Sol 6.1

  1. مَا بَالُ هَذَا المَدمَعِ الذَّارِفِ

    أَأَقفَرَ الأطلاَلُ بِالعَارِفِ

    What ails this streaming eye?

    Have the ruins grown desolate for their knower?

  2. أَم أصبَحَت يُنكِرُ آيَاتِهَا

    مَن لَم يَكُن لِلاىِ بالعَارِفِ

    Or have their signs come to be denied

    by one unacquainted with those signs?

  3. أم أومَضَ البَرقُ على المُلتَقَى

    فَأَنهَلَّ مِن إِيمَاضِهِ الخَاطِفِ

    Or did lightning flash above the meeting place,

    so the eye streamed at its fleeting flash?

  4. أم هَتَفَ الُمرِىُّ في أيكِهِ

    فَأهتَجتَ مِن قُمرِيِّه الهَاتِفِ

    Or did the turtledove call in its thicket,

    so you were stirred by its calling dove?

  5. أم طَافَ طَيفُ مَيَّةٍ طَارِقاً

    أهلاً بِه من طَارِقٍ طائف

    Or did Mayya’s phantom pass, a visitor by night?

    Welcome to it, that roaming night visitor!

  6. بَاتَت تُرِيكَ بالعَينَ والجِيدَ مِن

    ظبي غَضِيضٍ طَرفُهُ حَاقِفِ

    All night she showed you, in eye and neck, the likeness of

    a gazelle, its gaze lowered, reclining in the dunes.

  7. أم أَمَّكَ الزَّائِفُ مِن شِعرِ مَن

    لَم يَتَّئِد في شِعرِهِ الزَّائِفِ

    Or did spurious verse reach you from one

    who took no care with his spurious poetry?

  8. يَا نَفسُ قد نِلتُ الذي أَرتَجِى

    فَلَستُ بِالآسِى ولاَ الآسِفِ

    O soul, I have attained what I hope for;

    so I am neither grieving nor regretful.

  9. يَا أيُّهَا المُهدُونَ أخزَافَهُم

    بالمُزبِدِ الغَطمطَمِ الرَّاجِفِ

    O you who offer up your potsherds

    to the foaming, roaring, heaving sea!

  10. هَلاَّ عَرَفتُم قَدرَكُمُ بالذي

    قد كان في دَهرِكُمُ السَّالِفِ

    Why did you not learn your measure from what

    had happened in your bygone age?

  11. اَرعَفتُم في رَقِّكُم مِزبَراً

    بِشِعرِ طِرفٍ مِنكُمُ رَاعِفِ

    You made a pen bleed onto your parchment

    with verse from a fine steed among you, outstripping the rest.

  12. مُرعِفُ المِزبَرِ أحرَى بِأن

    يَنظُرَ في مِزبَرِهِ الرَّاعِفِ

    One who makes a pen bleed would do better

    to look at his own bleeding pen.

  13. فالشُّرُفُ الجُونُ تَوَخَّتكُمُ

    تَرمِيكُمُ بِسَهمِهَا الشَّارِفِ

    For the dark, aged she-camels have singled you out,

    shooting at you with their timeworn arrow.

  14. إِن كُنتُ شَرَى سَبِّكُم نَاقِفاً

    فَلَستُ شَرىَ الزَّيغِ بالنَّاقِفِ

    Though I may crack open the colocynth of your abuse,

    I will not crack open the colocynth of deviation.

  15. تَرمُونني إِن لَم أكُن حَاذِفاً

    يَاءً بسَهمٍ طَائِشٍ عَاصِفِ

    You shoot at me, if I do not delete

    a yāʾ, with a wild, storming arrow.

  16. مِن بَعدِ لاَ نَافِيةٍ لَم تَكُن

    نَهياً فَمَا لِليَاءِ مِن حَاذِفِ

    After a negating lā that does not express

    prohibition, nothing calls for deleting the yāʾ.

  17. وإِن تَكُن نَهياً فَإشبَاعُهَا

    مُستَحسَنٌ في صِفَةِ الوَاصِفِ

    And if it is prohibitive, its vowel-lengthening

    is approved in a describer’s portrayal.

  18. لكن سقم الفهم لم تنكشف

    أربابه عن وصفها الكاشف

    But sick understanding—there is no escape

    for its sufferers from its revealing description.

  19. هَب خَارِفاً مَن بَعضُ زَلاَّتِهِ

    تَعرِيفُهُ لِمُشتَهَى الخَارِفِ

    Count as a dotard one whose slips include

    his making ‘The Gatherer’s Desire’ definite.

  20. وقَولُكَ بِالعَارِفِ لَم يَغتَرِربِه

    سوى المُستَضعَفِ الخَالِفِ

    And your phrase ‘a knower’ has deceived

    none but the weak-minded laggard.

  21. إذ لَيسَ بِالعَارِفِ مَن لَم يَكُن

    عِندَ حُدُوقِ الشَّرعِ بالوَاقِفِ

    For no one is knowledgeable who does not

    stop at the bounds of the Law.

  22. والشَّرعُ مَن أحدَثَ تَغيِيَرَهُ

    مِن بَحرِهِ لَم يَكُ بِالعَارِفِ

    And whoever has introduced changes to the Law

    knows nothing of its sea.

  23. قَلَدتُمُ في دِينِكُم خَارِفاً

    قد خَرَفَ البِدعَةَ عَن خَارِفِ

    You have blindly followed, in your religion, a dotard

    who gleaned innovation from another dotard.

  24. والحَقُّ لَمَّا جَاءَ مِن زَاخِرٍ

    بالدُّرِّ عَن أرجَائِهِ قَاذِفِ

    And when the truth came from a brimming sea,

    casting pearls out from its reaches,

  25. جَعلتُمُ أنَافَكُم في القَفَا

    أفِيكُم لَم يُلفَ مِن آنِفِ

    you put your noses at your napes.

    Was no one with pride found among you?

  26. والمسلِمُونَ أصبَحُوا خُنَّفاً

    عَن مَنهَجِ المُبتَدِعِ الخَانِفِ

    And the Muslims have turned away

    from the path of the swerving innovator,

  27. إِذ خَرَفُوا الحَقَّ الذي تَشتَهِى

    أهلُ الهُدَى مِن مُشتَهَى الخَارِفِ

    for they plucked the truth desired

    by the rightly guided from ‘The Gatherer’s Desire’.

  28. والوَعلَيُّونَ لإِفرَاطِهِم

    في الزَّلَقِ التَّالِدِ الطَّارِفِ

    But the Waʿlayyūn, through their excess

    in slips both inherited and newly acquired,

  29. كَرُّوا عَلَى بِدعَتِهِم عُطَّفاً

    فَهَل على السُّنَّةِ مِن عَاطِفِ

    have wheeled back, returning to their innovation—

    so will anyone turn back to the Sunnah?