سبق الفناء فما يدوم بقاء — Ibn Wahbon

سَبَق الفناءُ فما يدومُ بقاءُ

تفنى النجومُ وتسقطُ البيضاءُ

Extinction came first, so no existence endures.

Stars perish, and the white sun falls.

نفسي وحسّي إن وصفتهما معاً

آلٌ يذوبُ وصخرةٌ خلقاءُ

My soul and my perception, if I describe them together,

are a dissolving mirage and a smooth rock.

لو تعلمُ الأجبالُ كيف مآلها

علمي لما امتسكت لها أرجاء

If the mountains knew what their end would be,

as I do, their sides would not hold together.

إنا لنعلمُ ما يراد بنا فلم

تعيا القلوبُ وتُغلَب الأهواء

We surely know what is intended for us; why, then,

do hearts falter and desires succumb?

طيفُ المنايا في أساليب المنى

وعلى طريق الصّحة الأدواء

The specter of death lies along the paths of hope,

and on the road of health lie diseases.

بتعاقبِ الأضداد مما قد ترى

جُلِبَت عليك الحكمةُ الشنعاء

Through the alternation of opposites in what you see,

dreadful wisdom has been brought upon you.

ماذا على ابنِ الموت من إبصاره

ولقائِهِ هل عَقَّتِ الأبناء

What harm is there for Death's son in seeing him

and meeting him? Have sons been unfilial?

أيغرُّني أن يستطيل بيَ المدى

وأبي بحيثُ تواصتِ الغبراء

Does it deceive me that my span grows long,

while my father lies where the dusty earth has closed together?

لم ينكرُ الإنسانُ ما هو ثابتٌ

في طَبعِهِ لو صحَّتِ الآراء

Why should man deny what is fixed

in his nature, if judgments were sound?

ونظيرُ موتِ المرء بعد حياته

أن تستوي مِن جنسه الأعضاء

And the counterpart of man's death after his life

is that limbs take shape from his own kind.

دنِفٌ يبكِّي للصحيح وإنما

أمواتُنا لو تشعرُ الأحياء

A sick man prompts tears for the healthy; yet

our dead are the living, if only they could perceive.

وسواءٌ أن تجلى اللحاظُ من القذى

أو تنتضَى من شَخصها الحَوباء

And it is all one whether eyes are cleared of motes,

or the soul is unsheathed from its body.

ما النفسُ إلا شعلةٌ سقطت إلى

حيثُ استقلَّ بها الثرى والماء

The soul is but a flame that fell to

where earth and water took it up,

حتى إذا خلصت تعودُ كما بدت

ومن الخلاصِ مشقَّةٌ وعناء

until, when freed, it returns as it first appeared;

and release brings hardship and suffering.

كذبت حياةُ المرءِ عند وجودها

وُجِدَ الحمامُ ومنه كان الداءُ

Man's life proved false: at its coming into being

death came into being, and from it sprang disease.

لله أيُّ غنيمةٍ غَنِمَ الردى

ومن الفجائع غارةٌ شعواء

By God, what a prize death has won,

and what a savage raid among calamities!

من كان غُرَّةَ جنسه حتى امحت

فإذا البريّة كلُّها دهماء

He who was his kind's white blaze, until it was effaced—

and behold, all creation is dark.

جبلٌ تقوَّضَ لو تشخَّصَ عظمه

لتواصتِ الغبراءُ والخضراء

A mountain collapsed; had his greatness taken bodily form,

the dusty earth and green sky would have touched.

ومَغيضُ ما قد غاض منه شاهدٌ

أن لا يدومَ بحالهِ الدأماء

And the ebb of what has ebbed from him bears witness

that the sea will not remain unchanged.

أكبرتُ نَعيَ جلالِهِ فنفيتُهُ

وهو الجليّةُ ما عليه خفاء

I found the news of his majesty's death overwhelming and denied it,

yet it was the plain truth, without obscurity.

مات ابنُ عيسى مَن يقول به عسى

شفقاً وليس مع الحمام رجاء

Ibn Isa is dead—who says of him 'perhaps'

out of anxious concern? With death there is no hope.

أفلا حَمَتهُ فضائلٌ موفورةٌ

وجلالةٌ تعنو لها العظماء

Could not abundant virtues have shielded him,

and a majesty before which the mighty bow,

وأذمَّةٌ في سرِّ لخمٍ طالما

خَدَمَت رعايةَ حقّها الأمراء

and pledges among Lakhm's noblest, which for so long

princes had served by safeguarding their due?

شهروا سلاحَ الدّمعِ خَلفَ سريرِه

إذ لم يكن للباترات غناء

They unsheathed the weapon of tears behind his bier,

since cutting swords were of no avail.

رُحنا به بل بالسيادةِ والعلا

والشمسُ نجمٌ والنهارُ مساء

We set out with him—rather, with lordship and glory—

while the sun was a star and daylight evening.

