أكرم بطيف خيالكم من زائر — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

أكْرِمْ بطيف خيالكم من زائرِ

ما زار إلاَّ مُؤْذِناً ببشائر

How noble a visitor is the phantom of your image!

It visited only to herald glad tidings.

وافى على بُعد المزار وربما

بلَّ الغليل بغائب من حاضر

It came despite the distance of the tryst, and often

Quenched a present one's longing through one absent.

والنجم يصرف للغروب عنانه

حتَّى بصرت به كليل الناظر

While the star turned its reins toward setting,

Until I saw it with a weary gaze.

وكأنَّ ضوءَ في أثر الدجى

إظهارُ حُجّةِ مسلمٍ للكافر

And light in the wake of darkness seemed

A Muslim's proof displayed to the unbeliever.

لا تحسبوا أنّي سلوت غرامكم

هجراً فبعداً للمحب الهاجر

Do not think I have forgotten my love for you

By forsaking you—away with the lover who forsakes!

جمرات ذاك الوجد حشو جوانحي

وجمال ذاك الوجه ملء نواظري

The embers of that passion fill my breast,

And the beauty of that face fills my eyes.

أعِدِ ادّكارك يوم مجتمع الهوى

إنِّي لأصبو عند ذكر الذاكر

Renew your remembrance of the day love gathered us;

I surely yearn whenever someone recalls it.

أيام نرفل بالنعيم ونصطلي

نار المدامة من عصير العاصر

The days we reveled in bliss and warmed ourselves

At the fire of wine, the juice of the presser.

ولقد ذكرت العيش وهو كأنَّما

برزت محاسنه بروض ناضر

And I recalled life, as though

Its beauties had appeared in a verdant garden.

ومليكة الأفراح في أقداحها

قد رصعت تيجانها بجواهر

And the queen of joys, within her goblets,

Had studded her crowns with jewels.

صبغت بإكسير الحياة لجينها

فكأنها ملكت صناعة جابر

She dyed her silver with the elixir of life,

As though she had mastered Jabir's art.

خلع العذار لها النزيف وبان في

جنح الظلام منادمي ومسامري

For her the drunken man cast off his bridle, and in

The depths of darkness my drinking and nightly companion appeared:

متجاهر يهفو إلى لذاته

أحبب إلى اللذات من متجاهر

Unabashed, yearning for his pleasures;

How dear to pleasures is an unabashed reveler!

ذهبت لذاذات الصبا وتصرّمت

أوقات أُنْسِكَ في الزمان الغابر

Youth's delights have vanished, and ended are

Your hours of companionship in bygone time.

وإذا امرؤ فقد الشباب فما له

في اللهو بعد مشيبة من عاذر

And when a man has lost his youth, he has

No one to excuse his revelry after his hair turns gray.

ولقد أقول لطامع برجوعها

كيف اقتناصُك للغزال النافر

And I say to one hoping for their return:

How will you capture the fleeing gazelle?

لله ما أروى بنا متلفت

يوم الفحيم بجيد أحوى الناظر

By God, how one looking back slaked our thirst,

On the day of al-Fuhaym, with a dark-eyed gazelle's neck.

والركب مرتحل بكل غريرة

تبني الكناس بغاب ليث خادر

And the caravan departed with every innocent maiden,

Making her covert in the thicket of a lion lying in its lair.

أرأيت ما فعل الوداع بمقلة

ما قرّحت بالدمع غير محاجري

Have you seen what farewell did to an eye?

Its tears have wounded no sockets but my own.

وجَرَتْ على نَسَقٍ مدامعُ عبرة

شبّهتها باللؤلؤ المتناثر

And tears of grief flowed in ordered succession;

I likened them to scattered pearls.

شيّعت هاتيك الظعون عشية

ورجعت بعدهم بصفقة خاسر

I saw those camel litters off at evening,

And returned after them with a loser's bargain.

لا كانَ يوم وداعهم من موقف

وقف المتيم فيه وقفة حائر

May the day of their farewell never have been—that scene

Where the love-bewitched stood in bewilderment.

والدمع يلحق آخراً في أوَّلٍ

والبين يرفق أوَّلاً في آخر

And tears join the last to the first,

And separation couples the first with the last.

مَن ناصري منكم على مضض الهوى

هيهات ليس على الهوى من ناصر

Who among you will help me against love's anguish?

Far from it! There is no helper against love.

لا تعذلنّ فللغرام قضية

سَدَّت عليَّ مسامعي ومناظري

Do not reproach me; love has a decree

That has sealed my ears and eyes.

يا سعد حين ذكرت شرقيّ الحمى

هل كانَ قلبي في جناحي طائر

O Sa'd, when you mentioned the east of the protected grounds,

Was my heart within a bird's two wings?

كشفت لديك سريرة أخفيتها

فعرفت ثمة باطني من ظاهري

I laid bare to you a secret I had concealed,

And there you knew my inward self from my outward appearance.

وجفا الخيال ولم يزرني بعدها

أين الخيال من الكئيب الساهر

The apparition forsook me and visited me no more afterward;

Where is the apparition for one sorrowful and sleepless?

يا أهل هذا الحي كيف تصبري

عنكم ومن لي بالفؤاد الصابر

O people of this encampment, how can I bear

Separation from you? Who can give me a patient heart?

