أيا سكر الزمان متى تفيق — Mihyar Al Daylami

أيا سكرَ الزمان متى تفيقُ

ويا سَعة المطالبِ كم تضيقُ

O drunkenness of Time, when will you sober up?

And O breadth of aspirations, how narrow you grow!

ويا نَيل الحظوظِ أما إليها

بغير مذلّةٍ لفتى طريقُ

And O winning of fortunes, is there not toward them

a path for a young man without humiliation?

أكلُّ فضيلةٍ كانت عليها

تعين هي التي عنها تعوق

Is every virtue that once, in their pursuit,

gave aid now the very thing that bars one from them?

قضى عكس الزمان الحقّ ألّا

يفوقَ بحاله من لا يموق

Time's overturning of justice has decreed that

no one who is not a fool shall prosper in his lot.

ولا يحمِي رقيقَ العيش فيه

سوى حرٍّ له وجهٌ صفيقُ

Nor can anyone preserve life's comforts in it

except a freeborn man with a brazen face.

قضاءٌ ضلَّ رشدُ الرأي فيه

وكاذَبَ دونه الظنُّ الصدوقُ

A decree in which sound judgment has lost its way,

and before which even trustworthy conjecture has proved false.

وعتبٌ طال والأيامُ صُمٌّ

كما يشكو إلى الموج الغريقُ

And a reproach prolonged, while the days are deaf,

as a drowning man complains to the waves.

تهشِّمه الخزائمُ وهو صعبٌ

وتخفضه الخصاصةُ وهو نِيقُ

Nose-rings crush him, though he is untamed;

and poverty brings him low, though he is a towering peak.

ألا بأبي يفارقني أبيٌّ

عظاتُ الدهر فيه لا تحيقُ

Ah, my father be ransom for a proud one who leaves me,

on whom Time's admonitions have no effect.

ونفس لم يبت حادي الأماني

يسوقُ رجاءَها فيما يسوقُ

And a soul—the driver of wishes has never spent the night

driving its hope among the things he drives.

إذا روَّضتُها حملَ الأيادي

فقد كلفتُها مالا تُطيقُ

If I train it to bear the burden of favors,

I have tasked it with what it cannot endure.

عصت حتى مخادَعةَ الغواني

وطاعات الشباب بها تليقُ

It resisted even the coaxing of beautiful women,

though youth's surrenders befitted it.

أحسّت في الهوى هوناً فأضحت

تُراع من الحسان بما يروقُ

It sensed humiliation in love, and came to be

alarmed by beautiful women through the very things that charm.

وذي خصر دقيق لا جليلٌ

غذاه من الجمال ولا دقيقُ

And one with a slender waist—neither a great share

of beauty had nourished it, nor a small share—

هجرتُ وغير أدمعيَ الجواري

عليه وغير أضلعيَ الخُفوقُ

I forsook; but not my streaming tears

over him, nor my throbbing ribs.

سأسلك طُرقَها البيضاءَ فرداً

وأين إن ارتفعتُ بها الرفيقُ

I shall tread its white paths alone—

and where, if I ascend by them, is a companion?—

لأحرز كابن أيّوب صديقاً

ألا طالت على الساري الطريقُ

to gain a friend like Ibn Ayyub.

Ah, how long the road has grown for the night-traveler!

تركتُ العالمين له وإني

بتركهمُ لواحدِهم خليقُ

I left all mankind for him, and indeed

I am fit to leave them for their peerless one.

خليلي من بني الوزراء خِرْقٌ

تصحُّ بفرعهم منه العروقُ

My friend, from the sons of viziers, is an adept;

through him, their branch, their roots are proved sound.

شهيد أن مجدَهُمُ مُقامٌ

على أقدامِ غيرهمُ زليقُ

A witness that their glory is a standing-place

slippery beneath the feet of others.

لأيّوبٍ مخايلُ فيه دلّت

كما دلّت على الغيث البروقُ

In him are signs that point to Ayyub,

as lightning flashes point to rain.

ومنه الفضل إسماعيل خالٌ

كما إكمال موقِ العين مُوقُ

And Ismail, from whom comes excellence, is a maternal uncle,

as one corner completes the other corner of an eye.

مناسبُ ساقُ دوحتها طويلٌ

عريضٌ في مفاخرهم عميقُ

Lineages whose great tree has a tall trunk,

broad and deep amid their glories,

بأحسابٍ يزلُّ العارُ عنها

وأموالٍ مشت فيها الحقوقُ

with pedigrees from which disgrace slips away,

and wealth through which rightful dues have made their way.

ذوي لَسَن وأفواهٍ رطابٍ

إذا يبست من العِيِّ الحلُوقُ

Masters of eloquence, with moist mouths,

when throats grow dry from inarticulacy.

