هذا كتاب أم بشير سعاد — Omar Alyafi

هذا كتابٌ أم بشير سعادِ

يروي الحديث بأرفع الإسنادِ

Is this a letter, or a herald of bliss,

Recounting the tale through the loftiest chain of transmission?

وأثار بالذكرى عهوداً لم تكن

تنسَى وأنسى سالفَ الإيعاد

And through remembrance it stirred up times that were never

Forgotten, and made me forget bygone threats:

أيّام كان الدهر عنّا غافلاً

والقلب في طربٍ وفي أعياد

The days when Time was heedless of us,

And the heart was in rapture and in celebration.

سقياً لها من أدمعٍ هطّالةٍ

حيث الزمان أتى بكلّ مراد

May they be watered by pouring tears,

When Time brought every wish to pass;

حيث الرياض تكلّلت تيجانُها

بجواهرٍ من زهرها المعتاد

When the gardens' crowns were wreathed

With jewels of their familiar blossoms;

حيث البلابل قد شدّت طرباً على

أفنانها وتجيد بالإنشاد

When the nightingales sang in rapture on

Their branches, excelling in song;

حيث الّذي سحر العقول بجفنه

يحكي الغصون بقدّه الميّاد

When he who bewitched minds with his eyelid

Resembled the boughs with his swaying figure;

رطب البنان كأنّ من ألفاظه

راحاً لسلب العقل بالمراصاد

Soft-fingered, as though from his words

Wine lay in ambush to steal the mind.

ختم الجمال على لآلئ ثغره

ميماً وطرّز لحظه بالصاد

Beauty stamped upon the pearls of his mouth

A mīm, and embroidered his gaze with a ṣād.

ظبيٌ ولكن في الفؤاد كناسُه

لم تكتحل أجفانُه بسواد

A gazelle, yet his covert is within the heart;

His eyelids were not lined with black kohl.

صاد الأسود بلحظةٍ من لحظه

فاعجب لظبي صائد الآساد

He hunted lions with a single glance of his,

So marvel at a gazelle that hunts lions!

لم أنسه إلّا بذكر مآثر ال

شهم النجيب سلالة الأجواد

I forgot him only by recalling the noble deeds of the

Gallant, highborn man, a scion of the generous:

فرد الفضائل من سما بمكارمٍ

جلّت عن الإحصاء والتعداد

Unmatched in virtues, he who rose through noble deeds

Too great to be reckoned or counted.

تخذ الكمال مع الفخار مكاسباً

فسما على الآباء والأجداد

He made perfection and glory his acquisitions,

And so rose above fathers and forefathers.

سعدت به الشهبا وطال فخارها

وبه علت مجداً على بغداد

Al-Shahbāʾ rejoiced in him, and her pride grew,

And through him she rose above Baghdad in glory,

بفصاحة ما شابها عيٌّ ولا

لَكَنُ الأعاجم لا ولا الأكراد

With eloquence marred by neither faltering nor

The accents of non-Arabs—no, nor of Kurds.

فلديه سحبانٌ يشابه باقلاً

يذر الفصيح مكبّلاً بالضاد

So beside him, Saḥbān resembles Bāqil;

He leaves the eloquent man shackled by the letter ḍād.

عمر الّذي بكماله ووقاره

وخلاله يسمو على الأنداد

ʿUmar, who through his perfection and dignity

And his virtues rises above his peers,

من آل بيتٍ شيد بالكرم الّذي

عذبت موارده إلى الورّاد

From a household raised by generosity, whose

Waters have grown sweet to those who come to drink.

لهفي على عهدٍ مضى في ربعه

خالٍ من الأضداد والأنكاد

Ah, my longing for a time spent in his abode,

Free of adversaries and afflictions!

أيام ريعان الشبيبة مقبلٌ

والعيش صافٍ وافر الإسعاد

Days when the bloom of youth was coming on,

And life was unclouded, abundant in happiness.

قد جاءني منه كتابٌ منعشٌ

أحيا النفوس به بلا ميعاد

A refreshing letter has come to me from him;

With it he revived souls, without prior arrangement.

فخُمَت معانيه برقة لفظه

وقضى لمنشئه بطول أيادي

Its meanings grew majestic through the delicacy of its wording,

And it attested to the reach of its author's generous hands.

لا زال في عزٍّ على علّاته

متنعّماً بالأهل والأولاد

May he ever remain in honor, despite his ailments,

Enjoying his family and children,

أبدا يدير لمسمعي من لفظه

راحاً تعيد الروح للأجساد

Forever passing to my hearing, from his words,

Wine that restores the spirit to bodies,

ما أن نوى ركب الحجاز مرمّلاً

نجدَ العراق وفاح عَرفُ النادي

As long as the Hijaz caravan sets out, trotting over

The uplands of Iraq, and the assembly's fragrance wafts.