هل أنت راحم عبرة توله — Abu Alyemen Alknde

هل أنت راحم عبرةٍ تولّهٍ

ومجير صبٍّ عند مأمنه دُهي

Will you have pity on a tear of distraught love,

and shelter a lovesick man assailed in his place of safety?

هيهات يرحم قاتل مقتوله

وسنانُه في القلب غير مُنهنه

How unlikely that a killer should pity his victim,

while his spearpoint in the heart remains unchecked.

مَن بلَّ من داء الغرام فإنني

مُذحلَّ بي مرض الهوى لم أنقه

Who has recovered from love's affliction? For I,

since love's sickness befell me, have not recovered.

إني بُليت بحب أُغيدَ ساحر

بلحاظه رخص البنان برهره

I have been afflicted with love for a graceful one who enchants

with his glances, soft-fingered and tender-fleshed.

أبغي شفاء تدلُّهي من دلِّه

ومتى يرقُّ مدلَّلٌ لمدلَّه

I seek a cure for my love-bewilderment in his coquetry;

but when will a pampered one pity a love-bewildered one?

كم آهة لي في هواه وأنةٍ

لو كان ينفعني عليه تأوّهي

How many a sigh and groan I have for love of him—

if only my sighing over him could help me!

ومآرب في وصله لو أنها

تقضى لكانت عند مبسمه الشهي

And desires for union with him—if only they

were fulfilled, they would lie at his alluring mouth.

يا مفرداً بالحسن إنك منتهٍ

فيه كما أنا في الصبابة منتبه

O you unmatched in beauty, you are consummate

in it, as I am wakeful in passionate longing.

قد لام فيك معاشر أفأنتهي

باللوم عن حبِّ الحياة وأنت هي

Many have reproached me for you; shall I desist,

through their reproach, from love of life, when you are life itself?

أبكي لديه فإن أحس بلوعةٍ

وبشهفة أومى بطرف مقهقه

I weep before him; if he senses burning grief

and a gasp, he gestures with a laughing glance.

أنا من محاسنه وحالي عنده

حيران بين تفكهٍ وتفكه

Through his charms and my state before him, I am

bewildered between delight and regret:

ضدان قد جمعا بلفظ واحد

لي في هواه بمعنيين موجَّه

two opposites joined in a single word,

which, in my love for him, bears two meanings.

لأجردن من اصطباري عزمةً

ما ربُّها في محفِل بمسفَّه

I shall draw from my endurance a resolve

whose possessor is not deemed foolish in an assembly.

أو لستُ رب فضائل لو جاز

أدناها وما أزرهي به غيري زُهي

Am I not endowed with virtues? If another surpassed

even their least—what I disdain—he would be proud.

شهدت له الأعداء واستشفت بها

عينا حسود بالغباوة أكمه

Enemies have testified to it; through these virtues healing was sought

by an envier's eyes, born blind through stupidity.

أنا عبد من علم الزمان بعجزه

عن أن يجييء له بندٍّ مشبه

I am the servant of one whom Time knows itself powerless

to provide with a matching peer.

عبد لعز الدين ذي الشرف الذي

ذل الملوك لعزه فرُّخشه

A servant of noble ‘Izz al-Din, before whose

might kings have bowed—Farrukhshah.

الموقد الحرب العوان ببأسه

والأسد بين معرِّد وموهوه

He who kindles renewed warfare with his valor,

while lions either flee or whimper.

المفحم الفصحاء فصل خطابه

من ذي الروية فيهمُ والمِبده

He whose decisive speech silences the eloquent,

both their deliberate speakers and those who improvise.

فكأن قرناً يُبتلى بنزاله

يرمي بطودٍ فوقه متدهده

It is as though an adversary tested in combat with him

were struck by a mountain tumbling down upon him.

وكذا البليغ ملجلج في نطقه

حصراً كألكن في الكلام متهته

Likewise, the eloquent man stammers in his speech,

tongue-tied, like an inarticulate man stuttering in speech.

فلتيححِ العلياء منه بمحرب

عند الجلاد وفي الجدال بمدرَه

Let high glory take pride in him, a fierce warrior

in combat, and a forceful spokesman in debate.

هو غَّرةُ الزمن البهيم وعصمةُ

الملك العقيم وغوث كل مؤيِّه

He is the bright brow of dark Time, the safeguard

of barren kingship, and the succor of every caller for help.

ملك همام حازم يقظ رضى

بحر غمام عالم ندسٌ نهي

A king, valiant, resolute, vigilant, well-pleasing;

an ocean, a raincloud, learned, discerning, wise.

فطِن لأخذ محامد خفيت على

فطن الأُلى فلبعضها لم يُوبَهِ

Quick to grasp virtues hidden from

the discernment of earlier men—some never heeded.

