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نكب الشعر بها والشعور

How strange this house is, how it turns!

How strange is this world, how it turns!

Poetry has stumbled in it and emotion

Poetry within it has been afflicted, as has feeling.

ذهب الشعر بها حسرات

وعرته وحشة ونفور

Poetry has left it full of regrets

Poetry has departed from it in deep regret,

Bared and full of desolation and aloofness

And desolation and alienation have seized it.

فقد الشعر من الشرق شمسا

لم يزل منها على الشرق نور

Poetry has lost from the East a sun

Poetry has lost a sun from the East,

That has never ceased to shine its light on the East

Whose light still lingers upon the Orient.

فقد الشعر من الشرق سرحا

طالما غنت عليه الطيور

Poetry has lost from the East a meadow

Poetry has lost a towering tree from the East,

Where birds have long sung over it

Upon which birds have long sung their songs.

فقد الشعر أبا الشعر (شوقي)

فطغا الويل به والثبور

Poetry has lost the father of poetry (Shawqi)

Poetry has lost the father of verse, Shawqi,

So calamity and misfortune prevail in it

So woe and ruin have overwhelmed it.

فمساري الهم منه غواض

ومجاري الدمع منه بحور

So my worries overflow from it

The channels of grief for him run deep,

And my tears from it become seas

And the streams of tears for him are oceans.

أي بلوى مضة الوقع فيها

وهن الجلد وطاش الصبور

What calamities the moment of death contains!

What a calamity, whose impact cuts deep,

When the skin is weak and the patient goes mad

Where endurance weakens and the patient lose their bearings.

أيها الباكي بمأتم (شوقي)

أرأيت النجم كيف يغور

O you who cry in the mourning of (Shawqi)

O you who weep at Shawqi’s funeral,

Have you seen how a star disappears?

Have you seen how the star sets?

أرأيت الصبح كيف يولى

أرأيت الأرض كيف تمور

Have you seen how dawn turns away?

Have you seen how the morning retreats?

Have you seen how the earth crumbles?

Have you seen how the earth trembles?

قم فعز الشعر بالشعر فيه

فأيادي الشعر منه وفور

Rise, and bring pride to poetry through it

Rise and console poetry with poetry for his sake,

For poetry’s hands are full of abundance from it

For his favors upon poetry were abundant.

قف نودع راحلا لم يودع

عذره أن المقام غرور

Stop, we bid farewell to one who did not bid farewell

Stand, let us bid farewell to a traveler who left without goodbye,

His excuse is that staying is deceitful

His excuse being that this earthly stay is but a delusion.

لا تخل أنا بظل حياة

نحن موتى والقصور قبور

Do not leave me in the shadow of life

Do not imagine that we are in the shadow of life;

We are dead and the palaces are graves

We are the dead, and these palaces are tombs.

حاطنا دون الحياة محيط

وعلى جسر الممات العبور

We have surrounded life with an ocean

A barrier surrounds us, keeping us from true life,

And on the bridge of death is the crossing

And the crossing lies upon the bridge of death.

يا أمير الشعر عفوا فإنا

قعد العي بنا والقصور

O prince of poetry, sorry, for blindness has sat on us

O Prince of Poets, forgive us, for indeed,

And sadness has crept into the palaces

We are paralyzed by speechlessness and inadequacy.

إن خلف البحر دور ائتناس

دب فيها الحزن فهي ديور

If beyond the sea there are homes, come to us

Indeed, beyond the sea are homes of fellowship,

Grief has crept into them, so they are monsters

Into which grief has crept, turning them into solemn cloisters.

رددت وقع الأنين الزوايا

وتحلت بالسواد الستور

The corners echoed the sound of moaning

The corners echoed the sound of moaning,

And they wore black curtains

And the curtains draped themselves in black.

فلأهليها خشوع طويل

ونفوس غيب وحضور

So their people have long devotion

Their inhabitants are held in long, reverent silence,

And absent souls and presence

With souls that are both absent and present.

وقلوب قلبت وأكف

وخدود خددت ونحور

And hearts that have flipped, and palms

Hearts are overturned, and hands are wrung in grief,

And cheeks that have been slapped, and throats

And cheeks and throats are furrowed by lamentation.

