ما الطرف بعدكم بالنوم مكحول — Abn Nbath

ما الطرف بعدكم بالنومِ مكحول

هذا وكم بيننا من ربعكم ميل

Since your departure, my eye has not been kohled with sleep.

So it is—and how many miles lie between us and your dwelling!

يا باعثين سهاداً لي وفيض بكا

مهما بعثتم على العينين محمول

O you who send me sleeplessness and floods of weeping,

whatever you send is borne upon my eyes.

هَبكم منعتم جفوني من خيالكم

فكيفَ يمنع تذكارٌ وتخييل

Suppose you have barred my eyelids from your phantom:

how can remembrance and imagining be barred?

في ذمَّة الله قلبٌ يوم بينكمُ

موزع ودم في الحبِّ مطلول

In God's keeping is a heart, on the day of your departure,

torn apart, and blood shed unavenged in love.

شغلتمُ بصباحِ الأنس مبتسماً

وناظري بظلامِ الليل مشغول

You are absorbed in fellowship's smiling dawn,

while my eye is occupied with the darkness of night.

كأنما الأفق محرابٌ عكفت به

والنيِّرات بأفقيه قناديل

As though the horizon were a prayer niche where I kept vigil,

and the luminaries on its two horizons were lamps.

ما يمسك الهدب دمعي حين أذكركم

إلا كما يمسك الماءَ الغرابيل

My lashes hold back my tears when I remember you

only as sieves hold back water.

ورُبَّ عاذلة فيما أكابده

وقلَّ ما قيل والتحذير معذول

Many a woman has reproached me for what I endure;

yet little was said, and the warning itself was reproached.

باتت زخارفها بالصبر واعدةً

وما مواعيدها إلاَّ الأباطيل

Her embellished words kept promising me patience,

but her promises were nothing but falsehoods.

سقياً لعهد الصبا والدار دانية

والشمل مجتمعٌ والجمع مشمول

May rain bless the days of youth, when the dwelling was near,

our company united, our gathering all together.

يفدِي الزمان الذي في عامه قصرٌ

هذا الزمان الذي في يومه طول

May the age whose years were short be ransomed

by this age whose single day stretches long.

لم لا أشبّب بالعيش الذي سلفت

أوقاته وهو باللذَّات موصول

Why should I not sing lovingly of the life whose

hours have passed, when it was joined to pleasures?

لو كنت أرتاع من عذلٍ لروَّعني

سيف المشيب برأسي وهو مسلول

If reproach could frighten me, I would be frightened by

the sword of gray hair, unsheathed upon my head.

أما ترى الشيب قد دلَّت كواكبه

على الطريقِ لو أنَّ الصبّ مدلول

Do you not see how gray hair's stars have pointed

out the path—if only the lovesick man could be guided?

والسنُّ قد قرَّعتها الأربعون وفي

ضمائر النفس تسويفٌ وتسويل

Forty years have struck upon my age, yet within

the soul's recesses linger procrastination and self-delusion.

حتَّى مَ أسأل عن لهوٍ وعن لعبٍ

وفي غدٍ أنا عن عقباه مسؤول

How long shall I ask after diversion and play,

when tomorrow I must answer for their outcome?

ولي سعاد شجونٍ ما يعبّ لها

إمَّا خيالٌ وإلاَّ فهو تخييل

I have a Su'ad of sorrows; what wells up for her

is either a phantom, or else mere imagining.

أبكي اشْتياقاً إليها وهي قاتلتي

يا من رأى قاتلاً يبكيه مقتول

I weep in longing for her, though she is my killer.

Who has seen a slain man weeping for his killer?

مسكيَّة الخال أمَّا ورد وجنتها

فبالجنى من عيونِ الناس مبلول

Her beauty spot is musk-like; as for her cheek's rose,

it is moistened with what people's eyes yield.

