يهون عندكم أني بكم أرق — Sharif Al Murtaza

يَهون عندكُمُ أنّي بكم أَرِقُ

وأنّ دمعاً على الخدّين يستبقُ

You think it little that I lie sleepless for you,

And that tears race down both cheeks,

وأنّ دَيْناً عليكمْ لا قضاءَ له

وأنّ رَهْناً عليكمْ تائِهٌ غَلِقُ

And that a debt lies upon you with no repayment,

And that a pledge held by you is lost and forfeited.

وكيف ينفعنا صدقُ الحديثِ وقد

قبلتُمُ قول أقوامٍ وما صدقوا

How can truthful speech avail us, when

You have accepted the words of people who were not truthful?

وهلْ دنُوُّكُمُ مُسلٍ ونحن إذا

كنّا جميعاً بطولِ الصَّدِّ نفترقُ

And can your nearness console us, when even as

We are together, prolonged rejection keeps us apart?

كلُّ المودّةِ زورٌ غيرَ وُدِّكُمُ

وكلُّ حبٍّ سوى حبّي لكمْ مَلَقُ

All affection is false except love for you,

And all love except my love for you is flattery.

يا صاحِبَيَّ اِمتِحاني من عيونكما

فأنّ لِي مُقْلَةً إنسانُها غَرِقُ

O my two companions, give me sight from your eyes,

For I have an eye whose pupil is drowned.

واِستَوضحا هل حمولُ الحيِّ زائلةٌ

والرَّكْبُ عن جَنَباتِ الحيِّ منطلقُ

And ascertain whether the tribe's laden camels are departing,

And the riders are setting off from the camp's outskirts.

وفي الحدوج الّتي حفّ القَطينُ بها

ظبْيٌ بما شاء من أَلبابنا عَلِقُ

And in the camel-litters around which the camp-dwellers gather

Is a gazelle, clinging to whatever of our hearts it chooses.

ودِدْتُ منه وَقد حَفّ الوشاةُ بنا

أنّا بعِلّةِ قرْبِ البينِ نعتنِقُ

I wished this of him, while tale-bearers crowded round us:

That we might embrace, with imminent parting as our excuse.

قُل للّذي بات محروماً يُثبّطُهُ

عن مطمحِ العزِّ منه الرُّعْبُ والشَّفَقُ

Tell the man who spends the night deprived, held back

From aspiring to honor by his own terror and apprehension:

يرعى الهشيمَ مُلِظّاً قعرَ أوديةٍ

غرثَى المسالكِ لا ماءٌ ولا ورقُ

He grazes on dry stalks, lingering in valley bottoms

Whose paths are famished, with neither water nor leaves.

إنّي علقتُ بفخر الملكِ في زمنٍ

ما كان لِي منه في الأقوامِ مُعتَلِقُ

I attached myself to Fakhr al-Mulk at a time

When, among men, I had no tie to him.

مردّدٌ كلَّ يومٍ في مواهبِهِ

متوَّجٌ منه بالنعماءِ مُنْتَطِقُ

Each day brought back anew amid his gifts,

Crowned by him with blessings, and girded with them.

يا صَفْونا في زمانٍ كلُّهُ كَدَرٌ

وفجرَنا في زمانٍ كلُّه غَسَقُ

O our clarity in an age that is all murk,

And our dawn in an age that is all darkness,

وحامِلَ العِبْء كلّتْ دونه مُنَنٌ

وقائدَ الجيشِ ضاقتْ دونه الطُّرُقُ

And bearer of the burden before which powers have faltered,

And leader of the army before which roads grew narrow,

ورابطَ الجأْشِ والأبطالُ هائبةٌ

والهامُ بين أنابيب القنا فَلِقُ

And steadfast of heart while champions are afraid,

And heads lie split among the shafts of spears,

في موقفٍ حَرِجٍ يُلقَى السّلاحُ به

والقِرْنُ من ضيقه بالقرن معتنقُ

In a cramped battleground where weapons are cast aside,

And foe, for its narrowness, grapples with foe.

قد كان قبلك قومٌ لا جميل لهمْ

كأنّهمْ من خمول الذّكرِ ما خُلِقوا

Before you were people with no good deeds to their name,

As though, so obscure their fame, they had never been created.

فوتُ الأمانِيَ ما شادوا ولا كرموا

نُكْدُ السّحائبِ ما اِنهلّوا ولا بَرِقوا

Hope's frustration: they built nothing and were not generous;

Stingy clouds: they neither poured rain nor flashed lightning.

فَما نَفَقنا عَليهم من غَباوَتهمْ

وما علينا بشيءٍ منهُمُ نفقوا

So we found no market with them, through their dullness,

Nor, with anything of theirs, did they find a market with us.

وأين قبلك يا فخرَ الملوك فتىً

مُستَجْمَعٌ فيه هذا الخَلْقُ والخُلُقُ

Where before you, O pride of kings, was a young man

In whom such outward form and inward character were united?

ومَنْ إذا دخل الجبّارُ حضرتَهُ

يزداد عزّاً إذا ذَلّتْ له العُنُقُ

And in whose court does a mighty ruler, on entering,

Gain honor when his neck bows before him?

وأيُّ مُخْتَرِقٍ يُضحِي وَلَيس بهِ

إلى الفضيلةِ منك النَّصُّ والعَنَقُ

And what passage greets the morning without

Your swift gallop and steady trot toward excellence?

