صبرا ولو فجع الهدى بالهادي — Wadih Akl

صبراً ولو فجع الهدى بالهادي

ليس الفناء على الخلود بعاد

Patience, though Al-Huda—“Guidance”—is bereaved of its guide.

Death is no separation from immortality.

ما كان من صنع النفوس فانه

يبقى ولو سلت من الأجساد

What is wrought by souls

Endures, even when they are drawn from their bodies.

وبه الخلود ولا خلود بغيره

للمرء من مال ومن أولاد

Through it comes immortality; without it there is none

For anyone, through wealth or offspring.

ومتى استقل مريده يوماً به

لاقى المنية وهي خير مراد

And when its seeker one day gains it,

He meets death, the best of desired ends.

والموت نوم يستلذ به الألى

لم يألفوا في العيش غير جهاد

And death is a sleep enjoyed by those

Who have known nothing in life but struggle.

يا أيها الباكي حيال موسد

لم يهو قبل اليوم فوق وساد

O you who weep before one laid upon a pillow,

Who never before today had lain upon a pillow,

لا تقلق الغافي فمن سهر الليا

لي لا يرى دعة بغير رقاد

Do not disturb the sleeper: whoever has kept vigil through the

Nights finds no repose without sleep.

خفف بكاءك فهي أول هجعة

يحظى بها نعوم بعد سهاد

Lessen your weeping: this is the first slumber

Naoum has enjoyed after sleeplessness.

لا تبك من لم يجر مدمع عينه

حيناً ولو كحلتها بقتاد

Do not weep for one whose eye never shed tears

Ever, even had you lined it with thorns for kohl.

لا تبك من كره البكاء لانه

وهن وليس الوهن في الآساد

Do not weep for one who hated weeping because it is

Weakness, and weakness is not found in lions.

هجر العرين وكان شبلاً واجتوى

الوادي وظل بروحه في الوادي

He left the den while still a cub, and grew averse to

The valley, yet remained in the valley in spirit.

وأتى بلاداً لا تعيش ليوثها

معقودة الأعناق بالأوتاد

He came to a land whose lions do not live

With their necks bound to stakes.

ملأ الفضاء زئيره فتنكبت

عن قومه الارزاء وهي كوادي

His roar filled the sky, and calamities turned aside

From his people, grievous though they were.

لولاه لم يطلع على لبنان بع

د الحرب ميمون من الأعياد

Without him, there would not have dawned over Lebanon, after

The war, an auspicious feast day.

قد راح داعية إلى انقاذه

تحت القساطل والبنود ينادي

He went forth as an advocate for its rescue,

Calling out beneath clouds of battle-dust and banners.

يتلو على الحلفاء نص عهودهم

كالند يقرأها على انداد

Reciting to the allies the text of their pledges,

As an equal reads them to his peers.

ما جاءهم مستجدياً لبلاده

بل جاء مدرعاً بحق بلاد

He did not come to them begging for his country,

But came armored in a country's right.

لما دعوا لباهم بصوارم

ارزية نفرت من الأغماد

When they called, he answered them with keen swords

Of cedar, leaping from their sheaths.

وأراهم الوطن الذي تركوه دا

ئلة عليه دولة الأوغاد

He showed them the homeland they had left,

With the villains' state holding sway over it.

وتخلفوا عنه فكانت نكبة

عمياء غادرت الربوع بوادي

They held back from it, and a catastrophe ensued—

Blind, leaving the homesteads wastelands.

كم عنتر فجعت به عبلى وكم

كعب اصيب به فؤاد سعاد

How many an Antar has Abla mourned, and how many a

Ka'b has left Suad's heart stricken.

لولا المرؤة وهي لبنانية

لم ينبلج فلق الصباح لغاد

Were it not for chivalry—and it is Lebanese—

Dawn would not break for one setting forth early;

ولما رأيت الأرز عاد إليه سا

جعه ولا سال النمير لصاد

Nor would you see the cedar regain its cooing

Bird, nor pure water flow for the thirsty.

