ليست قدوداً ولكن هذه أسل — Abn Alsaati

ليست قدوداً ولكنْ هذه أسّلٌ

وتلك بيضٌ ومن أسمائها المُقلُ

These are not slender figures, but spears;

and those are bright swords, also called eyes.

تمضي بكلّ فؤادٍ وهي مغمدةٌ

وكيف يمضي حسامٌ ليس ينتصل

They pierce every heart, though still sheathed;

and how can a sword cut without being drawn?

ظنَّ العواذل بي في حبّها صمماً

ومن عيوب الهوى أن يسمع العذل

The reproachers thought me deaf in loving her;

yet one fault of love is listening to reproach.

ولّى فؤادي فجسمي لا أنيس بهِ

ولا يردُّ جوابَ السائلِ الطَّلل

My heart departed, leaving my body companionless;

and a ruined dwelling cannot answer a questioner.

يهوى الخلافَ ولا ينفكُّ من شغفٍ

أقيم وهو مع الأظعان يرتحل

It loves opposition, never free of ardor;

I remain, while it journeys with the departing caravans.

أمسى نهاري دُجى من بعد ما حجبتْ

عني شموس ضحىّ أفلاكها الكلل

My day became darkness after they were veiled

from me—the morning suns whose spheres are canopies.

وصلُ الكواعب ظلٌّ لا دوامَ لهُ

وأي ظلٍ لجسمٍ ليس ينتقل

Union with full-breasted maidens is a shade that never lasts;

and what body's shadow does not move?

أشتاقُ هنداً ولولا أن يلامُ شجٍ

لقلتُ ما فعلتْ أيامها الأول

I yearn for Hind, and were a grieving lover not blamed,

I would ask, 'What became of her former days?'

خلتْ فلا قلبَ إلاَّ وهو مستعرٌ

أسى ولا دمعَ إلاَّ هو منهمل

They passed; no heart remains but burns

with grief, and no tear but streams.

إذ لحظُ كل غزالٍ ما بهِ خزرٌ

ولفظ كلّ عتابٍ بيننا غزل

When every gazelle's glance held no sidelong scowl,

and every reproachful word between us was love-talk.

هيفاءُ مالتْ إلى الواشينَ ظالمةً

والغصن ينآدُ أحياناً ويعتدل

Slender-waisted, she unjustly inclined toward the slanderers;

a bough bends sometimes, then stands straight.

أعطافها بتعدّيها تحدثنا

ما أوجزَ الخصرُ حتى أسهب الكفَل

Her curves, through her transgression, tell us:

no sooner was the waist terse than the rump grew expansive.

لقلبها مذهبٌ في الصمت يلزمهُ

وللوشاح خلافٌ كلهُ جدلَ

Her heart follows a creed of silence it adheres to;

but her sash disputes it, all twisting argument.

يهيج جودَ دموعي بخلها كرماً

وما سمعتُ بجودٍ هاجهُ بخلُ

Her stinginess generously stirs the bounty of my tears;

I have never heard of bounty stirred by stinginess.

فقل لصفحةِ خدَّيها مغالطةً

آني أهيم بخالٍ كلهُ شغل

So tell the surface of her two cheeks, in sophistry,

that I am enamored of a beauty spot that is all preoccupation.

لليلهِ آيةٌ في صبح وجنتها

من لي بها لو محاها اللَّثم والقبل

Its night has a sign in the dawn of her cheek;

who could secure it for me if kissing and kisses erased it?

روضٌ من الحسن من للمستهام بهِ

لو أنهُ يجتني ما ينبتُ الخجل

A garden of beauty—who will aid the lover enthralled by it?

If only he could pluck what bashfulness brings forth!

أودعتها سجن قلبي وهي ساخطةٌ

لذاكَ عربدَ فيهِ طرفها الثمِل

I placed her in my heart's prison, and she was angry;

so her drunken gaze ran riot within it.

أظنُّهُ غيرةً منهُ لحبتهِ

لما توهم فيها أنها كحل

I think it was jealousy over the heart's dark kernel,

when it imagined that kernel to be kohl.

خضعتُ للوجدِ فيها مثلما خضعتْ

وأذعنت للمليكِ الأفضل الدُّول

I bowed to passion for her, just as have bowed

and yielded to King al-Afdal the realms.

