النجاء النجاء من أرض نجد — Sardar

النجاءَ النجاءَ من أرضِ نجدِ

قبلَ أن يعلَق الفؤادُ بوجدِ

Flee, flee from the land of Najd,

before the heart becomes caught in longing.

إنّ ذاك الثرى لَيُنبتُ شوقا

في حشَا ميِّت اللُّباناتِ صَلدِ

Indeed, that soil surely makes longing sprout

in the breast of one dead to desire, hard as stone.

كم خلٍّى غدا إليه وأمسَى

وهو يَهذِى بعلَوةٍ أو بهندِ

How many a man untouched by love went there at dawn and, by evening,

was raving about Alwa or Hind!

وظباءٍ فيه تُلاقِى المُوالى

والمعُادى من الجَمال بجنُدِ

And gazelles there confront friend

and foe with an army of beauty:

بشتيتٍ من المباسم يُغرى

وسَقامٍ من المحاجر يُعدى

with spaced teeth in smiling mouths that entice,

and a languor from their eyes that infects;

وبنانٍ لولا اللطافةُ ظُنَّتْ

لجِناياتها براثنَ أُسْدِ

and fingers which, were it not for their delicacy, would be thought,

for their crimes, to be lions' claws;

وحديثٍ إذا سمعناه لم ند

رِ بخمرٍ نضَحنَنا أم بشهدِ

and speech which, when we heard it, left us unable to tell

whether they had sprinkled us with wine or honey.

أنِفتْ من براقع الخزِّ والق

زِّ خدودٌ قد برقعوها بوَردِ

Disdaining veils of silk brocade and silk were

cheeks they had already veiled with roses.

وغَنُوا عن خدورهم مذ تغطَّوا

عن محبيّهمُ ببعدٍ وصدِّ

They had no need of their curtained chambers once they hid

from their lovers behind distance and rejection.

أمُقاما بعالجٍ والمطايا

عَرضَ يبرينَ بالظائعن تَخدِى

A stay at Alij, while the mounts

stride swiftly across Yabrin with the departing travelers?

لا الحمىَ بَعدكم مُناخٌ ولا ما

ءُ اللوى إذا هجرتموه بوِرْدِ

After you, the protected pasture is no halting place, nor is the water

of al-Liwa a watering place once you desert it.

والفؤادُ الذي عهدتم جَموحا

راضه طولُ جَوْركم والتعدّى

And the heart you once knew as unruly

your prolonged cruelty and transgression have tamed.

ما تُريدون من دلائلِ شوقى

غيرَ هذا الذي أُجِنُّ وأُبِدى

What proof of my longing do you want

other than this which I conceal and reveal?

كبِدٌ كلّما وضعتُ عليها

راحتى قيلَ أنت قادحُ زَندِ

A liver upon which, whenever I lay

my palm, they say: 'You are kindling a fire-stick!'

وجفونٌ جرينَ مدًّا وماءُ ال

بحر يرتاحُ بين جزرٍ ومدِّ

And eyelids streaming in flood, while the water of the

sea finds respite between ebb and flood.

يا بنى مُرّةَ بن ذُهلٍ أبوكم

ما أبوكم وجَدُّكم أيّ جَدٍّ

O sons of Murra ibn Dhuhl, your father—

what a father! And your grandfather—what a grandfather!

غُرَرٌ في وجوهِ بكَرٍ وبكَرٌ

شامةٌ عمَّمت رؤوسَ مَعَدِّ

White blazes on the faces of Bakr; and Bakr

is a beauty mark that has turbaned the heads of Ma'add.

من شبابٍ في الحِلم مثلِ كُهول

وكُهولٍ نزَّاقةٍ مثلِ مُردِ

Young men, in forbearance, like mature men,

and mature men as impetuous as beardless youths.

أنا منكم إذا انتهينا إلى العر

ق التففنا التفافَ بانٍ يرنْدِ

I am one of you: when we reach the ancestral

root, we intertwine like ban and rand trees.

نسبٌ ليس بيننا فيه فرقٌ

غير عيشَىْ حضارةٍ وتَبدِّى

A kinship in which no difference lies between us,

save two ways of life: settled and nomadic.

لكم الرمحُ والسِّنانُ وعندى

ما تحبُّون من بيانٍ ومَجدِ

Yours are the spear and spearhead, while I possess

what you love of eloquence and glory.

خلِّصونى من ظَبيكم أو أنادى

بالذي يُنقذ الأسارَى ويفدى

Free me from your gazelle, or I shall call

upon the one who rescues captives and ransoms them:

بأبي القاسم الذي غرس الأف

ضال في ربوتَىْ ثناءٍ وحمدِ

Abu al-Qasim, who planted favors

upon the twin hills of acclaim and praise.

كلّما هبّ للسؤال نسيمٌ

فوق أغصانه انتثرنَ برِفدِ

Whenever a breeze of petition blows

over his branches, they scatter gifts.

في بديه غمامتان لظلٍّ

ولقَطرٍ من غير برقٍ ورعدِ

In his hands are two clouds, for shade

and for rain, without lightning or thunder.

