حلفت بليل الشعر منه إذا سجى — Abn Nbath

حلفت بليلِ الشعر منه إذا سجى

وضوء الضحى من وجهه متبلِّجا

I swore by the night of his hair when it grew still,

and by morning's light, breaking brightly from his face,

ومن أدمعِي بالمرسلاتِ من الأسى

ومن أضلعي بالموريات من الشجى

and by those of my tears sent forth by sorrow,

and by those of my ribs that strike sparks of anguish.

لقد ألجم العذَّالَ وجه معذِّبي

وقد لاحَ في جنحِ الظلامِ فأسرجا

My tormentor's face has indeed bridled the reproachers,

and shone in the folds of darkness, lighting the gloom.

وفرج غمِّي ذات يوم بِزَوْرةٍ

فقلت لعينيَّ انظرا وتفرَّجا

And one day he relieved my grief with a visit,

so I told my two eyes: Look, and delight in the sight—

ظلاماً وبدراً فوق غصنٍ على نقا

دجى وتجلَّى وانْثنى وترَجْرَجا

darkness and a full moon above a branch upon a sand dune,

darkening, shining forth, bending, and quivering;

وخدًّا كفاني صبوَةً شمُّ وردهُ

فكيف وقد زاد العذار بنفسجا

and a cheek whose rose's scent alone sufficed to stir my longing.

How much more, when his cheek-down added violets!

صحيفة حسنٍ قابلتها ملاحة

ألم ترهُ سطراً عليها مخرَّجا

A page of beauty, collated by loveliness:

did you not see the down as a line annotated upon it?

بروحيَ في أفق المحاسنِ كوكبٌ

على مثلهِ قد طابَ لي سهرُ الدُّجى

My soul be the ransom of a star in beauty's firmament,

for whose like, keeping vigil through the darkness was sweet to me.

نهانيَ عنه الهمُّ قبلَ عواذِلي

وأخرجني عنه وما كنتُ مُخرَجا

Care barred me from him before my reproachers did,

and drove me from him, though I was not one to be driven away.

وأزعجني شيبٌ بفودَيّ طالعٌ

وما كان وقعُ الشيب لي عنهُ مزعجا

Gray hair rising at my two temples unsettled me,

yet the onset of gray hair was no cause to drive me from him.

فيالك مقطوف العذار هجرته

فما عرَّجت عيني له حينَ عرَّجا

Ah, what a youth with cropped cheek-down I forsook!

So my eye did not turn toward him when he turned aside.

دنت دارُه منِّي وشطَّ مزَارُهُ

فهل أبصرتْ عيناكَ ثغراً مفلَّجا

His dwelling drew near me, yet visiting him grew distant;

so have your two eyes ever seen a mouth with spaced teeth?

كأنِّيَ لم أنعمْ بدينارِ خدِّه

مشوقاً على نقدِ العدى أو مبهرجا

As though I had never delighted in the dinar of his cheek,

stirring longing despite the foes' assay, or debased;

ولم أصبُ من لهوٍ بنقطة خاله

إلى كرةٍ من حولها الصدغ صولجا

nor yearned, in play, through the dot of his mole,

for a ball around which his temple-lock curved like a polo mallet;

ولم أحجب العذَّال منه بحاجبٍ

رَأَوا عنده حقّ الملاحة أبلجا

nor held the reproachers back from him with an eyebrow,

beside which they saw the truth of loveliness shining clear;

ولم أترشف بعد فيه مدامةً

على يده دفَّاعةً حجّةَ الحجى

nor sipped wine after his lips,

from his hand, sweeping aside the argument of reason;

ولم أعط كأساً بالنضار وخدّه

لمعطيه بالدرِّ النظيم متوّجا

nor was given a cup of gold, while his cheek

was crowned with strung pearls for its giver;

ولم أتلقَّ النهدَ في الصدر جالساً

وأسرى به حالي الشكيم مهملجا

nor received a sturdy steed while seated in the foremost place,

and ridden it by night, sweet-bitted and smoothly ambling,

إلى الرَّوض فيَّاحاً من الزَّهرِ باسماً

على الزُّهر رفاقاً لدى الطلّ سجسجا

to the garden, fragrant with blossoms and smiling

at the bright stars, gentle and mild amid the dew.

أحبر في مدح الإمام محمدٍ

من اللفظ أبهى الروضتين وأبهجا

I fashion, in praise of Imam Muhammad,

from words the lovelier and more delightful of the two gardens.

وما هو ممن لا أنقح مدحه

فآتي إليه بالمديح مرَوَّجا

He is not one whose praise I leave unpolished,

and then bring him praise passed off as good.

أخاف له نقداً فأبطئ في الثنا

كجمع أبي جاد الحروف من الهجا

I fear criticism of it, so I am slow with praise,

like Abu Jad gathering the letters of the alphabet.