متنبه للمكرمات ولم يكن

عنها ينام فيهتدي بتنبُّهِ

Alert to noble deeds; it was not his way

to sleep through them and need awakening to find his path.

يُعدي على جور الزمان بعدله

ويجير بالنعماء كلَّ مولهِ

His justice gives redress against Time's oppression,

and his bounty shelters every distraught soul.

وإذا استغاث إليه منه ماله

كانت إغاثته له صهٍ أو مهِ

And when his wealth begs him for rescue from himself,

his aid to it is 'Hush!' or 'Stop!'

وعلى شمائل مجده ورُوائه

للمًلك أبَّهةٌ بغير تأبُّه

And upon his glorious traits and handsome bearing

rests regal grandeur, without affected grandeur.

ما الليث أوغل في الترائب نابه

سغباً يصول بأهرتٍ متكهكه

No lion, driving its fang deep into breastbones,

ravenous, pouncing with a wide, growling maw,

يوما بأسفك للدماء لدى الوغى

منه وأقتل للعداة وأعضهِ

is ever more lavish with blood amid battle

than he, more deadly or more formidable to foes.

تعبت أسنته على عليائه

حتى تفرَّد بالمحل الأنوهِ

His spearpoints have grown weary in pursuit of his eminence,

until he stood alone in the most exalted station.

فغدا ورواح به رعايا ملكه

في راحة تتهو بسوددهِ البهي

Through him, his kingdom's subjects pass morning and evening

at ease, exulting in his splendid lordship.

كم في عناء المتعبين على العلا

من مترف بعنائهم مترفِّهِ

How many, through the toil of those striving for greatness,

are pampered, enjoying ease from their exertions!

انظر إذا ازدحم الوفود ببابه

من كل ذي أمل به متوجِّهِ

Look, when delegations crowd at his gate,

each hopeful man turning toward him:

إن شط لم يشطط رضاو إن سطا

فيما يحاول عنده لم ينجه

if he asks too much, he is not judged excessive in seeking favor; and if he presses

for what he seeks from him, he is not rebuffed.

طابت موارده فغض فناؤه

وشدا الحداةُ بذكره في المهمةِ

His watering places are sweet, so his courtyard is lush,

and camel-drivers sing his name in the trackless waste.

كالماء عند وروده ما لم يكن

عذبا نميراً سائغاً لم يُشفهِ

Like water when one comes to drink it: unless it is

sweet, pure, and easy to swallow, it does not quench thirst.

يا خير بانٍ بالشجاعة والندى

فخرا يهي عمرُ الزمان ولا يهي

O finest builder, through courage and generosity,

of glory—Time's lifespan may crumble, but it will not.

يفديك كلٌّ مملَّك متيايهٍ

أبداً بألسنة الرعاع ممدَّهِ

May every enthroned, swaggering king be your ransom,

forever praised by the rabble's tongues,

لا يفقهُ النجوى إذا حدثته

وإذا أتى بحديثه لم يُفقهِ

who cannot understand private counsel when you speak to him,

and when he offers his own words, cannot make them understood.

إني على شرف القريض لهاجر

للنظم هجرة آنفٍ متنزِّهِ

I, despite the nobility of verse, am forsaking

verse-making, with the renunciation of one too proud to stoop.

أضحى وعصبته كممدوحيهمُ

في جهل قيمة ذي الحجى والأورهِ

It and its company have become like those they praise,

ignorant of the worth of the wise and the foolish.

أبداً عرائس مدحه تُجلى على

دنس الخبيئة بالعيوب مشوَّهِ

Always the brides of its praise are unveiled before

one foul at heart, disfigured by flaws.

قل للمميِّز منشداً أو سامعاً

في الناس بين مُفهَّهٍ ومفوَّهِ

Say to the discerning man, whether reciting or listening,

who distinguishes among people the tongue-tied from the eloquent:

آليت لا أوليت غيرك مدحةً

شعراً وإن أفعل فمدحةُ مكره

I have sworn to grant no one but you a panegyric

in verse; and if I do, it will be a forced man's praise.

أصبحت من نعماك صاحب أنعمٍ

تُرجى نوافلها وعيش أبلهِ

Through your bounty I have become the possessor of blessings,

whose further gifts are hoped for, and of a carefree life.

وبدا لديك صريح فضلي مثل ما

لا يستسرُّ لديك نقص مموَّه

And my genuine merit is evident to you, just as

a disguised defect cannot remain hidden from you.

حزت السعادة من إِلهك ما سرت

في الليل دعوة عابدٍ متألِّه

May you win felicity from your God as long as there travels

through the night the prayer of a devout worshipper.