لو ألمت فأباحتني لما لها — Abn Alsaati

لو ألمَّت فأباحتني لما لها

لشفت غلَّة قلبي شفتاها

Had she visited and granted me the dark hue of her lips,

her two lips would have quenched my heart's burning thirst.

ضحكت خنساءُ يومَ المنحنى

من ولوعي وبكى لي عاذلاها

Khansa laughed that day at the bend

at my infatuation, while her two reproachers wept for me.

أيُّها اللاحي عداني صبرهُ

لا تسل ما فعلت بي مقلتاها

O reproacher, whose patience has eluded me,

do not ask what her two eyes have done to me.

كتم الفرعُ سرى أشباحها

إنما صبحُ ثناياها ثناها

Her tresses hid the night passage of her shadowy forms;

only the dawn of her front teeth turned them back.

فسقى الأشباه دمعي والحيا

قدّها والغصنَ والبرقَ وفاها

So my tears and the rain watered the likenesses:

her figure and the bough, the lightning and her mouth.

طرقت تسألني كيف الهوى

وبدور التمّ في الليل سراها

She visited by night, asking me what love was like,

with full moons as her companions through the night.

ففداها ما أباحت من دمي

وتباريح الأسى قولي فداها

May the blood she permitted to be shed ransom her,

and the agonies of sorrow; I say, 'May I ransom her!'

ضمنت ريقتها بردَ المنى

وحوت نارَ غرامي وجنتاها

Her saliva promised the cool relief of wishes,

and her two cheeks contained the fire of my passion.

فهي في الضدّين سخطٌ ورضى

عفوها يرجى كما يخشى سطاها

Thus she embodies two opposites: wrath and favor;

her pardon is hoped for just as her assault is feared.

بأبي هندٌ فأيام الصّبا

وربى نجدٍ وأنفاس صباها

May my father ransom Hind—and the days of youth,

and Najd's hills, and the breaths of its east wind!

في سبيل الحبّ دمعي والضَّنا

ودمي لو رضيتْ عني دماها

My tears and wasting sickness are for love's sake,

and my blood, if her images would be pleased with me.

يا أخلاَّي وأن شطَّ بنا

حادثُ الأيَّام عنكم وثناها

O my dear friends, though we have been driven far

from you by time's calamity, which turned the soul aside,

حبَّذا غاديةٌ شاميةٌ

حملت عنكم إلى النفس مناها

how welcome is a Syrian morning raincloud

that carried from you to the soul its wishes!

ما حداها الرعدُ إلاَّ قصَرتْ

شقّةَ الفسطاس ممدودُ خطاها

Whenever thunder urged it onward, it shortened

the distance to al-Fustas with its long-reaching strides.

وجد القطرَ سهاماً فرمى

ومن البرق سيوفاً فانتضاها

It found arrows in the raindrops and shot them,

and swords in the lightning, and drew them.

فأصابت مقلةً داميةً

وفؤاداً طال فيكم ما أتقاها

Then it struck a bleeding eye

and a heart that, for your sake, had long guarded against them.

نقلت عنكم أحاديث الصّبا

فأقرّ الله عينى من وعاها

It carried from you tales of youth;

may God gladden my eyes with whoever understood them!

بلَّغت عنكم شفاها حبَّذا

حبَّذا ما بلغت عنكم شفاها

It conveyed your message by word of mouth—how welcome!

How welcome what it conveyed from you by word of mouth!

لا تلم عيني على طول البكا

كيف لا تدمع والبينُ قذاها

Do not blame my eye for its long weeping;

how could it not shed tears, when separation is its grit?

وقليبُ القلب ما زال بهِ

فاتحاً إنسانها حتى أماها

And the heart's well has kept working within it,

opening its pupil until it filled it with water.

طال ليلي طول وجدي بكمُ

فزماني ليلةٌ مات ضحاها

My night has lengthened like my longing for you;

my time is a night whose morning light has died.

لو يسير الطيف في أثنائهِ

وهو لطيفُ أو النجمُ لتاها

If a phantom traveled through its midst,

subtle as it is—or a star—it would lose its way.

ما على ما طل دينى ولو قضى

وعلى قاتل نفسي لو وداها

What harm to him who left my debt unpaid, even if he repaid it,

and to the slayer of my soul, if he paid its blood-money?

فقرها إلاَّ إليكم مشتهى

وجميلٌ عنكمُ إلاَّ غناها

Its poverty is desired, save toward you;

and all is fair but its independence of you.

وجدت من نأيكم ما وجدت

فإلى عالمِ بثي مشتكاها

It suffered from your distance what it suffered;

so its complaint is to the One who knows my sorrow.

قسماً ما بقيت عن سلوةٍ

إنما يحمل عنها من بلاها

I swear, it has not remained apart from solace;

only one who has tried it can bear its burden.

أمر الدهرُ عليها ونهى

يأمر الحرصُ بما ينهى نهاها

Time commanded it and forbade it;

eagerness commands what its reason forbids.

دعوة الشوق لكم مسموعةٌ

فإذا ما هتفت كنتَ صداها

Longing's call to you is heard;

and whenever I call out, you are its echo.

يا أبا اليمنِ وهل منقبةٌ

خطبت قطّ فما كنت أباها

O Abu al-Yumn, was there ever a noble deed

sought in marriage whose father you were not?

يا وحيدَ الأرض لا مستثنياً

ولبدر ألتم فضلٌ لا يضاهى

O unrivaled one of the earth—I make no exception—

the full moon has a distinction beyond compare.

