هلا نظرت إلى الكئيب الواله — Abdul Ghafar Al Akhras

هَلاّ نَظَرْتَ إلى الكئيب الوالِهِ

وسأَلْتَه مُسْتكشفاً عن حالِهِ

Will you not look at the grieving, love-distraught one,

And ask him, seeking to discover his condition?

أَودى بمهجته هواك ولم يَدَعْ

منه الضَّنى إلاَّ رسوم خياله

Love of you has destroyed his soul, nor has

Wasting left of him anything but his phantom's outlines.

الله في كبد تذوب ومدمع

أهرَقْتَ صَوْبَ مصُونه ومذاله

For God's sake, spare a melting liver and a tearful eye,

Whose guarded and freely shed tears you have poured out in torrents.

وحشاشة تورى عليك وناظر

ممَّن دعا لوبالها ووباله

And a remnant of life burning for you, and a watching eye

Of one who has called down ruin upon it and himself.

أتظُنُّه يسلو هواك على النَّوى

تالله ما خطر السُّلُوُّ بباله

Do you think he can forget his love for you despite separation?

By God, forgetting has never crossed his mind.

عذراً إليك فلو بدا لك ما به

ما كنتَ إلاَّ أنتَ من عذَّاله

Pardon me; if what ails him were plain to you,

You yourself would be but one of his reproachers.

وَيْلي من الحيِّ المراق له دمي

في غاب ضيغمه كناس غزاله

Woe to me because of the tribe for whom my blood is shed:

In its lion's thicket lies its gazelle's lair.

هذا يصول بطرفه وبقَدِّه

صولات ذاك برمحه ونصاله

This one strikes with his gaze and his stature,

Like that one's assaults with his spear and blades.

من كلِّ معتقل قناة قوامه

والطَّعنُ كلُّ الطَّعنِ من عسَّاله

Each one cradling the spear of his stature,

And all the thrusting comes from his quivering spear.

رامٍ يسدِّدُ سَهْمَه ويريشه

أَحشايَ من أَغراض وقع نباله

An archer who aims his arrow and feathers it;

My entrails are among the targets his arrows strike.

مرَّت ممسَّكة الصّبا فتنفَّست

عن ورد وجنته ومسكة خاله

The musk-perfumed east wind passed and breathed

Of his cheek's roses and his mole's musk.

ولكم جرى بيني وبين رضابه

ما كانَ عند السكر من جرياله

And how often there passed between me and his mouth's nectar

What came of his crimson wine in drunkenness.

لا تعذلنَّ على الهوى أهل الهوى

ودع المشوق كما علمت بحاله

Do not reproach the people of love for loving,

And leave the yearning lover be—you know his plight.

أمَّا رحيل تصبُّري وتجلُّدي

فغداةَ جدّ الرّكب في ترحاله

As for the departure of my patience and fortitude,

It was the morning the caravan hastened on its journey.

إنْ تنشدا قلبي وعهدكما به

صاع العزيز فإنَّه برحاله

If you two seek my heart, which you knew as

Al-ʿAzīz's measuring cup, it is among his baggage.

يا أيُّها الحادي أما بك رأْفةً

بالرّكب منحطّ القوى لكلاله

O camel-driver, have you no compassion

For the caravan, its strength brought low by fatigue?

عجت المطيّ لمنزلٍ مستوبلٍ

حتَّى وَقَفْتُ به على أطلاله

I turned the riding camels toward an unwholesome dwelling,

Until I stood there beside its ruins.

ولقد سأَلتَ فما أجابك رَبْعه

فعلامَ تُكثِرُ بعدَها بسؤاله

Indeed you questioned it, but its dwelling gave you no answer;

Why, then, persist in questioning it after that?

سحب النَّسيمُ على ثراك إذا سرى

أرَجاً يفوح المسك من أذياله

The breeze, when it passed by night, trailed over your soil

A fragrance, with musk wafting from its trailing hems.

يا دارَنا وسقاك من صوب الحيا

ما إنْ يصوب الرّيَّ صبّ سجاله

O our dwelling, may the rain's downpour water you,

Its pouring buckets bringing a thorough drenching.