أَذِنَ البشرُ للعُفاة عليه

حين ناداهم القُطوبُ بردِّ

His cheerfulness granted supplicants access to him

when grimness greeted them with rejection.

واصطفى المكرُماتِ حتى لقلنا

أبِرِقٍّ إنتاجُها أم بَعقدِ

He chose noble deeds so wholly that we said:

'Are they begotten through slave ownership, or a marriage contract?'

فَرْقُ ما بينَه وبين سواه

فَرْقُ ما بين لُجِّ بحرٍ وثَمْدِ

The difference between him and anyone else

is the difference between the sea's depths and a scant pool.

أيُّ عُشبٍ في ذلك الأبطحِ السه

ل وماءٍ لمَرتَعٍ ولوِردِ

What grass grows in that level, gravelly valley,

and what water for pasture and for drinking!

لا تراه إلاّ على كاهل العز

مِ يسوق العُلا بجَدٍّ وجِدِّ

You see him only astride the shoulders of

resolve, driving lofty glory onward with fortune and diligence.

كم عدوٍّ أماته بوعيدٍ

وَولىٍّ أحياه منه بوعدِ

How many a foe he has slain with a threat,

and a friend he has revived with a promise from him!

لستَ تدرى أمن زخارف روضٍ

صاغه اللهُ أم لآلىءِ عِقدهِ

You cannot tell whether it was from a garden's finery

that God fashioned him, or from the pearls of its necklace.

وبحسن الفعال ينتسب القو

مُ إلى المجد لا بَقْبلٍ وبَعدِ

Through fine deeds people claim kinship

with glory, not through 'before' and 'after.'

مُطلِعٌ في دُجى الخطوبِ إلا أظ

لمنَ من رأيه كواكبَ سَعدِ

He brings forth, in the gloom of calamities when they grow

dark, stars of good fortune from his judgment.

عزماتٌ لا تستجيب لراقٍ

وحلومٌ لا تُستثار بحِقدِ

Firm resolves that yield to no enchanter,

and forbearance that no rancor can rouse;

ومَضاءٌ لو أنه كان للسي

ف لما هوَّمَتْ ظُباه بغِمدِ

and a keenness which, if it belonged to a

sword, would never let its edges doze in a sheath.

قد رأينا فيه عجائبَ منه

نّ ثمارٌ يُجنَيْن من عُودِ هِندِ

We have seen wonders in him, among

them fruits gathered from Indian aloeswood.

أسرَ الناس بالعوارف والنُّع

مَى على الحرِّ مثلُ رِبَقةِ قِدِّ

He took people captive with kindness; and a favor

upon a free man is like a rawhide halter.

ليس يَرضَى من الملابس إلاّ

ما يُنير الثناءُ فيه ويُسدى

He accepts no clothing except

that in which praise shines and is woven.

أبدا تسأل النواظرُ عنه

أبشكرٍ قد اكتسى أم ببُردِ

Eyes forever ask about him:

'Has he clothed himself in gratitude or in a cloak?'

أحصِن ما شئتَ من حصىً وقُطارِ

فمعاليه ليس تُحصَى بَعدِّ

Count as many pebbles and raindrops as you wish:

his lofty merits cannot be tallied.

وعيونُ الحسّادِ إن نظرَته

فبصُورٍ من المساءة رُمْدِ

And if the eyes of the envious look upon him,

they are inflamed with images of distress.

يا أعاديه لو عُدِدتم كيأجو

جَ رماكم من كيدِه خَلفَ سدِّ

O his enemies, were you as numerous as Ya'juj,

his cunning would cast you behind a barrier.

وسواء إذا جرى في مَداه

أباخلاقه جرى أم بُجردِ

It is all the same when he races along his course,

whether by his virtues he races or on sleek steeds.

قَصَبٌ للسباق ليس يُصَلِّي

ها خوافى النسور إلا بكدِّ

Race-prize reeds that cannot be followed in second place

by eagles' inner feathers except with toil.

زادك الله ما شتاءُ مَزيدا

سيلُه غيرُ واقفٍ عند حدِّ

May God grant you what you wish, an increase

whose flood stops at no limit,

في ربيعٍ نظيرِ جنَّاتِ عَدنٍ

وديارٍ جميعُها دارُ خُلدِ

in a spring like the gardens of Eden,

and abodes that are all abodes of eternity.

إن أغِبْ عنك فاللسانُ بشكرى

غيرُ ناءٍ ولا الفؤادُ بحمدِى

If I am absent from you, my tongue in gratitude

is not far away, nor my heart in praise.

وهما الأصغران لولاهما كا

ن البرايا أمثالَ صُحْرٍ ورُبْدِ

They are the two small organs; without them,

humankind would be like tawny and dusky beasts.

أخبرُ الناسَ تَقْلُهمُ أو تصِلْهم

هل يحاز الدينار إلا بنقدِ

Test people: you will loathe them or befriend them.

Can a dinar be acquired except by assaying it?