِ
May God preserve him whose subjects entrust their reassurance
I roamed the Iraq in distress, a criminal,
to his shielding them and his defense on their behalf.
To defend against the day we would part.
تَصَرَّعتُ حَولاً بِالعِراقِ مُجَرِّماً
مُدافَعَةً مِنّي لِيَومِ وَداعِهِ
I lingered a full year in Iraq, seeing it through,
Can you forget me after the horror, and then its passing;
putting off, for my part, the day of farewell to him.
After loathing befell, and then its abating?
أَأَنساكَ بَعدَ الهَولِ ثُمَّ اِنصِرافِهِ
وَبَعدَ وُقوعِ الكُرهِ ثُمَّ اِندِفاعِهِ
Shall I forget you after terror and then its passing,
After bonds were affirmed by my father al-Fatḥ, he took
and after adversity struck and then was repelled?
My land, annexing it to swell his holdings.
وَبَعدَ اِعتِلاقٍ مِن أَبي الفَتحِ ضَيعَتي
لِيُلحِقَها مُستَكثِراً في ضِياعِهِ
And after Abu al-Fath laid hold of my estate,
That day he envied not my wealth, but rather
to add it, seeking more, to his estates?
A free man seized what would profit him.
وَما رامَ ضَرّي يَومَ ذاكَ وَإِنَّما
أَراغَ اِمرُؤٌ حُرٌّ مَكانَ اِنتِفاعِهِ
He did not seek to harm me that day; rather,
If so, God forsake my circuits around his abode,
a freeborn man sought a place where he could profit.
And the throngs by the Kaaba, gathered for pilgrimage.
إِذاً نَسِيَ اللَهُ اِطِّيافي بِبَيتِهِ
وَوَفدُ الحَجيجِ حاشِدٌ في اِجتِماعِهِ
Then may God forget my circling of His House,
And my nights keeping vigil at Ṭumayn, prayers uttered
with the company of pilgrims thronging in assembly,
To ward the foe, clashing with them in war.
وَلَيلَتِيَ الطُلى بِطِمّينَ مُصلِتاً
لِصَدِّ العَدُوِّ دونَها وَقِراعِهِ
and my long night at Timmin, with sword unsheathed,
By God, after the nightmare subsided, my soul entertained no thought
to drive the enemy back from it and clash with him.
Of any blessing but you, no yearning but to follow.
وَوَاللَهِ لا حَدَّثتُ نَفسي بِمُنعِمٍ
سِواكَ وَلا عَنَّيتُها بِاِتِّباعِهِ
By God, I shall not think of a benefactor
Had I from you a single day, for all time itself,
other than you, nor weary my soul by following him.
I'd ruminate an age before seeking its return.
وَلَو بِعتُ يَوماً مِنكَ بِالدَهرِ كُلِّهِ
لَفَكَّرتُ دَهراً ثانِياً في اِرتِجاعِهِ
Even if I sold one day with you for all time,
I would ponder for another age how to reclaim it.
Sol 6.1