ألما على لومي وجدا مجددا — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

ألِّما على لَوْمي وجدًّا مُجَدَّداً

فإنِّي لأدري ما الضلال وما الهدى

Come, you two, to reproach me, and be earnest anew;

For I surely know what error is and what guidance is.

فمن مبلغُ السلوان عنِّي بأنني

فَنيتُ وشوقي لا يزال مُخَلَّدا

Who, then, will tell consolation on my behalf that I

Have perished, while my longing remains immortal?

عذولي انتصاح منك لا أستفيده

ومن عدَّه عدلاً فقد جار واعتدى

My reproacher, accepting your counsel brings me no benefit.

Whoever reckons it just has wronged and transgressed.

وما كانَ أدرى بالذي قد دَرَيْتُه

وأخطأ ذاك العذل لما تعمّدا

Nor did he know better what I have known;

That reproach missed its mark when he deliberately aimed it.

أُعَلِّل نفسي بالعُذَيب وكلَّما

أرَدْتُ به إطفاءَ وَجدي تَوَقَّدا

I console myself with al-ʿUdhayb, and whenever

I seek through it to quench my passion, it blazes.

خليليَّ ضاع القلبُ هل تعرفانه

مشوق فؤادي عندما رحلوا فدى

My two friends, my heart is lost—do you recognize it?

My heart is yearning, a ransom when they departed.

وما أسفي إلاَّ على عُمْر مغرم

قضاه ولكن في تبعدكم سُدى

My sorrow is only for a lover's lifetime,

Which he spent, but wasted in your estrangement.

ولم تدر أجفاني بكم سنة الكرى

وما زال طرفي في هواكم مسهدا

My eyelids have known no drowsiness of sleep because of you;

My gaze remains sleepless in its love for you.

وآهٍ على يوم قضى الأنس نحبه

توسَّد عرفان الهوى إذ توسدا

Ah, for the day when companionship met its death;

It pillowed itself on the knowledge of love as it lay down.

ليالي فيها العيش كانَ اخضراره

رقيق الحواشي بالمطالب أوردا

Nights in which life's greenness was

Tender at the edges, rosy with wishes.

أخلاّي كم جاد الزمان بنَيْلها

وهل كانَ طرف الدهر عنهنّ أرمدا

My friends, how often time generously granted them!

Was time's eye bleary, turned away from them?

وأوْرَدَنا صفوَ المنى فكأنَّه

على وجنة الأيام كانَ تورَّدا

It brought us to drink the purity of wishes, as though it

Were a rosy blush upon the cheek of days.

قسا قلبكم عني ولا غرو حيث لي

حظوظٌ تعيد الماءَ إذ ذاك جلمدا

Your heart hardened toward me—no wonder, since mine are

Fortunes that turn water, at such times, to solid stone.

وما كنتُ لولا الحظّ أحظى لأنَّني

قدَحْتُ زناد الجدّ فيكم فأصلدا

But for fortune, I would gain no favor, for I

Struck the flint of earnest effort for you, but it gave no spark.

تمادى مداكم استمرَّ على الجفا

وقد كاد أن يقضي مداكم على المدى

Your distance lengthened, persisting in estrangement;

Your distance nearly put an end to distance itself.

ومَن لعليل أنحفَ السقمُ جسمه

تردّى ولكن من ضنى وجده ردا

Who will care for an ailing man whose body sickness has wasted,

Clad, but in a cloak of his passion's wasting pain?

وإنَّ اصطباري بعد طول بعادكم

دعا جلداً منه يبين التجلدا

My endurance, after your long absence,

Called forth a fortitude from which steadfastness becomes clear.

أعيدا لها ذكر الديار لعلها

تبلّغني تلك المعاهد مقصدا

Recall the dwellings to her, you two, so perhaps she

Will bring me to those familiar haunts as my destination.

ولما أتَتْ تلك الطلول ورسمها

غدت تشتكي شكوى الفراق كما غدا

When she reached those ruins and their trace,

She began lamenting separation, just as he did.

أُنادي الحمى بالنوح عن ساكن الحمى

فيا حبّذا لو أنَّه يسمع الندا

I call to the sanctuary, weeping for the sanctuary's dweller;

How welcome it would be if he could hear the call!

تكرُّ به الأشواق من كلّ جانب

إذا كرر الذكرى لديه ورددا

Longings assail him from every side

Whenever he repeats remembrance to himself and reiterates it.