أولئك ما هُمُ وفضُلتَ شيئاً

كأنك لاحقاً بهمُ سَبوقُ

Those men are what they are, yet you surpass them somewhat,

as though, while catching up with them, you were the forerunner.

فداؤك مكمَدٌ بك لا تُداوَى

برتقٍ بين جنبيه الفُتوقُ

May one embittered by you be your ransom: beyond healing

by stitching are the rents between his sides.

إذا رماك من حسدٍ فأقصَى

مكايدِ سهمه فيك المروقُ

If he shoots at you out of envy, the utmost

his arrow's wiles can do against you is to pass through.

يريد علاك وهو بها غريبٌ

وأنتَ مدرّبٌ فيها لبيقُ

He seeks your heights, though he is a stranger there,

while you are seasoned there and adept.

إذا جاراك بان لمن يداف ال

سوادُ ومن لجبهته الخَلوقُ

When he vies with you, it becomes clear for whom is mixed the

black pigment, and whose forehead receives saffron perfume.

رآك وأنت حسرتهُ بعينٍ

كعين الطِّرفِ ماطلها العليقُ

He saw you—you being his anguish—with an eye

like a steed's eye, kept waiting by its fodder.

بقيت لكبْتِهِ ولنا سروراً

فكم حسَنٍ يغيظ كما يشوقُ

May you live to mortify him, and be a joy to us;

for how many a lovely thing angers even as it enchants!

يعود العيدُ دارَك ألفَ شمسٍ

عليك غروبُها وبك الشروقُ

May the feast revisit your house for a thousand suns,

their setting upon you, their rising through you.

إذا هرِمَ الزمانُ أتاك وهو ال

مهفهف في غضارته الرشيقُ

When Time grows old, it comes to you as the

slender, graceful one in its fresh bloom.

حديث العزِّ ما وافى حديثٌ

وحُجَّ لمثله البيتُ العتيقُ

Fresh in glory as long as new occasions arrive,

and the Ancient House is visited on pilgrimage for its like.

عدَلتُ بك النوائبَ فاضمحلّت

وهل يبقى على السيل الحريقُ

I set you against calamities, and they vanished;

and can fire stand against a torrent?

وسُدَّ بفضلِ همّتك اختلالي

وقد جلَّت عن النَّصْح الخروقُ

And by the bounty of your resolve my disarray was mended,

though the rents had already grown beyond stitching.

فككتَ توحشي وأسرتَ ودّي

فهاأنا ناشطٌ بك بل ربيقُ

You freed me from my loneliness and captured my affection;

so here I am, unbound by you—rather, tethered.

جعلتَ الدهرَ يملك لي جواباً

إذا ناديتُه أين الصديقُ

You have given Time an answer to offer me,

when I call to it: Where is the friend?

ليسقِ مكارماً لك واصلتني

سكوبٌ من حيا شكري دَفوقُ

May your noble gifts that have kept reaching me be watered

by a gushing downpour from the rain of my thanks.

تَناقلُه الرواةُ فكلّ بيتٍ

له رَهجٌ كما هدرَ الفنيقُ

The reciters pass it onward; every verse

has a clamor, like a prized camel's bellow.

تسهَّلَ في فمي الصعبانِ منه ال

كلامُ الحلوُ والمعنى الدقيقُ

The two difficulties in it grew easy in my mouth—the

sweet words and the subtle meaning.

سبى الأبصارَ والأسماعَ حتى

لطال به اللسانُ المستذيقُ

It captivated eyes and ears, until

the tongue seeking a taste stretched long for it.

ولو قد لاكه غيري لأعيا

عليه فمات وهو به شريقُ

And had someone other than me chewed it, it would have proved too hard

for him; he would have died choking on it.

يبُثُّ علاك في النعم اللواتي

نسيمُ المكرمات بها عبيقُ

It proclaims your heights in the favors in which

the breeze of noble deeds is fragrant.

فلو كُتمتْ أبتْ إلا انتشاراً

كما يتضوَّع المسك الفتيقُ

If concealed, they would insist on spreading,

as unsealed musk diffuses its fragrance.

وِقاؤك مهجةٌ قُسمتْ ثلاثاً

فريقاها إليك ولي فريقُ

Your shield is a soul divided into three:

two parts are yours, and one part mine.

وثقتُ بحسن ظنّي فيك ألا

يقومَ لغير ودّي فيه سوقُ

I was confident, in my good opinion of you, that no

market would thrive there for anything but my love.

وخفت عليك عينَ الدهر غُضَّتْ

فأزرقها بأغراضي عَلوقُ

And I feared Time's eye for you—may it be lowered!—

for its bluest eye fastens on my aims.

فما أرجو فَمِنْ أنّي مُدِلٌّ

وما أخشى فَمِنْ أني شفيقُ

So what I hope for comes from my confident familiarity;

and what I fear comes from my tender concern.