تائية القافلة — Osama Zamil

أعجِبْ بقافلةٍ ركّابُها الإنسُ

والخيرُ والشرُّ والحياةُ والموتُ

Marvel at a caravan whose riders are humankind,

and Good, Evil, Life, and Death.

قدْ خُيِّرَ إنسُها في صُحبةِ اثنينِ

وصُحبة اثنينِ منْها ما لهُم فوْتُ

Its humans were given a choice between two companions,

but the company of two of them they cannot escape.

فاسْتمرأَ جُلّهمُ الشرَّ والشرُّ

بابُ الذي سلّمَ بأنّها البيتُ

Most of them found Evil palatable, and Evil

is the doorway of one who accepts her as home.

والخيرُ بابٌ لمن لم يأتِها إلّا

ضيفاً وما فلّهُ عطاؤُها السُّحتُ

Good is a doorway for one who comes to her only

as a guest, whom her ill-gotten gifts have not broken.

وصُحبة الإنسِ للحياةِ أيّامٌ

وصُحبة الموتِ لا يَحدُّها وَقتُ

Humankind's companionship with Life lasts days,

but companionship with Death is bounded by no time.

والموتُ في قولِهِ برٌّ متى جاءَ

يبُحْ بما عِندهُ فيُعرفُ البخْتُ

Death is true to his word; whenever he comes,

he reveals what he holds, and one's fortune becomes known:

إمّا جِنانٌ نعيمُها مُقيمٌ أوْ

عذابُ نارِ لهُم في مرِّها قوْتُ

either gardens whose bliss endures, or

the torment of fire, with food for them in its bitterness.

لكنّها تمْلأُ الأسماعَ كِذْباً وال

أبصارَ وهْماً وما لدأْبِها سَمْتُ

But she fills ears with lies, and

eyes with illusion; her ceaseless striving has no direction,

خلا أيادٍ ألدُّ خَصْمِها الشّبْعُ

تظلُّ ممدودةً ومِلؤُها السُّحْتُ

save hands whose fiercest enemy is satiety:

they remain outstretched, filled with ill-gotten gain.

تظنُّ أنّ الحياةَ أوفَت الوعْدَ

وردُّ تلك إذا استفتيتَها الصّمْتُ

They think Life has fulfilled her promise,

and her reply, when you ask her judgment, is silence.

وإنّما تعِدُ الحياةُ بالمِلءِ

جهنّماً ما لهُم منْ حرِّها فلْتُ

Yet Life promises only to fill

Hell, from whose heat they have no escape.

ولا يظننّ حيٌّ أنّ من ماتَ

مُغيّبٌ بلْ جوارٌ ما لهُ صوْتُ

Let no living person think that one who died

is absent: rather, he is nearby, without a voice.

فكَفْكِفِ الدّمعَ يا منْ صارَ في الموْتى

أهلوهُ أو صحبُهُ أو حُلْمُهُ البحْتُ

So dry your tears, O you among whose dead are

your kin, your companions, or your unalloyed dream.

فإنّك اليومَ أو غداً مُلاقيهِ

وإنْ أُكِنَّ لهُ في صدْرِكَ مَقْتُ

For today or tomorrow you will meet him,

even if hatred for him is concealed in your breast.

ينحلُّ كدٌّ كدَدْتَ العمرَ كيْ يبقى

وعنكَ تستنكفُ الأوصافُ والنّعْتُ

The toil you labored a lifetime to preserve dissolves,

and descriptions and epithets shrink away from you.

والموتُ في عدلِهِ إنصافُكَ منْ كل

ل ظالمٍ نالَهُ من كدّكَ الصّيْتُ

Death, in his justice, gives you redress against every

oppressor whose fame was won through your toil,

حتّى إذا ما اغتنَى أمْسَتْ بقاياهُ

قوتَ الكلابِ التي في طبْعِها القتُّ

until, once he grew rich, his leavings became

food for dogs whose nature is malicious gossip.

أمستْ لهُ آنُفاً تُصفّدُ الجنُّ

وتُحبسُ الإنسُ لوْ منْها خلا بيْتُ

They became noses for him; the jinn are shackled

and humans imprisoned if a house is without them.