فإن يفح من نواحي خدّها عبقٌ

فالمسك فيه بماءِ الورد مجبول

If fragrance wafts from the regions of her cheek,

the musk there is kneaded with rosewater.

تفترُّ عن شنبٍ حلوٍ لذائقه

في ذكره لمجاج النحل تعسيل

She smiles, revealing cool teeth whose savor is sweet;

their very mention sweetens the nectar bees disgorge.

مصحح النقل عن شهدٍ وعن بردٍ

لأنه منهلٌ بالراح معلول

Faithful in transmitting from honey and hail,

for it is a spring refreshed with wine.

وبارق من أعالي الجذع أرَّقني

حتَّى دموعي على مرجانه لولو

A lightning flash from the heights of al-Jidh' kept me awake,

until my tears were pearls upon its coral.

مذكِّري بدنانيرِ الوجوه هدًى

تحف في فيه عُذَّالٌ مثاقيل

Reminding me of faces' golden dinars, a guide,

with weighty reprovers thronging within its mouth,

إلى العقيق فهل يا طيب طيبة لي

عقد بلفظي إلى مغناك منقول

to al-'Aqiq. O fragrance of Tayba, is there for me

a necklace of my words conveyed to your abode?

وهل أرى حامل الرجوى كأنيَ من

شوقي ومن وَلهي بالقربِ محمول

Shall I see a bearer of hope, as though, from

my longing and my rapture, I were carried into nearness?

إن لم أنل عملاً أرجو النجاة فلي

من الرسول بإذن الله تنويل

If I attain no deed through which to hope for salvation, I have

a gift from the Messenger, by God's permission.

حسبي بمدحِ رسول الله بابُ نجاً

يرجى إذا اعْترضت تلك التهاويل

Praising God's Messenger suffices me as a gate of deliverance,

hoped for when those terrors arise.

أقولُ والقدر أعلا أن يحاولهُ

وصلٌ وإن جهدت فيه الأقاويل

I speak—though his rank is too high to be attempted

by any approach, however hard words strive.

ماذا عسى الشعراء اليوم مادحة

من بعد ما مدحت حم تنزيل

What might poets praise today,

after the revelation of 'Ha Mim' has praised him?

وأفصحت بالثنا كتب مقدَّمة

إن جيل في الدهر توراة وإنجيل

And earlier scriptures proclaimed his praise,

whenever a Torah and a Gospel were circulated through the ages.

محمد المجتبى معنى جبلته

وما لآدم طينٌ بعد مجبول

Muhammad, chosen in the very essence of his being,

when Adam's clay had not yet been kneaded.

والمجتلى تاج علياه الرفيع وما

للبدر تاجٌ ولا للنجمِ إكليل

Whose lofty crown of glory is displayed, while

the full moon has no crown, nor the star a diadem.

لولاه ما كانَ أرض لا ولا أفق

ولا زمانٌ ولا خلقٌ ولا جيل

Without him there would be no earth—no, nor horizon,

nor time, nor creation, nor generation,

ولا مناسك فيها للهدى شهبٌ

ولا ديارٌ بها للوحيِ تنزيل

nor sacred rites containing stars of guidance,

nor abodes where revelation descends.

ذو المعجزات التي ما اسطاع أبرهةٌ

يغزو منازلها كلاَّ ولا الفِيل

Possessor of miracles whose abodes Abraha could not

invade—indeed not, nor could the elephant.

إن شق إيوان كسرى رهبة فلقد

جاء الدليل بأن الكفر مخذول

If Kisra's palace hall split apart in awe, then indeed

proof came that unbelief was forsaken.

وإن خبا ضرم النيران من زمنٍ

فالبحر منسحب الأذيال مسدول

And if the blaze of the fires died down long ago,

the sea trails its hems, its drapery spread.

أوفى النبيِّين سيفاً واتضاح علىً

كأنه غرَّةٌ والقوم تحجيل

Most perfect of prophets in sword and manifest eminence,

as though he were the forehead's blaze, the others its white leg-markings.

