سر عجيب فيه معنى أعجب — Germanus Farhat

سرٌّ عجيبٌ فيه معنىً أعجبُ

وحيٌ غريبٌ فيه مرأى أغربُ

A wondrous mystery, with a meaning more wondrous still.

A strange revelation, with a sight stranger still.

رؤيا ويوحنا الحبيب رقيبها

يا حبذا عين لذلك ترقب

A vision, with John the Beloved as its watcher.

Ah, how lovely an eye that watches for that!

وسعت من الإغراب سرّاً لم يسع

صدرُ الملائك شرحَه لو أطنبوا

It held a mystery so strange that not even

the angels' breast could contain its explanation, however fully they spoke.

فالروح روح القدس جاء بفيضها

ورسوله يُملي عليه ويكتب

For the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, came with its outpouring,

and his messenger dictates to him, and he writes,

بحوادثٍ تجري إلى غاياتها

قد زان معناهنَّ لفظٌ معرب

of events proceeding toward their ends,

whose meaning expressive wording has adorned.

مطوية الأنحاء ينحو طيَّها

نحو الذي لوقوعه يترقَّب

Their aspects are folded away; he seeks what lies within,

looking toward what he awaits to come to pass:

من صوت صافورٍ وفك خواتمٍ

مع ضربةٍ جاءت بجامٍ تسكب

from the sound of a trumpet and the breaking of seals,

along with a plague that came with a bowl poured out.

تجري جياد الحكم منها أبيضٌ

بل أحمرٌ بل أسودٌ بل أصهب

The steeds of judgment run: among them a white one,

nay, a red one, a black one, a tawny one.

فذهلت من آثار ما عاينته

من أسطرٍ مضمونها مستغرب

I was bewildered by the traces of what I beheld

in lines whose contents were strange:

من بابل القطرين بل من سيد ال

قطبين بل من معلمين تمذهبوا

of Babylon of the two lands, rather of the lord of the

two poles, rather of teachers who adopted creeds;

وكسوف شمسٍ مع خسوف البدر وال

أفلاك تطوى والكواكب تغرب

and an eclipse of the sun, with an eclipse of the full moon, and the

celestial spheres folded away, and the stars setting.

تتزلزل الأرضون من آفاقها

وتميد أطوادٌ بهن فتُقلب

The earths quake across their horizons,

and mountains sway upon them and are overturned.

ويعود ذاك البحر بحراً من دمٍ

فيه جزائره تغور وترسب

And that sea becomes a sea of blood,

in which its islands sink and settle below.

فترى وقد أخذ الوجود نهايةً

ونظام هذا الكون فيها يخرب

Then you see, when existence has reached its end

and this universe's order is ruined therein,

حملاً أتى من فوق عرش حوله ال

أشياخ وهو على الملائك يركب

a Lamb come from above a throne, around which are the

elders; he rides upon the angels.

ويقول للأبكار والأبرار وال

شهداء والقوم الذين ترهبوا

And he says to the virgins, the righteous, and the

martyrs, and the people who became monks:

قوموا اتبعوا الحمل المظفر واصعدوا

من فوق ذروة شاهقٍ كي تغلبوا

Rise, follow the triumphant Lamb, and ascend

above the summit of a lofty peak, that you may prevail.

وافاكمُ الدجال يخدع آله

كالآل يخدع من أتاه يشرب

The Antichrist has come to you, deceiving his followers,

like a mirage deceiving one who comes to drink.

هذي رموزٌ لست أعلم كنهها

فإذا أتيت مفسريها يهربوا

These are symbols whose true nature I do not know;

whenever I approach their interpreters, they flee.

جاءت أوامرها بأمر اللَه وال

حمل الذبيح فأين منها المهرب

Their commands came by the command of God and the

slain Lamb—where, then, is escape from them?

من لي بكشف رموزها بكنوزها

كم أعيت العلما بذاك وتتعب

Who will unveil their symbols for me, along with their treasures?

How often they have baffled scholars thus, and still weary them!

كم لاح منهم بارقٌ في كشفها

لكن ذاك البرق برقٌ خُلَّب

How often a flash from them has gleamed in their unveiling,

but that lightning is rainless lightning.

لا خير في عقلٍ بدا متعاقلاً

والقلب في معنى الرواية قُلَّب

There is no good in a mind that pretends to wisdom,

while the heart wavers over the narrative's meaning.

ما أشرقت بعقولهم أسرارهم

إلّا وأمست في المشارق تغرب

No sooner did their mysteries dawn upon their minds

than, at evening, they set in the lands of sunrise.

