خذوا لقلبي أمانا من تجنيه — Abn Qlaks

خُذوا لقلبي أماناً من تجنّيهِ

فما به من لهيبِ الوجدِ يكفيهِ

Secure my heart a pledge of safety from his mistreatment;

For the blaze of longing within it already suffices.

أعشى عليه ضِراماً بات يُلهِبهُ

بخاطري وهو عندي ساكنٌ فيه

I am blinded by a blaze he spent the night kindling over it

Within my mind, while he dwells there with me.

علِقْتُ منه ببدرٍ في محاسنِه

فمُقلَتي بجفونِ السُحْبِ تبْكيهِ

I fell for him, a full moon in his loveliness;

So my eye weeps for him through the eyelids of clouds.

مَنْ لي وأملكُ بي مني لواحظُه

بأنْ أقولَ بنفسي اليومَ أفديهِ

Who will let me—his glances master me more than I do—

Say, 'Today I would ransom him with my own life'?

القربُ والبُعْدُ أوصافٌ تُلازمهُ

فالتّيهُ يُبعدُه والحبُّ يُدْنيهِ

Nearness and distance are attributes that cling to him:

Haughtiness keeps him distant, while love brings him near.

أهوى المُدامَ أدارتْها مراشفُهُ

وأعشقُ الغُصْنَ أهداهُ تثنّيهِ

I love the wine his lips have passed around,

And I adore the bough his swaying has bestowed.

كم أكتمُ الحبَّ والأشجانُ تُظْهِرُهُ

وأنشُرُ الصّبْر والتّبريحُ يَطويهِ

How often I conceal love while sorrows reveal it,

And unfold patience while torment folds it away.

هو الحفاظُ وإن لم أخشَ عاديةً

أفي أحاشِيهِ أن يُصغي لواشيهِ

It is fidelity—even though I fear no assault;

I keep faith, deeming him above heeding his slanderer.

يا قاتلَ الله عينيهِ فكمْ فتكَتْ

صبّاً بواديْهِ لم يظفَرْ بواديهِ

Ah, may God smite his eyes! How often they have slain

A lovesick soul in his valley, who found no payer of his blood-price.

حلّ الحِمى فتحلّى باسمِ منزلِه

وعُطِّلتْ من معانيهِ مَغانِيهِ

He settled in the sanctuary, adorning himself with his dwelling's name;

And his dwelling-places were stripped of his charms.

ربْعٌ أيادي الرياحِ الهوجِ تهدِمُه

والحبُّ بين ضلوعِ الصّبِّ يَبْنيهِ

A dwelling that the hands of violent winds demolish,

While love rebuilds it between the lovesick lover's ribs.

إن أسقَتْهُ الليالي بعدَ صحّتهِ

فهو الدّواءُ لمن أعيى تَداويهِ

If the nights have drenched it after it was sound,

It is the cure for one whose treatment has proved hopeless.

وبيتُ حُبٍّ دعانا للطّوافِ به

فلستَ تسمعُ إلا من يُلبّيهِ

And a house of love summoned us to circle it:

You hear none but those answering its call.

إذ لا جُمارَ سوى دمعي فأقذِفُها

ولا هديَّ سوى قلبي فأُهديهِ

For there are no ritual pebbles but my tears, so I cast them,

And no sacrificial offering but my heart, so I offer it.

ركبتُ ظهرَ غرامي نحوَهُ فسَرى

والشوقُ هاديهِ والتّبريحُ حاديهِ

I mounted my passion's back toward him, and it traveled by night,

With longing as its guide and torment as its camel-driver.

حتى علِقْتُ بأستارِ الجمالِ به

وقلتُ رُحماكَ يا مستعذِبَ التّيهِ

Until I clung to the curtains of beauty in him,

And said, 'Your mercy, you who relish haughtiness!'

هل منكَ في عرَفاتِ الحسنِ عرْفُ جدًى

أو في مِنى الطّرفِ من منٍّ أرجّيهِ

Is there, from you at beauty's Arafat, a scent of bounty,

Or in the gaze's Mina, any favor I might hope for?

