ما للحمائم ناحت فوق أغصان

لقد أهاجت بكاء الواجد الفاني

What ails the doves, that they have lamented above the branches?

Indeed, they have stirred the tears of a lover wasting away.

قامت على الدوح ورقاء مؤرقة

تملي فنون الهوى من فوق أفنان

A sleepless gray dove stood upon the spreading trees,

Reciting the many forms of love from above the boughs.

حسبي وحسبك ما هيجت من شجن

فليس شجوك من شجوي بسيان

Enough for me and you is the sorrow you have stirred;

For your sorrow is not equal to mine.

لي مثل وجدك أضعافا مضاعفة

وضعف جسمي أقوى كل برهان

I have longing like yours, multiplied many times,

And my body's weakness is the strongest of all proofs.

لا أنت للدوح لا للشوق لا لهوى

ما دمت لا تكتمين الوجد كتماني

You belong neither to the spreading trees, nor to longing, nor to love,

So long as you do not conceal longing as I conceal it.

إن الحمائم في الأسحار هاجعة

وصاحب الشوق لم يهنأ بسلواني

Indeed, the doves sleep in the hours before dawn,

While the one who longs has found no ease in my solace.

أملي الغرام بأنفاس مصعدة

وأنت تملين لي سجعاً بألحاني

I recite passion in rising sighs,

And you recite your cooing to me in my melodies.

أكاد أشرق في دمعي لفرط بكاً

كأن عيني في التذارف عينان

I nearly choke on my tears from so much weeping,

As though my eyes, shedding tears, were two springs.

وما لعيني لا تبكي وقد نظرت

باب الحوائج موسى فخر عدنان

And why should my eye not weep, when it has beheld

Musa, the Gate of Needs, the pride of Adnan?

لهفي عليه سجينا طول مدته

ما زال ينقل من سجن إلى ثان

My anguish for him, a prisoner all that time!

He was ceaselessly moved from one prison to another.

جروه وهو يصلي طوع بارئه

فناصبوا الله في كفر وطغيان

They dragged him while he prayed in obedience to his Creator,

So they opposed God in disbelief and tyranny.

ساروا به في قيود كبلوه بها

وقد جنوا ما جنوه آل سفيان

They took him away in chains with which they had shackled him,

And they committed what the house of Sufyan had committed.

سل حبس عيسى ومالاقاه من محن

فيه وقاساه من جور وعدوان

Ask about Isa's prison and the ordeals he endured

Within it, and the injustice and aggression he suffered.

ولا تسل عنه حبس ابن الربيع فكم

أعيى به الضر من آن إلى آن

And do not ask Ibn al-Rabi's prison about him—how often

Suffering exhausted him there, from moment to moment!

وخلّ عما جنى السندي ناحية

فذكره فت في قلبي وأشجاني

And set aside what al-Sindi committed,

For mentioning him broke my heart and grieved me.

يلقي الإمام بوجه ملؤه غضب

وكان يسمعه من لفظه الشاني

He confronts the Imam with a face full of rage,

And he would make him hear his hateful words.

يمسى من السجن في ليل بلا شهب

ولا يرى الصبح في ضوء وتبيان

In prison he passes the evening in a night without stars,

Nor does he see the morning in its light and clarity.

روحي فداه بعيداً عن عشيرته

لا بل بعيد اللقا من أي إنسان

My soul be his ransom—far from his clan,

No—rather, far from meeting any human being.

حتى إذا جرعوه السم في رطب

فحال من وقعه المردي بألوان

Until, when they made him swallow poison in fresh dates,

He turned different colors under its deadly effect.

ناء عن الأهل لم يحضره من أحد

فداه أهلوه من شيب وشبان

Far from his family, no one attended him.

May his family, old and young, be his ransom.

لهفي له وهو في قعر السجون لفى

وليس يدنوه من أهل وجيران

My anguish for him, as he lay in the depths of the prisons,

And no family or neighbors drew near him.

نعش ابن جعفر حمالون تحمله

فأين عنه سرايا آل عدنان

Porters carry the bier of the son of Ja'far;

Where, then, are the troops of Adnan's house to attend him?

مثل ابن من دانت الدنيا له شرفا

لم يحتفل فيه من قاص ولادان

Such a son of one to whom the world bowed in honor—

No one, far or near, gathered to honor him.

لمن على الجسر نعش لا يشيعه

من الورى غير حراس وسجان

Whose bier is on the bridge, followed by none

Of mankind but guards and a jailer?

لمن على الجسر لا يطوف به

ذووه من رحمه الأدنى أولو الشان

Whose bier is on the bridge, not surrounded

By his closest blood kin, men of standing?

لمن على الجسر نعش يستهان به

كميت غير ذي شأن وعنوان

Whose bier is on the bridge, held in contempt,

Like a dead man without status or distinction?

لمن على الجسر نعش ما أعد له

ضريح قبر ولم يدرج بأكفان

Whose bier is on the bridge, for whom no one has prepared

A burial chamber in a grave, and who has not been wrapped in shrouds?

لمن على الجسر نعش لا يجهزه

أهل المودة من صحب وأعوان

Whose bier is on the bridge, with none to prepare him for burial

Among his loving companions and helpers?

إن أنس لا أنس إذ مال الطبيب له

فحبس باطن كفيه بامعان

If I forget, I shall not forget when the physician leaned toward him,

Then held the inner sides of his hands, examining them closely.

فمر يعبر لا يلوي على أحد

عرته دهشة واهي اللب حيران

Then he went on across, paying no heed to anyone,

Astonishment seized him, his mind faltering, bewildered.

يقول ما للفتى مصر ولا فئة

أماله ثائر في بأس غير أن

He says: The young man has no town, nor any following.

Has he no avenger of might? Yet—

إن الفتى مات مسموما فأين هم

فليثأروا فيه وليقضوا على الجاني

Indeed, the young man died poisoned—where are they?

So let them avenge him and put an end to the culprit.

القيد في رجله والغل في يده

وللعباءة شأن أعظم الشان

The fetter is on his leg, and the shackle on his hand,

And the cloak has a significance of the highest order.

ألقوه في الجسر مطروحا تقلبه

أيدي الأجانب في سر وإعلان

They cast him upon the bridge, left lying, turned over by

The hands of strangers, in secret and in public.