بلوت هذا الدهر أطواره — Mihyar Al Daylami

بلوتُ هذا الدهر أطوارَهْ

عليَّ طوراً ومعي تارَهْ

I have tested this age in its changing moods:

at times against me, at times on my side.

وبصَّرتْني كيف أخلاقُه

تجاربٌ كشَّفن أخبارَهْ

And what its character is was shown to me

by trials that laid bare its doings.

فصرتُ لا أنكر إحلاءَهُ

يوماً ولا أنكر إمرارَهْ

So I do not find its sweetness strange

on any day, nor its bitterness.

لا هو إن شدّ رأى كاهلي

رِخواً ولا نفسيَ خوَّارَهْ

Nor, when it presses hard, does it find my shoulder

yielding, or my soul easily cowed.

ولا تصبَّانِيَ من سَلمِهِ

زخارفٌ للعين غرَّارَهْ

Nor, in its peace, am I beguiled

by ornaments that deceive the eye.

من عاذري منه على أنني

ضرورةً أقبلُ أعذارَهْ

Who will vindicate me against it, though I

accept its excuses out of necessity?

دعه وبِتْ منه على نجوةٍ

خائفةِ الرقبةِ حذَّارَهْ

Leave it, and spend the night beyond its reach,

fearing for your neck, watchful and wary.

واسلم فما تسلَمُ من جَوْرِهِ

إلا إذا ما لم تكن جارَهْ

And keep safe: you escape its injustice

only when you are no neighbor to it.

تنقَّلي يا رُكُبَ العيس بي

منجدةً يوماً وغَوَّارَهْ

Carry me onward, O knees of the pale camels,

up to the highlands one day, and down to the lowlands.

لا خطر الضيمُ ببالِ امرىء

وأنتِ بالبيداء خطّارَهْ

May humiliation never cross a man's mind

while you stride through the desert.

قد نبتِ البيداءُ بي جالساً

أرجو الأماني وهي غدّارَهْ

The desert has cast me off as I sit,

cherishing hopes, though they are treacherous.

أظلِمُ نفسي بين أبنائها

والنفسُ لا تُظلَم مختارَهْ

I wrong myself among its children,

and no soul willingly submits to wrong.

ويطَّبيني وطَنٌ تربُهُ

مستعبَدٌ يلفِظ أحرارَهْ

Yet a homeland entices me, whose soil

is enslaved, casting out its free men.

وكم تُرَى تَسحرني بابلٌ

وبابلٌ بالطبع سحّارَهْ

How often, do you think, will Babylon bewitch me?

And Babylon is a sorceress by nature.

إن كنتَ يا قلبيَ منّي فلا

تخدَعْك منها هذه الشارَهْ

If you are mine, O my heart, do not

let this outward splendor of hers deceive you.

أَوْلى بمن تحمله قدرةً

فراقُ من تجهلُ مقدارَهْ

For one whom strength can carry, it is better

to leave her who does not know his worth.

لا شِمتُ برقَ الهُون في دُوركم

والعزُّ في الأبرقِ والدَّارَهْ

May I never watch for the lightning of humiliation in your homes,

while honor dwells in al-Abraq and al-Darah.

اللّهُ لي منتصفٌ من أخٍ

يكِيلُني بالعُرفِ إنكارَهْ

God will exact justice for me from a brother

who repays my kindness with his rejection.

يحمي لساني أبداً عِرضَه

ويبتغي في عِرضِيَ الغارَهْ

My tongue forever guards his honor,

while he seeks to raid my honor.

أعِفُّ عن جمّته مفْعَماً

تُناهزُ الوُرَّادُ تيَّارَهْ

I refrain from his pool when it is brimming,

while those seeking water vie for his torrent.

ولا يراني ناسياً عهدَهُ

إن غاض أو كابد إعسارَهْ

Nor does he find me forgetting his covenant

when it runs dry, or he struggles with poverty.

