أناخ بها البارق الممطر — Ibn Sanaa Almalk

أَناخَ بها البارقُ الممطِرُ

ومرَّ النسيمُ بِها يخْطرُ

The rain-bearing lightning alighted there.

And the breeze passed through it, swaying.

وأَحْيَا صَبيحُ الْحَيَا نَشْرَهَا

فَأَصْبحَ مَيِّتهُ يُنْشرَ

And bright rain revived its fragrance.

So its dead fragrance was resurrected.

وأَضرمَت النَّارَ من فَوقِها

ففاح لنا النَّدُّ والْعَنْبرُ

And it kindled fire above itself.

So incense and ambergris wafted toward us.

ونبَّه مِنها صهيلُ الرعود

لواحظَ ما خِلْتُها تَسْهَر

And the neighing of thunder awakened within it

eyes I had never thought would keep vigil.

وطاش النَّباتُ فهل رَاقَه

ليركبَه ذَلِك الأَشْقَر

The plants reeled—had he charmed them,

that chestnut steed, so that he might ride them?

وما حملت منَّةً للسحا

بِ إِلاَّ ومِنَّتُها أَكْبَرُ

It owed no favor to the clouds

without its own favor being greater.

متى جاءَ مِنْ دمْعِه زائرٌ

تلقَّاهُ من زهْرِها محجَرُ

Whenever a visitor came from its tears,

an eye-socket among its flowers welcomed him.

ولو حلَّ من رَعْدِها خاطِبٌ

لَوافَاهُ مِن سَرْوِها مِنْبَرُ

And if an orator arrived from its thunder,

a pulpit among its cypresses would meet him.

فكم مقلةٍ ثمَّ مفْضُوضَةٍ

وكَمْ وَجْنَةٍ بالْحيَا تَقْطرُ

How many an eye there lay unsealed!

And how many a cheek dripped with rain!

وكَمْ من غديرٍ غدَا صَفْوُه

بأَسرارِ حَصْبائهِ يُخْبِرُ

How many a pool, whose clear water

revealed the secrets of its pebbles!

وكَمْ قَدْنَهاه هبوبُ الرِّياح

فظَلَّ بتجعيده يَسْتُر

How often the blowing winds forbade it,

so it kept concealing them beneath its ripples!

وكم فيه للقطرِ مِنْ خُوذةٍ

تَدُلُّ علَى أَنَّه مِغْفَر

How many a helmet the rain has within it,

showing that it is a mail-coif!

فيا روضةَ الحسنِ إِنِّي شُغِلتُ

بروضةِ حُسنٍ لِمن يَنْظُر

O garden of beauty, I have been engrossed

in a garden of beauty for whoever beholds it.

ويا أَخْضَر اللَّونِ قد ضِعْت فيكَ

كمَا ضاعَ شَارِبُك الأَخْضَر

O dusky-hued one, I have vanished in you,

as your dark mustache has vanished.

أَنا لا أَبينُ لِفَرْط السِّقام

وذَاكَ بِلونِكَ لاَ يَظْهر

I am invisible from excessive sickness,

and that does not show against your complexion.

تخطَّر والرُّمْحُ في كَفِّه

فلم يُدرَ أَيُّهما الأَسْمرُ

He strutted with the spear in his palm,

and no one knew which was the brown one.

ومرَّ الغزالُ على إِثْره

فلم نَدرِ أَيُّهما الجُؤذُر

A gazelle passed in his wake,

and we could not tell which was the wild-ox calf.

وأَلبسَ خاتمه خِصْره

فقد صَحَّ مِنْ خِصْره الخِنْصرُ

He slipped his ring around his waist,

and his waist proved to be a little finger.

ولما تَعَمَّمَ قام الدَّلي

لُ على نَقْصِ مَنْ زِيُّها المِعْجَرُ

When he donned a turban, proof arose

of the inferiority of her whose attire is a headscarf.

وحسبُك أَنَّ لها مِعْجَرا

وأَسْعَدُ منه له مِئْزرُ

Suffice it that she has a headscarf,

while he has a waist-wrap more fortunate than it.

وقدْ غار مِنْه عَلى أَنَّنِي

وغيْرِيَ مِنْ قبْله أَغْيَر

And it grew jealous of it, although I

and others before it are more jealous still.

فيا مَعْدِناً دُرُّه سَالِمٌ

ويا روضةً وَرْدُها أَحْمَر

O mine whose pearls are intact!

O garden whose roses are red!

ويا مَن بِفيه لَنا سُكَّرٌ

ولكِنَّه سُكَّرٌ يُسكِر

O you whose mouth holds sugar for us,

but sugar that intoxicates!