وأيُّ مُقصىً عن المعروف ليس له

مُصْطَبحٌ بين ما تُولِي ومُغْتَبَقُ

And what person excluded from bounty does not have

A morning draught amid your gifts, and an evening draught?

شِعْبٌ به لذوي الأنضاء مُرتَبَعُ

وجانبٌ فيه للمحروم مُرتَزَقُ

A ravine where owners of exhausted mounts find spring pasture,

And a quarter where the deprived find a livelihood,

مُستَمْطَرُ الجود لا فقرٌ ولا جَهَدٌ

ومُستجارٌ فلا خوفٌ ولا فَرَقُ

A place to seek bounty's rain: no poverty, no hardship,

And a refuge: no fear, no terror,

ومشهدٌ ليس فيه من هوىً جَنَفٌ

ولا يُطاشُ به طيشٌ ولا خُرُقُ

And an assembly with no injustice born of caprice,

Nor is recklessness or folly let run wild there.

لا يألف الحِقْدُ مَغْنىً من مساكنِهِ

ولا يُلَبِّثُ في أبياتِهِ الحَنَقُ

Rancor finds no abode among his dwellings,

Nor does wrath linger in his houses.

قد قلتُ للقومِ لم يخشوا صَريمَتَهُ

وربّما خاب بغياً بعضُ مَنْ يَثِقُ

I have said to the people who did not fear his resolve—

And sometimes those who feel secure fail through their aggression—

حذارِ من غَفَلاتِ اللّيث يَخْدَرُ في

رأي العيونِ وفي تاموره النَّزَقُ

Beware the lion's seeming heedlessness: he rests in his lair,

As eyes judge it, while impetuous rage fills his heart.

يُغضِي كأنَّ عليه من كرىً سِنَةً

وإنّما حشُوه التّسهيدُ والأَرَقُ

He half-closes his eyes as though overtaken by drowsy sleep,

Yet he is filled only with wakefulness and sleeplessness.

ولا تراه وإنْ طال المِطالُ به

إلّا مُكِبّاً على الأوصال يعترِقُ

Nor do you see him, though the delay be long,

Except bent over limbs, gnawing them bare.

أوْ مِن ضئيلٍ كجُثمانِ الفظيعِ له

في كلّ ما ذَرَّ نجمٌ أوْ هوى صَعِقُ

Or beware a slender creature, its body like a fearsome beast's, whose

Deadly strike comes whenever a star rises or falls.

أُرَيْقِطٌ غيرَ أرفاغٍ نَجَوْنَ كما

مسّ الفتى من نواحي جلده البَهَقُ

A little speckled creature, save patches left untouched, just as

White blemishes touch a youth on parts of his skin.

تراه في القيظِ مُلتفّاً بسَخْبَرَةٍ

كأنّما هو في تدويره طبَقُ

You see it in summer's heat coiled around a sakhbara shrub,

As though in its roundness it were a platter.

فاِفخَرْ فما الفخرُ إِلّا ما خُصصتَ به

وفخرُ غَيرك مكذوبٌ ومُختَلَقُ

So take pride: pride lies only in what you were uniquely granted,

And the pride of others is false and fabricated.

فالمجدُ وَقْفٌ على دارٍ حللتَ بها

وما عداك فشيءٌ منك مُستَرَقُ

For glory is an endowment for the house where you have settled,

And whatever lies beyond you is something stolen from you.

وَاِسعَدْ بِذا العيد والتّحويلِ إنّهما

توافقا والسّعودُ الغُرُّ تتَّفقُ

And rejoice in this feast and the year's turning, for they

Have coincided, and radiant good fortunes align.

عيدانِ هذا به فِطْرُ الصّيامِ وذا

زار البسيطةَ فيه الوابلُ الغَدَقُ

Two feasts: in this the fast is broken, while in that

The earth was visited by an abundant downpour.

وقتٌ به السّعدُ مقرونٌ ومُلتبسٌ

وطالعٌ وَسْطَه التوفيقُ مُرتِفقُ

A time to which good fortune is bound and entwined,

And an ascendant in whose midst success reclines at ease,

وليلةٌ صقل التحويلُ صبغتَها

فإنّما هي للسَّاري بها فَلَقُ

And a night whose hue the year's turning has burnished,

So that to the traveler through it, it is only daybreak.

ومن رأى قبل أنْ ضوّأتَ ظُلمَتَهُ

ليلاً له في الدّآدي منظرٌ يَقَقُ

And who, before you illuminated its darkness, had seen

A night appearing pure white in the month's last dark nights?

ضاقَ القَريضُ عن اِستيفاء فضلك يا

ربَّ القريض وعَيَّتْ ألسُنٌ ذُلُقُ

Poetry is too narrow to encompass all your merit, O

Master of poetry, and fluent tongues have faltered.

وإنّما نشكر النُّعمى وإِنْ عظمتْ

فكم أُناسٍ بما أُولُوهُ ما نطقوا

We only give thanks for bounty, however great,

For how many people have said nothing of what they were granted!

فَاِسلَمْ ودُمْ فزِنادُ الملك وارِيةٌ

وكلُّ مختلفٍ في الخلقِ مُتّسِقُ

So stay safe and endure: the fire-sticks of kingship are alight,

And all that differs in creation is in harmony.

وعشْ كما شئتَ عمراً ما لنائبةٍ

به محالٌ ولا فيه لها طُرُقُ

And live, as you wish, a lifetime in which no calamity

Has lodging, nor any paths within it.