الفضل فضلك زائرا ومزورا — أحمد الكاشف

الفضل فضلك زائراً ومزورا

فأعد صنيعك ذاكراً مذكورا

The favor is yours, whether visiting or visited.

So renew your kindness, remembering and remembered.

وتعهَّدِ الغرسَ الذي استحييتَه

حتى تبسَّم كالرجاء نضيرا

And tend the sapling you kept alive

until it smiled, verdant as hope.

متخيِّراً غرر السنين مواعداً

بنعيمهنَّ وسعدهنَّ بشيرا

Choosing the choicest years as meeting times,

heralding their bliss and good fortune.

لاقتك في الثاني لقاءك أولاً

أمَّ القرى وتلا الضحى التبكيرا

On the second they met you, as you first met

Umm al-Qura; the forenoon followed the early morning.

ذا موسمُ الأكفاء في مجدٍ وفي

مالٍ فخلد موسمي المشهورا

This is the season of peers in glory and in

wealth; so immortalize my renowned season.

ولقد عرفتك في بعادك راجياً

أن لا أرى أمداً إليك عسيرا

And I knew you in your absence, hoping

to find no distance to you hard to bridge.

ولبثتُ حتى زرتني في موضعي

فكأنني بالغيب كنت بصيرا

And I waited until you visited me where I was,

as though I had been able to see the unseen.

شرفتني في قريتي فكأنني

ملك أسوس مدائناً وثغورا

You honored me in my village, and I seemed

a king governing cities and frontier strongholds,

يقضي ويقدر ما استعان بعسكر

فيما يشاء ولا استشار وزيرا

who decrees and wields power, calling on no army

for what he wishes, nor consulting a minister.

للّه يوم لقيتَني متجمِّلاً

متهللاً بتحيتي مسرورا

God be praised for the day you met me in fine array,

beaming, delighted by my greeting.

يومٌ أطلتَ به الحياةَ ومحفلٌ

فيه امتلكت خورنقاً وسديرا

A day on which you lengthened life, and a gathering

where I came to possess Khawarnaq and Sadir.

للدين والدنيا هديتك التي

توحي إليِّ الشعر والتصويرا

Your gift, for faith and worldly life alike,

inspires me with poetry and imagery.

لم تُهدِ طنفسة إليَّ وإنما

أهديت تاجاً غالياً وسريرا

You did not give me a carpet; rather,

you gave me a precious crown and a throne.

شاهدت حذق الفرس فيها معجباً

وأطلت في إبداعها التفكيرا

I saw the Persians' skill in it with admiration,

and pondered long on its artistry.

متعلماً من وشيها وطرازها

لرسائلي التدبيج والتحبيرا

Learning from its patterned weave and embroidery

to adorn and embellish my letters.

شرفت بها القوقازُ حيث عشيرتي ال

أولى كما سرَّت بمصر عشيرا

The Caucasus was honored by it, home of my kin

of old, as it delighted a kinsman in Egypt.

وسألت ربي أن تكون أريكتي

في الخلد أسترعي عليها الحورا

And I asked my Lord that it be my couch

in eternal paradise, tending the houris upon it.

قمبيز مهما روعت آثاره

أضحى لأجلك ذنبه مغفورا

Cambyses, however terrifying his deeds,

has his sin forgiven now, for your sake.

هل أنت إلا صفوة القوم الألى

نصروا العلوم ومدَّنوا المعمورا

Are you not the choicest of the people who

championed the sciences and civilized the inhabited world?

لم يسمعوا القرآن أول مرة

حتى أجادوا الشرح والتفسيرا

They had scarcely heard the Qur'an for the first time

before they excelled in exposition and interpretation.

وتجمَّعوا للنفع حين تنازع ال

عرب الولاة خليفة وأميرا

And they united for the common good when the

Arab rulers contended, caliph and emir alike.

يا ذا البيانُ يرى الحسام وأهله

إن اليراع أجل منه أمورا

O sir, eloquence shows the sword and its wielders

that the pen is greater than it in import.

لم يدرِ قارئه أينظر دولة

مفتوحة أم محكماً مسطورا

Its reader could not tell whether he beheld a realm

conquered, or a flawless text set down in writing.

ما كرَّم الشعراءَ أنّك شاعرٌ

حتى أجلتك الملوك سفيرا

Your being a poet had scarcely honored the poets

before kings exalted you as an ambassador.

لك عند كسرى ما لذي قرباه أو

أعلى وحسبك ما ترى تقديرا

With Kisra you have what his kinsman has, or

a higher place; the esteem you see is enough for you.

ناداك باللَّقب الذي أغنيتَه

عن أن يرى لك في الكرام نظيرا

He hailed you by the title you freed

from having to find your equal among the noble.

ألقى عليك محبة وأمانة

فاسلك سبيل الظافرين جسورا

He bestowed on you affection and a trust,

so tread the victors' path boldly.

