Sol 6.1

  1. حديقة الجو غضي هذه الحدقا

    يا ويح طرفك ما أغرى به الأرقا

    Garden of the sky, lower these eyes.

    Alas for your eye—how enamored sleeplessness is of it!

  2. غوري لطيبة الأردان تمطلني

    مطل الغني حياء منك أو فرقا

    Set for the fragrant-sleeved one, who keeps delaying me

    as a rich debtor stalls, from modesty before you or fear.

  3. يا قرة العين ما هذا الشماس فقد

    حسنت خلقاً فهلا مثله خلقا

    O comfort of my eye, what is this waywardness? For

    you are beautiful in form—why not equally in character?

  4. تصرّم الليل إلا معتلى نفس

    هلا قضيناه تقبيلاً ومعتنقا

    The night has dwindled away, save for a breath's ascent;

    why did we not spend it kissing and embracing?

  5. والليل منسدل الأعراف منتظم الأ

    طراف محتمل الأعطاف ما وسقا

    And night, with hanging tresses and well-ordered

    edges, bears within its folds what it has gathered.

  6. بحر ولكنه طاف جواهره

    طام علينا ولكن نأمن الغرقا

    It is a sea, yet its jewels float,

    surging over us, yet we are safe from drowning.

  7. كأنما البدر معشوق وقد نثرت

    يد الثريا عليه العين والورقا

    As though the full moon were a beloved, already showered

    by the Pleiades' hand with gold and silver.

  8. نفسي فداؤك من ليل على قمر

    على قضيب مُنثالِ حقف نقما

    My soul be your ransom—night above a moon,

    upon a slender bough above a cascading sand-dune [unclear final word].

  9. فرب آهة وجد لو لفحت بها

    إلى الحديد غداة البين لانفلقا

    For many a sigh of longing—had I blown its heat

    against iron on the morning of parting, it would have split apart.

  10. وزفرة يوم ساروا لو دلفت بها

    إلى المودّع قيد الرمح لاحترقا

    And a sigh the day they departed—had I advanced with it

    toward the departing one, a spear's length off, he would have burned.

  11. أتبعتها زفرات بعد ما ظعنوا

    فهن يغمرن في أجفاني الطرقا

    I followed it with sighs after they had journeyed away,

    so they drown the sleep within my eyelids.

  12. أللحبيبة أمشي وهي ظاعنة

    أم للشبيبة أنْضو بُردها خلَقا

    Do I walk for my beloved while she departs,

    or for youth, as I cast off its threadbare cloak?

  13. جاء الشباب بليل لم يكن ظلماً

    وأطلع الشيب صبحاً لم يكن فلقا

    Youth came with a night that was not darkness,

    and grey hair brought forth a morning that was no daybreak.

  14. هو الزمان أتى إلا على رمقي

    وقد تطاول يبغي ذلك الرمقا

    It is Time: it has consumed everything but my last breath,

    and has reached out, seeking that last breath.

  15. وهمة في المعالي قد سحبت لها

    على المكاره من أذيالها سرقا

    And an ambition for high honors, for whose sake I have dragged

    silken lengths of its hems across hardships—

  16. أمطت عنها لثام الشك معترفاً

    ونطتها بسواد الليل منفلقا

    I removed from it doubt's veil, acknowledging it,

    and fastened it to night's darkness as it split open.

  17. فمل أقل لهموم النفس قد كذبت

    ولم أقل للسان الفجر قد صدقا

    So I did not tell my soul's cares that they had lied,

    nor tell dawn's tongue that it had spoken true.

  18. ولم يرُعني طرف البيد مطّرفاً

    ولا ثناني طرف الليل منطبقا

    Nor did the fringed verge of the deserts frighten me,

    nor did night's edge, closing in, turn me back.

  19. وما شربت بكاس العز مصطبحاً

    حتى تجشمت ورد الليل مغتبقا

    I did not drink from honor's cup at dawn

    until I had braved night's watering-place for an evening draught.

  20. ولم أبت بيد الحسناء معتصما

    حتى ظللت بعرف الليل معتنقا

    Nor did I spend the night clinging to a fair woman's hand

    until I had lingered embracing night's mane.

