يفديك كل جبان في ثياب جري — Al Tutili

يَفْديكَ كلُّ جبانٍ في ثيابِ جَرِي

نازَعْتَهُ الوِرْدَ واستأثرتَ بالصَّدَرِ

May every coward in a brave man's garb be your ransom,

You vied with him in coming to water, but alone claimed the return.

لما رأى الخُبْرَ شيئاً ليسَ يَنْكِرُهُ

أحالَ بالدينِ والدنيا على الأثر

When he found the truth of experience undeniable,

He entrusted faith and worldly life to tradition.

ولِّ السُّهى ما تولَّى من تكذُّبه

إن المزيَّة عند الناس للقمر

Leave Suha to the false claims it has taken upon itself;

In people's estimation, preeminence belongs to the moon.

وهيَ الشِّفارُ إذا الإقدامُ جرَّدَها

ألوتْ بما تَدَّعِيهِ العينُ للسَّهَر

And such are blades: when courage unsheathes them,

They sweep away what the eye ascribes to sleeplessness.

والناسُ كالناسِ إلا أن تجرِّبَهُمْ

وللبصيرةِ حكمٌ ليس للبصر

People resemble one another until you test them;

Insight has a judgment that sight does not possess.

كالأيْكِ مُشْتَبِهاتٌ في منابتها

وإنما يقعُ التفضيلُ بالثَّمر

Like trees in a thicket, alike where they grow,

Distinction is made only by the fruit.

ولَّى رجالٌ غضاباً حين سُدْتُهُمُ

لا ذنبَ للخيل إذ لا عُذْرَ لِلْحُمُر

Men turned away in anger when I became their master;

Horses bear no blame, since asses have no excuse.

واستشرفوا كلما أحرزتُ طائلةً

وللسنان مجالٌ ليسَ للإبر

They craned their necks whenever I secured a great gain;

The spearhead has a reach that needles do not.

طُوْلُوا وإلا فَكُفُّو من تطاولكمْ

إن المآثرَ أعوانٌ على الأثر

Grow tall, or else cease your overreaching;

Noble deeds are allies in leaving a lasting mark.

مَلِلْتُ حمصَ وَمَلَّتني فلو نَطَقَتْ

كما نطقتُ تَلاَحَيْنَا على قَدَر

I tired of Hims, and she tired of me; if she could speak

As I have spoken, we would trade reproaches in equal measure.

وَسَوَّلَتْ ليَ نَفْسي أنْ أُفارِقَها

والماءُ في المزن أصْفَى منه في الغُدُر

My soul tempted me to part from her;

Water in the clouds is purer than in pools.

هيهاتِ بل ربّما كان الرحيلُ غداً

كالمالِ أُحْيِي به فَقْراً من العمر

Far from it! Yet perhaps tomorrow's departure

Will be like wealth with which I revive an impoverished stretch of life.

كم ساهرٍ يستطيلُ الليلَ من دَنَفٍ

لم يدرِ أن الرَّدَى آتٍ مع السحر

How many a sleepless sufferer finds the night too long,

Not knowing death is coming with the predawn hour.

أمَا اشْتَفَتْ منِّيَ الأيامُ في وطني

حتى تُضَايِقَ فيما عَنَّ من وطر

Have the days not sated their vengeance on me in my homeland,

That they must hem me in over any desire that arises?

ولا قَضَتْ من سوادِ العين حاجَتَها

حتى تَكُرَّ على ما كانَ في الشَّعَر

And have they not satisfied their need with the black of my eye,

That they must turn upon the blackness that was in my hair?

كم ليلةٍ جُبْتُ ثِنْييْ طُولها بفتىً

شتَّى المسالكِ بين النفع والضرر

How many a night have I crossed both folds of its length with a youth

Whose paths varied between benefit and harm,

حتى بدا ذنبُ السرحانِ لي وله

كأنما هو زَنْدٌ بالصَّبَاحِ يَرِي

Until the wolf's tail appeared to him and me,

As though it were a firestick sparking with dawn.

في فتيةٍ يُنْهِبُونَ الليل عَزْمَتَهم

فليس يَطْرُقُهُمْ إلاَّ على حذر

Among youths who offer the night as plunder to their resolve,

So it ventures upon them only with caution.

لا يَرْحَضون دُجَاه كلما اعتكَرَتْ

إلا بمالٍ ضياعٍ أو دمٍ هَدَر

They do not wash away its darkness, whenever it thickens,

Except with squandered wealth or blood spilled unavenged.

لهم همومٌ تكادُ العيسُ تعرفها

وربَّما اشتملتْ بالحادث النكر

They have ambitions the pale camels almost recognize,

And sometimes these are enfolded in dreadful calamity.

باتت تَخَطَّى النجومَ الزُّهْرَ صاعدةً

كأنَّما تَفْتَليها عن بني زُهُر

They spent the night ascending beyond the brilliant stars,

As though weaning them away from the sons of Zuhr.

القائلي اقْدُمي والأرضُ قد رَجَفَتْ

إلاَّ رُبىً من بقايا البيضِ والسُّمُر

Who say, 'Advance!' while the earth has trembled,

Save mounds of the remnants of bright swords and brown spears.

والهامُ تحتَ الظُّبا والبيضُ قد حَمِيَتْ

فما تَطَايَرُ إلاَّ وهي كالشَّرر

Heads lie beneath the blades, and bright swords have grown hot,

So they fly apart only like sparks,

أثناءَ كلِّ سنان عُلَّ في زَرَدٍ

كأنه جدولٌ أفْضَى إلى نَهَر

Amid spearheads, each slaked again in chain mail,

As though it were a stream flowing into a river.

