من شاء أن تسكر راح براح — Ibn Hamdis

من شاءَ أنْ تَسْكَرَ راحٌ بِرَاحْ

فليَسْقِها خَمْرَ العيون الملاحْ

Whoever wishes wine to grow drunk on wine,

let him give it the wine of lovely eyes.

فإنّها بالسّحرِ ممزوجَةٌ

أمَا تَرَاها أسكَرَتْ كلّ صاح

For it is mingled with enchantment—

do you not see it has intoxicated every sober soul?

فَما تَرى من شربها في الصّبا

في رِبْقَةِ السكرِ فهل من سَرَاح

What think you of one who drank it in youth,

caught in drunkenness's noose—is there any release?

يا من لِموصولِ الشَجا بالشجا

فليسَ للتّبريح عنه بَرَاح

O who will help one whose sorrow is joined to sorrow?

For torment has no leaving him.

تُشْرِقُ حولَيه الوجوهُ الَّتي

للبَدرِ والشَمسِ بِهنّ افتضاح

Around him shine faces that

put the full moon and the sun to shame.

وا رحمتا للصبّ من لَوعةٍ

بكلّ ريّا الحقف صِفرِ الوشاح

Ah, pity the lover's burning anguish

for every woman of dune-full hips and a loose-hanging sash.

يمشي اختيالُ التيه في مشيها

فعدِّ عن مَشْيِ قطاةِ البطاح

Pride's swagger moves within her gait;

forget the gait of the plains' sandgrouse.

ألْقَى الهَوَى العذريُّ في حجره

حرب الغواني والعدى واللّواح

ʿUdhri love has cast into his lap

the warfare of beauties, enemies, and reproachers.

لو حملت منه قلوبُ العدى

جراحَ قلبٍ ما حَمَلْنَ الجراح

If my enemies' hearts bore from it

a heart's wounds, they could not bear those wounds.

وجدي غريبٌ ما أرى شَرْحَهُ

يُوجَدُ في العَينِ ولا في الصّحاح

My passion is strange; I find no explanation of it

to be found in al-ʿAyn or al-Ṣiḥāḥ.

وإنّما يُحْسِنُ تفسيرَهُ

دَمْعٌ حِمَى السرّ به مُسْتَباح

Only this interprets it well:

tears, through which secrecy's sanctuary is breached.

إنْ مَسّني الضرُّ بِقَرْحِ الهَوى

فبرءُ دائي في الشرابِ القراح

If harm afflicts me through love's wound,

the cure for my illness lies in pure drink

من ظَبيةٍ تنفرُ من ظِلّها

وإن غدا الظلّ عليها وراح

from a gazelle that shies from her own shadow,

though the shadow visits her morning and evening.

ففي ثناياها جَنَى ريقةٍ

يا هل ترشّفْتَ النّدى من أقاح

Between her teeth is the ripe harvest of saliva—

ah, have you sipped dew from daisies?

كم من يدٍ قد أطْلَعَتْ في يدي

نجمَ اغتباقٍ بعد نجمِ اصطباح

How many a hand has raised in mine

an evening-drinking star after a morning-drinking star,

من قهوةٍ في الكأسِ لمّاعةٍ

كالبرقِ شُقّ الغيمُ عنه فلاح

of wine sparkling in the cup,

like lightning, when clouds are split away and it gleams.

سخيّة بالسكر مَرّتْ على

دنانِها بالختم أيْدٍ شحاح

Generous with drunkenness, though over

its casks passed miserly hands, sealing them.

وهي جَمُوحٌ كُلّما أُلْجِمَتْ

بالماءِ كَفّتْ من غلوّ الجماح

It is headstrong; whenever it is bridled

with water, it curbs its wild impetuosity.

كأنّما الكأسُ طلا مُغْزِلٍ

مُرْوِيَةٍ بالدَّرّ منه التياح

As though the cup were a nursing doe's fawn,

whose burning thirst she quenches with her milk.

كأنّما الإبريقُ في جسمها

يَنفخُ للندمانِ رُوحَ ارتياح

As though the ewer, into the cup's body,

were breathing for the companions a spirit of delight.

في روضةٍ نَفْحَتُها مِسْكَةٌ

تُهْدى إلينا في جيوب الرّياح

In a garden whose fragrance is musk,

wafted to us in the folds of the winds.

تميسُ سُكْراً فكأنّ الحيا

باتَ يُحَيّيها بكاساتِ راح

It sways drunkenly, as though the rain

had spent the night saluting it with cups of wine.

كأنّما أشجارُها مَنْدَلٌ

إن لَذَعَتْهُ جَمْرَةُ الشمس فاح

Its trees seem fragrant aloeswood:

when the sun's ember singes it, it gives off scent.

كأنّما القَطْرُ به لؤلؤٌ

لم يجرِ منه ثُقَبٌ في نِصَاح

As though the raindrops upon it were pearls

whose holes have never slid along a thread.

كأنّ خُرْسَ الطيرِ قد لُقّنَتْ

مَدْحَ عليٍّ فتغنّتْ فِصَاح

As though the mute birds had been taught

Ali's praise, and burst into eloquent song.