وما مر بالجرعاء إذ عاد ذكره

أعاد عليه وَجْدَه فتجددا

Whenever he passed al-Jarʿaʾ and its memory returned,

It brought his passion back upon him, and it was renewed.

بياض محيّا ذلك العيش بعدكم

فما زال ذاك الوجه أغبَر أسودا

The whiteness of that life's countenance, after you left—

That face has remained dust-gray and black.

رأى البين مجموعاً على القرب شملنا

فبدَّده منّا النوى فتبدَّدا

Separation saw our union gathered in closeness;

Distance scattered our union, and it fell apart.

شذا ورد ذاك الوصل من روض قربكم

هزار اشتياقي كلما هب غردا

The fragrance of the rose of that union, from the garden of your nearness—

Whenever it wafted, the nightingale of my longing sang.

ونشواتكم ما قد أفاق ولا ارعوى

غدا مثل ما أمسى وأمسى كما غدا

By your raptures, he has neither sobered nor restrained himself;

Morning finds him as evening left him, and evening as morning found him.

وقد جاب وعر الشوق في بيد هجركم

ومن زاد تقواه عن العزل زوّدا

He has crossed longing's rugged terrain in the deserts of your estrangement,

And from the stores of his piety he took provision against exclusion.

أضِلُّ فأُهدى في هَواكم وينثني

إليَّ هوىً يَهدي عياناً ويهتدى

I stray, then am guided in my love for you, and there returns

To me a love that visibly guides and is itself guided.

رشاد عبيد الله للحقّ إنَّه

سنا نور رشدٍ فيه يستأنس الهدى

ʿUbayd Allah's guidance is toward truth; he is

The brilliance of a guiding light in which guidance finds solace.

درى كل علم في الوجود وجوده

ولم تدر يمناه سوى السيف والندى

His very being knew every science in existence,

Yet his right hand has known only the sword and generosity.

يحل عقود المشكلات برأيه

إذا أشكل المعنى الدقيق وعقدا

He unties the knots of difficulties through his judgment

When the subtle meaning grows obscure and knotted.

وأحيا دروس العلم في علم درسه

بدت فيه آثار الفضائل مذ بدا

He revived the lessons of learning through knowledge he studied;

Signs of virtue appeared in him as soon as he appeared.

لعمرك فليفخر على السؤدد امرؤ

يرى السؤددَ العلياءَ مجداً وسؤددا

By your life, let a man boast above nobility,

Who sees lofty nobility as glory and lordship.

وأفصحَ من نهج البلاغة منطقاً

تخرّ له الأقلام في الطرس سجّدا

More eloquent in speech than Nahj al-Balagha,

Pens fall prostrate before him upon the page.

به استسهلوا حزن العلوم ووعرها

وأيسرُ شيء عنده ما تشدّدا

Through him they found learning's rough and rugged ground easy;

What grows difficult is the easiest thing for him.

إذا أضْرَمَتْ أعداؤه نارَ باطلٍ

أثار عليها الحقَّ يوماً فأخمدا

When his enemies kindle the fire of falsehood,

He raises truth against it one day and quenches it.

فلو رام أسباب السماء لنالها

وسار بمضمار المرام وما كدا

Were he to seek the pathways of heaven, he would reach them,

And travel the racecourse of his aim without tiring.

وما مال إلاَّ للعبادة والتقى

كأنْ عنه شيطان الوساوس صُفِّدا

He inclines only toward worship and piety,

As though the devil of whisperings were chained away from him.

وما هو إلاَّ قطب دائرة العلى

إمامٌ لأرباب الطريقة مقتدى

He is the pole of the circle of sublimity,

An imam whom the masters of the Way follow.

تنيل نوال اليمن يمناه بسطها

وما مَدَّ إلاَّ نحو خالقه يدا

His outstretched right hand bestows the bounty of good fortune,

Yet he stretches a hand only toward his Creator.

ولم تبلغ الآمال في غير ماله

وفي غير ذاك العذب لا ينقع الصدى

Hopes find fulfillment only in his wealth,

And thirst is quenched only by that sweet water.

ألا يا سحاباً أغْرَقَ الوفدَ غيثه

لظامي الندى كانت أياديه موردا

O cloud whose rain drowned the visiting throng,

His benefactions were a watering place for one thirsting for bounty.

فلو حاول المجد الأثيل مقامه

لحاول ذاك المجد بالمجد أمجدا

If deep-rooted glory sought his station,

That glory, through glory, would seek one more glorious.