تشْتمُّ لعْقةَ زيتٍ دونما قصْدٍ

نَضّتْ جوارَ بيوتٍ قوتُها الجِفْتُ

They sniff out a lick of oil that, without intent,

dripped beside homes whose sustenance is olive pomace.

فصارَ بالرِّشوةِ ذا سلطةٍ دَهوا

على رقابِ الجياعِ سيفُهُ الصّلْتُ

So through bribery he became a crafty man of power,

his unsheathed sword over the necks of the hungry.

أتيْتُما بيــْـدَ أنّها أنـالتـــــْـهُ

حقَّ الكلامِ، وأقْصى حقِّكَ الصْمتُ

You both came, yet she granted him

the right to speak, while your utmost right was silence.

ومِتـــُـّمَا بيْدَ أنَّ الموتَ أعْطاكَ

حقَّ الكلامِ، وأجْدَى فعلِهِ السكْتُ

You both died, yet Death granted you

the right to speak, and his most fruitful act is silence.

والموتُ حرٌّ ويأبى صُحبةَ العبدِ

وأنتَ للطّيْنِ عبدٌ حسّهُ ميْتُ

Death is free and refuses a slave's company,

while you are clay's slave, your senses dead.

ومثْلما عشْتَ عاشتِ ابنةُ الطينِ

تعبدُ ربّاً أساسُ حُكمِهِ الكبْتُ

As you lived, so lived the daughter of clay,

worshiping a lord whose rule rests on repression.

أكانَ للعبدِ في أقرانِهِ خيرٌ؟

لو كانَ ذاكَ لمَا تباطأَ الكَفْتُ

Was there any good for the slave among his peers?

Had that been so, death would not have tarried.

أبْقتكَ في جسَدٍ حدودُهُ اللّمسُ

والشّمُّ والذّوْقُ والإبصَارُ والنصْتُ

She kept you in a body bounded by touch,

smell, taste, sight, and listening,

من تحْتِهِ الأرضُ و منْ فوقِهِ الريحُ

من حولِهِ الماءُ والأحْجارُ والمَرْتُ

with earth beneath it and wind above it,

water, stones, and barren land around it;

في عيْنهِ الفحشُ وفي فوهِهِ المرُّ

في أنفِهِ النتْنُ و في أُذْنِهِ البهْتُ

in its eye, obscenity; in its mouth, bitterness;

in its nose, stench; in its ear, slander.

خُذْلانُ صاحبِهِ بعشْرةٍ فيهِ

أضرُّها ماؤُهُ وطينهُ المَحْتُ

It betrays its owner through ten things within it,

the worst of them its water and its unmixed clay,

والسّقم والعجزُ والأُوامُ والجوعُ

والشيْب والجُرحُ والإجهادُ والسّبتُ

sickness, incapacity, burning thirst, and hunger,

gray hair, wounds, exhaustion, and torpor.

وحينَ تُمسي علىْ كفّيهِ محمولاً

وما فعلتَ سوى ما يفعلُ الثبْتُ

And when you come to be carried on his two palms,

having done only what the steadfast do,

مخلِّفاً ذُلَّكَ ملقىً على نعشٍ

يعومُ في وحلِها كأنَّهُ يخْتُ

leaving your abasement cast upon a bier,

floating in her mire as though it were a yacht,

والناسُ من حولِهِ يُعلُونَهُ قدْراً

كأنّهُ ملِكٌ منْ تحْتهِ تخْتُ!

with people around it honoring it highly,

as though it were a king with a throne beneath him,

ستفقهُ الفرْقَ بينَ الرِقِّ والعِتْقِ

و تُشْدَهُ أنْ بَكتْكَ الأمُّ والبنتُ

you will grasp the difference between bondage and emancipation,

and be amazed that the mother and the daughter wept for you:

إذْ كنتَ عبداً فأمسيْتَ تميمياً

كالحرِّ إذْ حرَّ فاستخارَهُ الموتُ

you had been a slave, but became a Tamimi,

like al-Hurr when he became free and Death chose him.

أرفقةُ بنِ رسولِ اللهِ خيرٌ أمْ

بقاؤُه عبدَ عبدٍ لاهُهُ الجِبْتُ؟!

Is companionship with the son of God's Messenger better, or

his remaining a slave to a slave whose god is al-Jibt?

