ما للوشاة غدوا علي وراحوا — Ibn Hamdis

ما للوشاةِ غَدَوا عليّ وراحوا

أعليّ في حُبِّ الحسانِ جُنَاحُ

What ails the slanderers, assailing me morning and evening?

Is loving beautiful women a sin upon me?

وبمهجتي عُرُبٌ كأنّ قدودها

قُضُبٌ تقومُ بميلهنّ رياحُ

My lifeblood for those loving women, whose figures seem

Boughs whose sway the winds direct,

مهتزَّةٌ بقواتلِ الثَّمَرِ التي

أسماؤها الرُّمَّانُ والتُّفَّاحُ

Swaying with deadly fruits whose

Names are pomegranates and apples.

غيدٌ زَرَيْنَ على القطا في مشيها

فلهنّ ساحاتُ القلوب بطاح

Graceful women who shame the sandgrouse in its gait;

For them, the courts of hearts are open plains.

من كلّ مُصْبِيَةٍ بِضِدّيْ حسنها

فالفَرْعُ ليلٌ والجبينُ صباحُ

Each enchanting through her beauty's two opposites:

Her tresses are night, her brow is morning.

تفتَرّ عن بَرَدٍ فراشفُ دُرِّهِ

يَحلو له شَهْدٌ وتُسْكِرُ راحُ

Her smile reveals hailstones; to one who sips their pearls,

Honey tastes sweet, and wine brings drunkenness.

لا تقتبسْ من نور وجنتها سناً

إنّ الفراشةَ حَتفُها المصباحُ

Borrow no gleam from the light of her cheek:

The moth's death lies in the lamp.

نُجْلُ العيونِ جراحها نُجْلٌ أما

تصفُ الأسنّةَ في الطعين جراحُ

Wide-eyed women leave wide wounds; do not

Wounds in the stricken man describe the spearheads?

يا وَيْحَ قتلى العاشقين وإنْ هُمُ

شهدوا حروباً ما لهنّ جراحُ

Alas for the slain among lovers, though they

Have witnessed wars that leave no wounds.

أوَ ما علمتَ بأنّ فُتّاكَ الهوى

حُورٌ تكافحُ بالعيون مِلاحُ

And have you not learned that love's deadly assailants

Are lovely, dark-eyed women who fight with their eyes?

من كلّ خودٍ كالغزالةِ قِرْنُها

أسَدٌ أُذِلّ وإنّها لَرَداحُ

Each a gazelle-like maiden, whose opponent

Is a humbled lion, though she is full-hipped.

فالرّمحُ قدٌّ والخداعُ تَدَلّلٌ

والسيفُ لحظ والنجادُ وشاحُ

Her spear is her figure, her stratagem her coquetry;

Her sword a glance, her sword-belt a sash.

ودماءُ أهل العشق في وجَنَاتها

فكأنّ قتلاهم عليها طاحوا

And the blood of love's people is upon her cheeks,

As though their slain had fallen there.

وسبيَّةٍ بصوارمٍ من عسجدٍ

قد صافَحَتْ منها العلوجَ صفاحُ

And a captive won with sharp swords of gold,

Whose broad blades had clasped hands with foreigners;

حمراءَ يُسْلي شربُها وبشربها

تُنْسَى الهموم وتُذْكَرُ الأفراحُ

A red wine whose drinking consoles, and through drinking it

Sorrows are forgotten and joys remembered.

رَجَحَتْ يدي منها بحَمْلِ زجاجةٍ

خَفّتْ بها خَودٌ إِليّ رَجَاحُ

My hand grew heavy carrying a flask of it,

Which a full-hipped maiden nimbly brought me.

وكأنّ للياقوتِ ماءً مزبداً

فالدرُّ فيه بكأسها سَبّاحُ

As though ruby had a foaming water,

With pearls swimming in it, within its cup.

ومجوَّفٌ لم تُحْنَ أضلُعُهُ على

قلبٍ وقلبُك نحوه مُرْتاحُ

And a hollow instrument whose ribs were never bent around

A heart, though your heart turns to it in delight.