فليته صان مكاني كما

صان عن البذلةِ دينارَهْ

If only he had guarded my standing as

he guarded his dinar from being spent.

لولا بنو أيّوبَ لولاهُمُ

ما وجدَ المظلومُ أنصارَهْ

Were it not for the sons of Ayyub—were it not for them—

the oppressed would have found no champions.

قومٌ إذا استنجدتهم لم أخف

سهماً ولو ناضلَني القارَهْ

A people who, when I call on them, make me fear no

arrow, even were Qarah to challenge me to archery.

وبتُّ فيهم حيث لا يؤكل ال

جارُ ولا تُنتَهَك الجارَهْ

And I stayed among them, where none preys upon the

neighbor, nor is a woman-neighbor violated.

البيتُ لا ينكِرُ طُرّاقَهُ

والليلُ لا يعدَم سُمّارَهْ

The house never disowns its night visitors,

and the night never lacks its companions in conversation.

والجفناتُ الغُرُّ يُسنَى لها

كلُّ غضوبِ الغلْي هدَّارَهْ

And for the gleaming serving bowls is readied

every cauldron, roaring in a furious boil.

ترى الجَزورَ العَبْلَ في قلبها

أعشارُهُ تلعَنُ جزَّارَهْ

You see the massive slaughtered camel at its heart,

its portions cursing its butcher.

إن صَمَّ عنك الناسُ أو غَمَضتْ

في الخطب عينٌ وهي نظّارَهْ

If people turn deaf to you, or an eye closes

in a crisis, though it is keenly watchful,

فتحتَ منهم في مغاليقه

أسماعَ ذا الدهرِ وأبصارَهْ

through them, within its locked recesses, you open

the ears and eyes of this age.

نَموا شهاباً من أبي طالبٍ

خيراً وبثَّ اللّه أنوارَهْ

They brought forth a meteor from Abu Talib,

a noble one, and God spread its lights.

والأفُقُ العُلويّ إن غَوَّرتْ

شموسُه أطلعَ أقمارَهْ

And the lofty horizon, when there set

its suns, brings forth its moons.

قَصَّ حديثَ المجد عنهم فتىً

يُصدِّقُ السودَدُ أخبارَهْ

A young man recounted the story of their glory,

whose reports nobility itself confirms.

وبرَّزوا سبقاً ولكنّهم

لم يُدركوا في المجد مِضمارَهْ

They surged ahead in the race, yet they

could not reach his racecourse in glory.

ناصَى عميدُ الرؤساء العلا

والناسُ يقتصُّون آثارَهْ

Amid al-Ru'asa grappled with the heights,

while people follow in his footsteps.

وطالت النجمَ به همّةٌ

تقضي من الغايات أوطارَهْ

Through him, ambition rivaled the stars,

fulfilling his desires at the utmost goals.

أبلجُ ودّ البدرُ لو صُيِّرتْ

لوجهه عِمّتُهُ دارَهْ

Radiant: the full moon wished that

his turban might become a halo for its face.

مَوَّلَهُ المجدُ فلم يكترِثْ

إقلالَهُ المالَ وإكثارَهْ

Glory enriched him, so he did not care

whether he had little wealth or much.

كفَت به القدرةُ لما سطت

أيدٍ مع القدرة جبّارَهْ

Through him, power sufficed when attacks came

from hands tyrannical in their power.

سالِمْهُ واحذَرْ صافياً ماءَهُ

وهِجْه واحذَرْ صالياً نارَهْ

Make peace with him, and beware his water, though clear;

provoke him, and beware being scorched by his fire.

إن نام راعى السَّرحِ في الأمن لم

يكحَلْ بطعم النوم أشفارَهْ

If the herdsman sleeps in safety, he does not

anoint his eyelids with the taste of sleep.

ولم تكن ثَلَّتُهُ نهزةً

يُطمِعُ فيها الذئبُ أظفارَهْ

Nor was his flock a prize

in which the wolf might give its claws hope.