  21. ولا أبيت الحشايا ما حييت فقد

    هجعت في صهوات الخيل مرتفقا

    Never shall I sleep on mattresses while I live, for

    I have slumbered on horses' backs, propped on an elbow.

  22. فليهنني المجد مرفوعاً دعائمه

    فقد تصبب فيه سالفي عرقا

    Then may I enjoy glory, its pillars raised high,

    for my neck has streamed with sweat in its cause.

  23. ولتهنني الحضرة الشماء أخدُمها

    فقد سريت إليها الوخد والعنقا

    And may the exalted court I serve bring me joy,

    for I have traveled to it by night, at swift and long-striding gaits.

  24. ولتهن شمس المعالي أنك ابنُ أب

    ورثته خَرَزاتِ الملك والخِرقا

    And may it gladden you, Shams al-Maʿali, that you are a father's son,

    whose beads of kingship and cloth banners you inherited.

  25. يا ملء عِطف الليالي أنت من مِلك

    وملء عين المعالي منظراً أنقا

    O you who fill the nights' embrace—what a sovereign you are!

    and fill high honor's eye as a delightful sight.

  26. صغ المجرة طوقاً والسها شنفاً

    لما ركضت فقد أعيا وقد سبقا

    Fashion the Milky Way into a collar, and al-Suha into an earring,

    for the steed you spurred: it has outwearied others and raced ahead.

  27. واجعل له فلك الجوزاء مرتبَطاً

    وأجره فوق قرن المشتري طلقا

    And make al-Jawza's sphere its tethering-place,

    and let it run free above Jupiter's horn.

  28. واحلل عن الملك شداً أنت عاقده

    على مطامح نفس تملأ الأفقا

    And release kingship from a bond you have tied

    upon the aspirations of a soul that fills the horizon,

  29. بهمة تطأ الجوزاء مفتَرَعا

    وعزمة تسَعَ الدَّهْناء مخترقا

    with an ambition that treads al-Jawza as its summit,

    and a resolve that spans al-Dahna as a crossing-ground.

  30. ثم ابنِ فوق الطباق الخضر من شرف

    يفرخ الدهر في أظلالها طبقا

    Then build above the green layers such lofty heights

    beneath whose shadows Time hatches a generation.

  31. يا من روى لِيَ من أخباره سِيَراً

    وناط بالشمس من آثاره أفقا

    O you who recounted to me chronicles of your deeds,

    and hung upon the sun a horizon of your achievements:

  32. لو أنها شجر لادّاركت زهراً

    وأسّاقطت ثمراً واثّاقلت ورقا

    if they were trees, they would blossom in succession,

    and shower down fruit, and grow heavy with leaves.

  33. فانهض إلى الملك طلاّباً إليه يداً

    واتلع إلى المجد طلاعاً له عنقا

    So rise toward kingship, your hand eager to reach it,

    and lift your neck toward glory, eager to rise to it.

  34. يا عائف الورد لم تعذب موارده

    فإن وردت فلا طرقاً ولا رنقا

    O you who shun water when its sources are not sweet,

    if you come to drink, let it be neither fouled nor murky.

  35. وتارك الأمر غير الحلم رائده

    فإن ترده فلا طَيْشاً ولا نَزَقا

    And you who forsake an undertaking whose guide is not prudence,

    if you seek it, let there be neither rashness nor impetuosity.

  36. للّه أنت وأمر أنت بالغه

    وبالْحَرَى في المنى باللّه أن تثقا

    God bless you and the undertaking you shall accomplish!

    And it is fitting, in your hopes, that you trust in God.

  37. للّه مكنون سر أنت بالغه

    يوماً أغر يناجي صبحه فلقا

    God bless the hidden secret you shall discover,

    on a radiant day whose morning whispers to daybreak.

  38. ليدنِيَ اللّه أمراً ظل مبتعداً

    ويفتح اللّه باباً بات منغلقا

    May God bring near an affair that has remained far off,

    and may God open a door that has stayed shut.

  39. كأنني بين أيام وقد كشفت

    غطاءه ولسان الدهر قد نطقا

    As though I stood amid days that had already lifted

    its veil, and the tongue of Time had spoken.