نَبَضَتْ دقاقُ عروقهِ فكأَنَّها

في النّقْرِ ألْسِنَةٌ عليه فصاحُ

Its slender veins throbbed, as though they were

Eloquent tongues upon it when plucked.

مَسّتْهُ للإصلاحِ أنمُلُ قَيْنَةٍ

فقضى بإفسادٍ له إصلاحُ

A singing girl's fingertips touched it to tune it,

But its tuning decreed its undoing.

وَفَدَ السرورُ على النفوس بشَدْوها

وتمايلتْ طَرَباً بنا الأقداحُ

Joy came to souls through her singing,

And the goblets swayed with us in rapture.

وكأنّما ذِكْرُ ابن يحيى بيننا

مِسْكٌ تَضَوّعَ عَرْفُهُ النفّاحُ

And the mention of Ibn Yahya among us is like

Musk whose wafting fragrance spreads abroad.

مَلِكٌ رَعَى الدنْيا رعايةَ حازمٍ

وأظلّ دينَ اللَّه منه جَناحُ

A king who tended the world with a resolute man's care;

And a wing of his sheltered the faith of God.

متأصّلٌ في الملك ذو فخر له

حسَبٌ زكا في الأكرمين صراحُ

Deep-rooted in kingship, possessed of glory, he has

Pure ancestral honor flourishing among the noblest.

وَسِعَ البسيطةَ عَدْلُهُ وتضاعفَتْ

عَن طولهِ الآمالُ وهي فساحُ

His justice embraced the earth, and hopes multiplied

Through his bounty, vast as they are.

ذو همّةٍ عُلْوِيّةٍ عَلَوِيّةٍ

فَلها على هممِ الملوكِ طماحُ

Possessed of a lofty, Alid ambition,

It soars above the ambitions of kings.

وإشارة باللحظ يخدم أمْرَهَا

زمنٌ له سلم به وكفاحُ

And a signal of his glance has its command obeyed

By Time, with peace for him and battle through him.

يَقِظٌ إذا التبستْ أمورُ زمانه

فلرأيه في لَبْسها إيضاحُ

Watchful when the affairs of his age grow tangled,

His judgment sheds clarity on their confusion.

فكأنّما يبدو له متبرّجاً

ما يحجب الإمساءُ والإصباحُ

As though, unveiled, there appears to him

What evening and morning conceal.

راضَ الزمانَ فلم يزلْ منه أخا

ذُلٍّ وقدماً كان فيه جماحُ

He tamed Time, which has remained before him

Submissive, though once it was unruly.

ورَمَى العدى بضراغمٍ أظفارُهَا

ونيوبُها الأسيافُ والأرماحُ

And he hurled at his foes lions whose claws

And fangs are swords and spears.

نَصَحتْ له الدنْيا فلا غشٌّ لها

وسَخَتْ به الأيّامُ وهيَ شحاحُ

The world dealt sincerely with him, without deceit,

And days, though miserly, were generous in bestowing him.

من ذا يجاودُ منه كفّاً كفُّهُ

والبحر في معروفِهِ ضَحضاحُ

Whose hand could rival a hand of his in bounty,

When the sea beside his beneficence is shallow water?

زهد الغناةُ من الغنى في جودِهِ

ولراحتَيه بِبَذله إِلحاحُ

The wealthy, from abundance, lose desire for his bounty,

Yet his two palms persist in dispensing it.

كم قيل بَرّحَ في العطاءِ بمالِهِ

فأجَبْتُ هل للطبعِ عَنهُ بَرَاحُ

How often it was said, 'His giving ravages his wealth!'

I answered, 'Can his nature turn away from it?'

ذِمْرٌ تروحُ شموسُه وبدورُهُ

وبروجُها من معتَفيهِ الراحُ

A valiant man whose suns and full moons go forth,

Their mansions the palms of his petitioners.

وإِذا بَنو الآمالِ أَخْسرَ وُسْعُهُمْ

أَضحى لهُمْ في القَصدِ مِنهُ جناحُ

And when the children of hope find their strength failing,

A wing from him becomes theirs in their quest.

