تصعيد هذا الدهر والتصويب — Al Tughrai

تصعيدُ هذا الدهرِ والتصويبُ

مثلي على حاليهما مغلُوبُ

The raising and lowering of this age—

one like me is defeated in either state.

لا تنكري أنّي تغيَّر شيمتي

فالرمحُ قد يَنْأدُّ منه كعوبُ

Do not fault me for the change in my nature;

for a spear's joints may bend.

لا تعجبي أني شكوتُ فإِنَّه

قد يظلعُ المتحسِّرُ المنكوبُ

Do not marvel that I complained, for indeed

the weary, afflicted man may limp.

أجري على عِرْقِ المكارمِ مثلَما

يجري على أعراقِه اليعبُوبُ

I run true to the stock of noble virtues, just as

the swift steed runs true to its bloodlines.

ومَليحةِ الشكوى إليَّ مليحةٌ

من صرفِ أيام لهن دَبِيبُ

And a lovely woman, charming in her complaint to me

of the turns of days that creep along,

أنحَتْ عليَّ بلومها ولقد دَرَتْ

أنِّي على عَجْمِ الزمانِ صليبُ

assailed me with her blame, though she well knew

that I stand firm under time's testing.

واستنزلَتْني عن يَفَاعِ أبيَّتِي

ثم انثنتْ ورجاؤُها مكذُوبُ

And she sought to bring me down from my proud spirit's heights,

then turned away, her hope belied.

ولقلَّما عادَ الرجاءُ مصدِّقاً

حيثُ التَوى وتعثَّر المطلُوبُ

And seldom does hope return fulfilled

where the thing sought has swerved and stumbled.

ورأتُ وما عرفتْ نزاهةَ شِيمَتي

أني على جُرَعِ الحِياضِ ألُوبُ

She thought—not knowing my character's purity—

that I circle thirstily along the pools' sandy banks.

غُرَّتْ بترجيمِ الظنون فأخطأتْ

والظنُّ يُخطِئُ مرةً ويُصيبُ

She was misled by haphazard conjecture and so erred;

and conjecture sometimes errs and sometimes hits the mark.

أوَمَا درتْ أني أنزِّهْ شيمتي

كيلا أبيتَ وعِرضِيَ المَسْبوبُ

Did she not know that I keep my character unsullied,

lest I pass the night with my honor reviled?

أروى بشربِ الضَّبِّ مجتزئَاً به

والماء سَلسالُ المذاقِ شَروبُ

I quench my thirst with the desert lizard's drink, content with it,

though the water is sweet to taste and easy to drink.

وأَصُدُّ دونَ الوِرْدِ والوُرَّادُ أَر

سالٌ كما ازدحَمَ القطا الأسروبُ

And I turn away short of the watering place, while drinkers arrive

in companies, as a flock of sandgrouse crowds together.

وأصونُ نعلي أنْ تَمَسَّ مواطِئَاً

عِرضي بوطء ترابها مثلوبُ

And I keep my sandal from touching places

where treading their dust would tarnish my honor.

وأكُرُّ حيثُ السيفُ فوقَ جماجمي

والموتُ حدُّ سِنانِه مذروبُ

And I charge where the sword looms above my skulls,

and death's spearhead has a keenly sharpened edge.

لا الهولُ يملأُ ناظريَّ ولا الردَى

عندي مريرٌ طعمُه مرهوبُ

No terror fills my eyes, nor is death

bitter in taste or dreaded by me.

فليبلونَّ أخا عزائم عندها

إِلّا البسالةَ والسماح غريبُ

So let it test a man of firm resolves, for whom

all but valor and generosity is alien.

في حلقِ كلِّ مُكايدٍ منه شجاً

وبصدرِ كُلِّ منابذٍ أُلهوبُ

From him comes a choking thorn in every schemer's throat,

and a blaze in every adversary's breast.

فُجِعَتْ بها نفسِي وأيامُ الفتى

نَسَماتُ أرواحٍ لهنَّ هُبوبُ

My soul was bereaved of them; a young man's days

are breaths of winds that rise and blow.

