غضبة — Jawahiri

عَرَتِ الخطوبُ وكيف لاتعرو

فصَبَرتَ أنتَ ودِرعُكَ الصبرُ

Calamities befell you—and how could they not?

So you endured, with patience as your armor.

وصَبرتَ أنتَ وأنت ذو ثقةٍ

أن لو تشاءُ لزُحزِحَ الأمر

And you endured, confident

that, if you wished, matters would be shifted.

لانجاب عُسْرٌ من فرائسه

صِيدُ الرجال ولا رتَمى اليسر

Hardship would have lifted—among its prey are

the proudest men—and ease would have flung itself at you.

ولَدَرَّ ضَرْعٌ رُحتَ تحلِبُه

إنْ كان أعوَزَ غيرَكَ الدَرُّ

And an udder you set about milking would have flowed,

even if milk had failed others.

عَرتِ الخطوب فما خَفَضْتَ لها

من جانحٍ وكذلك النَسْر

Calamities befell, yet before them you never lowered

a wing—and so it is with the eagle.

ومَضيْت تلتهبُ السما صُعُداً

لك عند غُرِّ نُجومها وَكر

And on you went, setting the sky ablaze as you rose,

your nest among its radiant stars.

وعلى جَناحَيْك ارتَمتْ كِسَراً

مثلَّ الضَّباب عواصفٌ صِرُّ

Against your two wings were hurled, in fragments,

bitter-cold gales, like fog.

فتجاوَزَتْكَ وراح نَهبتَها

نَخْبُ الفؤادِ وخامِلٌ غَمْر

So they passed you by and preyed instead on

the fainthearted and the obscure, untried man.

النَفْعُ رِخوٌ لِستَ صاحِبَه

وأخوكَ هذا الشامِخُ الضُر

Gain is soft; you are no companion of its,

and your brother is this towering adversity.

أجررتَ والدنيا فما سَطَرتْ

الا وعندك فوقَها سَطر

You raced the world; it never wrote

without your having a line above its own.

ومضيتُما كلٌ بوطأته

فَرَسَيْ رهانٍ أنت والدهر

And on you both went, each with his own stride,

two racehorses—you and Time.

عرت الخطوب وكيف لا تعرو

وطريقُ مثلِكَ ، صامداً ، وعَر

Calamities befell you—and how could they not?

And the path of one like you, standing firm, is rugged.

عَدَتِ الضِّباعُ عليك عاويةً

طناً بأنك مأكلٌ جَزْر

Hyenas rushed upon you, howling,

thinking you a meal of slaughtered flesh.

فتذوَّقَتْك فقال قائلُها

انَ الغَضَنفَر لحمُه مُرّ

They tasted you, and their spokesman said:

“The lion's flesh is bitter indeed.”

وخَلَصت حُرَّ الوَجه ذا ألَقٍ

ووجُوهُهُم مطموسةٌّ عفْر

And you emerged with a noble, radiant face,

while their faces were blotted out and dust-stained.

حَسَدوكَ أنَّكَ دُسْتَ هامَهُمُ

مُتجبَّراً ولنَعْلِكَ الفَخْر

They envied you for trampling their heads

imperiously—and the glory belongs to your sandal.

وحَقَرْتَهم فقُلوبُهْم وَغْرُ

من ضِغنةٍ وعيونُهم خُزْر

And you scorned them: their hearts burn

with rancor, and their eyes are narrowed with malice.

لا أمرَ عندهَمُ فهمُ هَمَلٌ

غُفْلٌ وكل حياتِهم خَمْر

They have no say; they are untended strays,

unmarked, and all their life is wine.

وزعيمُ قومٍ كالغُراب به

صِغَرٌ وفي خُطُواتِه كِبْر

And a people's leader, like a crow, has

pettiness within, and arrogance in his steps.

يغتَرُّ فيما لا يُشرِّفُه

جَهِلَ المُغَفَّل كيفَ يَغْتَّرّ

He takes pride in what brings him no honor;

the fool knows not how to be proud.

يغتَرُّ أنْ ألقَوا بمعدتِه

عَفْنَ الطعام فراحَ يجتَّر

He prides himself that they have tossed into his stomach

rotten food; so he begins chewing the cud.

بادي الغَباء تكادُ تقرؤه

بالظنِّ لا خَبرٌ ولا خُبْر

His stupidity is plain; you can almost read him

by surmise, without report or firsthand knowledge.

أضحى وزيراً فاغتدَى رَهِقاً

مثل الحمار يؤودُه الوِزْر

He became a minister and grew overburdened,

like a donkey weighed down by its load.

لله أنتَ مطيةٌ عَرِيَتْ

منها الشَوَى وتأكَّلَ الظَهر

By God, you are a mount whose

limbs lie bare and whose back is eaten away.

ودريئةٍ يرمي الأبيَّ بها

وغدٌ ، ويُصمي البّرَةَ الفُجر

And a shield, from behind which the unbowed are shot

by a scoundrel, while the wicked strike the righteous dead.

والتفَّ عن أطرافه هََمَجٌ

مثل النَّعام يسودُها الذُعر

And about his flanks a rabble gathered,

like ostriches ruled by terror.

وتحلَّبوه ففي اكُفِّهم

شَطرٌ وفي أفواهِهم شَطْر

And they milked him: in their palms was

one half, and in their mouths the other half.

من فاجرينَ بكل قارعةٍ

حلّوا تحدَّث عنهم العُهْر

Among them are libertines: on every thoroughfare

where they settled, debauchery spoke of them;

ومُفَرِّقين مذاهباً جُمِعَت

وحَنَا عليها الآيُ والذِكر

and dividers of creeds once brought together,

over which the verses and the Remembrance bent in care.

مثل اللُّصوصِ يلُمُّ شَمْلَهُمُ

خَيْطُ الدُجى ويَحُلُّه الفجر

Like thieves, their company is gathered

by darkness's thread, and dawn unravels it.

يا عبدَ سوء في مزاعِمِهِ

يشتطُّ حيثُ تحرَّرَ الفِكر

O base slave, who in his pretensions

oversteps bounds where thought has freed itself!

قبليَّةٌ والكونُ وحَدَّه

فكر وخطَّ مصيرهُ ذَرُّ ؟!

Tribalism—when the universe has been united

by thought, and atoms have charted its destiny?!

أفأنتَ كونٌ يُستَظلُّ به

أمْ أنت يا ابنَ جهالةٍ عَصْر

Are you, then, a universe in whose shade one shelters,

or are you, O son of ignorance, an age?

قل " للصحيفةِ " انتَ قائدُها

سَفَهاً وأنتَ زعيمُها الحرُّ

Tell the newspaper—you are its leader

in folly, and you are its free chief—

إني – ولي في المجد مُتَّسَعٌ

عَفٌّ عن استغلالِة برُّ

that I—though glory affords me ample scope—

am upright and refrain from exploiting it.

لم ادَّخر منه سوَى نَشَب

هو للبلاد وأهلها ذُخْر

I have stored up from it nothing but wealth

that is a reserve for the country and its people.

غَنِيت به الأجيالُ طاعمةً

منها السمينَ ، وعَضَّني الفقر

Generations have grown rich through it, feasting

on its fattest portions, while poverty gnawed at me.

لا أستَغِلُّ فأنتَ لي عظةٌ

فيما أتيتَ ، وأنتَ لي زجْر

I do not exploit; you are a lesson to me

in what you have done, and you are a warning to me.