سقياً لعهدك بالغميم وإنْ مضى

وتصرَّمَتْ أوقاته بظلاله

Rain's blessing on your time at al-Ghamīm, though it is past,

And its hours, with its shades, have come to an end.

قد كنتُ أَعلمُ أنَّ عيشك لم يدم

وبَصُرْتُ قبل دوامه بزواله

I knew that life with you would not endure,

And before it could endure, I foresaw its passing.

قستُ الأُمور بمثلها فعَرَفْتُها

ولقد يُقاس الشَّيء في أمثاله

I measured things against their like and understood them;

Indeed, a thing is measured by its counterparts.

وتَقَلُّبي في النائبات أباحني

نَظَراً إلى غاياته ومآله

And my passage through calamities has granted me

A view of its ultimate ends and outcome.

أنَّى تفوزُ بما تُحاولُ همَّتي

والدَّهر مُلْتَفِتٌ إلى أنذاله

How can my ambition win what it strives for,

While Time turns its attention to its basest men?

وأَرى المُهذَّبَ في الزَّمان معذَّباً

في النَّاس في أقواله وفعاله

I see the refined man tormented in this age,

Among people, in his words and deeds.

لا كانَ هذا الدَّهر من مُتمرِّدٍ

ماذا يلاقي الحرُّ من أهواله

May this Time be no more—what a rebel!

What terrors the noble man endures at its hands!

سَعِدَ الشَّقيُّ بعيشه في جهله

وأخو الكمال معذَّبٌ بكماله

The wretch lives happily in his ignorance,

While the man of perfection is tormented by his perfection.

وأنا الَّذي قهر الزَّمان بصبره

جلداً على الأَرزاء من أنكاله

And I am he who conquered Time with his patience,

Steadfast amid the calamities brought by its fetters.

ما زلت ندب الأَكرمين وإنْ يكنْ

قلَّ الكريمُ النَّدبُ في أجياله

I have remained the gallant among the noblest, though

The generous, gallant man has grown rare in its generations.

لله دَرُّ أبي جميل إنَّه

بَهَرَ العقول جميلُهُ بجماله

God bless Abū Jamīl! Indeed,

His beneficence has dazzled minds with its beauty.

جَبَلٌ منيعٌ لا منال لفخره

قَصُرَتْ يد الآمال دون مناله

An impregnable mountain, his glory beyond all reach;

The hand of hope falls short of reaching him.

لا تعدلنَّ به الأَنام بأَسرِها

شتَّان بين تلوله وجباله

Do not set all humankind equal to him;

How far apart are its hills and mountains!

فَلَكٌ تَدورُ به شموسُ مناقبٍ

يُشْرِقْنَ بين جماله وجلاله

A celestial sphere where suns of virtues revolve,

Shining amid his beauty and majesty.

فَسَلِ النُّجومَ الزّهرَ وهي طوالعٌ

هلْ كُنَّ غير خلاله وخصاله

Ask the bright stars as they rise:

Were they anything but his traits and qualities?

متوقّلٌ جبل الأُبوَّة لم يزلْ

في القُلَّة القعساء وطء نعاله

Ascending the mountain of ancestry, he has ever kept

The tread of his sandals on its lofty, impregnable summit.

فمَضَتْ عزائمه على آماله

وقَضَتْ مكارمه على أمواله

His resolves have gone beyond his hopes,

And his generosity has exhausted his wealth.

طود توقّره الحلومُ وباذخٌ

لا يطمع الحدثان في زلزاله

A mountain weighted with wisdom, a towering peak

That Time's upheavals cannot hope to shake.

حسبُ المكارم أنَّه من أَهْلِها

من بعد أَصحاب النّبيّ وآله

Enough for noble deeds that he belongs to their company,

After the Prophet's companions and his family.

أَصْبَحْتُ أَعذر من يتيه بمدحه

عذر المليح بتيهه ودلاله

I have come to excuse whoever exults in praising him,

As a beauty is excused for pride and coquetry.