أرْوَعُ وَضّاحُ المحيّا كما

قابَلتَ في الإشراقِ بشرَ الصّباح

Awe-inspiring, bright of countenance, as though

you beheld in his radiance the morning's cheer.

مُعَظَّمُ الملك مُقِرٌّ له

بالملك حتى كلّ حيّ لَقَاح

Revered in kingship, he is acknowledged

as king even by every unsubjected tribe.

مجتمعُ الطعمينِ في طبعه

تَوَقُّدُ البأسِ وفَيْضُ السّماح

Two flavors meet within his nature:

the blaze of valor and the flood of generosity.

يُضْحِكُ في الغرب ثغورَ الظُّبا

وهنّ يُبْكِينَ عُيُونَ الجراح

In the West he makes sword-edge mouths smile,

while they make the eyes of wounds weep.

مَهّدَ في المهديتين العلى

وعمّ منه العدلُ كلّ النّواح

He established eminence in the two Mahdiyyas;

his justice spread through every quarter.

والمُلْكُ إن قامَ به حازِمٌ

أضحى حِمىً والجدّ غيرُ المزاح

When a resolute man upholds a kingdom,

it becomes a sanctuary; earnestness is not jest.

في سرجه اللّيثُ الَّذي لا يُرَى

مفترساً إلّا ليوثَ الكِفاح

In his saddle sits the lion who is never seen

preying on any but the lions of battle.

كأنّما سَلّ على قِرْنِهِ

من غمده سيفَ القضاءِ المُتَاح

As though against his opponent he drew

from its sheath the sword of allotted doom.

ذو هِمّةٍ شَطّتْ عُلاه فما

تُدْركُ بالأبصارِ إلّا التِماح

A man of resolve—his heights lie so far beyond

that eyes catch only a fleeting glimpse of them.

من حِمْيَرِ الأمْلاكِ في منصبٍ

ذو حسبٍ زاكٍ ومجدٍ صراح

By lineage he is of Himyar's kings,

possessed of pure ancestry and unalloyed glory.

أعاظِمٌ لم يمحُ آثارَهُمْ

دهرٌ لما خطَّته يمناهُ ماح

Great men whose traces were not effaced

by Time, which erases what its right hand writes.

هُمُ اليَعاسيبُ لدى طَعْنِهِمْ

إنْ شوّكوا أيمانَهُمْ بالرّماح

They are the king-bees in their spear-thrusting,

when they make their right hands bristle with spears.

كم لهمُ في الأُسْدِ من ضربَةٍ

كما سجاياهُ قريع اللّقاح

How many a blow have they dealt among lions!

As his qualities [show], he is the she-camels' foremost sire.

إن ابنَ يحيَى قد بَنى للعُلى

بيتاً فأمسى وهو جارُ الضراح

Indeed, the son of Yahya has built for high glory

a house, and now he neighbors al-Ḍurāḥ.

وصالَ بالجِدّ منوطاً به

جَدٌّ له الفوزُ بضربِ القداح

And he charged in earnest, attended by

good fortune that wins when the lot-arrows are cast.

والصارمُ الهنديّ يسقي الردى

فكيفَ إن سُقّيَ مَوتاً ذباح

The keen Indian sword serves death as drink;

how then, if a slaughterer is given death to drink?

آراؤه في الرّوع أعْدى على

أعدائِهِ من مُرْهَفَاتِ السّلاح

His counsels amid terror are deadlier to

his enemies than the keen edges of weapons.

وبطشُهُ ما زالَ عن قُدْرَةٍ

يُغْمِدُ في الصّفح شِفَارَ الصّفاح

His might has always, from a position of power,

sheathed the edges of broad swords in pardon.

لا تصدرُ الأنفسُ عن حُبِّهِ

فإنّهُ للسيّئاتِ اجتراح

Souls do not turn away from loving him,

for that would be committing a sin.

كم طامحِ الألحاظِ نَحْوَ العُلَى

إذا رآهُ غَضَّ لحظَ الطّماح

How many whose gazes aspire toward the heights,

on seeing him, lower their ambitious gaze.

وربّ ذئبٍ ذي مراحٍ فإن

عنّ له الضرغامُ خلّى المراح

And many a swaggering wolf—yet if

the lion confronts him, he abandons his swagger.

يا طالِبَ المعروفِ ألْمِمْ به

تَخْلَعْ على المطلوبِ منك النجاح

O seeker of generosity, pay him a visit:

you will robe what is asked of you in success.

نداهُ يُغني لا نَدَى غَيرِهِ

من للذُّنَابَى بِغَنَاءِ الجناح

His bounty enriches, not the bounty of others:

who can give tail-feathers the power of a wing?

فخلِّ مَنْ شَحّ على وفره

لا تُقْدَحُ النّارُ بزندٍ شحاح

So leave the man who hoards his wealth:

no fire is struck from a grudging fire-stick.

فالربعُ رحبٌ والندى ساكبٌ

والعيشُ رغدٌ والأماني قماح

For the courtyard is spacious, and bounty pours forth;

life is ease, and hopes hold their heads high.