نطأ القلوبَ على سواءِ سبيله

فالسيرُ مَهلٌ والعثارُ ولاء

We tread on hearts along the level stretch of his path;

so the pace is slow, and the stumbles come in succession.

أخذَ الأسى فيه البرود بثاره

مما جناهُ الزَّهوُ والخيلاء

In mourning him, grief took its vengeance on the mantles

for what pride and vainglory had wrought.

حتى إذا بلغوا به ملحودَهُ

قمنا به لو أنَّه الجوزاء

Until, when they brought him to his grave,

we stood by him, even had he been al-Jawza.

ضرب الهدى في لحدِهِ بيمينه

فتناولَتهُ عَرصَةٌ فيحاء

Guidance reached into his grave with its right hand,

and a spacious courtyard received him.

وأظلَّه التنزيلُ يتلو نفسه

بتلاوةٍ لم يؤتها القرّاء

Revelation shaded him, reciting itself

with a recitation never granted to reciters.

مستصحباً أعمالَهُ متأنّساً

بزواهرٍ هيَ والنجومُ سواء

Taking his deeds with him, finding solace

in radiant deeds equal to the stars.

ولربما استخلصتَ منا أنفساً

ملأت ضريحَك والصدورُ جلاء

And often you won souls from among us

that filled your tomb, while our breasts lay bare.

وهناك لو كُشِفَ الغطاءُ لناظرٍ

حول القليبِ حديقةٌ غنَّاء

And there, if the veil were lifted for a beholder,

around the well would lie a luxuriant garden.

في الجبّ إذ يحوي سميَّكَ أسوةٌ

لو حُمَّ منك وقد حُجِبتَ لقاء

In the well that holds your namesake lies an example,

if a meeting with you, though hidden, were ordained.

يا تُربَةُ استبقي سناه ويا فلا

لا تَلحَقَنكَ جريمةٌ شنعاء

O earth, preserve his radiance; and O wilderness,

let no dreadful crime be laid to your charge.

الله فيَّ وفي جوانحَ رطبةٍ

لم تخلُ من شفقاتها الأعداء

For God's sake, spare me and tender hearts

whose compassion even enemies were not denied.

أبنيه نحن وأنتمُ شرعٌ به

وعلى المصابِ بفقدِهِ شركاء

O his sons, we and you are equal in our bond to him,

and share in the calamity of losing him.

هزُّوا قوادمكم إلى عليائه

قد رَشَّحَت أبناءها الفتخاء

Shake your primary feathers toward his heights;

the broad-winged eagle has already trained her young.

أمَّا وقد شبهتُ ماثلَ رَسمِهِ

سطرا فثمَّ الحكمة الغرّاء

Now that I have likened his visible trace

to a line of writing, there lies radiant wisdom.

واعجب لذاك الخطِّ في صفح الثرى

أن حاز علماً ما له إحصاء

And marvel at that line on the face of the earth,

that it has encompassed knowledge beyond all reckoning.

أنَّى وسعتَ وأنت مضجعُ واحدٍ

مَن هذه الآفاق مِنهُ ملاء

How did you contain, though you are one man's resting-place,

him of whom these horizons are full?

يا زائريه تكحلوا بصعيدِهِ

كُحلُ البصائرِ تلكمُ البوغاء

O his visitors, use his soil as kohl;

that dust is kohl for inward sight.

فَغَرَت له فاها الجدالةُ فانطوى

في طيّها الإسهابُ والإيماء

The earth opened its mouth for him, and there lay folded

within its folds both expansive speech and subtle allusion.

قَسَمَ الأنامُ تراثَ علمك فاستوى

في نَيلِهِ البُعَداءُ والقرباء

People shared your legacy of knowledge; alike

in receiving it were the distant and the near.

كنَّا عبيدَكَ في اعتقادِ نفوسنا

إذ في اعتقادك أنَّنا أبناء

We were your slaves in our own estimation,

while in your estimation we were sons.

يا مُلبَسَ النُّعمى يجرُّ ذيولها

لبست ثراكَ غمامةٌ وطفاء

O you clothed in blessing, trailing its hems,

a dense rain-cloud has donned your soil.

وبكت عليك الشمسُ حقَّ بكائها

أن كان قد تتفاقد النظراء

And the sun wept for you with rightful tears,

for peers do sometimes miss each other.

خُذها عُلالَةَ خاطرٍ دلّهتَهُ

من حيثُ ينشطُ جاءَهُ الأعياء

Take it, a little solace from a mind you left distraught;

from where it draws vigor, exhaustion has come to it.

قامت تناوِحُ فيك كلَّ قصيدة

ثَقَّفتُها وقناتُها زَورَاءُ

It rose to wail over you alongside every ode

I had straightened when its spear-shaft was crooked.