فكأَنَّما اغْتَبَقَ القريضُ بذكره

كأْس الشّمول تَرَقْرَقَتْ بشماله

It is as though poetry, at his mention, has drunk at evening

A cup of wine that shimmered in its left hand.

يرتاح للجدوى فيطرب أَنْ يُرى

وَهَّاب غرّ المال قبل سؤاله

He delights in giving and rejoices to be seen

Freely giving the finest wealth before anyone asks him.

وإذا انتقدت بني الزَّمان وَجَدْتَه

رَجُلَ الزَّمان وواحداً برجاله

If you scrutinize the sons of the age, you find him

The man of the age, unique among its men.

هو شرعة الظَّامي إذا اتَّقَدَ الظَّما

أَظما ولم أَفْقِدْ نَميرَ زلاله

He is the thirsty one's watering-place when thirst blazes;

Shall I thirst when I have not lacked his wholesome, clear water?

وأنا الغريقُ من الجميل بزاخر

يكفي القليل النزر من أوشاله

And I am drowned in a surging sea of kindness,

Even a tiny, scant portion of whose trickles would suffice.

في كلِّ ليلٍ حالكٍ من حادث

إنِّي لمرتقبٌ طلوع هلاله

In every pitch-dark night brought by misfortune,

I surely await the rising of his crescent moon.

لا غروَ أَنْ أُكفى به عن غيره

هَلْ كنتُ إلاَّ من أقلِّ عياله

No wonder he spares me all need of others;

Was I ever more than one of his humblest dependants?

فكأَنَّه للناس أجمَعِها أَبٌ

يحنو لرأْفته على أطفاله

It is as though he were a father to all humankind,

Tenderly caring for his children out of compassion.

ولقد أَقولُ لمنْ أراد نِضالَه

ما أَنتَ يومَ الرَّوع من أبطاله

Indeed I say to whoever would challenge him:

You are not among its champions on the day of terror.

في كلّ معترك لمشتجر القنا

ضاقت فسيحاتُ الخُطا بمجاله

In every battlefield of interlocked spears,

Even broad spaces for strides are too narrow for his sweep.

كالعارضِ المنهلِّ يومَ نواله

والصَّارم المنسلّ يوم نزاله

Like a pouring raincloud on the day he bestows,

And a drawn, keen sword on the day he fights.

بأَبي القَؤول الفاعل القرم الَّذي

تجنى ثمار الصّدق من أقواله

My father be ransom for the eloquent man of action, the noble chief

From whose words the fruits of truth are harvested.

إنِّي نَعِمْتُ بجاهه وبماله

تَعسَ البخيل بجاهه وبماله

I have lived in ease through his standing and his wealth;

May the miser be wretched with his standing and his wealth!

شَمِلَتْني الأَلطاف منه بساعةٍ

قبَّلْتُ ظهرَ يمينه وشماله

His kindly favors encompassed me in the hour

I kissed the backs of his right and left hands.

لا زالَ يُقْبِلُ بالعطاء عليَّ من

أفضاله أبداً ومن إقباله

May he ever turn to me with gifts from

His bounty, forever, and from his favor.

متتابع النعماء جلَّ مآربي

فيه ومعظم ثروتي من ماله

Unceasing in blessings; most of my hopes

Lie in him, and most of my wealth comes from his wealth.

ومحمِّلي بالفضل شكراً سرَّني

أنِّي أكونُ اليوم من حمَّاله

He loads me with gratitude through his bounty; it gladdens me

That today I am among his burden-bearers.

عقلَ القريض لسانه عن غيره

ورأى لساني فيه حلَّ عقاله

Poetry has fettered its tongue from speaking of anyone else,

And my tongue has found in him the loosening of its tether.

والفضل يعرفه ذووه وإنَّما

عَرفَ الفتى من كانَ من أشكاله

Merit is known to its possessors; only

One of a man's peers can know the man.

نسجت يداه من الثناء ملابساً

لا تنسج الدُّنيا على منواله

His hands have woven garments of praise;

The world does not weave to his pattern.