أما ترى الرزء الذي أقبلا — Sharif Al Murtaza

أَما تَرى الرُّزْءَ الّذي أَقبلا

حمَّلَ قلبي الحَزَنَ الأثقلا

Do you not see the calamity that has come,

burdening my heart with the heaviest grief?

بُليتُ والسّالمُ رهنٌ على

قضيّةِ الدّهر بأنْ يُبْتَلى

I have been afflicted, and the unharmed man is bound, under

Time's decree, to be afflicted.

مُجَرَّحاً لا حاملٌ جارحي

بِكفّه رمحاً ولا مُنْصُلا

Wounded—my wounder does not carry

a spear in his hand, nor a sword.

يُقرَعُ مَرْوي بأكفّ الرّدى

يردعني من قبل أنْ ينزلا

My flint is struck by the palms of death;

it daunts me before it descends.

وإنْ تأمّلتُ أوانَ الردى

رأيتُ ليلاً دونه أَلْيلا

And if I contemplate the hour of death,

I see a pitch-dark night before it.

كأنّني أعشى وإنْ لم أكنْ

أعشى من الأمر الّذي أَثْكلا

As though I were night-blind, although I was not

night-blind, from the calamity that left me bereft.

يا بؤسَ للإنسان في عيشه

يُسلُّ منه أوّلاً أوّلا

Alas for man in his life!

One after another is plucked from it.

يَنْأى عن الأهل وما ملّهمْ

ويُبدل الحيَّ وما اِستَبدلا

He goes far from his family, without having tired of them,

and is made to change his community, though he sought no change.

بين ترى في ملأٍ دارَه

حتّى تراه في صَعيدِ المَلا

While you see his home amid a throng,

suddenly you see him on the soil of the open plain.

فقل لقومٍ زرعُهمْ قائمٌ

زرعُكمْ لابدّ أنْ يُخْتَلى

So tell a people whose crop stands:

Your crop must be mown down.

وقلْ لمن سُرّ بتخويله

خُوِّل مَنْ يأخذ مَنْ خَوَّلا

And tell whoever rejoices in his endowment:

The one who takes those he endowed has himself been endowed.

وقلْ لماشٍ في عِراصِ الرّدى

أنسيتَ مَن يستعثر الأرجلا

And tell one walking in death's courtyards:

Have you forgotten the one who makes feet stumble?

أسْمَنَك الدّهرُ فلم تخشَه

وإنّما أسمن مَن أهزلا

Time has fattened you, so you did not fear it;

yet it fattens only those it makes lean.

إنْ تُلفِهِ للمرء مستركباً

فهوَ الّذي تَلقاه مُستنزلا

If you find it giving a man a mount,

it is the same you find making him dismount.

أوْ صانه عن بذله مرّةً

فَهوَ الّذي يَرجعُ مُستبذلا

Or if it once shields him from abasement,

it is the same that returns to debase him.

فَلا يَغرّنْك وميضٌ له

ما لاح في الآفاقِ حتّى اِنحلى

So do not let its glimmer deceive you:

no sooner does it shine on the horizons than it fades.

ولا تصدّقْ مائناً دَأْبُهُ

أن يَكذِبَ القولَ وأنْ يَبْطُلا

And do not believe a liar whose habit

is to lie in speech and deal in falsehood.

وكلّنا يَكرع صِرْفَ الرّدى

إمّا طويلَ اللَّبْثِ أو مُعْجَلا

And we all drink death undiluted,

whether after a long sojourn or hurried away.

فَما الّذي يُجْزِعُ من طارقٍ

إنْ لم يزرْ يوماً فما أمْهلا

What, then, is so alarming in a night-visitor

who, if he misses one day, still grants no respite?

نعى إلى قلِبيَ شطراً له

من حقّه أنْ يلقم الجندلا

He announced to my heart the death of half of it;

his due is to swallow stones.