وتوعدنَّ عدوَّه بعدوِّه

حتى يبيت على الجميع قديرا

And surely threaten his foe with that foe's own enemy,

until he comes to hold power over them all.

وإذا دعوت إلى السلام فقبله

مكِّن لحرصك حول أرضك سورا

And if you call for peace, beforehand

establish a wall around your land to serve your vigilance.

أرأيت قيصر كيف خادع نفسه

والناس لما طيَّر المنشورا

Have you seen how the Tsar deceived himself

and the people when he sent his proclamation flying?

وألان منطقه ليقسو قلبه

ثم استكان ليعتدي ويجورا

And he softened his speech so his heart might grow cruel,

then bowed in submission, only to attack and oppress.

أيرد قيصر أن يسود وإنَّ من

أعداء قيصر أجبلاً وبحورا

Does the Tsar wish to rule, though among

the Tsar's enemies are mountains and seas,

ويصيد ملء اللجِّ حيتاناً ومل

ء الفجِّ أسداً والسماء نسورا

and to catch whales filling the deep, and

lions filling the gorge, and eagles filling the sky?

ويحاول التغليب في سهل ولم

يثبت وقد تخذ الجبال ظهيرا

And he tries to triumph on a plain, though he did not

stand firm when he had taken the mountains as his ally.

وأقل أعذار الحصون مثارها

إذ أسلمت للحاصر المحصورا

And the fortresses' least excuse was their devastation,

when they gave the besieged over to the besieger.

أسفي على جندٍ هنالك مسلمٍ

يؤذي ويؤذى مرغماً مقهورا

I grieve for the Muslim troops there,

harming and being harmed, compelled and subdued.

يا ليتني بين الألى ظفروا عسى

أأسو جريحاً أو أفك أسيرا

Would that I were among those who triumphed, so perhaps

I might heal a wounded man or free a captive!

فالشعر أبلغ من سيوف الروس في

أكبادهم وقلوبهم تأثيرا

For poetry surpasses Russian swords in

its effect on their livers and hearts.

أصديقَ قيصرَ عنه حدِّثنا فما

نلقى شبيهَك بالأمور خبيرا

O friend of the Tsar, tell us of him, for

we find no one like you in knowledge of affairs.

أنصحتَه مستيئساً من نصره

فعساه يغمد سيفه المكسورا

Did you counsel him, despairing of his victory,

so he might perhaps sheathe his broken sword?

الروس لا يبغون فتحاً مثلما

يتطلَّبون لروسيا الدستورا

The Russians do not seek conquest so much as

they seek a constitution for Russia.

إني أرى نصح الملوك وإن قسا

إلا عليك محرَّماً محظورا

I consider counsel to kings, however harsh,

forbidden and barred to all but you.

لو آثر السلم العباد ليسلموا

كنت المحكَّم فيهمُ المشكورا

Had people chosen peace, so that they might be safe,

you would have been their arbiter, held in gratitude.

أو كان للإشفاق فيهم موضعٌ

وعت القلوب قصيدك المأثورا

Or had compassion found a place among them,

their hearts would have absorbed your celebrated poem.

فلقد وصفتَ الحرب حتى خلتُني

فيها أرى التقتيل والتدميرا

For you described war until I imagined myself

within it, witnessing slaughter and destruction.

أيريد سلماً في البرية راحمٌ

ما دام كلٌّ ثائراً مثئورا

Can a compassionate man seek peace among mankind

while each is an avenger and one to be avenged?

مولاي حسبي من ودادك أنّه

لم يبق تيّاهاً عليَّ فخورا

My lord, your affection suffices me, for it

has left no swaggering boaster to lord it over me.

وعليَّ حقك لا أوفّيه وإن

أملأ طريقك لؤلؤاً منثورا

I owe you a debt I cannot discharge, even if

I fill your path with scattered pearls.

أحليت بالدمع الكريم فمي كما

عطرت أنفاسي به تعطيرا

You sweetened my mouth with noble tears, just as

you thoroughly perfumed my breath with them.

لو مازج القزوين بعض مذاقتي

لجرى شراباً للأنام طهورا

Were the Caspian to mingle with a little of my mouth's savor,

it would flow as a pure drink for mankind.

وكفى بهذا الشعر حولي موكباً

وكفى بنفسي وحدها جمهورا

And this poetry suffices as a procession around me,

and I alone suffice as a multitude.

فلئن وصلت فقد وصلت مهذباً

وإذا نصرت فقد نصرت غيورا

So if you have shown friendship, you have befriended a cultivated man;

and if you have given aid, you have aided a zealous man.

لو عاد للأشعار فردوسيُّها

لقضى الرضى أني أرق شعورا

Were poetry's Ferdowsi to return,

he would gladly judge that I am more delicate in feeling.