والخيلُ شُعثُ النَّواصي فوقها بُهَمٌ

حُمْسُ العزائمِ والأخلاقِ وَالمِرَر

The horses, with disheveled forelocks, bear dauntless warriors,

Fierce in resolve, character, and strength.

شابت من النقع فارتاب الشباب بها

فَغُيِّرَتْ من دمِ الأبطالِ بالشَّقَر

They grew gray with dust, so youth grew doubtful of them;

Then heroes' blood redyed them chestnut-red.

والشَّيبُ مما أظنُّ الدهرَ صحَّفَهُ

معنىً من النّقصِ عمّاهُ عن البشر

And gray hair is, I think, something Time has miswritten:

A meaning of deficiency it has hidden from humankind.

لو يعلمُ الأفْقُ أن الشيبَ مَنْقَصةٌ

لم تَسْرِ أنجمه فيه ولم تَسِر

If the horizon knew that gray hair were a defect,

Its stars would neither travel by night within it nor move.

وليس للمرء بعد الشيبِ مُقْتَبَلٌ

نهايةُ الروضِ أن يعتمَّ بالزّهرِ

A man has no fresh beginning after gray hair;

A garden's culmination is to be turbaned with blossoms.

أما ترى العِرْمِسَ الوجناء كيف شَكَتْ

طولَ السّفار فلم تَعْجِزْ ولم تَخُرِ

Do you not see the sturdy, thick-cheeked she-camel, how she complained

Of long journeys, yet neither faltered nor collapsed?

تسري ولو أنَّ جَوْنَ الليلِ معركةٌ

من الرّدى كاشراً فيها عن الظُّفر

She travels by night, even if the night's blackness is a battlefield

Of Death, baring its claw within it.

باتتْ تَوَجَّى وقد لانت مواطئها

كأنَّها إنّما تخطو على الإبر

She spent the night footsore, though the ground beneath her had softened,

As though she were stepping only on needles.

من كلِّ ناجيةِ الآمال قد فَصَلَتْ

من الرّدَى فحسبناها من البُكُر

One of those swift mounts of hope, she had broken free

From death, so we counted her among the young camels.

تَخشى الزمام فتثني جِيدَها فَرَقاً

كأنَهُ من تثنّي حَيَّةٍ ذكر

She fears the rein and bends her neck in fright,

As though it were made from a male serpent's coils.

تجري فللماءِ ساقاً عائمٍ دَرشبِ

وللرياحِ جَنَاحا طائرٍ ذكر

She runs: water has a burly swimmer's two legs,

And the winds a male bird's two wings.

قد قَسّمتْهَا يدُ التدبيرِ بينهما

على السَّواءِ فلم تَسْبَحْ ولم تطر

The hand of design has divided her between them

Equally, so she neither swam nor flew.

أمْلَلْتُها فاستبانتْ نصفَ دائرةٍ

لو كُلِّفَتْ شَأوَهَا الأَفلاك لم تَدُرِ

I wearied her, and she appeared as half a circle;

Were the celestial spheres tasked with her course, they would not revolve.

بهيمةٌ لو تُوَفَّى كنه شِرَّتها

لفاتتِ الخيلَ بالأَحْجَالِ والغُرَرِ

A beast that, if her ardor received its full due,

Would outstrip horses with all their white stockings and blazes.

أما إيادٌ فحازتْ كلَّ مَكْرُمَةٍ

لولا مكانُ رسولِ اللهِ منْ مُضَر

As for Iyad, it would have won every honor,

Were it not for God's Messenger's place among Mudar.

وأوقدوا ونجومُ الليل قد خَمَدَتْ

في لجِّ طامٍ من الصنَّبْرِ مُعْتَكر

They kindled fires while the stars of night had gone out,

In a swollen, murky ocean of bitter cold.

ألقى المراسيَ واشتدتْ غَيَاطِلُهُ

على ذُكَاء فلم تَطْلُعْ ولم تَغُرِ

It cast its anchors, and its dark masses pressed hard

Upon Dhuka, the sun, so she neither rose nor set.

وَأتْرَعَ الوَهْدَ من إزبادِ لجته

كالترس يَثْبُتُ بين القَوْسِ والوتر

And filled the lowlands with the foaming of its depths,

Like a shield held firm between a bow and its string.

فالأرض مَلساءُ لا أمْتٌ ولا عِوَجٌ

كنقطةٍ منْ سَرَابِ القاعِ لم تَمُر

So the earth was smooth, with no unevenness or crookedness,

Like a speck of the flatland's mirage that had not stirred.

أفَادني حُبُّكَ الإبداعَ مكتهلاً

وربما نَفَعَ التعليمُ في الكبر

My love for you gave me creativity in middle age,

And instruction sometimes proves useful in old age.

أين ابنُ بابَكَ أو مهيارُ من مِدَحٍ

نَسَقْتُها فيك نَسْقَ الأنجم الزهر

Where do Ibn Babak or Mihyar stand beside the praises

I arrayed for you as bright stars are arrayed?

إذا رَمَيْتُ القوافي في فرائصها

لم أرْمها مُتْلِجاً كفَّيَّ في قُتَر

When I shoot rhymes in their vulnerable flanks,

I do not shoot them with both my hands thrust into hunting blinds.

أبا العلاءِ وحَسْبي أن تُصيخَ لها

إقرارَ جانٍ وإن شئتَ اعتذار بري

O Abu al-Ala, it is enough for me that you listen to them:

An offender's confession—or, if you wish, an innocent man's apology.

أنا الذي أجتني الحرمانَ من أدبي

إنّ النواظرَ قد تُؤتَى من النظر

I am the one who reaps deprivation from my literary art;

Indeed, eyes may be undone by seeing.