ليومك نهر المارن ذكر مخلد — Assad Khalil

ليومك نهرَ المارن ذكرٌ مخلدُ

يظلُّ على طول المدى يتجدَّدُ

Your day, O River Marne, has an everlasting remembrance,

ever renewed throughout the passing ages.

تمر الليالي والحوادث تنقضي

وفي كل يومٍ ذكرُ يومك يولدُ

Nights pass, and events come to an end,

yet every day the memory of your day is born anew.

وكلُّ لسانٍ في البرية ناطقٌ

به وصداهُ كلُّ وادٍ مرددُ

Every tongue among mankind speaks

of it, and every valley repeats its echo.

وعن راحهم يغني الندامي فكلما

ارادوا انتشاءً كرروه فعربدوا

It replaces the drinking companions' wine; whenever

they desire intoxication, they repeat it and grow riotous.

ويُغني عن الاعياد من يرقبونها

فأيان أجروا ذكر يومك عيدوا

It replaces festivals for those who await them:

whenever they mention your day, they celebrate.

وشهرته فينا على قرب عهده

نرى أنها من شهرة الشمس أبعدُ

Its renown among us, though its time is recent,

we find more far-reaching than the sun's renown.

فرديئها في كل جوٍ مُلألئٌ

وقمريُّها في كل غصنٍ مغردُ

So its star [unclear reading] sparkles in every sky,

and its turtledove sings upon every branch.

وموضوعها محمول أم الجلال وال

جمال وأسمى ما يراد ويُقصدُ

And its theme is [unclear wording] majesty and

beauty, and the loftiest thing desired and sought,

واعظم ما نفس الفتى باقتنائهِ

تعزُّ وان يفقد فإِياهُ تنشدُ

the greatest thing, through whose possession a young man's soul

is ennobled, and which it seeks if he loses it.

عنيتُ به حرّيةَ الامم التي

لها الحرُّ بعد الله يجثو ويسجدُ

By it I meant the freedom of nations,

before which the free man, after God, kneels and prostrates himself.

وانصارها الاحرار هم سادة الورى

ومَن تتخذه عبدها فهو سيدُ

Its free defenders are the masters of mankind,

and whoever it takes as its servant is a master.

فهم رفعوا في الخافقين منارَها

وهم عرشها فوق السما كين شيَّدوا

They raised its beacon in the two horizons,

and built its throne above the two Simāk stars.

ولكنما الالما اعداؤها فهم

على رغمها في الارض عاثوا وافسدوا

But the Germans are its enemies, for they

defied it, wreaking havoc and corruption on earth.

تصدَّوا الإِزهاق الالى علموا بها

وإِرهاقَ من مالوا اليها تعمَّدوا

They undertook to kill those who knew it,

and deliberately oppressed those inclined toward it.

طغوا وبغوا واللهَ لم يتقوه بل

عليهِ عصوا واستكبروا وتمرَّدوا

They tyrannized and transgressed, fearing not God, but

disobeyed Him, grew arrogant, and rebelled.

وزين الاستبدادَ بالناس كلهم

لهم ملكٌ أتباعه متعبدُ

Tyranny over all mankind was made alluring

to them by a king who enslaved his followers.

الى الفتح لم ينفكَّ منذ جلوسهِ

على العرش يصبو والسلامَ يهددُ

For conquest he never ceased, since taking his seat

upon the throne, to yearn, while threatening peace.

به كان يغري شعبهُ ويحضُّهم

عليه ويذكي عزمهم ويشددُ

With it he enticed his people and urged them

toward it, kindling and strengthening their resolve.

اطاعوا له بالحرب امراً واذ دَعا

على الفور لبَّوه ولم يترددوا

They obeyed his command for war, and when he called,

answered him at once, without hesitation.

قضوا نصف قرنٍ في تأهبهم لها

فجدُّوا وشدُّوا واستمدُّوا واعتدوا

They spent half a century preparing for it,

toiling, strengthening themselves, seeking support, and making ready.

وما تقتضيه من سلاحٍ وميرةٍ

ومالٍ اعدُّوا والملايينَ جندوا

Whatever it required of weapons and provisions

and money they prepared, and conscripted millions.

وفي نارها زجُّوا جميع بنى الورى

فاصبحت الدنيا جحيماً توَّقدُ

Into its fire they thrust all the children of mankind,

and the world became a blazing hell.