يا أمير الشعر حسبك ذكر

قدسي في الحياة طهور

O prince of poetry, enough mention

O Prince of Poets, suffice it that your remembrance

You are sanctified in life as purity

Is holy and pure within this life.

علم الهاوين في الدرك منا

كيف تعلو في السماء الصقور

The abyss has taught us in darkness

Teach those of us falling into the depths,

How eagles rise high in the sky

How falcons soar high into the sky.

لا تأذى بالبلى لك لحد

دفن الحذق به والبرور

Do not be bothered by erosion, for you a tomb

May your grave never be harmed by decay,

That has buried in it wisdom and piety

Within which mastery and piety are buried.

يا أمير الشعر أين غوان

ما لها الا حجاك خدور

O prince of poetry, where are melodies?

O Prince of Poets, where are the muse-maidens,

They have nothing but your singing maidens

Who found no sanctuary but your intellect?

أين رصف محكم عبقري

رفع المعنى به فهو سور

Where is the paved, ingenious rhyme?

Where is the masterful, genius construction,

With it meaning rose, so it is a wall

That elevated meaning until it became a fortress?

وروايات سرت كهرباء

دنت البيد بها والعصور

And tales that crept like lightning

And plays that coursed like electricity,

Bringing wonder to generations and eras

Bridging distant deserts and epochs?

نفخ الصور بها في القوافي

فعلتها هبة ونشور

You breathed life into rhymes

The trumpet was blown into their rhymes,

Making them a gift and awakening

Giving them a sudden awakening and resurrection.

أتت الفصحى فرفت وزفت

مثلما يأتي الطيور البكور

Proper Arabic came so it fluttered and marched

The Arabic tongue came, fluttering and parading,

As birds come early at dawn

Just as the early birds arrive at dawn.

وأضاءت حولها فهي نار

والورى موسى وشخصك طور

And lit up around it, so it is fire

It illuminated its surroundings like fire,

And people are Moses and you are the Mount

Where mankind is Moses, and you are the Mount.

سار في الدنيا قريضك جيشا

فله زحف بها وكرور

Your poetry marched in life an army

Your verse marched through the world like an army,

So it has a crawl in it and pride

Advancing and wheeling in attack.

وصفا في الذوق فهو لباب

ما عليه كاللباب قشور

Pure in taste, so it is the essence

Pure in taste, it is the very essence,

With no rinds on it like essences

A kernel without husk or shell.

وعلا فاشتد في الشعر سروا

فغصون لدنة وجذور

And it rose high, a tall cypress in poetry

It rose and grew mighty in poetic stature,

With soft branches and roots

With supple branches and deep roots.

وجلا الأبعاد من كل أفق

بصرا لا يعتريه حسور

And the horizons were wide in every direction

It unveiled the distances of every horizon,

A vision unrestrained by barriers

With a vision that never dims nor tires.

فترا آي الشرق والغرب فيه

وتلاقت بالسهول الوعور

So the signs of East and West in it were seen

In it, you see the signs of both East and West,

And met in rough plains

Where rugged peaks meet the open plains.

يا فؤادي لا ترعك العوادي

خلق الدنيا أسى وسرور

O my heart, do not be disturbed by misfortunes

O my heart, let not misfortunes terrify you;

Creation made of grief and joy

The nature of this world is sorrow and joy.

عرف العشاق منها بغيا

فحضاة عندها ودحور

Lovers are known through it for yearning

Lovers have known its inherent injustice:

So they have love and hatred in it

Some are favored by it, while others are cast out.

لا أرى الأجسام الا كسفن

ماخرات والقبور ثغور

I do not see bodies but as ships

I see our bodies only as ships,

Sinking, and graves are breaches

Plowing the waves, with graves as their ports.

وأرى الأرواح فيها كركب

فإناث منهم وذكور

And I see souls in them like a caravan

And I see the souls within as passengers,

Some female, some male

Both women and men alike.

فرفاق في الذيول ذيول

ورفاق في الصدور صدور

Some companions with tails, with tails

Some are followers, trailing in the rear,

And some companions in chests, in chests

While others are leaders, marching at the fore.