مكارم طبع في علاه ظهورها

وكان لهاتيك المكارم موعدا

Innate noble qualities reveal themselves in his loftiness;

He was a meeting place for those noble qualities.

وأنْبتَّ بالتقوى بأحسن منبتٍ

وقد طاب أصلاً مثلما طاب محتدا

You made them grow through piety in the finest soil,

And his root was noble, just as his lineage was noble.

يقضي لعمر الله صوماً نهاره

ويحيي لياليه دعاً وتعبُّدا

By God's life, he spends his daylight fasting,

And keeps his nights alive with prayer and devotion.

ولما ادَّعى ما إنْ أتى الدهر مثله

فأتبع فيما يدّعيه وقلدا

When he claimed what time had never brought the like of,

He was followed in what he claimed and emulated.

وأشرع للشرع الحنيف مناهجاً

قواعدَ دين الله أضحى ممهدا

He opened pathways for the upright Sacred Law,

Laying firm the foundations of God's religion.

تصرّفه في باطن الحال باطن

إلى الرشد أصحاب الحقيقة أرشدا

His action in the inward state is hidden;

He guided the people of spiritual truth toward right guidance.

ومتّبع شرعاً لما هو ذاهبٌ

ومَذْهَبُه ينحو طريقة أحمدا

He follows the Law in what he pursues,

And his school inclines toward Ahmad's way.

وما كانَ إلاَّ حينَ يُسأل رده

بأسرع من حاك يجاوبه الصدى

Only when asked does his answer come

Faster than a speaker is answered by the echo.

وأدرك ممن فضله يملأ الفضا

تعد أياديه بألسنة العدى

More discerning than one whose merit fills the expanse,

His benefactions are counted by the tongues of his enemies.

ولله فيما قد أنالك حكمة

فأعْدَمَ فيك الجهلَ والعلمَ أوجدا

God has a wisdom in what He has bestowed on you;

He made ignorance vanish in you and brought knowledge into being.

سَعَيْتَ ويجدي السعد بالسعي ربه

وأصبَحتَ في صدر السعادة أسعدا

You strove, and good fortune benefits its possessor through striving;

In the bosom of good fortune you became most fortunate.

فيا زهر روض أنتم زهر كمِّهِ

لقد ماس غصن الفخر فيكم سيّدا

O garden blossoms, you are the flowers in its calyx;

The branch of pride has swayed among you as a lord.

ظهرتم ولا يخفى من الشمس نورها

وحادي انتشار الذكر في ذكركم حدا

You have appeared; the sun's light cannot be hidden,

And the camel-driver of spreading fame chanted at your mention.

إذا ما مضى منكم عن المجد سيّدٌ

أقام لكم في موقف الفخر سيّدا

Whenever a lord from among you passes away from glory,

He establishes a lord for you in the station of pride.

وذكرك حتَّى يقضي الله أمره

على طول ما طال الزمان تأبَّدا

Your remembrance, until God decrees His command,

Has become everlasting for as long as time endures.

أبرَّتْ على ما تدعيه يَمينُها

مَتى تقسم الأيام إنَّك مفردا

Its oath surpasses what it claims,

Whenever the days swear that you are peerless.

ولما دعاك الأصلُ يوماً لفرعه

وَرَدْتَ فما أبقيتَ للناس موردا

When the root one day summoned you to its branch,

You came to water, leaving no watering place for others.

رواة المعالي عن جنابك أخبروا

حديثاً عن العلياء صحّ وأسْنِدا

The transmitters of high deeds reported from your presence

A report of loftiness, authenticated and duly attributed.

ويورد عنك المدح والحمد كلّه

كمالك يروينا كما لك أوردا

All praise and acclaim are related of you;

Your perfection gives us drink, as it brought drink to you.

غياث وغوث لا يجارى جواده

وملجأ من آويت كنت ومنجدا

Succor and aid, whose steed none can rival,

You were a refuge and rescuer for those you sheltered.

ونلت بتوفيق العناية رتبة

عدوَّك يلقى دونها مورد الردى

Through providence's favor you attained a rank

Beneath which your enemy meets the watering place of death.

وحسب الَّذي عاداك فيما يرومه

جعلت عليه ليل هجرك سرمدا

Enough for the one who opposed you in what he seeks:

You made the night of your estrangement eternal for him.

على رغم من عاداك قلت مُؤَرِّخاً

بفتوى عبيد الله لا زال يقتدى

In defiance of those who opposed you, I said as a chronogram:

May ʿUbayd Allah's fatwa forever be followed.