ردَّ القديمَ من الأيام مقبلاً

عزمٌ يقصر عنهُ الختل والحيل

It brought bygone days back, advancing once more:

a resolve that deceit and stratagems cannot match.

كذاك ما ارتجعتْ ماضي شبيبتها

حدبُ الأهلةِ لولا السَّير والنقَّل

Likewise, their bygone youth would never be regained

by bowed crescents, but for their journeys and changes.

ربُّ السيوف التي لولا تعبدها

لقلت ليس بحصنٍ عندها الأجل

Lord of swords that, were they not devout,

I would say even death is no fortress against them.

غيرانُ كم نقعتْ قلباً صوراهُ

وبالجداول حقاً تنقع الغلل

Zealous—how many hearts his blades have slaked!

And channels, indeed, quench burning thirst.

به بلغنا الأمانيَّ التي بعدتْ

عفواً وصدقَ رجمُ الظنِ والأمل

Through him we attained wishes that had seemed remote,

effortlessly; surmise and hope proved true.

ومن يقاتل بسيف الله في يده ال

عليا فلا نبوةٌ يخشى ولا فللَ

And whoever fights with God's sword in his hand—

his exalted hand—fears neither a failed stroke nor a blunted edge.

له المراتبُ عن شمسِ الضحى شمسٌ

يكبو ويزحلُ عن غاياته زحل

His ranks stand aloof from the morning sun;

Saturn stumbles and retreats before his utmost heights.

اخو الملوكِ إذا جادوا بمسغبةٍ

فلا تقلْ في الغوادي أنَّها هطل

Brother of kings: when they give during famine,

do not call the morning rainclouds a downpour.

سل عن فعالهم يومي فدى ووغى

ليخبرَ المحلُ والخطيةُ الذبُل

Ask about their deeds on days of ransom and war;

let drought and the pliant Khatti spears tell you.

الواهبون فلا شحٌّ ولا بخلٌ

والطاعنون فلا جبنٌ ولا وكل

Givers, with neither avarice nor stinginess;

spear-thrusters, with neither cowardice nor weakness.

نالوا العُلى بالعوالي السُّمر ناحلةً

فليس يزعمُ خلقٌ أنها نحل

They won eminence with tall brown, slender spears;

so no mortal can claim it was a gift.

إن حاربوا سلبوا أو سالموا وهبوا

أو حاوروا فصلوا أو فاخروا فضلوا

If they wage war, they despoil; if they make peace, they give;

or if they debate, they decide; if they boast, they surpass.

شهبٌ سل الجوَّ عنهم حيثما ركبوا

سحبٌ سل الأرض عنهم أينما نزلوا

Meteors—ask the sky about them wherever they ride;

rainclouds—ask the earth about them wherever they alight.

المبغضون لحبّ المجد ما لهمُ

كأنهُ عند صبٍ عاشقٍ عذل

For love of glory, they hate what they own,

as though it were reproach to an ardent lover.

تعلَّمت منهم النعمى سيوفهمُ

فجودها للمنايا بالعدى جُملُ

Their swords learned beneficence from them;

so they lavish enemies upon death in heaps.

خصُّوا بارعةٍ في حال أربعةٍ

شفتْ وشفَّت فهنَّ الصابُ والعسل

They were endowed with surpassing excellence in four states:

they heal and wear down: they are bitter sap and honey.

فالعفو إن غضبوا والعدلُ إن حكموا

والحلمُ إن قدروا والجودُ إن سئلوا

Pardon when angry, justice when they judge,

forbearance when powerful, generosity when asked.

لقد رددتَ ملوكَ الشرق خاشعةً

أبصارها بشموس غربها الخِلل

You sent the kings of the East back with humbled

eyes, before suns whose setting lies in clefts.

يبغون إذ هرمتْ أيامُ ملكهمِ

ملكاً لديهِ شبابُ الملك مقتبل

They seek, now that the days of their reign have grown old,

a king with whom the youth of kingship is just beginning.

رميتهم عن قسيّ العزم مشتملاً

وقد أصبت بسهميهِ فلا شلَل

You shot at them from the bows of resolve, fully girded,

and hit with both its arrows—may no palsy strike!

فتحٌ وما أوجهُ الأسوار عابسةٌ

وللمجانيق فيها أعينٌ نجُل

A conquest—the ramparts' faces are not frowning,

and the catapults have wide eyes upon them.