ولقد طربت لذكركم فكأنني

بغداد يوم قدوم عبد القادر

I thrilled at the mention of you, as though I were

Baghdad on the day of Abd al-Qadir's arrival.

وافى من الشام العراق بطلعة

شِمْنا بها برق الحيا المتقاطر

He came from al-Sham to Iraq with a countenance

In which we sighted the lightning of pouring rain.

فَزَها بطلعته العراق وأهله

والروض يزهو بالسحاب الماطر

So Iraq and its people rejoiced at his appearance,

And the garden flourishes beneath rain-bearing clouds.

وتقدمته قبل ذاك بشارة

ما جاءت البشرى لها بنظائر

And before that, glad tidings preceded him;

No glad news had brought their equal.

وافى فأشرق كل فجٍّ مظلم

فيه وأحيا كل فضل داثر

He arrived, and every dark pass grew bright

There, and he revived every faded virtue.

وضفا السرور على أفاضل بلدة

سرُّوا بمحياه البهي الباهر

Joy spread over the city's worthiest men,

Who rejoiced in his splendid, dazzling face.

نعموا بوجه للنعيم نضارة

فيه وقرّت فيه عين الناظر

They delighted in a face; bliss's freshness was

In it, and the beholder's eye found comfort there.

بأغرَّ أبيضَ تنجلي بجبينه

ظلمات سجف ستائر لدياجر

In a radiant, fair one whose brow dispels

The shadows of veils and curtains of deep darkness.

يبتاع بالمال الثناء وإنَّما

في سوقه ربحت تجارة تاجر

He buys praise with wealth; indeed,

In his market a merchant's trade has prospered.

صعب على صعب الخطوب وجائر

أبداً على جور الزمان الجائر

Formidable against formidable calamities, and a tyrant

Always against the tyranny of tyrannous time.

إنْ كانَ ذا البأس الشديد فرأفة

فيه أرقّ من النسيم الحاجري

If he possesses fierce might, there is compassion

In him gentler than the breeze of al-Hajir.

حُيّيتَ ما بين الورى من قادم

ونعمت بين أكارم وأكابر

Greetings to you, a newcomer among mankind,

And may you prosper among the noble and the great.

قد زعزعت بك عن دمشق أبوَّةً

نتجت به أمُّ الزمان العاقر

You have borne fatherhood away from Damascus in your person;

The barren mother of Time gave birth to him.

وشحذت عزمك للمجيء غراره

ولرب عزم كالحسام الباتر

And you honed your resolve's edge for coming;

Indeed, many a resolve is like a cleaving sword.

وطلعت كالقمر المنير إذا بدا

زاه بأنوار المحاسن زاهر

And you rose like the shining moon when it appears,

Resplendent in the lights of beauty, radiant.

واخترتَ من بغداد أشرفَ منزلٍ

ما بين خير عصابة وأخاير

And you chose the noblest dwelling in Baghdad,

Among the best company and the finest men.

فانزل على سَعَة الوقار ورحبه

في منزل رحب وبيت عامر

So settle amid dignity's breadth and spaciousness,

In a spacious dwelling and a flourishing house.

بُنيت قواعده على ما ينبغي

من سؤدد سامي العلى ومفاخر

Its foundations were built upon what befits

High-reaching nobility and proud honors.

فلئن تعبت فبعد هذا راحة

أو قيل ما قالوا فليس بضائر

So if you have wearied, after this comes rest;

Or if what they said was said, it does no harm.

ولسوف تبلغ بعد ذاك مآرباً

ما ليس يخطر بعضها بالخاطر

And after that you will surely attain desires

Some of which do not even cross the mind.

وكفاك ربك شر كل معاند

ركب الغرور فلا لعاً للعاثر

And may your Lord shield you from every adversary's evil,

Who has mounted conceit—no recovery for the stumbler!

أبني جميلٍ إنَّني بجميلكم

ميزت بين الناس دون معاصري

O sons of Jamil, indeed, through your kindness I

Have been distinguished among people above my contemporaries.

إنِّي لأفخر فيكم فيقال لي

لله شاعر مجدهم من شاعر

I surely boast of you, and I am told:

By God, what a poet is the poet of their glory!

فلو أنَّني آتي بكل قصيدة

عذراء من غرر القصائد باكر

So even if I brought every ode,

A virgin, untouched, among the choicest odes,

وجلوتها فكأنما هي غادة

حلّيتها من مدحكم بأساور

And unveiled it as though it were a graceful maiden,

Whom I adorned with bracelets of your praise,

وإذا تناشدها الرواة حسبتها

أرواح أنفاس النسيم العاطر

And when reciters exchanged its verses, I thought it

The spirits of the fragrant breeze's breaths,

لم أقضِ حق الشكر من إحسانكم

لكن أُطاوِلُه بباع قاصر

I would not fulfill the thanks due for your kindness,

But I strive to reach it with too short an arm-span.

عذبت لديكم في الأنام مواردي

حتَّى رأيت من الغريب مصادري

With you, my watering places among mankind grew sweet,

Until I found my departures strange.

هاتيكم الأيدي الَّتي لا ينقضي

مدح الجميل لها وشكر الشاكر

Those hands of yours, for which there never ends

Praise for their kindness and the thanks of the thankful.