قد عشْتَ تحلمُ بالحريّةِ دهراً

والموتُ واهبُها لا طينُك التَّحْتُ

You spent an age dreaming of freedom,

and Death bestows it, not your lowly clay.

مازال في نفسِك شيءٌ من الشكِّ

كحالِ نوعِك قد يعوزُك البَتُّ

There is still some doubt within you;

like others of your kind, you may lack decisiveness.

سَلْها إذاً عنْ شجيرةٍ بلا ظلٍّ

يراودُ العقلَ شكٌّ أنّها نَبْتُ

Ask her, then, about a little tree without shade,

which the mind doubts is even a plant.

إذا تمعّنْتَ فيها قلتَ في التوِّ

كأنّما قطّعَتْ أوصالَها بَرْتُ

When you look closely at it, you say at once:

It is as though an axe had hacked its limbs apart.

فذاك ما تفعلُ الحياةُ لا الموتُ

فمنْ عزاهُ لهُ فإنّه الهَفْتُ

That is what Life does, not Death;

whoever attributes it to him is a fool.

ولادةٌ فطفولةٌ فإدراكٌ

ففُرقةٌ ليس مِنْ ورائِها مَتُّ

Birth, then childhood, then awareness,

then separation with no bond beyond it.

طفولةٌ فولادةٌ فإدراكٌ

فلُحْمةٌ ليس من ورائِها شَتُّ

Childhood, then birth, then awareness,

then union with no scattering beyond it.

بردٌ فدفءٌ فإحماءٌ فإيقادٌ

فشعلةٌ فلهيبٌ حرّهُ بَحْتُ

Cold, then warmth, then heating, then kindling,

then a flame, then a blaze of pure heat.

حرق فعطل فإيقاف فإطفاء

فوقفةٌ ريثما يُجهّزُ البيْتُ

Burning, then breakdown, then halting, then extinguishing,

then a pause while the home is prepared.

فليسَ عدْلاً بأنْ يُعزى لهُ النّقصُ

وليسَ في خبرِهِ بِدْعٌ ولا بَغْتُ

So it is unjust to ascribe deficiency to him,

and there is neither novelty nor suddenness in his tidings.

فالأصلُ هوَ وكلُّ ما تلا فرعٌ

أفي الرجوعِ لأصلٍ لمْ يغبْ بَهْتُ؟!

He is the origin; all that followed is a branch.

Is there cause for astonishment in returning to an origin never absent?

والموتُ ليس انكسارٌ إنّما نصرٌ

على أسيرةِ عبدٍ عيدُهُ السّبْتُ

Death is not defeat, but victory

over the captive of a slave whose feast is the Sabbath.

بل إنّه سيفُك الّذي إذا أشْهَرْ

تَ هابكَ العِجْلُ والثعبانُ والرتُّ

Rather, he is your sword: whenever you draw

it, the calf, the serpent, and the pig fear you.

وأنْتَ يا منْ صحِبتَ الموتَ أيّاماً

واصْطانكَ مثلما لمْ تفعَل الأُخْتُ

And you, who accompanied Death for days,

and whom he guarded as the sister never did,

أراك بتَّ تهابُ الموتَ والخيرُ

في أصلِك بلْ وفي أفعالكَ نحْتُ

I see you have come to fear Death, though goodness

is carved into your nature—indeed, into your deeds.

فسرْ بلا وجلٍ إليهِ ما هابَ

منهُ سوى مُنْكِرٍ معبودُهُ الجِبتُ

So go to him without fear; none has feared

him but a denier whose deity is al-Jibt.

قد كنت مِثلكَ حينما استحلّت نف

سي فانتخيتهُ فانتخَى فما حِرتُ

I was once like you, when she claimed my

soul; I called on him, he rose to help, and I did not waver.

فجيّشَتْ ما لهَا من المَماليكِ

لكنّني عنْ ربيعي ما تنازلتُ

She mustered all the slaves she had,

but I did not surrender my spring.

ولتحمد اللهَ أنْ جُعلتَ فيْ ركبٍ

بالرّغم من كيدِها يقودُهُ الموتُ

And thank God that you were placed in a caravan

despite her scheming, led by Death.