تلين لعزمي بالعراء العوائك — Abn Qlaks

تَلينُ لعزْمي بالعَراءِ العوائك

ولا أرى فيما تحنُّ الأرائكُ

Obstacles in the open country soften before my resolve.

Nor do I see anything in what the couches yearn for.

أبى الحبُّ أن يُنضى من الجفن فاترٌ

فيثْنيه أن يُنضى من الجَفْنِ فاتكُ

Love would not let a languid glance, drawn from an eyelid,

Be turned back by a deadly blade drawn from a sheath.

وكم صد عني موثَق الخدّ مونق

فما سدّ عني باتر الحد باتك

How many a lovely, firm-cheeked one turned away from me,

Yet no keen-edged, cleaving blade barred my way.

معارف من أهل الهوى ومن الهوى

يقال بها سَلْمٌ وفيها معارك

Acquaintances from among lovers and from love itself:

Peace is spoken of among them, yet battles lie within them.

برزنَ ومن دون النحور أسنّةٌ

فوالكٌ إن صفحتَهُنّ فوالكُ

They emerged, with spearheads before their throats—

Round-breasted maidens: if you pardon them, they break you.

فطوراً يقولُ الطرفُ هنّ سوافرٌ

وطوراً يقول القلبُ هنّ سوافكُ

At times the eye says, 'They are unveiled';

And at times the heart says, 'They shed blood.'

ألم ينتَهِ الجفنُ السقيمُ وإنه

لناهٍ لجسمي لو قبِلتَ وناهكُ

Has the ailing eyelid not desisted? Indeed, it

Restrains my body—if you would heed—and exhausts it.

أعانكَ في قتلي قوامٌ مهفهفٌ

تأوّدَ غصنٌ منهُ واهتزّ عاتكُ

A slender figure aided you in killing me;

A bough of it bent, and a ruddy one swayed.

وما زال في ردْعٍ لدرعكَ صائل

على أنّه ردعٌ لردْعِكَ صائكُ

And an assailant never ceases to push back your tunic,

Though it is a saffron stain clinging to your saffron.

أكان حراماً لو تداركتَ مهجةً

تحكم فيها جورُك المتداركُ

Would it have been forbidden for you to rescue a heart

Over which your repeated injustice held sway?

كأن لم يُضاحكْ بالشموسِ كوكباً

بهنّ الدُجى ضاحٍ محيّاهُ ضاحكُ

As though he had never exchanged smiles with a star amid suns,

Through them the darkness shines, its countenance smiling.

ولم تسبأ الصهباء قال شعاعُها

أشابَ مديري أم مديرُ سبائك

Nor had the tawny wine been bought; its radiance said:

'Has my cupbearer gone gray, or does he pass around ingots?'

مصفرّةٌ قد أسقمَ الدهرُ جسمَها

فصحّت وفي النيرانِ تصفو السبائكُ

Yellowed, time had made her body sick;

Then she recovered: in fires, ingots are refined.

عجوزٌ عليها سَبحةٌ من حَبابها

تُصلّي على قوم بها وتُباركُ

An old woman, wearing a rosary of her bubbles,

With it she prays for a company and blesses them.

عكفنا على حاناتِها فكأنّها

مشاعرُ تقوىً أُوثرت أو مناسكُ

We devoted ourselves to her taverns, as though they were

Favored shrines of piety, or places of sacred rites.

أبينا سوى الدين النؤاسيّ بعدَها

ولا شكّ في أن النؤاسيّ ناسكُ

After her, we refused any faith but that of Abu Nuwas,

And no doubt the Nuwasian is a devotee.

وذكّرنا رضوانَ عرْفُ نسيمها

فقال لنا رضوانُ رضوانُ مالكُ

The fragrance of her breeze reminded us of Ridwan,

So Ridwan told us: 'Malik is contentment.'

هنالك عاطينا السُرى كأسَ عزمةٍ

معربدةً منها القلاصُ الرواتِكُ

There we shared a cup of resolve with night-travel,

From it the swift-striding young she-camels grew drunkenly riotous.

نصبنا جناحَ الشوقِ بين ضُلوعِها

فمرّت مروّاتٌ ودُكّتْ دكادكُ

We set longing's wing between their ribs;

So flint stones sped past, and low hills were crushed.

تكادُ وقد هزّتْ جوانبَ بيدها

تقولُ عليها ما تحركَ حاركُ

They almost—having shaken the sides of their deserts—

Say, 'No withers have stirred across them.'

كأنّا وأفواهُ الفِجاجِ تمُجّنا

الى مالكٍ من كلّ أرضٍ مسالكُ

As though we—spewed forth by the mouths of the passes—

Were paths from every land to Malik.

هو البحرُ يستمطي البحارَ ركائباً

إليه وتستجري الرياحُ السواهكُ

He is the sea; seas are taken as mounts

Toward him, while the scouring winds urge them onward.

فإن أحْي إذ حُيّيت غُرّةَ وجهِه

فكم قلتُ إني دونَ دهلِكَ هالكُ

If I live, since I was greeted by his face's radiance,

How often I said, 'Before Dahlak, I am doomed!'

