فراقكم هاج اشتياقي وأشجاني — Alhbal

فراقكُمُ هَاجَ اشتياقي وأشجاني

وأغرى جفوني بالسّهادِ وأشجاني

Separation from you stirred my longing and my sorrows.

It drove my eyelids to sleeplessness and grieved me.

وأبدَى سقامي فيكمُ ما كَتمتُهُ

وعَبَّر شأني في الصَّبابةِ عَن شاني

My sickness over you revealed what I had concealed.

My state of ardent longing spoke of my plight.

وهَيْهات أَن يخفَى الّذي بي من الهوى

وسرُّ غرامي بعْدكم مِثْل إعلاني

Far be it that the love within me should remain hidden;

in your absence, my passion's secret is as plain as my declaration.

أَأَحبابَنا حتّى مَتى وإلى مَتَى

أُرَى ذاكراً بالغَيب مَن ظلّ ينساني

O our beloveds, how long, until when

must I be seen remembering, in his absence, one who keeps forgetting me?

ألا عطفةً بالوصْلِ منكم لِمُغْرمٍ

أسير الجوى صَادي الجوانح حرّانِ

Will you not grant a lover the kindness of reunion,

a captive of heartache, thirsty at heart and burning?

بما بينَنا مِن حُرمةِ الودِّ والهوى

وعقد الإخا فكّوا أَسيركم العاني

By the sanctity of affection and love between us,

and the bond of brotherhood, free your captive from bondage.

تخذْتكمُ دونَ الأنام أحبّةٌ

وعاصيتُ فيكم كلّ من ظلَّ يلْحاني

I chose you alone among mankind as beloveds,

and for your sake defied everyone who kept reproaching me.

فكيفَ سمعتم ما روتهُ حواسدي

وقالوه من زُورٍ عليَّ وبُهتانِ

How, then, did you listen to what my enviers related,

and their words of falsehood and slander against me?

ووالله ما رمتُ التبدّلَ عنْكمُ

ولا مرّ لي في القلب خاطر سلوان

By God, I never sought to turn to others in your place,

nor did a thought of forgetting love ever cross my heart.

وإن التسليّ والتبدل عنكم

لأمران في دين الغرام أمرَّان

Indeed, forgetting love and turning to others in your place

are two bitter things in the faith of love.

وعاهدتموني بالعقيقِ على الهوى

فأينَ مواثيقي ترون وإيماني

At al-Aqiq you pledged yourselves to me in love;

where, do you think, are my covenants and my faith?

ولي فيكمُ يومَ الوداع مُهَفْهَفٌ

جفاني فأغْرى بالمدامع أجفاني

Among you, on the day of farewell, I had a slender beloved;

he shunned me and drove my eyelids to tears.

كَلفْتُ بهِ إذ صار في الحسن واحداً

فلم يُثنني عَن حُبّه أبداً ثاني

I grew enamored of him, for he was peerless in beauty,

and no other ever turned me away from loving him.

وعنّفني مَنْ لم يذقْ كأسَ صبوتي

ولا باتَ ذا قلب كقَلبيَ وَلْهانِ

I was rebuked by one who never tasted the cup of my passion,

nor spent a night with a heart as lovelorn as mine.

عفا الله عمنْ لامني لو رأى الذي

كلفت به يوم العقيق لأعفاني

God forgive whoever blamed me! Had he seen the one

I loved that day at al-Aqiq, he would have excused me.

غزال كأنّ الله صوّرَ خلْقَهُ

من النيِّرات الزّهر في شكل إنسانِ

A gazelle, as though God had fashioned his form

from bright, radiant stars in human shape.

يميسُ بقدٍّ يحسدُ الغُصْنَ لينَهُ

ويبسم عن درِّ نضيدٍ ومرجانِ

He sways with a figure whose suppleness the bough envies,

and smiles, revealing strung pearls and coral.

وفي خدّه وردٌ جنيٌّ قطافهُ

ولكنّ سيف اللحظ يجني على الجاني

Upon his cheek is a rose ripe for plucking,

but the sword of his glance harms the plucker.

أروم لقاهُ ثم أخشى رقيبَهُ

فآخذُ عنهُ جانباً حين يلقاني

I seek to meet him, then fear his watchman,

so I turn aside from him when he meets me.

أتاني هواهُ بعد تركيَ لِلْهوى

فاذكرني ما الدَّهر من قبل أنساني

Love for him came to me after I had forsaken love,

and reminded me of what Time had earlier made me forget.

إلى الله أشكو ظالمين تَعَاهدا

عليَّ وكانا أصل همّي وأحزاني

To God I complain of two oppressors who made a pact

against me, and were the source of my worry and sorrows:

هوىً ضقتُ ذرعاً عن تحمّل بعضه

ودهراً عن الهادي بن أحمد أقصاني

a love of which I lacked the strength to bear even a part,

and Time, which kept me far from al-Hadi ibn Ahmad.

فتى المجد والعلياء من صار مُجْمِعاً

على فَضْلِه قاصي البريّةِ والداني

A youth of glory and eminence, with all in agreement

on his excellence—the distant among mankind and the near.

فتىً ألْقَتِ الآدابُ طوعاً لِفكِرِهِ

مقاليدَ تَسْليم إليه وإذْعانِ

A youth before whose intellect the literary arts willingly laid

the keys of submission to him and obedience.

