طار عن ايكته مغتربا

مذ رأى الأيكة صارت حطبا

He flew from his thicket into exile

when he saw the thicket turned to firewood.

بلبلٌ بغداد كانت روضه

وله دجلة كانت مشربا

A nightingale—Baghdad had been his garden,

and the Tigris his drinking place.

عربيٌّ وهو أعلى نسبٍ

لمن استعلى بان ينتسبا

An Arab—the loftiest lineage

for one who seeks distinction through descent.

قطع الدهرُ عليه سبباً

فطوى الآفاق يبغي سببا

Fate cut off his means of support,

so he crossed the horizons, seeking a means of support.

غادر الزوراءَ صباً معوزاً

وهو أغنى الناس فيها ادبا

He left al-Zawra lovesick and impoverished,

though he was the richest there in letters.

ذا عليٌّ راحلاً مرتزقا

راكباً في كلِّ هول مركبا

Here is Ali, setting out to earn his living,

riding through every terror on his way,

تاركاً هنداً على جمر الغضا

وفؤاداً عندها ملتهبا

leaving Hind on the embers of saxaul,

and a heart burning by her side.

ينتحي الأندلسَ العظمى وما

حسب الخيبة فيما حسبا

He headed toward mighty Andalusia, and never

reckoned failure among his reckonings.

رحلةً لا يقدم المرءُ علي

ها ولو صاحب فيها السلهبا

A journey no man would venture upon,

even with a swift, long-limbed steed for company.

رحلة من مشرق الأرض على

قدميه بلغته المغربا

A journey from the earth's east that, on

his two feet, brought him to the west.

ما شجاه عندما ودع بغ

داد أن يترك أماً وأبا

His grief, as he bade Baghdad farewell,

was not at leaving a mother and father.

فتنةٌ في مقلتيها للمها

بهجةٌ في الجيد منها للظبا

Her eyes held a charm to bewitch the oryx;

her neck, a beauty to delight the gazelles.

وعليٌّ شاعرٌ غضُّ الصبا

صارم ان سُمتَه الخسف نبا

And Ali was a poet in tender youth,

a keen blade that recoiled if made to bear disgrace.

وهواها كهواه دونه

شادتِ العفَّةُ حِصناً اشبا

Her love was like his; before it

chastity had raised an impenetrable fortress.

امسكوها عنه لما عجزت

يده عن مهرها فاضطربا

They withheld her from him when

his hand could not afford her dower, so he was distraught.

فنوى رحلته ملتمساً

ان يلاقي في نواه النشبا

So he resolved upon his journey, seeking

to find wealth in his exile.

فبكت هندٌ وقد ودعها

باكياً منقبضاً مكتئباً

Hind wept as he bade her farewell,

himself weeping, withdrawn and dejected.

ناشدتهُ بالهوى ان لا يروّ

عها بالبعد عنها فأبى

She implored him, by their love, not to frighten

her by going far from her; but he refused.

ويلَ هندٍ عندما فارقها

زلزل العيشُ بها وانقلبا

Alas for Hind when he left her!

Her life was shaken and turned upside down.

واقامت عمرها باكيةً

مهجةً ولت وقلباً ذهبا

She spent her lifetime weeping

for a soul departed and a heart gone away.

ومضى الشاعر في سفرته

ضارباً في كل صقع مضربا

And the poet went on with his journey,

striking out on a course through every region.

قطع الأشهر يطوي تارة

بلداً حيناً وحيناً سبسبا

He passed the months, traversing in turn

now a country, now a barren plain.

فأتى مرماه محمولاً على

أمل في فلكٍ حاكى سبا

So he reached his goal, borne upon

hope, in a sphere that rivaled Sheba.

ملكٌ كان إذا ما جاءه

مادحٌ أجرى عليه الذهبا

A king who, whenever there came to him

a praise-singer, poured gold upon him.

ومشى شاعر بغدادٍ إلى

بابه نضو رحيل متعبا

And Baghdad's poet walked to

his door, a travel-worn, exhausted wreck.

وغدا ينشده قافيةً

تمرح القفر وتجري السحبا

He began reciting to him a poem

that made the wilderness dance and set the clouds coursing.

آيةٌ في الضاد لو أنشدتها

اعجمياً لانبرى مستعربا

A marvel in the tongue of ḍād—had you recited it

to a non-Arab, he would have leapt up speaking Arabic.

هزت العاهل في سدته

فقضى في النفس منها العجبا

It stirred the monarch on his throne,

and in his soul he marveled at it.

ملكت مهجته لكنه

ملك عن له ان يلعبا

It captured his soul; yet he

was a king who had a mind to jest.

لم يجز منشدها بل رده

فمضى والنفس جاشت حربا

He did not reward its reciter, but turned him away;

so he left, his soul seething with anguish.

واتى خاناً فأحيا ليله

كاتباً في رقعة ما كتبا

He came to an inn and stayed awake through the night,

writing on a scrap of paper what he wrote.

ثم ألقى رأسه مستغرقاً

في كراه شأن نضوٍ تعبا

Then he laid down his head, sinking deep

into his slumber, like a spent and weary traveler.

نام نوماً ليس يبقي بعده

لشجيٍّ ان يعاني نصبا

He slept a sleep that leaves no room thereafter

for a sorrowing man to suffer hardship.

وأراد الملك الممدوحُ في

الغد جداً بالفتى لا لعبا

And the king he had praised intended, on

the morrow, to treat the youth in earnest, not in jest.

طلب الشاعر كي يكرمه

ويحه لم يدر من ذا طلبا

He summoned the poet to honor him;

alas for him—he did not know whom he had summoned.

ذهب الساعي إليه صارخاً

يا عليُّ انهض بلغت الأربا

The messenger went to him, crying out:

O Ali, arise! You have attained your desire!

وعليٌّ كان غصناً فذوى

وسراجاً عربياً فخبا

And Ali had been a bough, now withered,

and an Arab lamp, now gone out.

اطبق اليأس عليه فقضى

من أساه وهو في شرخ الصبا

Despair closed in upon him, and he died

of his grief, in the first bloom of youth.

وجدوا في ثوبه منظومةً

صاغها في الليل ثم انقبضا

They found a poem in his clothing;

he had fashioned it that night, then passed away.

شاكياً فيها إلى هند النوى

ناعياً طالعه منتحبا

In it he complained to Hind of separation,

bewailing his star of fortune, sobbing,

مؤثراً لو ودعته روحه

قبل ان ودع ذاك الكوكبا

wishing his soul had bidden him farewell

before he bade that star farewell.

ذلك الشاعر قد مات ولا

شاعر يألف عيشاً طيبا

That poet is dead, and no

poet knows a pleasant life.

انما المال لمن هان وما

خلق الشاعر إلا إذا إبا

Wealth is only for those who abase themselves, and no

poet is made unless he refuses abasement.

ليته كان وبغدادٌ على

عرشها فيصلها الماضي الظبى

If only he had lived while Baghdad had on

her throne her Faisal, keen of blade!

لكفاه وكفى هند النوى

وتباريح الجوى والعطبا

He would have spared him—and Hind—separation,

the torments of heartache, and ruin.

كل من في العرب لا يدعو له

خالف الحق وخان العربا

Anyone among the Arabs who does not pray for him

has defied what is right and betrayed the Arabs.