لقاؤك يا لبنى خيال — Sardar

لقاؤك يا لُبنَى خَيالِ

فما منكما إلا غريمُ مِطالِ

Meeting you, O Lubna, is a phantom;

for neither of you is anything but a debtor who delays.

مواعيدُ كاليقظَى خوالب بارقٍ

وضُمّانُهُ الوسنَى تخيُّلُ آلِ

Promises, like the wakeful one, are deceptive flashes of lightning;

and its drowsy guarantors are an imagined mirage.

وإنى وإن جرّت زمامى عواذلى

لأتبعُ فيكِ باطلى وضَلالى

And I, though my reprovers pull at my reins,

surely follow my folly and my waywardness for your sake.

وأعلمُ أن الحبَّ موقفُ طاعةٍ

يُجاب به للشوق كلُّ سؤالِ

And I know that love is a station of obedience

where every request of longing is answered.

ومن ظنّ أن العذلَ يقتنص الجوى

فقد قاده صعبا بغير عِقالِ

And whoever thinks reproach can capture burning passion

has led it, unruly, without a hobble.

لأنتَ أطبُّ الناس إن كنتَ قادرا

على بُرء داءٍ بالفؤاد عُضالِ

You are surely the finest physician, if you can

cure an intractable sickness in the heart.

وصفتَ لسقمى قُبلةً واعتناقةً

وذاك شفاهٌ في رؤوس عَوال

You prescribed a kiss and an embrace for my illness,

yet those are lips upon the tips of tall spears.

إذا لم يذُق شيئا سوى الهجر عاشقٌ

فمن أين يدرى كيفَ طعمُ وصالِ

If a lover has tasted nothing but estrangement,

how could he know what union tastes like?

جهولٌ بشأن الغانياتِ مسَلِّم

عليهنَّ في شَيبٍ ورقّةِ حالِ

Ignorant of beautiful women's ways is one who greets

them with gray hair and straitened means.

لبِسن لنا دِرع الصدود كأنما

نراميهُمُ من شَيبنا بنصالِ

They donned the armor of aversion against us, as though

we were shooting arrowheads at them from our gray hair.

ليالى الشبابِ هنّ أيامُ غُرَّةٍ

وأيامُ شَيبِ المرء هنَّ ليالِ

The nights of youth are days of radiance,

and a man's gray-haired days are nights.

ودِدتُ وإن كانت من العمر تنقضى

لو أن بواقيها تكون حَوالى

I wished, though they pass away from one's life,

that those remaining might stay around me.

ولي في بيوتِ العامريّةِ حاجةٌ

هي الماءُ في عَضْبٍ حديثِ صِقالِ

And in al-ʿAmiriyya's tents I have a desire:

she is the watery sheen of a keen blade, newly polished.

زعمتُ البدورَ والشموسَ ظِباءَهم

فلا تُنكروا فيهنَّ بُعْدَ مَنالِ

I called the full moons and suns their gazelles;

so do not question their being far beyond reach.

تطلَّعنَ من سُود البيوتِ كأنما

تَطلَّعَ بَيْضٌ بينَ زِفِّ رِئالِ

They peered from the black tents, as though

eggs peered out amid the down of ostrich chicks.

وما حاجةُ الغَيْرَانِ فيهم إلى القنا

وقد منعتْ منهم عِصِىُّ حِجالِ

What need has the jealous man among them for spears,

when the poles of curtained chambers already keep others away from them?

كما قد حمت نفسُ ابنِ مَروانَ مجدَه

بأبيضِ عزمٍ أو بأحمرِ مالِ

Just as Ibn Marwan's own spirit has guarded his glory

with white resolve or red wealth.

مضىءُ نواحى الوجهِ يُمزجُ بِشره

بخَمرِ حباء فيه ماءُ جَمالِ

Radiant in every part of his face, his cheer is mingled

with the wine of bounty, containing the water of beauty.

نسيبُ المعالى ليس تدعوه حاجةٌ

إلى صيتِ عمٍّ أو نباهةِ خالِ

A kinsman of noble heights, no need drives him

to a paternal uncle's fame or a maternal uncle's renown.

إذا افتخر الإنسانُ يوما بُبردِه

فما بُرُده إلا كريمُ خصالِ

When a man one day boasts of his mantle,

his garments are nothing but noble qualities:

شبيبةُ عزمٍ واكتهالُ بصيرةٍ

وتحريمُ عِرضٍ وانتهابُ نوالِ

youthful resolve and mature insight,

inviolable honor and bounty free to plunder.

شمائلُ لو يُنظمنَ أغنَى نظامُها

نحورَ الغوانى عن عُقود لآلى

Virtues whose necklace, were they strung, would spare

beautiful women's necks the need for necklaces of pearls.

وما جاذبوه الفخرَ إلا وحازه

بأيدٍ إلى نَيل العلاء طِوالِ

Whenever they contended with him for glory, he won it

with hands reaching far toward the attainment of eminence.

صنائعه في الناس ترعَى سَوامُها

أزاهيرَ شكرٍ في رياضِ مَعالِ

The grazing herds of his favors among people feed

on blossoms of gratitude in meadows of noble deeds.

ومِن عشقهِ المعروفَ أعطَى قيادَه

سؤالَ تجنٍّ أو سؤالَ دلالِ

And from his love of kindness, he gives his reins

to a reproachful request or a coquettish plea.