فتىً مدّ لِلإحسانِ باعَ مبرّزٍ

فلم يَخْتَلِفْ في فَضْل سُؤددِه اثنانِ

A youth who extended a champion's reach in doing good,

so no two disagreed about the excellence of his noble standing.

فتىً ورثَ العلياء عَنْ خيرِ سادةٍ

مراجيح أَحْلامٍ مساميح غُرّانِ

A youth who inherited eminence from the finest lords,

weighty in judgment, generous and illustrious.

فتىً سادَ قبل الحُلْم أبناءَ جنْسِه

وشاد لِرَبْع المجد أرفعَ بُنْيانِ

A youth who became foremost among his peers before puberty,

and raised the loftiest structure for glory's abode.

أخو نَجْدةٍ إن يُدعَ لِلْبأسِ والفِدى

فلا عاجزٌ تلقاهُ ثمَّ ولا وَاني

A man of courage: if called to battle and self-sacrifice,

you find him there neither helpless nor flagging.

حوى قَصبَات السَّبقْ طفلاً ونَاشِئاً

وبذَ الأعالي مِنْ شَبابٍ وشبّانِ

He claimed the reeds of victory as a child and growing youth,

and surpassed the foremost among youths and young men.

لقد جمعَ الهادي بن أحمد في الوَرى

مكارمَ شتَّى ما اجْتَمعنَ لإنسانِ

Al-Hadi ibn Ahmad has indeed gathered among mankind

diverse noble virtues never combined in any other man:

خطَاباً كما افترت ثغورُ زواهرٍ

وخلقاً كما اهتزت معاطف أغصانِ

speech like the smiling, parted mouths of blossoms,

and character like the swaying curves of boughs;

ونثراً كما رقَتْ كؤوس سلافةٍ

ونَظْماً كما راقْت قلائدُ عقْيانِ

prose as delicate as cups of finest wine,

and verse as pleasing as necklaces of pure gold.

أَمَوْلَي الْقَوافي السَّائِرات الّتي غدتْ

يُقرّ لها فِكْراً لبيدٍ وحَسّانِ

O master of the far-traveling rhymes, which have come to

win acknowledgment from the minds of Labid and Hassan,

أَبثْكَ شوقاً لي إليكَ أَقَلّه

يهدِّدُ مِن ركنًَي ثَبير وثَهْلاَنِ

I confide to you my longing for you, the least of which

threatens the two foundations of Thabir and Thahlan.

أروحُ بقَلْبٍ فارغ مِنْ تصبّري

وأغدو بصَدْرٍ مِنْ شجونيَ ملآنِ

At evening I go with a heart empty of my endurance,

and at morning with a breast filled with my sorrows.

فَهَلْ عطفةٌ بالقُرب منكم لشيّقٍ

إلى ورْدِ هاتيكِ الشمائل ظمآنِ

Will you show the kindness of nearness to one yearning,

thirsty for the waters of those virtues?

ومُنّ سَريعاً بالجوابِ فإنّ لي

إليكَ اشتقاق المغْرمِ المرتقى عَالي الشّاني

Favor me swiftly with a reply, for I have

for you a lover's yearning, of elevated station and high standing [text uncertain].

وحيّ الحُسَين الملك نجلَ مُطهّرٍ

أخا المجدِ سامي المرتقى عَالي الشّاني

And greet al-Husayn, the king, son of Mutahhar,

a man of glory, lofty in ascent and high in standing,

وإخوتَه الغُرّ الأكارم مَن بنوا

بناء المعالي فوق هامة كيوانِ

and his illustrious, noble brothers, who built

the edifice of eminence above Saturn's crown.

تحيّةُ صبٍّ شوقُه وغرامُه

لِسَوحهم لا لِلْعقيق ونعمانِ

A greeting from a lover whose longing and passion

are for their courts, not for al-Aqiq and Nu'man.

ولا تَعتبنْ في أنّ كُتْبي تأخّرتْ

فما عَنْ مَلالٍ كانَ منّي وشنْئَانِ

Do not reproach me for my letters' delay;

it was not from weariness or aversion on my part.

رماحُ أذىً لِلْحاسِدين تنوشني

وطول هموم لم تزَلْ قط تغشاني

Spears of harm from the envious assail me,

and prolonged worries never cease to engulf me.

تتمَر لي يا بْنَ الكرامِ وطالما

قديماً على حسن العوائد أجراني

It has turned hostile to me, O son of noble men, though often [reading uncertain]

in former days it accustomed me to kindly favors.

فكم وقعةٍ بيني وبينَ صروفه

تهونُ لها أيام عبسٍ وذبيان

How many a battle between me and its reversals

makes the days of 'Abs and Dhubyan seem slight!

وحَسْبي داءٌ حرفةٌ أدبيّةٌ

غدتْ سبباً في وضع قدري ونقْصاني

Enough affliction for me is the ill fortune of letters,

which has caused my standing to fall and me to be diminished.

ولو لم يكنْ من جورِه غير أنّه

رماني بسهم البعد عنكَ فأصْماني

And even if its tyranny consisted of nothing but this:

it shot me with the arrow of distance from you, striking me dead.