يحلِّلُ جَهْراً عقودَ الْعُقُولِ

فمِنْ أَجْلِه حُرِّمَ المسكِرُ

It openly unties the knots of reason;

for its sake, intoxicants were forbidden.

أَصومُ عَنِ الوَصْلِ دهْرِي وقد

رأَيتُ الهِلالَ ولاَ أُفْطِر

All my life I fast from union, though

I have seen the crescent and do not break my fast.

وأَنت الهلالُ وأَنْت الهلاَكُ

بِقتْليَ تُفْتِي ولا تفْتُر

You are the crescent, and you are destruction;

you decree my killing and never relent.

أَما خِفْت منْ قِصَّتِي أَنْ تشِيع

فَيُكتَبَ في حَالِها مَحْضر

Did you not fear that my story would spread,

and a legal record be written of its circumstances?

وسوقُ المحَاضِرِ في ذا الزَّمانِ

كما أَنْت يا بَائِعي تخْسَر

The market for legal records in this age,

like you, O seller of me, runs at a loss.

وأَعجبُ مِنْ كُلِّ شيءٍ جَرَى

عجوزٌ تبنَّى بِها مُعْصِر

Stranger than everything that happened

is an old woman wed by a nubile maiden.

وهذي القضيَّةُ مَعْكُوسَةٌ

أَرَى العَقْل مِنْ مِثْلها يَنْفِرُ

This case is turned upside down;

I see reason recoil from the like of it.

فواصَلْتُها في كئوسٍ ظننْـ

ـتُ بِها أَنَّ حَارِسَها قيْصَر

So I joined with her in cups, thinking

from them that her guardian was Caesar.

وأَحرقتُ مِنْها ظَلامَ الدُّجَى

لما صحَّ مِنْ أَنَّه يُكْفُر

And with her I burned the darkness of night,

since it was proved that it disbelieved.

وبات نديميَ لاَ ليْلُه

يَطولُ ولا شربه يَقْصُر

My drinking companion spent the night: neither his night

grew long, nor his drinking fell short.

وقام المؤذِّنُ يَنْعى الظلام

فهذاك يَنْعى وذا يَنْعَرُ

The caller to prayer arose, announcing darkness's death;

that one laments, while this one brays.

وكشَّف عَنَّا قِناع الصَّباح

فأَسْفر لي وجْهُك المسْفِرُ

Morning's veil was lifted from us,

and your radiant face shone forth for me.

فلا يعجب الصُّبحُ مِنْ نُورِه

فوجْهُ الرَّشِيدِ أَبي أَنْوَرُ

Let dawn not marvel at its light:

the face of al-Rashid, my father, is brighter.

وأَخبارُ سؤدَدِه مِنْ سَنا

ه أَبْهى ومِنْ حُسْنِه أَبْهَر

And accounts of his nobility, beside his radiance,

are more splendid, and more dazzling than his beauty.

هو السَّيِّد المشْتَرِي للثَّنَا

وَقَدْ عَجِز الْقَومُ أَنْ يَشْتَرُوا

He is the lord who purchases praise,

though the others have proved unable to purchase it.

ومانِحُ مَنْ جَاءَ يمتارُه

فهم في معاليه لن يمتروا

And the giver to whoever comes seeking provisions from him;

they will never doubt his lofty virtues.

ويفترّ مدّاحه من لهاه

فهم في المدائح لن يفتروا

His panegyrists smile at his gifts,

so they will never flag in their praises.

وراحتُه قِبلةُ الآملينَ

علَى أَنَّها دِيمَةٌ تُمطِر

His palm is the qibla of the hopeful,

though it is a cloud raining steadily.

فبالجودِ بَاطِنُها مَشْرَعٌ

وباللَّثم ظَاهِرُها مشعَرُ

Through generosity, its inner face is a watering-place;

through kisses, its outer face is a sacred shrine.

فإِنْ شِئْتَ قُلْ إِنَّه جنَّة الن

عيم ورَاحَتُه الكَوْثَر

If you wish, say he is the Garden of

Bliss, and his palm is al-Kawthar.

تقصّر إِنْ سابقتْه الرياحُ

وتوجَدُ في إِثْره تَعْثُر

The winds fall short if they race him,

and are found stumbling in his wake.

ويُنْسى الرشيدُ بذكرِ الرَّشيدِ

ويُحقَر مِن جعفرٍ جَعْفَرُ

Al-Rashid is forgotten at the mention of al-Rashid,

and Ja'far is belittled beside Ja'far.