واهاً لأيامٍ لهوتُ بطيبِها

غُصْنُ الصِّبَا ما بينهنَّ رَطِيبُ

Ah, for days in whose sweetness I reveled,

when youth's bough was supple among them.

فإِذا اعتزينَ فإنهنَّ شواغِلٌ

وإِذا انقضينَ فإنهنَّ كُروبُ

So when they proclaim themselves, they are distractions;

and when they pass, they are sorrows.

ولقد لبستُ رداءَها فنزعتُه

عن عاتقَيَّ وهل يدومُ قَشيبُ

And indeed I wore their cloak, then removed it

from my shoulders—and does any fresh garment last?

ومُحاذرٍ وَخْزَ الهوانِ صَحِبْتُه

فَسرى بضوء جبينهِ الأركُوبُ

And I accompanied a man wary of humiliation's sting,

so the riders traveled by night by the light of his brow.

يخطو رقابَ القومِ وهو كأنَّه

عَوْدٌ بغاربه الندوبُ ركوبُ

He strides over men's necks, as though he were

an old riding camel, with scars upon his withers.

تَئِقٌ إِذا ما الضيمُ مَسَّ إِهابَه

لم يرضَ أو يتخضبَ الأنبوبُ

Full of wrath, if ever oppression touches his hide,

he is not appeased until the spear-shaft is bloodstained.

تُخْفِي بسالتُه مطارحَ همِّه

ومرامِه إِنَّ الهَيُوبَ مُرِيبُ

His valor conceals the objects of his concern

and of his aim; indeed, the timid man arouses suspicion.

قلبَ الزمانُ ظهورَهُ لبطونِه

إِنّ المعارفَ مدّها التجريبُ

Time has turned him inside out;

indeed, experience has enriched knowledge.

خالستُه نُهَزَ السّرَى حتى انْجلَى

عن مثلِ حَدِّ المرهفِ التأويبُ

I snatched from him chances of night travel, until

daylong journeying revealed something like a keen sword's edge.

ولقد يكونُ الدهرُ أعجمَ صرفهُ

حتى استوى المكروهُ والمحبوبُ

And time may indeed be inscrutable in its vicissitudes,

until the hated and the loved become alike.

سَلْ بي بناتِ الدهرِ فهي خبيرةٌ

أني عن المرعَى الذميمِ عَزُوبُ

Ask the daughters of time about me, for they know well

that I stay far from the disgraceful pasture.

تَبّاً لمن يُمْسِي ويُصْبِحُ لاهِياً

ومرامُهُ المأكولُ والمشروبُ

Ruin to him who passes evening and morning heedlessly,

whose goal is food and drink.

أَوما يَرى الأرزاق تطلُب غافلاً

وتَصُدُّ عن لهفانَ وهو طَلوبُ

Does he not see that sustenance seeks a heedless man,

and turns from the anguished man, though he is a persistent seeker?

وأرى الجدودَ هي الحواكمَ للورَى

وبهنَّ يُخفِقُ طالبٌ ويُصيبُ

And I see that fortunes are the arbiters of humankind;

and through them a seeker fails or succeeds.

فإِذا قطعْنَك فالغريبُ مبَعَّدٌ

وإِذا وصَلْنَكَ فالبعيدُ قَريبُ

So if they cut you off, the stranger is kept far away;

and if they keep ties with you, the far-off is near.

حبُّ البقاءِ طبيعةٌ مجبولةٌ

وهل البقاءُ وقدرُه محسوبُ

Love of survival is an inborn nature;

yet can life endure when its span is counted?

ولكَمْ حياةٍ دونَها جُرَعُ الرَّدَى

ضَربٌ مشوبٌ والحياةُ ضُروبُ

And how many a life has draughts of death before it—

a tainted kind, and life has many kinds.

والدهرُ ذو حاليْنِ أعرَجُ قُلَّبٌ

والعيش كَدٌّ أو يريح شعوبُ

And time, with its two states, is lame and fickle;

and life is toil, until Shaʿūb—Death—grants rest.