قضى الدهر أن أهواك غير ممتع — Abu Fadl Alwaleed

قَضى الدهرُ أن أهواكَ غير مُمتَّعِ

فلم نجتمع يوماً ولم نتودَّعِ

Time decreed that I should love you without fulfillment,

So we never met, nor did we bid each other farewell.

إذا لم يكن لي في السّلام تعلَّةٌ

رضيتُ وداعاً منهُ علّةَ مُوجَع

If there were no solace for me in a greeting,

I would accept a farewell from him as a sufferer's comfort.

ولكنَّ من يَهوى كثيراً منالُهُ

قليلٌ فما أشقى الفَتى بالتولُّع

Yet what one who loves deeply gains

Is little—how wretched is a young man in his passion!

وهذا نصيبُ الطِّيبينَ فطالما

شكوتُ الذي أشكوهُ غيرَ مشفَّع

And this is the good-hearted's lot; so often

I have lamented what I now lament, with my plea unheeded.

فأنتَ نَسيبي والقرابةُ بيننا

شعورٌ وفهمٌ فاسترح وترفَّع

For you are my kinsman, and our kinship

Is feeling and understanding; so rest and rise on high.

عهدتُك طَلقَ الوجهِ والكفِّ للألى

رَجوكَ فلم تَمنَع ولم تتمنَّع

I knew you cheerful-faced and open-handed toward those

Who looked to you; you neither withheld nor held yourself aloof.

وكنتَ كريماً عسرُهُ مثلُ يُسرهِ

أبى عزَّةً أو عفةً ذلَّ مَطمَع

And you were generous, alike in hardship and ease,

Spurning, through dignity or self-restraint, the abasement of greed.

فما ضاع دمعُ الأهلِ والصحبِ في الأسى

وقد كنتَ للأحبابِ غيرَ مضيّع

So the tears of family and friends in grief were not wasted,

For you had never neglected your loved ones.

نُعيتَ فكان الحزنُ للناسِ شاملاً

ونَعيُكَ للأحبابِ غيرَ مضيّع

Your death was announced, and grief encompassed everyone,

And the news of your death was not disregarded by your loved ones.

فلا كان يومٌ قيلَ في صُبحهِ قَضى

عميدٌ فأنسُ الدّارِ وحشةُ بَلقَع

Would that the day had never been when, at dawn, they announced the death

Of a leader; the home's warmth became a wasteland's desolation.

لقد شهدت أطوادُ لبنانَ هولَهُ

فكادت تهي من هيبةٍ وتخشّع

Truly, Lebanon's mighty mountains witnessed its horror,

And almost gave way in awe and humble reverence.

تمثّلَ يومُ الحشرِ فيهِ ونورُهُ

ظلامٌ كأنَّ الجوَّ وجهُ مقنَّع

The Day of Resurrection was embodied in it, and its light

Was darkness, as though the sky were a veiled face.

فلم أرَ فرقاً بينَ عرسٍ ومأتم

لما كانَ في ذاكَ الحفالِ المجمَّع

So I saw no difference between a wedding and a funeral,

Because of what was in that assembled throng.

فُجِعنا بمن إحسانُه مثلُ حسنهِ

وأيُّ محبٍّ عاشَ غيرَ مروّع

We were bereaved of one whose kindness matched his beauty,

And what lover has lived without being stricken with dread?

وجدنا على روقِ الشّبابِ بدَمعِنا

فكان كغيثٍ فوقَ ريانَ مُمرع

And we lavished our tears on the bloom of youth,

So they were like rain upon lush, well-watered ground.

وأصعبُ شيءٍ فرقةٌ بعد إلفةٍ

فكم مهجةٍ منها تسيلُ بمدمع

And the hardest thing is parting after intimacy;

How many a heart's lifeblood flows, because of it, through a tearful eye!