نعم اليتيم إذا عدَّت جواهرهم

وضمَّها من عقود الوحي تفصيل

How excellent the orphan, when their jewels are counted

and the ordering of revelation's necklaces gathers them!

ما زال في الخلقِ ذا جاهٍ وذا خدمٍ

لكن خادمهُ المشهور جبريل

He has never ceased to possess rank and servants among creation,

but his well-known servant is Gabriel.

مبرأ القلب من ريبٍ ومن دَنسٍ

وكيف وهو بماءِ الخلدِ مغسول

His heart is cleared of doubt and defilement—

and how otherwise, when it is washed with the water of eternity?

مجاهداً في سبيل الله مصطبراً

ما لا غزَت في العدى الطيرِ الأبابيل

Striving patiently in God's path,

as the birds in flocks never fought against the foe.

كأنما نبل ماضيهم وحاضرهم

لها على من بغى سجلٌ وسجّيل

As though the arrows of their departed and present men

bore a writ and baked-clay stones against every aggressor.

مثل الشواطب إن صالوا أو افتخروا

فالحدّ مندلق والعرض مصقول

Like sharp swords, whether they charge or boast,

their edge is bared, their honor burnished.

يطيب في الليلِ تسبيحٌ لسامرهم

وما لهم عن حياض الموت تهليل

Their evening companion delights in praising God by night,

and they never shrink from the pools of death.

كأنهم لانتظار الفضل بيت ثنا

شخص النبيّ له معنىً وتكميل

As though, awaiting grace, they were a verse of praise

to which the Prophet's person lends meaning and completion.

قومٌ إذا رقصت فرسانهم طرباً

كأنَّ رايات أيديهم مناديل

A people whose horsemen, when they dance for joy,

seem to hold banners like handkerchiefs.

الكاتبون من الأجسام ما اعْتبرت

سمرٌ وبيضٌ فمنقوطٌ ومشكول

They write upon bodies what has been tested by

brown lances and white swords: dotted and vowel-marked.

حيث الحمام شهيّ وهو من صبرٍ

يجنى فيا حبَّذا الغرّ البهاليل

Where death is sweet, though from bitter aloes

it is harvested—how splendid those radiant, noble men!

حتَّى اسْتقام عمود الدين وانْفتحت

سبل الهدى وخبت تلك الأضاليل

Until religion's pillar stood straight, and there opened

the paths of guidance, and those falsehoods died away.

روح النجاة الذي قد كانَ يهرع في

أبواب مغناه روح الوحي جبريل

The spirit of salvation, to whom there would hasten, through

the gates of his abode, revelation's spirit, Gabriel.

ومفصحٌ حين يروى الصاد من كرمٍ

فللمحاسن ترتيبٌ وترتيل

And eloquent, when generosity quenches the thirsty,

so his excellences have order and measured recitation.

وجائدٌ لا يخاف الفقر قال ندى

كفَّيه يا مادحي آلائه قولوا

And a giver unafraid of poverty; the bounty of

his palms said, 'You who praise his favors, speak!'

وما الأقاويل إن طالت وإن قصرت

عروض ما بسطت تلك الأفاعيل

No words, whether long or short,

can match what those deeds have unfolded.

حامي حمى البيت بالرعب المقدم ما

ناواه أبرهةُ العادي ولا الفيل

Guardian of the House's sanctuary through awe sent ahead—never

did Abraha the aggressor oppose him, nor the elephant.

تضيء في الحرب والمحراب طلعته

فحبذا في الدجى والنقع قنديل

His countenance shines in battle and in the prayer niche:

what a splendid lamp in darkness and battle-dust!

وقامَ في ظلِّ بيت الله شائده

فحبذا لنظام البيت تكميل

Its builder arose in the shade of God's House:

what an excellent completion of the House's structure!