عجبتُ من مستَميحِ الباخلينَ ندىً

وغيثُ أحمدَ قد سحّتْ عزاليهِ

I marvel at one who begs largesse from misers,

While Ahmad's rain has poured from its spouts.

الحافظُ الدّينَ والحامي مسارحَهُ

والحارسُ الفضلَ والكالي نواحيهِ

The guardian of religion, the protector of its pastures,

The keeper of excellence, the watchman over its domains.

فالشرْعُ أزهرُ مصقولٌ جوانبُه

والدّينُ أخضرُ مطلولٌ مراعِيهِ

Thus sacred law is radiant, its sides polished,

And religion is verdant, its pastures moistened with dew.

أغرُّ يصدعُ بالعلم اليقينِ حشى

ما أحدثَ الناسُ من جهلٍ وتمويهِ

A radiant man who, with certain knowledge, cleaves the entrails

Of the ignorance and deception people have devised.

ما زال يبسطُ والأيامُ قابضةٌ

ويُرتَجى في دُجى خطبٍ فيُرْجيهِ

He has never ceased giving freely while the days withhold,

And is looked to in calamity's darkness, which he holds off.

يُعدي الأعادي على أموالِه كرَماً

وينثَني فيعفّي فقرَ عافيهِ

Generously, he gives enemies power over his wealth,

Then turns to erase the poverty of his petitioner.

فما تستّرُ عن مدحٍ مناقبهُ

ولا تجرّدُ عن حمدٍ مساعِيهِ

His virtues cannot hide from praise,

Nor are his endeavors stripped of thanks.

حسبُ الشريعةِ أنّ الله شيّدَها

بمَنْ أقرّ بما فيه مُنافيه

It suffices sacred law that God has built it up

Through one whose very adversary acknowledges his qualities:

بحافظٍ ما تجلّى صُبْحَ مكرمةٍ

إلا انْجَلى من ظلامِ الشّكّ داجيهِ

Through a guardian who never shines as the dawn of a noble deed

Without the deepest darkness of doubt clearing away.

يروي فيُروى غليلُ الدين من حصَرٍ

أدناهُ نقلاً وقد شطّتْ مراميهِ

He narrates, and religion's burning thirst born of constraint is quenched;

He brought it near through transmission, though its aims lay far away.

كم مُقفَلٍ ضلّ فيه العقلُ فانفرجَتْ

أرجاؤه لحجاهُ عن معانيهِ

How many a locked mystery, where reason strayed, opened

Its expanses to his intellect, revealing its meanings!

وموبَقٍ قد سقاهُ غيثَ فِطنتِه

مُزناً أيادي رياحِ الفكرِ تمريهِ

And many a doomed one he watered with the rain of his insight—

Rainclouds milked by the hands of thought's winds.

ومجدِبِ العيش وافى منه ذا كرَمٍ

يُميتُ جدْواهُ والأشعارُ تُحيْييهِ

And many a man whose livelihood was barren found in him a generous man,

Who lets his bounty die, while poems bring him to life.

وناظمٍ دُرَّ شعرٍ منه أحرزه

يُعينه بمَعانيهِ ويُغنيهِ

And many a stringer of verse's pearls, which he acquired from him,

He helps with his qualities and enriches.

كالبحرِ والكافُ إن أنصفتَ زائدةٌ

فيه فلا تحسَبْنَها كافَ تَشبيهِ

Like the sea—yet the kaf, if you are fair, is redundant

In his case; do not think it a kaf of comparison.

يا حافظاً نال أقصى الفضلِ ممتَطِياً

مطّاً من العزمِ يُنضيهِ ويُمْضيهِ

O guardian who attained the utmost excellence, riding

A long-backed mount of resolve he wears out and drives onward!

إذا تصرّمَ عامٌ أنت عامرُه

فكلُّ أيامِه عيدٌ لنا فيهِ

When a year ends that you have made flourish,

Every day of it is a festival for us.