فما أوجد الإخوانُ والأخواتُ في

مماتِ الذي قد كان بهجةَ أربُع

How deeply the brothers and sisters grieved at

The death of one who had been the joy of homes!

مَضى وقلوبُ الصَّحبِ حوليه جمةٌ

وأدمعُهم ماءٌ على نارِ أضلع

He passed away, with a throng of friends' hearts around him,

And their tears were water on the fire within their ribs.

ومن ذا يردُّ الموتَ عنهُ وقد سطا

على كلِّ ذي عرشٍ وجيشٍ مدرَّع

And who could fend death off from him, when it has fallen

Upon every lord of a throne and an armored army?

فلو أنه يفدَى ببعض حياتنا

لجدنا له من كل عمر بأربع

So if he could have been ransomed with part of our lives,

We would have gladly given him four years from every lifespan.

ولم نكُ يوماً آسفينَ لأنّنا

نُقاسمهُ ما هانَ عند التفجُّع

And we would never have regretted it, because we

Would share with him what counts for little amid bereavement.

ويا حبّذا ما كان منه وذِكرُهُ

لهُ نفحاتُ الفاغمِ المتضوّع

And oh, how lovely was what came from him; his memory

Has the wafts of a heady, spreading perfume.

فأنّى لنا ذيّالِكَ الظرفُ والنَّدى

وتِلكَ السَّجايا بعد أهولِ مَصرَع

So where shall we find that charm and generosity,

And those qualities after the most dreadful death,

ولطفُ ابتِسامٍ في عذوبةِ مَنطقٍ

وحسنُ كلامٍ في حديثٍ منوَّع

And a smile's gentleness in the sweetness of speech,

And fine words in varied conversation?

فكيفَ أُعزّي أهلهُ وأنا الذي

يُشارِكُهم في حزنِهم غيرَ مدّع

So how can I console his family, when I am the one

Who shares their grief without pretense?

ألا يا أخا الفتيانِ كيفَ تركتَنا

فأوحَشتَ منا كلَّ قلبٍ ومَوضع

Ah, brother of the young men, how have you left us,

And made every heart and place among us desolate?

عزيزٌ علينا أن تواريكَ تربةٌ

فتفقدُ منكَ الدارُ أجملَ مطلع

It grieves us that earth should conceal you,

And the home should lose, in you, its loveliest dawn.

ولو فزتُ قبلَ الموتِ منكَ بنظرةٍ

لكانت عزاءً لي على غيرِ مقنع

And had I won a glance from you before death,

It would have been a comfort to me, though an insufficient one.

ولكنَّ نفسي لاعها الموتُ في النَّوى

وليست على مرأى حبيبٍ ومسمع

But death seared my soul in separation,

And it was not within sight or hearing of a beloved.

ترنَّحتَ غصناً مزهراً في خَميلةٍ

غدا بعد طلِّ الصبحِ يُسقى بأدمع

You swayed, a flowering branch in a grove,

That, after the morning dew, came to be watered with tears.

تناثرَ مِنكَ الزَّهرُ وارتحلَ الشّذا

فبعدَكَ لا أرجو ربيعاً لمربع

The blossoms scattered from you, and the fragrance departed;

So after you, I hope for no spring in any dwelling.

وكنتَ حبيبَ الكلِّ في علو مجلسٍ

فبتَّ فقيدَ الكلَّ في عمقِ مضجع

And you were everyone's beloved on a lofty seat,

Then you were lost to all in the depths of a resting place.

عزاءً ذوي القُربى فما المرءُ خالدٌ

ولو حازَ دَهراً ملكَ كِسرى وتُبّع

Take comfort, kinsfolk, for no one is immortal,

Even if for an age he possessed the dominion of Kisra and Tubbaʿ.

تأسّوا بإخوانٍ أُصيبوا بإخوةٍ

فما الأرضُ إِلا مرقدٌ بعد مرتع

Take solace in brothers who have been bereaved of brothers,

For earth is but a resting place after a pasture.