هي نهضة مردية احيا بها

نعوم كل مفاخر الأجداد

It was a death-dealing resurgence through which

Naoum revived all the glories of his forefathers.

خلعت على لبنان من دنياه ثو

ب العيد اشهب بعد ثوب حداد

From his life it clothed Lebanon in a

Gray-white festival robe, after the garb of mourning.

وابى فتاها ان تنام عيونه

فأقام للحدثان بالمرصاد

Its young champion refused to let his eyes sleep,

So he stood on watch against time's calamities.

عرفت به باريس أول زورة

حراً يصارع طاغي استعباد

At his first visit, Paris recognized in him

A free man wrestling with the tyranny of enslavement.

ورأت به بالأمس اشرف عامل

يعني باصلاح ودرء فساد

And yesterday it saw in him the noblest worker,

Devoted to reform and warding off corruption.

متكبداً ما يقصم الأصلاب من

هم ويصدع أصلب الأكباد

Bearing such spine-breaking

Care as cleaves the stoutest livers.

حتى دهاه الموت مغتالاً ولم

يصرعه إلا في مجال جلاد

Until death struck him as an assassin, and did not

Lay him low except upon a field of combat.

فكأنما لبنان زلزل فوق با

ريس وألقى أعظم الأطواد

It was as though Lebanon had quaked above

Paris and cast down its mightiest mountains.

وكأنما لبنان يوم نعيه

غاد على الدنيا بيوم ننادي

And as though Lebanon, on the day his death was announced,

Came upon the world with a day when we cry out.

كدرت موارده وحر نسيمه

وهوت سواجعه على الأعواد

Its water sources grew turbid, its breeze turned hot,

And its cooing birds fell upon the boughs.

والمشرق العربي ضج لدولة

عربية مفجوعة بعماد

And the Arab East cried out for a state,

Arab, and bereaved of its pillar.

هي لوعة في وائل من بعد سح

بان وفي ذبيان بعد زياد

It is the anguish of Wa'il after

Sahban, and of Dhubyan after Ziyad.

ومناحة للضاد في أفيائها

من سفح لبنان إلى بغداد

And a lament for the tongue of ḍād beneath its shade,

From Lebanon's slopes to Baghdad.

لا غرو فالبند الذي نكلت به

الدهياء من أعلى بنود الضاد

No wonder, for the banner struck down by

Dire calamity was among the loftiest banners of ḍād.

يا من رأى الدنيا تضيق على مطا

محه فحلق فوق سبع شداد

O you who saw the world grow too narrow for

Your ambitions, and soared above seven mighty heavens,

ما مت مغترباً وأنت هداك ملء

الخافقين بنوره الوقاد

You did not die an exile, for your guidance fills

The East and West with its blazing light.

قد عشت في الوطنين ذا أهل تع

ز بطارف من نعمة وتلاد

You lived in both homelands with kin, honored

With blessings newly gained and inherited.

وأجزت للرواد روضك نجعة

وتركت وردك شرعة الوراد

You opened your garden to pasture-seekers for grazing,

And left your water a drinking place for all who came.

فعلى العواري من ضيعك بردة

وعلى الغوارث من يديك أيادي

Thus the naked have a cloak from your estates,

And the hungry have gifts from your hands.

وعلى الصحافة من يراعك مسحة

دموية مرسومة بمداد

And journalism bears from your pen a touch

Of blood, traced in ink.

ولكل حرف من بيانك في الهدى

معنى يسيل به نجيع فؤاد

And every letter of your eloquence in Al-Huda

Holds a meaning through which a heart's lifeblood flows.

انت الشهيد وليس أكرم منك اب

طال لنا ماتوا على الأعواد

You are the martyr; no nobler than you are

Our heroes who died upon the gallows.

نم يا حبيبي فالمقابر وحدها

تخلو من الأعداء والحساد

Sleep, my beloved, for the graves alone

Are free of enemies and the envious.