ألم ترَ أني قد لجأت لظلهِ

ودافعت حرا من أذى الدهر موهجا

Have you not seen that I have sought refuge in his shade,

and warded off the scorching heat of time's harm?

أخلّدُ تاريخ العلى بصفاته

وأروي حديث الفضل عنه مُخرَّجا

I immortalize the history of glory through his qualities,

and relate from him the tradition of excellence, duly sourced.

وأصرف آمالي التي قد تقسَّمت

إلى مرتجى ما باب نعماه مرتجا

I direct my hopes, once scattered,

toward one to hope in, whose bounty's gate is never shut.

كريمٌ إذا ما قدَّم الظنّ نحوه

مقدمةً من منطق المدح أنتجا

A generous man: when expectation puts before him

a premise from the logic of praise, it yields a result.

ولا عيبَ فيه غير إسراع جوده

فليس يُمني بالمواعد محوجا

He has no flaw but the swiftness of his generosity,

for he does not tantalize the needy with promises,

وأفراط كتم للندى وهو ظاهرٌ

وهل مانعٌ للرَّوض أن يتأرّجا

and excessive concealment of his bounty, though it is plain—

and can anyone keep a garden from spreading fragrance?

وقَّى الدِّين والدُّنيا ليهلك ملحدٌ

لديهِ وينجو راشدٌ مع من نجا

He shielded religion and worldly life, so that a heretic might perish

before him, and a rightly guided man be saved with those who were saved.

فتاوى على سمتِ الهدى وفتوَّة

تَجانسَ معنًى لفظها وتدَبجا

Legal rulings on the path of guidance, and chivalry:

their terms were kindred in meaning and richly interwoven.

وبرّ رعى قصدَ العفاةِ فغاثها

وبأسٌ كوى قلبَ العدوِّ فأنضجا

And beneficence that heeded the supplicants' intent and succored them,

and might that seared the enemy's heart and cooked it through;

وعلمٌ أقامته المباحث ناصِراً

فقل عَلمٌ ردَّ الأسودَ وهجَّجا

and learning that scholarly inquiries raised up as a champion—

call it a banner that repelled lions and put them to flight.

هو البحر يروى حولَ شطَّيه واردٌ

ويغرق من قدْ لجَّ فيه ولججا

He is the sea: a comer drinks his fill along its two shores,

and whoever persists in it and plunges deep is drowned.

له قلمٌ يحمِي الحمى برقاعه

ويكتب بالنعمى وبالعلمِ مزوِجا

He has a pen that guards the sanctuary with its missives,

and writes with bounty and learning intertwined.

إذا قالَ لم يترك لذي القول موضعاً

وإن صالَ لم يترك لذي الصوْل موْلجا

When he speaks, he leaves no place for any speaker;

and when he attacks, he leaves no opening for any assailant.

فكم من بليغٍ في الورى متفصحٍ

وعَى لفظةً من كتبه فتلجلجا

How many an eloquent man among humankind, striving for eloquence,

has grasped one word from his writings, then stammered!

وكم من كميّ صار كالدّجّ حيرة

فلا غرْوَ إن قالوا لكميّ المدَججا

And how many an armored warrior became like a chicken in bewilderment—

no wonder they call a warrior the heavily armored one.

وكم منهجٍ في القولِ أرشدنِي له

وكم أملٍ أنشاه لي حين أنهجا

How many a path in expression he guided me to,

and how many a hope he brought to life for me when it flagged!

وكم كسوةٍ لي في دمشقَ أفادها

وقد كانَ ظهري من أذى البردِ أعوجا

How many a garment he bestowed on me in Damascus,

when my back was bent from the hurt of cold!

وكم أنطقتْ نعماه منِّي مدائِحاً

سرى ذكرها غرباً وشرقاً فأدلجا

How often his favors drew panegyrics from me,

whose fame traveled west and east, pressing on through the night!

وروّى نباتياً من القولِ طالما

سقاهُ أبوهُ الغيث نوا مثججا

And he watered Ibn Nubata's growth of verse, which for so long

his father had watered with rain—a copiously pouring storm.

أبا الخير خذها من ثنائِي كرائِماً

أبت عن سوى أكفائها أن تزَوّجا

Abu al-Khayr, take these noble maidens of my praise,

who refused to wed anyone but their equals:

أوانس أبكارٍ يحقُّ لحسنِها

على ساكنِ الأمصارِ أن يتبرَّجا

companionable maidens, virgins, whose beauty demands

that the city-dweller should display himself in splendor.

تهبُّ للقياها الكرامُ من الحيا

ويجرِي بذكراها المطيّ على الوجا

The noble rise to meet them out of modesty,

and at their mention riding camels run despite sore feet.

لها إن تقمْ في دارَةِ الأفقِ منزلٌ

وإن تسرِ حلت من ثرياه هوْدَجا

If they stay, they have a dwelling in the circle of the horizon;

and if they journey, they lodge in a howdah made from its Pleiades.