وجازوا ضفاف المارن في غزواتهم

وباريسَ بالفتح القريب توعَّدوا

They crossed the banks of the Marne in their invasions,

and threatened Paris with imminent conquest.

ولكن عليهم جوفر كرّ مزَمجراً

فريعوا وعو باريس صدُّوا وأبعدوا

But Joffre charged against them, roaring,

and they were terrified, repelled from Paris, and driven away.

وخطت على المارن البسالةُ آيةً

تقول لغازيهِ هنا جوفر يرصدُ

Valor inscribed upon the Marne a sign

telling its invader: Here Joffre lies in wait.

ولما تخلى الروس عن حلفائهم

وطاب لهم في مضجع الذل مرقدُ

When the Russians abandoned their allies,

and found sweet repose upon humiliation's bed,

خلا الجوُّ للالمان فاندفعوا على

فرنسا وجدُّوا في الهجوم وشدَّدوا

the way lay open for the Germans, who surged against

France, pressing and intensifying their attack.

وكرُّوا على الجيش المدافع كرةً

أقاموا لها الدنيا اضطراباً وأقعدوا

They charged the defending army with an assault

that threw the world into turmoil, turning it upside down.

وأمُّوا ضفاف المارن ثانيَ مرةٍ

وسهم فتوحِ نحو باريس سَددوا

They headed for the Marne's banks a second time,

and aimed conquest's arrow toward Paris.

نسوا او تناسوا يوم جوفر انبرى لهم

يذودُ عن المارن الغُزاةَ ويطردُ

They forgot, or feigned forgetting, the day Joffre rose against them,

driving the invaders from the Marne and expelling them.

وقد وردوهُ يحسبون مياهَهُ

حُجيلاءَ حرَّ الهاجمين تبردُ

They had come to drink there, imagining its waters

to be Ḥujaylāʾ, cooling the attackers' heat.

ولكنهم خابوا رجاءً ومورداً

حروراً من الغسلين والمهل أُوردوا

But their hope and their watering-place failed them:

they were led to scorching draughts of pus and molten dregs.

أجل لم يلاقوا جوفر لكنهم لقوا

لهُ خَلفاً من بطشه الارض ترعدُ

Indeed, they did not meet Joffre, but met

his successor, whose might makes the earth tremble.

رأوا فوش في عريسهِ متحفزاً

يصوبُ في تزآرهِ ويصعدُ

They saw Foch poised within his lair,

his roaring descending and rising.

رأوا معشر الاحلاف امضوا وفاقهم

على كل شيءٍ والقيادةَ وحَّدوا

They saw the allied company had confirmed their agreement

on everything, and unified the command.

وقد قلدوها فوش فهو عُذيقها ال

مرجَّبُ والنَّهد المجلي المقلد

They entrusted it to Foch, its little palm,

well propped, its mighty, foremost, garlanded steed.

وقفى على التقليد هايج بأنهُ

لبرشنج فيه عاضدٌ ومؤيدُ

Haig followed that appointment by declaring that he

was Pershing's helper and supporter in it.

وحينئذٍ كانوا استعدُّوا وأعتدوا

جميع معدَّات الهجوم وأرصدوا

By then they had prepared and made ready

all the equipment for attack, and stationed it.

وكانوا دماءَ البوش يستنزفونها

بمبضعِ تغرير يجسُّ فيفصدُ

They were draining the Boches' blood

with deception's lancet, probing and opening veins.

تخلوا لهم عن كل شرٍّ بملئهِ

دماً كان من اكبادهم يتفصَّدُ

They yielded every [span?] to them, filling it

with blood flowing from their own livers.

كقطٍّ حلا جهلاً لحسُ مبردٍ

ولم يدرِ ان النازفَ الدمَ مبردُ

Like a cat that ignorantly relished licking a file,

not knowing the file itself was drawing its blood.

وقد أوهموهم انهم عن لقائهم

باصفادِ تقصيرٍ وعجزٍ تقيَّدوا

They made them believe that, from confronting them,

they were restrained by shackles of inadequacy and impotence,

وان الخميس الاحتياطيَّ عندهم

غدا نافداً او انه كاد ينفدُ

and that their reserve army

was exhausted, or nearly exhausted.

فرانت على الالمان هذي الخديعة ال

لتي كان في تدبيرها فوش يجهدُ

This deception took hold of the Germans,

which Foch had labored to devise.