ولَئِن مَحا الإعدامَ صَوْبُ يمينهِ

فالجدبُ يمحوه الحيا السيّاحُ

And if his right hand's downpour wipes out poverty,

Streaming rain likewise wipes out drought.

شَهْمٌ إذا ما الحربُ أضحَت حائلاً

أَمسى لها بذُكورهِ إِلقاحُ

A gallant man: whenever war proves barren,

His males bring her to conception.

تطوى على سُودِ الحتوفِ بِعَزْمِهِ

ملمومةٌ ملءُ الفضاءِ رِداحُ

By his resolve, it is folded round black deaths—

A massed, immense host filling the expanse.

أَفلا تُبيدُ مِنَ العِدى أَرواحَهُمْ

ولها غُدُوٌّ نَحْوَهُمْ ورواحُ

How should it not destroy the souls of foes,

When it marches against them morning and evening?

متناوِلٌ قُمُحَ الكماة بأسمرٍ

لِدَمِ الأُسود سنانُه سَفّاحُ

He reaches armored warriors' upraised heads with a tawny spear,

Whose point pours out the blood of lions.

وكأنّ طعنته وِجَارٌ واسِعٌ

فلثعلبِ الخطِّيِّ فيه ضُبَاحُ

As though his thrust-wound were a spacious den,

And in it yelps the fox of the Khatti spear.

وكأنّما حَبّ القلوب لرُمحِهِ

جِزْعٌ يُنَظَّمُ فيه وهو نِصَاحُ

As though heart-cores were, to his spear,

Onyx beads strung upon it, the spear itself their thread.

في مأزقٍ ضنكٍ سماءُ عَجاجِهِ

تعلو وأرضُ حِمامِهِ تَنْداحُ

In a cramped battlefield, its sky of dust

Rises, and its earth of death spreads wide.

أنتم منَ الأَملاكِ أرواحُ العُلى

شَرَفاً وغيركُمُ لها أشباحُ

Among kings, you are the souls of eminence,

In nobility; others are merely its outward forms.

هذا عليٌّ وهو بَدْرُ مهابةٍ

كَلِفٌ به بصرُ العُلى اللمَّاحُ

This is Ali, a full moon of majesty,

Of whom glory's keen gaze is enamored.

هذا الّذي نَصَرَ الهدى بِسيوفِهِ

ورماحِهِ فَحِماهُ ليسَ يُباحُ

This is he who championed guidance with his swords

And spears; his sanctuary is inviolate.

هذا الَّذي فازتْ بما فوْقَ المنى

من جوده للمعتَفينَ قِداحُ

This is he from whom more than hopes have been won,

From his bounty, by petitioners' lot-arrows.

مَنْ حُبّهُ النهجُ القويمُ إلى الهدى

فصلاحُ مبغِضِهِ الشقِيِّ صلاحُ

Love for him is the straight path to guidance;

So his wretched hater's welfare lies in righteousness.

من صَوْنُهُ قُفْلٌ لكلّ مدينةٍ

فإذا عَصَتْهُ فسَيفهُ المِفتاحُ

His protection is a lock for every city;

If it defies him, his sword is the key.

يا صارمَ الدِّين الّذي في حَدّهِ

مَوْتٌ يُبيد به عِداه ذُباحُ

O keen blade of the faith, upon whose edge

Is slaughtering death, with which he annihilates his foes.

طَوَّقْتَني مِنَناً فَرُحْتُ كأنَّني

بالمَدْح قُمْريٌّ له إفصاحُ

You have collared me with favors, till I seem

A ringdove, eloquent in praise.

وسَقَيتَني من صَوْبِ مزنك فوْق ما

يَرْوَى به قلبُ الثرى الملتاحُ

And you have watered me from your clouds' downpour beyond what

Would slake the earth's thirst-parched heart.

ففداك مَنْ للمالِ أسْرٌ عنده

إذْ لم يزَلْ للمال منك سراحُ

So may he who holds wealth captive be your ransom,

For you have always given wealth its freedom.

وبقيتَ للأعياد عيداً مبهجاً

ما لاجَ في الليل البهيم صَبَاحُ

And may you remain a joyous festival for festivals,

As long as dawn gleams in the pitch-black night.