ذاك الذي نصبت في نحو بعثته

هذي المحاريب لا تلك التماثيل

He toward whose mission were erected

these prayer niches, not those statues.

وفاضَ من جانبِ البطحا لكل حمى

صافٍ بأبيض أضحى وهو مشمول

And from the side of al-Batha flowed toward every sanctuary

a clear stream, through a radiant one, now enfolded.

وكلُّ أرض بها الجنَّات مزهرةٌ

للمؤمنين فتعجيل وتأجيل

And every land has gardens blooming

for believers, granted now and granted later.

وكلُّ ملة دين غير ولته

تروى فللقابس القسيس قنديل

And every religious creed other than [his creed]

is related: the priest has a lamp for the seeker of light.

ولليهوديّ مع كحل العمى نظر

على المجوسيّ أيضاً فيه تكحيل

And the Jew, despite blindness's kohl, has a gaze

above the Magian's; it too is smeared with kohl.

حتَّى أتى عربيٌّ يستضاء به

مهند من سيوف الله مسلول

Until an Arab came, from whom light is sought,

an Indian-forged blade, unsheathed from God's swords.

كم معجز لرسول الله قد خذِلتْ

به العدى وعدوّ الحق مخذول

How many a miracle of God's Messenger has left

the foes forsaken—and truth's enemy is forsaken.

فاضَ الزلال المهنى من أصابعه

نعم الأصابع ومن كفَّيه والنيل

Clear, pleasant water flowed from his fingers:

how excellent the fingers—and from his palms, the Nile!

وبورك الزاد إذ مسَّته راحته

فحبذا مشروب منها ومأكول

The provisions were blessed when his palm touched them:

how excellent the drink and food that come from it!

وخاطبته وحوش البيد مقبلةً

فالرجل عاسلة واللفظ معسول

The desert's wild beasts approached and addressed him,

their feet trotting lightly, their speech honey-sweet.

وحازَ سهم المعالي حين كانَ له

من قاب قوسين تنويهٌ وتنويل

He won the arrow of eminence when he received,

at 'two bow-lengths,' honor and bounty.

على البراق لوجه البرق من خجلٍ

ورجلٌ مسعاه تلوين وتشكيل

Upon al-Buraq—for lightning's face, from shame

and fear, his course brought changing color and form—

لسدرة المنتهى يا منتهى طلبي

ما مثله يا ختام الرسل تحويل

to the Lote Tree of the Utmost Boundary, O utmost of my desire!

No journey is like it, O final one among messengers!

يا خاتم الرسل لي في المذنبين غداً

على شفاعتك الغراء تعويل

O seal of the messengers, tomorrow, among the sinners, I

rely upon your radiant intercession.

إن كانَ كعبٌ بما قد قال ضيفك في

دار النعيم فلي في الباب تطفيل

If Ka'b, for what he said, is your guest in

the abode of bliss, then I am an uninvited guest at the gate.

وأين كابن زهير لي شذا كلمٍ

ربيعها بغمام القرب مطلول

But where have I words fragrant like Ibn Zuhayr's,

whose spring is dewed by the cloud of nearness?

وإن سُمي بزهير صيغةً فعسى

يسمو بنبت له بالشبه تعليل

Though he bears the name 'Zuhayr' in form, perhaps

a shoot may rise, with resemblance as its warrant.

بانت معاذير عجزي عن نداكَ وعن

بانت سعاد فقلبي اليوم متبول

Clear are my excuses for falling short of your bounty, and of

'Su'ad has departed, and my heart today is love-stricken.'

صلَّى عليك الذي أعطاك منزلةً

شفيعها في مقامِ الحشر مقبول

May He who granted you a station bless you,

whose intercessor is accepted at the station of the Gathering.

أنت الملاذ لنا دنيا وآخرةً

فباب قصدك في الدارين مأهول

You are our refuge in this world and the hereafter:

the gate of seeking you is thronged in both abodes.