أشاقك مغنى منزل متأبد — Bashar Ibn Burd

Has the site of a long-deserted dwelling stirred your longing,

and the import of an early visitor's talk as he revisits it,

and traces at Hawda that never fade, as though they were

fixed tattoo marks, or tattoos upon a hand?

When the eye beholds it after steadfast restraint,

its tears flow like scattered pearls.

It is as though the gray doves perched in the dwelling

were a bereaved woman's gatherings of weepers and visiting mourners.

I recalled there the three women's gait, and back to me came

renewed love—and death lies in its renewal.

And my friend said, 'She has already gone her way;

so save some of your love for another, and be sensible.'

So I told him, 'No ear remains for anyone who would listen;

and reproach is only madness in you—so be measured.'

Peace from me upon her eye, even if she is now

departing, hastening toward no resting place.

O Abu Karib, Hubba has not grown distant;

for Hubba's heart is not estranged from your brother.

So when I saw estrangement reveal its face,

and the clan's caravan departed, with separation on the attack,

ah, how beautiful she is, but for the watching eyes! For she,

when sent one day, puts it off until tomorrow.

Peace from me upon al-Ghazla; how often

I was alone with her, away from everyone, in a dewy clearing.

Ghayth has three women; he never lets suspicion go.

They remained chaste; I do not overstep, nor am I kept away.

A phantom that visits me has indeed increased my longing,

and the sound of song from a warbling drinking companion,

and the lovers' long meeting, and a familiar haunt

where you awe the drinking companions around it, then sleep.

Large-eyed wild cows walked there, as though they were

troops of maidens in striped white garments.

O fool of Quraysh, let no ambitions dazzle you

into delusion; you have attained your goal, so go away.

An echo sings to you of kingship, and you pursue it;

and for diversion and play, listening alone suffices you.

O fool of Quraysh, no awe surrounds you,

nor have you any superiority over slave women and men.

If you rise, you gain nothing; you make promises, but your hopes

are furtive schemes behind the imam invested with authority.

And were it not for Muhammad, Commander of the Faithful,

you would have returned, cast aside, in the shade of a bare palace.

And do not forget the caliph's favor, after

he lodged you in a lofty, well-built palace.

Console yourself with patience for not succeeding Ahmad,

and eat at ease of what you have sun-dried, and sleep.

When the suitors of the caliphate go forth with lances,

and you go forth brandishing your spear, they tell you, 'Go away!'

Do you not see that the caliphate is a freeborn woman,

and that among the clan you are unsupported?

The Mahdi of Muhammad's house will take care of her for you;

he took possession of her from a father who was no laggard.

A young man who gave away the world, save a rider's provisions,

while the faith of the aided Prophet was jealously guarded.

So fly the terrified one's flight, or alight; for only

to a king whose inheritance is from Muhammad has she come.