فدى لك مسلوب الرقاد شريده — Abn Nbath

فدًى لكَ مسلوب الرقاد شريده

يعاودهُ برْح الأسى ويعوده

May a man robbed of sleep, a fugitive from it, be your ransom.

The torment of sorrow returns to him and visits him.

إذا ما ذكا في فحمةِ الليلِ بارقٌ

تبينَ في الأحشاءِ أين وَقوده

Whenever a lightning flash blazes in the charcoal-darkness of night,

It becomes clear within his breast where its fuel lies.

وإن نظمت ريح الصبا عقد حزْنه

تناثر من سلك الجفون فريده

And if the east wind strings the necklace of his grief,

Its pearls scatter from the thread of his eyelids.

وإن ألقتْ الوُرْقُ السواجعُ درسها

أعادَ الأسى بين الضلوع معيده

And if the cooing gray doves recite their lesson,

Sorrow's reciter repeats it between his ribs.

بروحيَ من أعطافَهُ وعذارُهُ

هي القصد لا بانُ الحمى وزرُ وده

My soul for him whose supple figure and cheek-down

Are my aim, not the preserve's ben-trees, the refuge of his love.

ومن شيبت عشاقه زمن الصبى

شوائبُ عشقٍ لا ينادى وليده

And him whose lovers were turned gray in their youth

By the taints of a love whose infant goes uncalled.

محا رسم مغناه الغمام وما محا

لدمعيَ رسماً لا يزال يجوده

The clouds erased his dwelling's trace, yet did not erase

For my tears a trace they never cease to drench.

ورُبَّ مدامٍ ثغرُه وحبابها

سواءٌ ولفظي والبكا وعقوده

And many a wine—his mouth and its bubbles

Are alike, as are my words, tears, and their pearl-strings—

شربت على وردِ الرُّبى وهو خدّه

وإلاَّ على سوسانها وهو جيده

I drank beside the hilltop roses, which are his cheek,

Or else beside their lilies, which are his neck.

ونبهت عيداني بنوحٍ على الدّجى

وما ناحَ قمريٌّ ولا ماسَ عوده

And I awakened my lutes with lament through the darkness,

Though no turtledove lamented, nor did its bough sway,

سروراً بإقبالِ الزمانِ وحبَّذا

سرورُ زمانٍ محكمات سعوده

In joy at fortune's favorable turn—and how welcome

The joy of an age whose good fortunes stand secure!

وقد رقمت وشيَ الرّبى أبرُ الحيا

وجرَّت على وادِي دمشق برُوده

And rain's needles have embroidered the hills' brocade,

And trailed its striped robes across the valley of Damascus.

وعادت وكانَ العودُ أحمدَ دولةٌ

لها النصرُ إرثٌ زاكيات شهوده

And a dynasty returned—its return more praiseworthy—

Whose inheritance is victory, its witnesses upright.

يهزُّ ابن فضلِ الله بيض قواضبٍ

إذا هي هزَّت في المهارِقِ سوده

Ibn Fadl Allah brandishes gleaming, cutting swords

Whenever his black pens are brandished upon the writing sheets.

يؤَازِرُ ربّ الملك ربّ كتابةٍ

كأنَّ طروس الخط منها جنوده

A master of writing supports the master of the kingdom,

As though his troops were drawn from the sheets of script.

ويجري بأمرِ الملك سودَ يراعهِ

فيا حبَّذا ساداتنا وعبيده

And at the king's command he sets his black reed-pens running:

How excellent, then, are our masters and his slaves!

وتبسم أرجاء الثغورِ مسرةً

بأبلج لا تعبان إلاَّ حسوده

And the frontier regions smile with delight

At a radiant man; none is weary except his envier.

سعيد مساعٍ أو سعيد مناسبٍ

فقد سعدت في كلِّ حالٍ جدوده

Fortunate in his endeavors or fortunate in his lineage—

For his fortunes have prospered in every circumstance.

وشهمٌ ولكن جنده من سطورِهِ

وقاضٍ ولكنَّ المعاني شهوده

And a valiant man—but his soldiers come from his written lines;

And a judge—but meanings are his witnesses.

روى فرعه عن دوحةٍ عمريةٍ

قديم فخارٍ لا يشابُ جديده

His branch transmits, from a tree of Umar's line,

Long-standing glory whose fresh splendor is untainted.

فأيَّ فخارٍ أوَّل لا يجده

وأيَّ فخارٍ آخر لا يجيده

What earlier glory, then, does he not find?

And what later glory does he not perfect?

وأيَّ مقامٍ في العلى لا يسوسه

وأيَّ همامٍ في الورى لا يسوده

And what station in exalted rank does he not govern?

And what noble man among mankind does he not outrank?

رأيت ابن فضلِ الله فاضل دهره

إذا اعْتبرت ألفاظهُ وسعوده

I found Ibn Fadl Allah the most excellent man of his age,

When I considered his words and his good fortunes.

إذا ابن عليٍّ وابن يحيى تساجلا

فقل طارف المجد الرَّضي وتليده

When Ibn Ali and Ibn Yahya vie with one another,

Then say: 'Pleasing glory's new gain and its ancient inheritance.'

أعادت علاه بيتَ فضل منظماً

فلله بيتٌ طيبٌ يستعيده

His eminence has restored the house of Fadl, well ordered;

What a fine house, by God, he reclaims!

وعلمنا صوغَ الكلام بحمدهِ

فها نحنُ نحيي لفظهُ ونعيده

And he taught us to fashion speech through praising him;

So here we are, reviving his words and repeating them.

وأنقذنا بالبرِّ من وهج حادثٍ

يذوبُ بهِ من كلِّ عانٍ جليده

And he rescued us with kindness from the blaze of a calamity

In which the ice of every sufferer melts.

نظرت أبا العباس نظرة باسمٍ

لحالِ امرئٍ كادَ الزمانُ يبيده

You looked, Abu al-Abbas, with a smiling glance

Upon the plight of a man whom fortune nearly destroyed.

وكانَ على حالِ الحسين من الظما

إلى وِرْدِ غوثٍ والزمانُ يزيده

And he was in Husayn's plight, thirsting

For a draught of succor, while fortune increased his thirst.

فأحييته بعد الرَّدى أو أقمته

وقد طالَ من تحتِ التراب هموده

Then you revived him after death, or raised him up,

Though his lifeless stillness beneath the dust had lasted long.

وجلّيتها يا ابن المجلي ضمينة

خلودَ الفتى إنَّ الثناءَ خلوده

And I unveiled it, O Ibn al-Mujalli, guaranteeing

The young man's immortality—for praise is his immortality.

فدونك من نظمي عجالة مادحٍ

إليك تناهى قصده وقصيده

So take from my verse a praiser's hasty offering,

Whose purpose and poem reach their culmination in you.

يقال انْظروا الممدوح وافقَ مادِحاً

فذا فاضلُ الدُّنيا وهذا سعيده

It is said: 'Look! The praised man has found a matching praiser:'

For one is the world's most excellent man, and the other its fortunate one.