فقلتُ ما أحسنتَ بلْ يا فتى

ما أحسن الدّهرُ ولا أجملا

I said: You have not done well—rather, young man,

Time has done neither well nor kindly.

يا دهرُ كم تنقل ما بيننا

مَن ليس نهوى فيه أن ينقلا

O Time, how often you take from our midst

one whom we do not wish to be taken away!

تأخذ مِنّا واحداً واحداً

بل تأخذ الأمْثَلَ فالأمثلا

You take from us one by one;

no, you take the best, then the next best.

أفنيتَ بالأمسِ شقيقاً له

فَاِنظرْ إلى حَظّك ما أجزلا

Yesterday you destroyed a brother of his;

so look at your share—how abundant it is!

فعدتَ تستهلك ما حُزتَه

صبراً فصبرٌ غايةُ المُبتَلى

Then you returned to consume what you had seized.

Patience—for patience is the sufferer's final recourse.

قالوا تسلَّ اليومَ عن فائتٍ

فقلتُ بُعْداً لفؤادٍ سلا

They said: Find consolation today for one who is gone.

I said: Away with a heart that forgets!

لا تَعذلوا المُعْوِلَ حُزْناً له

فخيرُكم مَن ساعد المُعْوِلا

Do not blame the one wailing in grief for him;

for the best of you is the one who aids the wailer.

أيُّ فتىً فارقنا عَنْوَةً

رُحِّلَ عنّا قبلَ أن نرحلا

What a young man was forced to leave us,

sent away from us before we departed!

لا الجِدُّ مملولٌ لديه ولا

يُخاف في الخَلوَةِ أنْ يَهزِلا

Earnestness is not wearisome to him, nor

is there fear he will be frivolous in private.

وذو عَفافٍ كلّما سامه

ذو الغشّ منه مرّةً قال لا

And a man of chastity: whenever he was solicited

by a deceiver for anything, even once, he said no.

لا تألفُ الرِّيبةُ أبوابَه

ولا خلا في سيّئٍ إنْ خلا

Suspicion never frequents his doors,

nor, when alone, was he alone in wrongdoing.

يا غائباً عنّي ولولا الرّدَى

ما غاب عنّي الزَّمنَ الأطْوَلا

O one absent from me, who, but for death,

would not have stayed away from me so long.

سَرْبَلَني ما لا بديلٌ له

وربّما اِستبدل مَن سربلا

He clothed me in what has no replacement,

though one who is clothed may sometimes change his garb.

لا أخطأتْ قبرَك هطّالةٌ

ولا عداك المُزْنُ إنْ أسبلا

May a pouring cloud never miss your grave,

nor may rainclouds pass you by when they pour.

وجانبٌ أنتَ به ساكنٌ

لا عدم القطرَ ولا أمْحلا

And the tract of land where you dwell—

may it never lack rain or become barren.

ولا يزلْ والجدبُ في غيره

مُرَوَّضاً حَوْذانُه مُبْقِلا

And may it remain, while drought lies elsewhere,

a meadow, its buttercups flourishing.

واِمضِ إلى حيث مضى معشرٌ

كانتْ لهم في الدّرجاتِ العُلا

And go where a company has gone,

who possessed the highest of ranks.

وصِرْ لما صاروا فأنت الّذي

أعددتَهمْ في حَذَرٍ مَوْئِلا

And reach what they reached, for you are the one

who made them your refuge in fear.

فهمْ شفيعٌ لك إنْ زلّةٌ

كانتْ وإنْ بعضُ عثارٍ خلا

For they are your intercessors, if a slip

occurred, and if some stumbling lies in the past.

وجنّةُ الخُلدِ لهمْ إذْنُها

وموقَداتُ النّارِ لا للصِّلا

And the Garden of Eternity—its permission is theirs;

and the kindled fires are not for scorching them.

وحبُّهمْ والفوزُ في حبّهمْ

أخرج مَن أخرج أو أدخلا

And love for them—and salvation lies in loving them—

has brought out those it brought out, or ushered them in.