فبوركَ في العيسِ الذي بلغَتْ له

وردّت مراعيها لها والمَباركُ

So may the one the pale camels reached be blessed in them,

And may their pastures and kneeling-grounds be restored to them.

ولا عثرَتْ تلك الجواري فإنّها

لأوعَرُ من سُبْلِ الجواري سوالِكُ

And may those coursers never stumble, for they

Travel routes rougher than the routes of sailing ships.

إليكَ زففنا مُحصَناتٍ من الثَنا

وكم رجّعَتْ حاشاكَ وهي فواركُ

To you we escorted chaste brides of praise,

And how often they returned—never from you—as wives who loathed their husbands.

مديحٌ إذا حلّى الطروسَ وحلّها

فهنّ حوالي نقسِه لا حوالِكُ

Praise that, when it adorns the pages and settles upon them,

Leaves them around its ink, yet not dark.

صقيلاتُ أبشارِ البروقِ كأنّما

أُمرَّتْ عليها بالشموسِ المداوكُ

Polished, with skins of lightning, as though

Pestles had been drawn across them with suns.

إذا خُدمَتْ بالشكر عرصَةُ مالكِ

شدَتْ يدَهُ أنّى لمالِكَ مالِكُ

When Malik's courtyard is served with thanks,

They sing of his hand: 'Who could be Malik's master?'

لها ترفع الأستار وهي سواترُ

وتأبى العُلا لي أن أقولَ هواتِكُ

For them curtains are raised, though they themselves conceal;

And high honor forbids me to call them veil-renders.

بقيت لثغرٍ لو سواكَ ولن يرى

ألمّ به ما كشّفَتْهُ المضاحِكُ

May you endure for a frontier: had another than you—none will be seen—

Come to it, smiling mouths would not have unveiled it.

هو الأفقُ إلا أن وجهكَ بدرُه

وأفعالُك الزُهْرُ النجومُ الشوابِكُ

It is the horizon, except that your face is its full moon,

And your radiant deeds are its interwoven stars.

علَتْ بك عزماتٌ قواضٍ قواضبٌ

عليه وهمّات سوامٍ سوامِكُ

Through you, decisive, sword-sharp resolutions rose

Above it, and aspirations lofty and towering.

وفضلُ سدادٍ كالصراطِ استقامةً

فما للمُنى إلا عليه مسالكُ

And surpassing sound judgment, as straight as the Path:

Hopes have no roads except along it.

وملموسةٌ كالطودِ ما أنت آخذٌ

بيُمناكَ فيها فالمُجاذِبُ تاركُ

And something tangible, mountain-like: whatever you grasp

Within it with your right hand, a rival tugger relinquishes.

إذا مزّقَتْ منها الصوارمُ جانباً

ببرقٍ سَناها رقّعَتْهُ السنابكُ

If keen swords tear a side of it,

Hooves patch it with the lightning of their gleam.

وأنتَ الذي أبرمْتَ من آلِ هاشمٍ

قِوى دولةٍ حلّتْ عُراها البرامكُ

You are the one who bound fast, for the house of Hashim,

The cords of a dynasty whose ties the Barmakids had undone.

ومثلُك حامي همّةٍ وأئمةٍ

لها الملأ الأعلى حمًى والملائكُ

And one like you guards high purpose and imams,

Whose sanctuary is the highest assembly and the angels.

وهبتْ فليسَ البحرُ إلا ركيّةً

وليس المجاري منه إلا ركائكُ

It gave; the sea is nothing but a well,

And its flowing channels are merely shallow trickles.

مضَتْ حيثُ لا العَضْبُ المهنّدُ ضاربُ

فيُخشى ولا اللّدْنُ المثقّفُ شائكُ

It went where no keen Indian-forged sword strikes,

To inspire fear, nor a supple, straightened lance pierces.

وكم لفظةٍ وليتَ بالخَطْبِ دونَها

لما لاكَها من قبلِ فكّيْكَ لائكُ

And how many a word you faced grave affairs to uphold,

That no chewer had yet chewed before your jaws.

ولا شكّ أنّ الجودَ للناسِ راحةٌ

كِلا ذا وذا منها لديكَ مواشِكُ

No doubt generosity gives people ease;

Both this and that of it come swiftly from you.

تُشاركُكَ القُصّادُ فيما حويتَهُ

فهلْ لك في كسبِ العُلى مَنْ يشاركُ

Those who seek you share in what you possess;

But does anyone share with you in winning high honor?

فكشِّفْ حجابَ السّمْعِ عن صِدْقِ مقولي

فما هو فيما قالَهُ فيكَ آفكُ

So lift the veil of hearing from the truth of my speech:

It is no liar in what it has said of you.

كذا فليحُكْ بردَ المدائحِ شاعرٌ

ولا عارَ إنْ قالوا له أنتَ حائكُ

Thus let a poet weave the mantle of praises;

No shame if they tell him, 'You are a weaver.'