وقالوا عِدانا نابهم شرُّ كسرةٍ

لئن انكروها فالتقهقر يشهدُ

They said: Our enemies have suffered a grievous defeat;

though they deny it, their retreat bears witness.

وظنوا بانّ النصر نيلَ وأنهم

على الحلفا بابَ النجاية اوصدوا

They thought victory had been won, and that they

had shut the door of escape upon the allies.

وكانوا لخط الزحف في الطول أسرفوا

ولكنهم فيه من العرض اقصدوا

They had made their advancing line excessively long,

but had been sparing in its breadth.

وضرغامة الارجون في ريمسَ رابض

وراهم وصمصامَ الوثوب مجردُ

And the lion of the Argonne crouched at Reims,

behind them, his keen sword of assault unsheathed.

فاملى على قوَّاده فوش خطة ال

هجوم فألقوا سمعهم وتزوَّدوا

Foch dictated to his commanders the plan of

attack; they listened attentively and equipped themselves.

وصاحَ بهم رُدُّوا الغزاةَ واطبقوا

عليهم فللإِطباق قد حان موعدث

He cried to them: Repel the invaders and close in

upon them, for the appointed time to encircle them has come.

ومن ضفة المارن أبدأوا الكرَّ واقذفوا

الى لجه من جاوزوه فيوأَدوا

Begin the charge from the Marne's bank, and hurl

into its depths those who crossed it, to be buried alive.

فلبى الندا ابناءُ كولمبسَ الألى

اتوا ليعينوا جيش فوش ويعضدوا

The sons of Columbus answered the call, those who

had come to assist and support Foch's army.

أولئك بالالمان ثاروا ونكَّلوا

وشملهم المجموع شتُّوا وشرَّدوا

They rose against the Germans and punished them severely,

breaking up their gathered host and scattering it.

وما ابطأت باقي الجيوش ان اقتفت

خطاهم وفيهم عمَّ للحرب مشهدُ

The remaining armies did not delay in following

their footsteps; among them the spectacle of war spread.

ودارت رَحاها وهي كالنار تلتظي

وساحاتها كَالبحر ترغي وتزبدُ

Its millstones turned, while it blazed like fire,

and its battlefields roared and foamed like the sea.

هناك على الالمان صال جحافل ال

حليفينَ صولاً فيه غاروا وأنجدوا

There, against the Germans, charged the legions

of the two allies, ranging through lowlands and uplands.

وشنُّوا عليهم غارةً دحضوا بها

مزاعمهم في ما ارتأوه وفندوا

They launched against them a raid that refuted

their claims and disproved their judgments.

وردُّوهمُ يهوون في شرّ ورطةٍ

يساورهم غمٌّ لهم متغمدُ

They drove them plunging into the worst predicament,

assailed by anguish that enveloped them.

وزجُّوا اليهم ضربةً لو دويُّها

عرا جلمداً لاندقَّ وانفتَّ جلمدُ

They hurled at them a blow whose thunder, if

it struck a rock, would crush that rock to fragments.

دحَوها عليهم من مدافعَ جمرها

اذا مسَّ بحراً ردّه يتوقدُ

They cast it upon them from cannons whose embers,

if they touched a sea, would set it ablaze,

ومن زاحفات في الصعيد كانها ال

صواعق قبل الفتك تسنو وترعدُ

and from crawlers on the ground, like

thunderbolts, flashing and thundering before they kill,

تقطع اسلاك الحصون وتنسف ال

خنادق والوعثَ الكؤود تمهدُ

cutting the fortifications' wire and blasting

trenches, leveling rugged, daunting ground,

ومن سابحاتٍ في الهواءِ تشقُّهُ

وفوق مطار النسر ترقى وتصعدُ

and from swimmers through the air, cleaving it,

climbing and rising above the eagle's flight,

وتمطرهم منهُ بسيل كراتها

وتصليهم النارَ التي همُ اوقدوا

raining upon them from it a torrent of their shot,

and making them burn in the fire they themselves had kindled,

وكلِّ مصلٍّ لو اصابت مُهنداً

عزيمتهُ في الكرِّ صام المهندُ

and from every formidable fighter whose resolve, if it struck a blade

during the charge, would leave that Indian blade motionless,

وكلِّ مغيرٍ خلفه أسد الشرى

وقدامهُ قرمٌ يجاريه صندد

and every raider, behind whom stands a lion of al-Sharā,

and before whom runs a mighty, dauntless champion.