والزَّغفُ غدرانُ ماءِ في قرارتها

وبيضٌ جيشك في أغمادها شعلُ

The coats of mail are pools of water in their depths,

and your army's bright swords are flames within their sheaths.

وما جلوتَ الوغى سوداً ملابسها

إلاَّ انثنت وعليها من دمٍ حُلل

You never unveiled battle in its black attire

without its turning back clothed in robes of blood.

ولم تطالعك عين الشمي شاكيةً

إلاَّ غدا جفنها بالنقع يكتحل

The sun's eye never looked upon you complaining

without its eyelid being kohled with dust.

وزرتَ مصرَ بغابٍ من قناُ وظبىً

قلتْ لهُ شامخاتُ المدن والقلَل

You visited Egypt with a forest of spears and sword-edges;

the towering cities and summits were small beside it.

سكنتها حين سكنتَ البلادَ بها

جمعاً وثقف ذاك الزيغُ والخّطّل

You dwelt there as you pacified the lands through it,

all together, and that crookedness and folly were set straight.

فللقلوب اللواتي طالما وجبتْ

بها سكونٌ وفي الدنيا لها زجل

Thus the hearts that had so long trembled

have repose there, and their cries ring through the world.

نهارها بك أسحارٌ مقدسةٌ

جميعها والليالي كلها أصل

Through you its daylight is sacred hours before dawn,

all of it, and its nights are all hours of evening.

حلأتَ عنها وحلَّيتَ الزمان بها

فاليوم لا عطبٌ يخشى ولا عَطل

You warded harm away from it and adorned time with it;

today no ruin is feared, nor any lack of adornment.

حيثُ البنودُ سحابٌ والقسيُّ لها

وعدٌ وللنبل فيها عارضٌ هطل

Where the banners are clouds, and bows offer them

a promise, while arrows form a pouring raincloud within them.

فعلتَ ما سرَّ حتى لا مثال لهُ

وقلتَ ما سار حتى إنه مثل

You did what delighted, until it had no equal,

and said what spread abroad, until it became a proverb.

ما علَّق البحرُ فيما يظنَّ راكبهُ

وإنَّما هزَّ من أعطافهِ الجذَل

The sea was not troubled as its rider supposes;

rather, joy shook its flanks.

يرتاح نحو أخيه حين جاوره

فالشَّمل مجتمعٌ والحبل منَّصل

It thrills toward its brother when he draws alongside it;

so the company is reunited and the bond is joined.

وكيف يحتمل الأعداءُ ذا سخطٍ

بفعلهم والكريمُ الطبعِ يحتمل

How can enemies withstand one enraged

by their deeds, though he is noble-natured and forbearing?

سِرْ تملك الأرضَ والأعذارُ واضحةٌ

لديك والطبع شيٌ ليس ينتقل

March, and possess the earth; the justifications are plain

to you, and nature is a thing that does not change.

لو أنَّ شخصَ جمادٍ سارَ من طربٍ

لسارَ نحوك منها السَّهلُ والجبل

If any lifeless form could move from joy,

its plains and mountains would journey toward you.

فإنما هي دارٌ أنت مالكها

لدى وصيدك منها صيدهُا خول

It is only a dwelling, and you are its owner;

at your threshold, its proud lords are servants.

ولا يخاطبْ سوى الهنديّ ساكنها

فانَّ أمرَ سيوف الهند ممتثل

Let only the Indian blade address its inhabitants;

for the command of India's swords is obeyed.

وما ترويَّتَ في أمرٍ تحاولهُ

إلاَّ غدا النصرُ فيه وهو نرتحل

Whenever you deliberate over a matter you undertake,

victory comes there while still on the march.

فاحسمْ بسفكَ داءَ الناكثين فمن

فضيلةِ السيف أن تشفى به العلل

So excise the oath-breakers' sickness by spilling blood, for

among a sword's virtues is that ailments are cured by it.

وابجحْ فليس لخلق عندما صنعتْ

كفَّاك لا ناقةٌ فيها ولا جمل

And exult: no mortal has a share in what

your hands have wrought—neither she-camel nor camel.

وما بقيتَ فحالي منكَ حاليةٍ

وحلةُ الفضل عندي ما بها خلَل

As long as you remain, my condition is adorned by you;

my robe of bounty has no flaw.

ولي يخيبَ وان عزَّ المرام فتى

إلى أياديكَ بعد الله يتَّكل

A youth will not fail, however hard the goal,

who, after God, relies on your benefactions.