أو شَرَعوا في الشرّ عافت له

نفسٌ بفعل الخير أمَّارَهْ

Or, if they embark on evil, he recoils,

his soul ever commanding deeds of good.

كفى الإمامين بتدبيره

مخاوفَ الخطبِ وأخطارَهْ

By his management he spared the two imams

the terrors of calamity and its dangers.

واستسبغا من رأيه نَثْلةً

ضافيةَ الأذيالِ جرّارَهْ

And both donned, from his counsel, a coat of mail,

with ample skirts, trailing long.

حلّتْ عن الماضي فعادت يدُ ال

باقي بها تَعقِدُ أزرارَهْ

It was unfastened from the departed one; again the hand of the

surviving one fastens his clasps within it.

قام بأمرِ اللّه مستخلفٌ

كنت لجرح الدين مِسبارَهْ

A successor arose by God's command;

you were the probe for the wound of faith.

أرهفَ من نصحِك صَمصمامةً

بيضاءَ مثلَ البدرِ نَيَّارَهْ

From your counsel he honed a keen-edged sword,

white and radiant like the full moon.

أُخرِست الفتنةُ عن ملكه

بالأمس والفتنةُ نعَّارَهْ

Strife was silenced against his rule

yesterday, though strife is clamorous.

وزارة حصَّنْتَ أموالَه

فيها كما حصَّنْتَ أسرارَهْ

A vizierate: you safeguarded his wealth

within it, just as you safeguarded his secrets.

فابلغ به أقصى المنى مثلما

بلَّغهُ سعيُك إيثارَهْ

So bring him to the utmost reach of his hopes, just as

your striving brought him what he preferred.

واستخدم الأيّامَ نَفّاعةً

تجري بما شئتَ وضرَّارَهْ

And put the days to service, dispensing benefit,

running as you wish, and dispensing harm.

لا يرفع الإقبالُ مستقبلاً

غطاءَه عنك وأستارَهْ

May good fortune, in days to come, never lift

its covering and its veils away from you.

يزيرك النيروزُ في روضةٍ

من مِدَحي أحسنَ زوّارَهْ

Nowruz brings you, within a garden

of my praises, the fairest of its visitors.

غنَّاء شقّ الشِّعرُ ثرثارَه

لها وأجرى الفكرُ أخطارَهْ

Lush: poetry opened its torrent

for her, and thought set its imaginings flowing.

مقيمة عندك لكنّها

بِعَرفها في الأرض سيّارَهْ

She dwells with you, yet

with her fragrance she roams the earth.

تحقّقتْ بالكَلِم الفصْلِ فال

مُلك لها والناسُ نَظَّارَهْ

She is established through decisive words; so the

kingdom is hers, and the people are spectators.

تشربُ من حوضِ المعاني وما

تُفضِلُ للوارد أسآرَهْ

She drinks from the basin of meanings, and does not

leave its last drops for the next drinker.

وهي مع الإفراط في حبِّكم

حاملةٌ للهجر صبّارَهْ

And though she loves you beyond measure,

she bears abandonment, ever patient.

تُنسَى وتقصَى غير منسيّة

وهي مع الإعراض ذكَّارَهْ

She is forgotten and cast aside, yet remains unforgotten;

and even amid neglect, she keeps remembering.

تحنُّ للجافي وتحتال لل

مقَصِّر المهمِلِ أعذارَهْ

She yearns for the aloof, and devises for the

neglectful, heedless one his excuses.

يُقنِعها الإنصاف لو أُنصفَتْ

وتطلبُ المالَ وإكثارَه

Fair treatment would satisfy her, were she treated fairly,

and she seeks wealth, and plenty of it.

حظُّك منها صفوُ سلسالها

إن رنَّقَ المادحُ أشعارَهْ

Your share of her is her clear, sweet-flowing water,

if the panegyrist muddies his verses.

وإنّ صدقي فيك أعتدّه

من كذبي في الناس كفّارَهْ

And indeed, I count my truthfulness about you

as atonement for my lies about people.