كذا السُّحْبُ يَسقِى كلَّ أرض قِطارُها

بريح جَنوبٍ مرَّةً وشَمالِ

Thus the clouds' rain waters every land,

with a south wind at one time and a north wind at another.

ليهنِك آلاءٌ ضمِنتَ وفاءَها

من الجود حتى بات ناعمَ بالِ

May you delight in favors whose fulfillment you have guaranteed

on generosity's behalf, till it passed the night at ease,

وأنك بالنُّعمَى التي قد بثثتَها

ملكتَ من الأحرار رِقَّ مَوالِ

and in how, through the bounty you have spread,

you have won from free men the servitude of bondsmen.

فلله ماضٍ من لسانك إنه

لنعمَ لِزازُ الخصم يومَ جِدالِ

God bless the keen edge of your tongue! It is

truly a fine match for an adversary on a day of debate.

والله ما ضمَّت بنانُك إنها

قناةُ طِعانٍ أو خبيثةُ ضالِ

And by God, what your fingertips clasp is indeed

a lance for thrusting, or a vicious rod of wild lote wood.

فِناؤك للعافين بَعلُ أراملٍ

ونارُك للسّارينَ أُمُّ عيالِ

For seekers of bounty, your courtyard is a husband to widows,

and for night travelers, your fire is a mother to children.

عهدتُك تلقَى كلَّ مرء بقيمةٍ

وما كلُّ أعلاقِ الرجال غَوالِ

I have known you to meet each man according to his worth,

and not all men's treasures are valuable.

فلْمِ أنا في ميزان عدلك كِفَّتِى

تشِفُّ إذا قابلتَها بمثالِ

Then why, in the scales of your justice, does my pan

fall short when you weigh it against an equal,

ويرجحُ أوقامٌ كأن جباهَهم

نِعالٌ لما زيَّنتها بقِبالِ

while wretches outweigh me, their foreheads like

sandals, once you have adorned them with thongs?

نصيبي من الأموال ما يُمسك الدَّبَى

وحظِّى من النيران حَظُّ ذُبالِ

My share of wealth is what sustains young locusts,

and my portion of fires is a wick's portion.

ولولاك ما كانت لطآبا موقفى

ولا أرضُ بَاجِسْرا محطَّ رحالى

But for you, Laṭābā would not have been my stopping place,

nor the land of Bājisrā the resting place of my saddlebags.

مقيما بها كالسيفِ أُلزِمَ غِمدَه

وقد كان يرجو الرىَّ يوم نزالِ

I dwell there like a sword forced into its sheath,

though it had hoped to quench its thirst on a day of combat.

ولو أُطلقت حدّاه واسُتَّل في الطُّلَى

براها بيمنى ضارب وشمالِ

And if its two edges were freed and it were drawn among throats,

it would hew them in a striker's right hand and left.

وما ينفع الطِّرفَ المطهَّمَ سبُقه

إذا كان محبوسا بضيقِ مَجالِ

And what use is a finely built steed's speed

when it is confined within a narrow course?

أرى كلَّ مشنوءِ الخليقةِ واصلا

قِصارَ حبال عجزه بحبالى

I see every man of hateful character joining

the short cords of his incapacity to my cords.

تماثيلُ كالأنعام أبقلتِ الربى

لها فغدت في رعيةٍ وصِيالِ

Effigies like cattle: the hills have sprouted grass

for them, and so they go grazing and charging.

وإنّ زمانا ضمّ شملى وشملَهم

لكالليل مَسرَى ضيغم ونمالِ

And an age that has brought my company together with theirs

is like night, a passage for a lion and ants.

ستعلَمُ من منّا إذا بُعد المَدَى

عليه تشكَّى من وجىً وكَلالِ

You will know which of us, when the course grows long

for him, complains of sore feet and fatigue.

وتفرُقُ ما بينى هناك وبينهم

وكيف تُسَوّى بُزَّلٌ بفِصالِ

And there you will distinguish between me and them:

how can mature camels be equated with weanlings?

وما كنتُ أرضَى أن تكونَ ديارُها

ديارى ولا تلك الرحالُ رحالى

I would not have accepted their dwellings becoming

my dwellings, nor those saddlebags mine.

ولكنّنى ركَّابُ ما أنا قائد

ولو ظهر مجزولِ السَّنامِ ثَفَالِ

But I ride whatever I am leading,

even the back of a sluggish camel with a damaged hump.

وقد يُرتعَى حَمضٌ وفي الأرض خَلَّةٌ

ويُشرَبُ ماءٌ وهو غيرُ زلالِ

Saltwort may be grazed while sweet pasture lies upon the earth,

and water is drunk though it is not clear and sweet.

وتسكنُ خفضَ الأرض خفيّةٍ

وتسمو الوعولُ في رؤوس جبالِ

And one dwells unseen in the earth's lowlands,

while ibexes rise upon mountain peaks.

وما هو إلا ذنبُ دهر معاندٍ

يَرى بُرءَ أهل الفضل غيرَ حلالِ

It is nothing but the fault of a hostile age,

which deems the recovery of people of merit unlawful.

ويا ربما أعطَى الأمانىَّ قانطا

فقد تَلقحَ العقماءُ بعد حِيالِ

And oh, sometimes it grants wishes to one in despair;

for a barren female may conceive after barrenness.