وكيف يسمونه جعفراً

ومن فيض راحته أبحر

How can they call him Ja'far,

when seas come from his palm's outpouring?

وكيف يَلُومُونَ حُسَّادَه

وقَد حَسدَتْ عَصْرَه الأَعْصرُ

How can they blame his enviers,

when the ages have envied his age?

من القومِ لا رِفْده للعُفا

ةِ يُحْصَى ولا مَجْده يُحْصَر

He is of a people: neither his bounty to petitioners

can be counted, nor his glory bounded.

فوفدهُم منهمُ مُربحٌ

وفرُّهُمُ مِنْهمُ مخسرُ

So their visitors profit by them,

and those who flee them lose by them.

بدورٌ إِذا انْتسَبُوا للأَنَام

فَزُهْرُ النُّجومِ لَهُم مَعْشَر

Full moons: when they trace their lineage among humankind,

the bright stars are their clan.

ولا مثل هذا الرئيس الَّذِي

عَلى كُلِّ فَخْرٍ له مَفْخَرُ

There is none like this chief, who

has a cause for pride above every glory.

ومنزلة أُسُّها في السُّها

تَرى الطرفَ من دونها يَحْسِرُ

And a rank whose foundation lies in al-Suha:

you see the gaze grow weary short of it.

ونفس تُنافِس في المأْثرات

وتُؤثِر منها الذي يُؤْثَر

And a soul competing in noble deeds,

choosing among them what will be remembered.

وتُورِدُ في مَنْهَلِ المكرُماتِ

وتَصْدُقُ عن مطلبٍ يصدرُ

It leads to the watering-place of noble deeds,

and is true to a purpose that comes forth.

فِداهُ مِن السُّوءِ أَعْداؤُه

جميعاً على أَنَّهم أَحْقَرُ

May his enemies ransom him from harm,

all of them, though they are baser.

فكم قدَّروا الوضْعَ مِن قَدْره

وتأْبَى المقادِيرُ ما قَدَّرُوا

How often they planned to diminish his standing,

while destinies rejected what they planned!

فحلَّق نَحْو سَماءِ الْعُلا

وهُمْ قبلَ تَحليقهِ قَصَّرُوا

He soared toward the sky of eminence,

while they fell short before he soared.

وإِني عَزَمْتُ عَلى سَفْرةٍ

أَرَى وجهَ إِقْبالِها يُسْفِر

I have resolved upon a journey;

I see the face of its good fortune brighten.

وأَحببتُ خِدمَةَ مَنْ دَهْرُنا

لأَغْراضِه خَادِمٌ أَصْغَر

I have desired to serve one for whom our age

is a lesser servant to his purposes.

وآثَرتُ صُحبَةَ مولى الأَنامِ

لأَبْلُغ مِنْه الَّذِي أُوثِر

I have preferred the company of the lord of humankind,

to obtain from him what I prefer.

ستَغْبِطُني فيه شَمسُ الضُّحى

ويَحْسُدني القمرُ النَّيِّر

The morning sun will envy my good fortune with him,

and the radiant moon will envy me.

وأُصبحُ لا عيشَتِي عِنْدَه

تُذَمُّ ولاَ ذِمَّتِي تخفَرُ

And I shall find neither my life with him

censured, nor my pledged protection violated.

وأُبْصِرُ دَهْرِيَ مِن ذَنْبِه

يتوبُ إِليّ وَيَسْتَغْفِر

I shall see my time, for its offense,

turn to me in repentance and seek forgiveness.

أَودِّعُ مِنْكَ الحَيَا والحياه

وأُودِعُ قَلبي لَظىً تَسْعَر

I bid farewell to the rain and life in you,

and lodge in my heart a blazing flame.

وأَرحلُ عنكَ وَلي خَاطِرٌ

بتَذْكَارِ غَيْركَ لاَ يَخطُر

I depart from you with a mind

that never strays to remembrance of another.

ومن كَانَ مِثْلي سَعَى في الْبِلادِ

فيُكْسَى مِنَ العِزِّ أَوْ يُكْسَرُ

Whoever is like me travels through the lands,

to be clothed in honor or be broken.

ومَا مطلبي غَير نيلِ العُلا

ومِثلي علَى مِثْلها يُعْذَرُ

I seek nothing but attaining eminence,

and one like me is excused for such a quest.

فلا تَنْسَني مِنْ مُجابِ الدُّعا

فإِنِّي وليدُك يَا جَعْفَر

Do not leave me out of answered prayers,

for I am your child, O Ja'far.