سقاك الحيا ريا وحياك أربعا — Ibn Al Jazari

سقاك الحيا ريا وحياك أربُعا

نعمنا بنعمان يهن فلعلعا

May the rain water you to the full and greet you, O encampments,

where we enjoyed bliss at Nuʿman [one word unclear], then Laʿlaʿ.

وجادك جود الدمع يا سفح رامة

بسفح إذا ضن السحاب وأقلعا

May the bounty of tears drench you, O slope of Ramah,

pouring down when the clouds withhold their rain and withdraw.

فكم مر لي عيش بظلك حاليا

سرى غير مذموم حميداً وأسرعا

How much sweet life passed for me beneath your shade,

departing blameless, praiseworthy, and all too swiftly!

مخمصانة غيداء سحر جفونها

يدير علينا البالي المشعشعا

A slim-waisted, graceful beauty: the magic of her eyelids

passes round to us the aged, diluted wine.

بدت ومضاهي البدر تحت قناعها

فلولا التقى صدقت فيها المقنعا

She appeared, the full moon's equal beneath her veil;

but for piety, I would have believed al-Muqannaʿ about her.

من القوم لا أدري أأسياف قومها

بيوم الوغى أم لحظها كان أقطعا

She is of a people—I cannot tell whether her people's swords

on battle day, or her glance, cut more keenly.

لقد حملتني عبء يوم فراقها

ولو حملته يذبلا لتضعضعا

She laid upon me the burden of the day of our parting;

had she laid it on Mount Yadhbul, it would have tottered.

وأقسم ما حققت عند وداعها

أصبري أم عمري أم الحب ودّعا

I swear, at her farewell I could not ascertain

whether my patience, my life, or love itself had said farewell.

فواق رجونا الري منه على ظما

فجرعنا صاب المصاب بأجرعا

A brief respite: we hoped it would quench our thirst,

but it made us gulp the bitter sap of calamity at Ajraʿ.

ودهر طلبنا القرب فيه من النوى

ففرق من آمالنا ما تجمعا

And an age in which we sought reunion instead of separation

scattered whatever hopes we had gathered.

أرتنا الليالي حاليات ضيعها

فلما اختبرناهن كان تصنعا

The nights showed us their estates adorned,

but when we tested them, it proved a pretense.

لقد وهبتنا فاستردت هباتها

ولم تهب الأيام إلا لتمتعا

They bestowed gifts upon us, then took their gifts back;

the days give only to grant passing enjoyment.

ومن صحب الدنيا ولو عمر ساعة

تحول فيها حاله وتنوعا

Whoever keeps company with the world, even for an hour,

finds his condition altered and varied within it.

وليل غدا في كان بفوده

من الزهر تاجاً باليواقيت رصعا

And a night, passed into 'was' [wording unclear], bore at its temple

a crown of bright stars, studded with rubies.

قطعت بقطع منه كل تنوفة

قد اتخذتها الفتخ مرعي ومرتعا

In a stretch of that night I crossed every trackless waste

that broad-winged eagles had made their feeding-ground and pasture,

بأجرد لو كلفت سرعة سيره

وشأو مداه البرق أطرق مهطعا

on a sleek steed: were lightning tasked to match its pace

and the reach of its run, it would bow its head, straining forward.

إلى حضرة المولى الذي نوى وجهه

غنينا به عن مطلع البدر مطلعا

Toward the presence of the patron whose face was our goal;

with his rising, we had no need of the full moon's rise.

كمال أولى العلم الشريف ومن به

تشيد من ركن الهدى ما تصدعا

The perfection of those endowed with noble learning, through whom

what had cracked in guidance's pillar was rebuilt;

وبيت الفخار المحض ما شابه قذى

صفا مشرباً للناظرين ومشرعا

a house of pure honor, untainted by a speck,

clear as a drinking-place and watering-source to those who gaze upon it.

كريم كأن الجود باسط كفه

فلم يثن من راحاته الدهر إصبعا

A generous man, as though generosity held his hand outspread:

time has never curled a finger of his open palms.

وحيد العلا لو رام شفعا لوتره

من الدهر يوماً لم يكن ليشفعا

Unique in glory—were he to seek a match for his singular self

on any day of time, he could not be paired.

سعى لطريف المجد بعد تليده

فأدركه والندب يدرك ما سعى

He strove for newly won glory beyond his inherited glory,

and attained it; the noble man attains what he seeks.

ولم تر عيني قبله ذا براعة

بأعذب منه في الخطاب وأبدعا

My eye had never before seen a man of such skill

sweeter than he in speech, or more inventive.

تروح الموالي كالموالي لأمره

وتغدو لديه خضعا منه خشعا

At evening, lords attend his command like servants,

and at morning stand before him submissive, awed by him.

ومن عظم الله العلي تطوعا

له عظمته العالمون تطوعا

Whoever willingly honors God Most High,

for His sake, is willingly honored by all the world's peoples.

تصون العلا أقلامه فكأنها

فؤاد عليه ضم منهن أضلعا

His pens guard nobility, as though it were

a heart around which he had clasped them as ribs.

ويرهب بالكتب الكتائب والذي

أراع العدى منه اليراع وأجزعا

He terrifies battalions with writings; what

frightened and dismayed his foes was his reed-pen.

إمام أشد العي إحصاء فضله

أتطمع أن تحصى الغيوث وتجمعا

An imam: to count his merits is the height of ineptitude.

Do you hope to count all rain-showers and gather them?

ففي أي علم لا يرى علما به

وعن أي شيء لم يكن متورعا

In what science is he not recognized as a leading light?