ما زلت أطرق مُدلجاً حاناتها

وأكيل من خمر السؤال وأشرب

I kept visiting their taverns, journeying by night,

measuring out the wine of questioning and drinking.

إن جبت منها سبسباً متوغلاً

صبحاً تلقاني عشاءً سبسب

If, venturing deep, I crossed one of their wastelands

in the morning, a wasteland met me in the evening.

وأصيخ إذناً نحو صوت رسولها ال

داعي وألقي السمعَ وهو يؤنّب

I lend an ear toward the voice of its messenger, the

caller, and give ear while he rebukes me.

وأنا كأني ساهرٌ في راقدٍ

ولسان فكري فوق قلبي يخطب

And I am as though awake within a sleeper,

while the tongue of my thought holds forth above my heart.

وكأنني طفلٌ بمهدٍ نائمٌ

يزداد نوماً في الحداء ويطرب

And it is as though I were a child asleep in a cradle,

growing sleepier at the chant and delighting in it,

حتى إذا ما هب أصبح طالباً

ثدي الرضاع وإن تكفّى يلعب

until, when he stirs, he begins to seek

the nursing breast; once he has his fill, he plays.

فغدوت لا أنصاع عن صاع المنى

فكأنني فيما أراه أشعب

So I would not turn aside from the measure of wishes;

in what I see, it is as though I were Ash'ab.

وكأنني الخنساء تندب صخرَها

هذي العلوم فأين من يتدرب

And I am like al-Khansa, lamenting her Sakhr.

These are the sciences: where is one who trains?

هذي محجتها فأين المهتدي

فيها وأين العالم المتهذب

This is their clear path: where is the rightly guided

upon it, and where is the refined scholar?

حتى أتاح اللَهُ لي علّامَها

وأنا إلى أمثاله أتطلَّب

At last God granted me their learned master,

as I went seeking his like.

ففضضتُها وقرأتها وفهمتها

فإذا بها ما ليس عنه مهرب

So I unsealed them, read them, and understood them,

and behold, within them was that from which there is no escape,

بمفسر الأحلام يوسف عصره

في مصره قد جاء فيما يغرب

through the interpreter of dreams, the Joseph of his age,

who, in his own Egypt, came amid wondrous things.

تتفاضل الآيات في غاياتها

لتفاضل الأشخاص فيما تذهب

The signs differ in excellence according to their ends,

as people differ in excellence in what they pursue.

فلكل رمزٍ أعصرٌ تعنى به

ولكل عصرٍ يوسفٌ يتلقب

Each symbol has ages to which it refers,

and every age has a Joseph who bears that title.

فرعون في الرؤيا كيوحنا بدا

فيها ويوسفها المثنَّى يعرب

Pharaoh appeared in the vision like John

within it, and its second Joseph interprets.

لا تعجبوا من موردٍ متزاحمٍ

إن لذ مشرعه وطاب المشرب

Do not marvel at a crowded watering place

if its approach is pleasant and its drink sweet.

بسميِّ يوسفَ كان كشفُ رموزها

حارت بمعناه عقولٌ شُيَّب

It was Joseph's namesake who unveiled its symbols;

its meaning baffled gray-haired minds.

يا مادحاً آثار قومٍ إن أتوا

عسلوا كما عسل الطريق الثعلب

O you who praise the deeds of men who, when they came,

loped as the fox loped along the road:

فالبدر يعجب في الظلام فإن بدت

شمس النهار فإنه لا يعجب

For the full moon amazes in the darkness, but when there appears

the sun of day, it no longer amazes.

هذي مفاتيحٌ إليها ينتمي

من كان فيها كل يومٍ يرغب

These are keys; to them belongs

whoever longs for them each day.

ذاك الذي أفتى الزمان بفضله

وبعلمه والدهر أمرد أشيب

That is he whose excellence Time has attested,

and whose learning it has attested—Time, beardless and gray-haired.

إذا ليس في الدنيا غريبٌ مفردٌ

من بعد يوسف والبعيد مقرب

Thus no strange thing in this world stands alone

after Joseph, and the distant is brought near.

لكن وحي اللَه سرٌّ غامضٌ

يؤتيه من يأتيه وهو مهذب

Yet God's revelation is an obscure mystery;

He grants it to whoever comes to Him, refined.

حكمٌ بدت كعمود صبحٍ فانجلى

جهل الورى وانجاب ذاك الغيهب

Words of wisdom appeared like a pillar of dawn, dispelling

mankind's ignorance; that deep darkness lifted.