Sol 6.1

  1. قضت وطراً من سكن أفناء نعمان

    فشطت بالباب قضين بأشجان

    She had her fill of dwelling in Naʿmān’s precincts,

    Then went far away, bearing hearts consumed by sorrow.

  2. أبانت سرور القلب منها ببينها

    وجدت بطي البيد في نشر أحزان

    By parting, she took from the heart the joy she had brought,

    And, folding the desert wastes, strove to unfold sorrows.

  3. كأن ظلال الأنس لما تقلصت

    طوتها بأيديها قلاص كعقبان

    As though the shades of companionship, when they dwindled,

    Were folded away by eagle-like young she-camels with their forelegs.

  4. وهيج ما بي إنها يوم ودعت

    شجاها النوى شجوي فنحن شريكان

    And what stirred my grief was that, the day she bade farewell,

    Separation grieved her as it grieved me: we are partners.

  5. كأن سقيط الدمع من عبراتنا

    على عاتقينا نثر در ومرجان

    The falling tears from our weeping seemed

    Like pearls and coral scattered over our shoulders.

  6. فولت بها ما بي وقلبي وقلبها

    برائعة التفريق للوجد رهنان

    She departed with my own anguish; my heart and hers,

    Struck by parting’s terror, were twin captives of longing.

  7. تفدي حياتي والمفداة نفسها

    وتقتلني سحراً با دعج فتان

    She would ransom my life, though hers should be the life ransomed,

    And slays me by magic with a bewitching dark eye.

  8. ولما اشمعلت بالظعون مطيها

    وضمن منها السجف درة دهقان

    When her riding camels sped away with the litters,

    And the curtain enclosed in her a nobleman’s pearl,

  9. بكيت على أثر القطين ولا بكا

    مفجعة ثكلى من الفقد مرنان

    I wept in the departing folk’s wake, as never wept

    A stricken, bereaved mother, wailing over her loss.

  10. خليلي والتذكار بادرة الهوى

    أهل أدرك الأحباب عهدي وأحباني

    My two friends—remembrance is love’s first impulse—

    Have my beloveds understood my pledge, and have they both loved me?

  11. وهل علموا أني سليب غزالهم

    غداة بدا لي بين بانات عنان

    And do they know I am their gazelle’s captive,

    From the morning it appeared to me among ʿAnān’s bān trees?

  12. وعهدي بنفسي لا تطير لمزعج

    شعاعاً فقد طارت لبارق نعمان

    I knew my soul would not fly at any alarm

    Into fragments—yet it flew at Naʿmān’s lightning-flash.

  13. خذا حد ثاني عن فريق تحملوا

    فذكرهم أنسي وروحي وريحاني

    Come, you two, tell me of a company that journeyed away,

    For remembering them is my solace, my soul, my sweet basil.

  14. أعندهم أني منيت ببينهم

    فهل أمل يقضي وهل ملتقى دان

    Do they know I have been afflicted by parting from them?

    Is there hope to be fulfilled, and is a meeting near?

  15. خليلي إن الدهر جمع وفرقة

    ونشر وطي لا يقر على آن

    My two friends, time is union and separation,

    Unfolding and folding, never still for a moment.

  16. تمتعت منه بانبساط وبهجة

    ورائع حسن من لياليه فتان

    I enjoyed from it ease and delight,

    And the wondrous, bewitching beauty of its nights:

  17. ليال سقتنا صفوها ونظامنا

    كواكب أصحاب وأقمار اخوان

    Nights that gave us their purest draught, our necklace strung with

    Stars of companions and moons of brothers.

  18. كخطبي من بين الخميسين إنه

    على كبدي مذ فارقتني كيان

    Such is my grief at parting from the two Khamīses: it

    Has been two searing brands upon my liver since you left me.

  19. لقد كان قدماً سالماً جمع شملنا

    فما سامه التكسير إلا الجديدان

    Once, indeed, our gathered company was unbroken;

    Only the ever-new pair, day and night, inflicted its breaking.

  20. نبيلان أما للولي فمنهل

    صفي وأما للعدو فمران

    Two noble men: to a friend, a watering place

    Pure and clear; to an enemy, spears.

  21. لدن سعدت أيامنا بمليدة

    أجر بافريقية الشرق أرداني

    Since our days grew happy in Malīda,

    As I trailed my sleeves through East Africa,

  22. لعاصمة ترفض نبلاً جباهها

    وتهفو بها البشرى لعرف وعرفان

    Toward a capital whose brows overflow with nobility,

    And glad tidings flutter there for kindness and knowledge.

  23. أفات البلاد الفضل أدنى فصولها

    وأبهجت القاصي وأسعدت الداني

    Its least distinction robbed other lands of preeminence,

    And it gladdened the distant and made the nearby happy.

  24. بها من رجالي عصبة يمنية

    طوال الأيادي من ذوائب قحطان

    There, among my men, is a Yemeni band,

    With long, generous hands, from the foremost of Qaḥṭān.

  25. بَهَا ليلُ بَسَّامون في أي خطة

    مواقف آمال مشارق ايمان

    Smiling noble lords, whatever the circumstance,

    Stations of hope, places where faith dawns.

  26. هم القوم لا يشقى جليسهم بهم

    صنائعهم في الدهر كالفلق الثاني

    They are the folk whose companion never suffers in their company;

    Their good deeds through time are like the second dawn.

  27. محت آية الأفقار آية فضلهم

    وجاءوا على حصر الكمال بسلطان

    Their bounty’s sign erased the sign of impoverishment,

    And they brought proof that perfection is theirs alone.

  28. مساميح وهابون سهل مصاعب

    مساعيهم لله سراً كاعلان

    Generous, lavish givers, gentle yet formidable,

    Their striving is for God, in secret as in public.

  29. أجلت سهامي بين أسهم مجدهم

    ففازت وأمجدت العلا بين أقران

    I cast my arrows among the shafts of their glory,

    And they won, bringing glory to the heights among their peers.

  30. وطاردت آمالي فقيدتها بهم

    كأن المنى واليمن منهم بايمان

    I chased my hopes, then bound them fast to these men,

    As though wishes and good fortune lay in their right hands.

  31. وصافيتهم دهراً فمنوا وآثروا

    على غلة والدهر مبتئس عان

    I was their true friend for an age; they bestowed favors and put me first,

    Despite burning thirst, while time was wretched and captive.

  32. وما ظمأ الأحرار إلا لمورد

    عليه سجال المجد بالحمد ملان

    Noble men thirst only for a watering place

    Where glory’s buckets brim with praise.

  33. أولئك هم غير الخطوب مقاعس

    قروم سراة الحي من ازدجرنان

    Those are the men unshaken by the turns of calamity,

    Chiefs, the clan’s nobles, of the Azd of Jarnān.

  34. حماة الأنوف الحافظون ذمارهم

    كرام على العلات شيباً كولدان

    Defenders of proud noses, guardians of their honor and kin,

    Noble in all trials, graybeards and boys alike.

  35. كماة أباة الضيم شوس عوايس

    إذا كرت الفرسان في رجل خرصان

    Armored champions, spurning humiliation, fierce, prowling lions,

    When the horsemen charge amid a swarm of spears.