And from what has he not scrupulously abstained?

وفي أي درس لم يعد دارس الهدى

كما كان مأهولا وقد صار بلقعا

In what lesson has he not restored guidance's ruined dwelling

to its former inhabited state, after it had become a barren waste?

ومشكل بحث لا يحث بخايب ال

إجابة تأصيلاً له وتفرعا

No difficult inquiry prompts a fruitless

answer, whether in grounding its principles or developing its branches.

فيا خير من أعطى وأولى وحا

ول المعالي فاستولى وقال فأسمعا

O best of those who gave, bestowed, and sought

high attainments and won them, and spoke so others heard!

تباعد عني الأقربون وصدني الص

صديق وأسدى لي الزمان التفجعا

My closest kin drew away, and I was rebuffed by the

friend; time bestowed anguish upon me.

ولم تضمر الحقد الممض ضمائري

على من جنا إلا صفحت توجعا

My inmost thoughts did not harbor agonizing rancor

against those who wronged me; instead, I pardoned them out of compassion.

فإن كمال المرء ما بات مغضيا

عن العيب عينا أو عن الفحش مسمعا

For a man's perfection lies in keeping

an eye averted from faults, or an ear from obscenity.

وإنك إن تجزي المسيء بفعله

أضعت حقوق المجد من حيث ضيعا

If you repay the wrongdoer in kind,

you neglect the claims of honor just as he neglected them.

ومن ذا الذي إن أنت وفيت عهده

وفالك أو راعيت جانبه رعا

And who is there who, if you honor his pledge,

is faithful to you, or, if you safeguard his interests, safeguards yours?

تروم صفاء من جبلة آجن

وقد جبلت فيه الطبائع أربعا

You seek clear water from a turbid constitution,

in which the four natural elements have been kneaded together.

وترجو انتقال الود من قلب غادر

وقد غلب المطبوع أن يتطبعا

And you hope for affection to pass from a treacherous heart,

though inborn character resists taking on another nature.

على ما تري الأيام تبدو لأهلها

إذا أعتقت منها وضعاً عفت موضعا

As you see, the days show themselves to those who live through them:

when they free one of their stations, they efface a place [wording unclear].

سقي الصيب المنهل بالوبل نج

لك الشهيد وأمري جانبيه وأمرعا

May the raincloud, streaming heavy showers, water your

martyred son, enrich both sides of his grave, and make them green.

ولو لم يشب مدرار سحب مدامعي

نجيعُ دمي سقّيت مثواه أدمعا

Had the abundant rain from the clouds of my tears not been mingled

with my blood's crimson, I would have watered his resting-place with tears.

ولا برحت أكنافه روضة زها

بها الزَهَرُ الزاكي الأريج تضوعا

May his surroundings ever remain a garden where

sweet-scented flowers flourish and waft their fragrance.

فقدناه حبراً دونه البحر وارتدى

رداء الردى مع فضله وتدرعا

We lost a scholar beside whom the sea fell short; he donned

the robe of death despite his excellence, and wore it as armor.

ولما ثوى في قدر خمسة أذرع

شققنا به من شقة الصبر أدرُعا

When he lay buried in a space of five cubits,

we tore, for him, breastplates made from patience's cloth.

على الرغم منا أن نجيد رثاءه

ولما نجد فيه المديح المسجعا

Against our will, we must excel in his elegy,

when we had not yet perfected rhymed praise of him.

ولو دافعت من دونه البيض والقنا

حكمنا بها قطعاً وبالسمر شرعا

Had swords and lances been able to defend him,

we would have settled it by their cutting, and by leveled dusky spears,

على كل سرحوب كلجة مزبد

تدفق في تياره وتدفعا

on every fleet, long-limbed steed, like a foaming sea

surging and rushing in its current.

ولكنها الأقدار لم تخش جاسراً

عليها ولا من جاءها متضرعا

But fate's decrees fear no one who dares

defy them, nor anyone who comes to them imploring.

عزاءً وإن عز العزاء بمثله

وصبراً فإن الصبر يحسن موقعا

Take consolation, though consolation for one like him is hard,

and have patience, for patience is well placed.

وفي خلف عوضته من شقيقه

زواهرُ فضل تبهر الزُهر طلعا

And in the successor granted you in his brother's stead

are gleams of excellence whose rising outshines the bright stars.

ومن كنت يا بن الأكرمين له أباً

فلا غرو أن نال السماكين مُسرعا

And whoever has you as father, O son of the noblest,

no wonder he swiftly reaches the two Simak stars.

فدم وابق كهفاً نستظل بظله

وركناً منيعاً بالبقاء تمتعا

So endure, and remain a refuge beneath whose shade we shelter,

and an impregnable pillar; may you enjoy continued life.

وهاك فوافٍ من قريحة متعب

غدا من نيوب النائبات مروعا

And take these [rhymes] from the inspiration of a weary poet,

who has grown terrified by calamities' fangs.

رمته يد البين المشتت أسهما

ولم تبق منها في الحنية منزعا

The hand of scattering separation shot arrows at him,

leaving none of them in the bow to draw.

فأقصر عن مد القريض وقصره

وطال عثاراً لا يقال لها لعا

So he ceased composing verse, whether long or short,

and his stumbling dragged on, with none to say, 'May you rise again!'

ولكن دعاني منك مولى لنظمه

ومن بدعه المولى بحبه لما دعا

But a patron of yours called on me to compose it,

and one whom the patron fashioned through his love, when he called [wording unclear].