بكَ عزَّ الفضلُ والدهرُ معاً

وبنى العلياءِ واشتد غماها

Through you, excellence and time together gained honor,

and the edifices of glory; its roof grew strong.

لك نفسٌ لم تمتها غايةٌ

في المعالي أعجزَ الناس مطاها

You have a soul that no goal has brought to an end;

in lofty pursuits, its reach has left mankind powerless.

فإذا الأدناس كانت نصعتْ

وإذا كان الخنا اعتنَّ نقاها

Whenever stains appeared, it shone pure;

and whenever obscenity arose, its purity appeared.

من سواهُ من إذا لذنا بهِ

أقرأَ العصبة منَّا وقراها

Who but he, when we seek refuge with him,

teaches our company to recite and gives it hospitality?

جاد بالعلم وثنَّى بالنهى

ثمَّ وإلى فحبا ما لا وجاها

He was lavish with learning, then followed it with wisdom;

then he continued, bestowing wealth and standing.

فهوَ البشرى أو الماءُ الرَّوا

يرد الأسماعَ أو يلقى الشفاها

He is glad tidings, or thirst-quenching water,

reaching ears, or meeting lips.

ما أناس تخذوا النقع دُّجى

في الوغى والأنجمَ الزُّهر قناها

What men, who made battle dust a dark night

in battle, and the bright stars its spears!

فبها عن بيضة الإسلام كم

فلّ من جيشٍ وما فلّ شباها

With them, defending Islam's very core, how many

an army was routed, without blunting their points!

الغزيرون علوماً وندىً

والمنيرون وجوهاً وجباها

Abundant in knowledge and generosity,

radiant in faces and foreheads.

قسماً بالشُّمّ من آبائهِ

ما اصطباري عنهُ طوعاً بل كراها

I swear by the lofty ones among his forefathers:

my endurance apart from him is not willing, but forced.

أجدُ المصرَ إذا غاب قوى

وأرى في الناس حاشاه اشتباها

I find the city, when he is absent, a wasteland;

and among people, him excepted, I see sameness.

ومتى قال امروء أنَّ لهُ

ثانياً في نبله قال سفاها

Whenever a man says that he has

a peer in nobility, he speaks foolishly.

أصبحت جلقُ مسكاً تربها

تحت أقدامك والدرُّ حصاها

Jilliq's soil has become musk

beneath your feet, and its pebbles pearls.

واللجين المحضُ من منبتهِ

بثرى دارك لو ذاب مياها

And pure silver, from its native bed

in your home's soil, if melted, would be its waters.

فهيَ الجنَّةُ راقت مجتلىٍ

ودنا من كلّ باغٍ مجتناها

So it is Paradise, lovely to behold,

its harvest within reach of every seeker.

ضحك البرقُ لها سافرةً

حينَ حلَّت أدمعُ الغيث حباها

Lightning smiled at it, unveiled,

when rain's tears loosened its girdles.

وتهادى دوحها لمَّا شدا

مطرب القمريِّ وأخضلَّ ثراها

Its great trees swayed when there sang

the turtledoves' singer, and its soil grew moist.

مائساتٌ كالدُّمى في الحلل الـ

ـخضر تيهاً ومن الزُّهر حلاها

Swaying like statues in robes of

green, proudly, with blossoms for their ornaments.

لذّ وأديها بعيني مثلما

شغفاً قلبي المعنَّى شرفاها

Its valley delighted my eye, just as

its two heights enthralled my tormented heart.

ليَ عند البرق والريح إلى

تاجها مألكة لو بلَّغاها

I have, with lightning and wind, for

its crown a message—if only they would deliver it.

وهو البحر فراتاً فإذا

رمتُ أن أدعو لها قلت سقاها

He is a sea of fresh water; so when

I wish to pray for it, I say, 'May he water it!'

نظر الله إلى جيرونها

وهيَ الوهد وقد طالت رباها

God looked upon its Jayrun,

while it was low ground and its hills had risen high,

وإلى ديماسها وهو الدجى

فغدا شمسَ ضحى عمَّ سناها

and upon its Dimas, which was darkness;

then it became a morning sun whose radiance spread everywhere.

أظلمت صبحاً فلو طيفُ الكرى

في دجى بعدك أسرى ما اهتداها

It darkened at morning; were the phantom of sleep

to travel by night in the gloom after you, it could not find its way there.

لم تكن غيرَ مواتٍ سحبت

فوقها السَّحبُ فأحياها حياها

It was nothing but lifeless ground; there trailed

above it the clouds, and their rain revived it.

فعلى باب البريد المشتهى

وحشةٌ لو حاز نطقاً لشكاها

And at the longed-for Bab al-Barid lies

a desolation it would lament if it could speak.

ولقد أنضاهُ بينٌ بزهُ

بك أثواباً من الحسن نضاها

Separation has worn it out and robbed it

of robes of beauty owed to you, stripping them away.

تسعد الأرض وتشقى حقبةً

وكذا الدنيا توالى حالتاها

Earth is happy, and wretched for a while;

so too in the world its two states alternate.

ولئن عشتُ ومدَّت مدَّةٌ

لم يفتني شيخها لا بل فتاها

And if I live and my allotted time is extended,

I shall not miss its elder—no, rather its young man.

أن تفز عيسي فواها للسُّرى

أو يعقها عائقٌ عنهُ فآها

If my pale camels succeed, welcome to the night journey!

Or if a hindrance keeps them from him, alas!