بهم فوش نارَ البوش خاض فأطفأوا

لظاها وانفاسَ المعادين أخمدوا

With them Foch plunged into the Boches' fire, and they quenched

its blaze and stilled the enemies' breaths.

ومن يدهم بزُّوا المدائن والقرى

فشلَّت ولم تقدر على ردِّها اليدُ

From their grasp they wrested the cities and villages,

and that hand was paralyzed, powerless to reclaim them.

وقد نثر الاخفاق عقدَ رجائهم

وبات عليهمِ عثيرُ اليأس يُعقدُ

Failure scattered the necklace of their hopes,

and despair's dust began to thicken over them.

وما ردَّ هندنبرج عنهم بخطهِ

وبالاً عليهم ظله همُ مدَّدوا

Nor did Hindenburg, with his line, ward off from them

a calamity whose shadow they themselves had lengthened over them.

ففرُّوا على اعقابهم ناكصين عن

بلادٍ لاهليها أذلُّوا وأضهدوا

They fled upon their heels, retreating from

lands whose inhabitants they had humiliated and oppressed.

وخلفهمُ الجيشُ المطاردُ بيضهُ

تُسلُّ وفي أقفي المطاريد تغمدُ

Behind them came the pursuing army, its bright blades

drawn, then sheathed in the fugitives' napes.

وفي ثلث عامٍ ضيعوا ما بجيشهم

باربعة الاعوام ضحَّوا ليوجدوا

In a third of a year they lost what, with their army,

they had sacrificed four years to obtain.

وللحلفا دانواً ولو لم يسلموا

لكان بهم حاق البلاءُ المخلَّدُ

They submitted to the allies; had they not surrendered,

everlasting calamity would have overtaken them.

وحُمَّ على السفَّاح غليوم أنهُ

عن العرش مرغوماً يُزاح ويُطردُ

It was decreed for Guillaume the butcher that he

be forcibly removed from his throne and expelled.

وألفى ولي العهد أن مصيره

مصيرُ أبيه عكسَ ما كان يعهدُ

The crown prince found that his fate

was his father's fate, contrary to what he had expected.

وان يكُ لودندرف شعَرك وهو من

جرى الخوف مبيضٌّ فحظُّك أسودُ

And if your hair, Ludendorff, is—from

fear's effects—white, your fortune is black.

وما حظُّ هندنبرج في السوء دونهُ

فانك تدري أنه منك انكدُ

Hindenburg's fortune is no less evil than yours,

for you know that he is more wretched than you.

كفاه شقاءً أنّ يراك استطعتَ أن

تولىَ عنه مدبراً وهو مقعَدُ

It is misery enough for him to see that you could

turn away and flee, while he is immobilized.

فَتهِ أيها النهرُ وافتخر

فحقك فيه ظاهرٌ ليس يجُحدُ

So glory, O river, and boast,

for your right to it is plain and cannot be denied.

ويومك لا ننساه في الحرب بل له

سيحفظ بين الناس ذكر مؤبدُ

We shall not forget your day in the war; rather, for it

an everlasting remembrance will be preserved among mankind.

به الحلفا حازوا انتصاراً لاجله

على الحلفا نثني ولله نحمدُ

Through it the allies gained a victory, for which

we praise the allies and give thanks to God.

فخطّ الفرنسيُّون للمجد صفحةً

بها ذكرَ ماضيهم أعادوا وجددوا

The French inscribed a page for glory,

renewing and restoring through it the memory of their past.

ومن جيشها الغازي واسطولها لها

بريطانيا العظمى اعتزازٌ وسؤددُ

From her conquering army and her fleet,

Great Britain draws pride and lordship.

وفي فضلها الجمّ العميم اميركا

تُعظَّم من كل الورى وتمجدُ

For her vast, all-embracing beneficence, America

is honored and glorified by all mankind.

وقد نِلتِ يا بلجيكُ ما تبتغينهُ

وحزتِ انتصاراً فيهِ جرحك يُضمَدُ

You have attained, O Belgium, what you desired,

and won a victory through which your wound is dressed.

فللحلفا الالمان كادوا بيومهم

فردّ لهم أضعافَ كيدهم الغدُ

The Germans schemed against the allies on their day,

but the morrow repaid them many times their scheming.

وبالعدلَ والإِنصاف نالوا جزاءَهم

ومَن يزرعِ العدوان فالشرَّ يحصدُ

In justice and fairness they received their due,

and whoever sows aggression reaps evil.