الحبيبة وعيد الأضحى

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بِحُسْنِكِ صَارَ هَذَا الْعِيدُ أَضْحَىفَوَجْهُكِ مُسْفِرًا أَبْهَى وَأَصْحَى
مُحَيًّا بَاسِمُ الْقَسَمَاتِ بَادٍعَلَيْهِ الْبِشْرُ إِذْ يَلْقَاكَ سَمْحَا
وَحِينَ يَشُعُّ فِي قَلْبِي ضِيَاءًيَسِحُّ بِنُورِهِ فِي الْجِسْمِ سَحَّا
بِبَسْمَتِكِ الْحَنُونِ بَدَأْتُ صُبْحِيفَمَا أَحْلَاهُ فِي الْأَيَّامِ صُبْحَا
بِبَهْجَةِ وَجْهِهَا وَأَنِيسِ ثَغْرٍتَبَدَّى لُؤْلُؤًا يَفْتَرُّ أَقْحَى
تُخَاطِبُ مُهْجَتِي بِشُعَاعِ نُورٍتَصُوغُ حُرُوفَهَا بِالْوَجْدِ فُصْحَى
إِذَا مَا الْعِيدُ أَقْبَلَ قُلْتُ عِيدِيلِقَاؤُكِ فَهْوَ أَبْهَجُ لِي وَأَوْحَى
فَهَلْ عِيدٌ كَعِيدِي حِينَ يَأْتِيلِيَ الْعِيدَانِ: لُقْيَاهَا وَأَضْحَى
وَلَوْ لَمْ يَأْتِ هَذَا الْعِيدُ إِلَّابِعَيْنَيْهَا تُهَنِّئُنِي لَصَحَّا
أَبُثُّ الْوَجْدَ عَيْنَيْهَا وَقَلْبًاحَلَلْتُ سَوَادَهُ بِالْبَثِّ فَتْحًا
فَصَارَتْ كُلَّمَا خَفَقَتْ أَحَسَّتْبِحُبِّي نَابِضًا فِي كُلِّ مَنْحَى
وَعَاشَتْهُ حَنِيْنًا مُسْتَفِيضًالِيَجْعَلَهَا مَدَى الْأَيَّامِ فَرْحَى
إِذَا حَنَّتْ تَرَانِي طَوْعَ قَلْبٍإِذَا اسْتَهْوَاكَ صَارَ الْمَنْعُ مَنْحَا
وَلَسْتُ بِسَامِعٍ فِي بَذْلِ رُوحِيعَذُولًا لَجَّ فِي لَوْمِي مُلِحَّا
يَقُولُ بِأَنَّهُ حَدِبٌ نَصُوحٌصَدُوقٌ يَمْحَضُ الْعُشَّاقَ نُصْحَا
وَأَنِّي فِي هَوَايَ أَصَمُّ أعْمَىفَقُلْتُ: نَعَمْ إذاً عَنِّي تَنَحَّا!
وَلَوْ أَنِّي عَشِقْتُ سِوَاكِ هَانَتْوَلَكِنِّي بِعِشْقِكِ لَسْتُ أُلْحَى
وَمَنْ لَمْ يَدْرِ عَنْ حُبِّي وَعَمَّنْأُحِبُّ فَلَيْسَ يَدْرِي الْحُبَّ لَمْحَا
جَمَالُكِ بِدْعَةٌ فِي الْحُسْنِ زَاهٍوَكُلُّ تَجَمُّلٍ لِسِوَاكِ يُمْحَى
وَأَفْدِي رُوحَكِ الْتَهْوَى الْمَعَالِيسَمَتْ مَعْنًى فَخَصَّتْنِيْهِ بَوْحَا
خَطَرْتِ فَضَمَّخَ الْمَمْشَى أَرِيجٌتَخَلَّلَ هَبَّةَ الْأَنْسَامِ نَفْحًا
وَهَفَّ الْوَرْدُ يُهْدِيكُمْ سَلَامًاوَغَنَّى الطَّيْرُ يَهْتِفُ فِيكِ مَرْحَى
أَلَا مَرْحَى بِمَنْ لَوْلَا هَوَاهَالَمَا بَقِيَ الْفُؤَادُ يَفِيضُ رَوْحَا
فَرُوحِي رُوحُهَا وَحَيَاةُ قَلْبِيبِهَا فَالْجِسْمُ لَيْسَ يُطِيقُ كَبْحًا
وَأُضْحِيَتِي إِذَا شِئْتُم فُؤَادِيأُقَدِّمُهُ عَلَى قَدَمَيْكِ ذِبْحَا
فَهَلْ أَرْجُو قَبُولًا مِنْكِ حَتَّىأُهَنِّئَهُ فَيَسْعَدَ لَيْسَ يُلْحَى

The Beloved and Eid al-Adha

  1. Through your beauty this Eid has become Adha1;
    your face, unveiled and shining, is brighter, clearer than the day.
  2. A face whose features smile, with gladness plain upon it
    whenever it meets you, gracious and gentle.
  3. And when it shines as light within my heart,
    its light pours through my body, pouring in a flood.
  4. With your tender smile I began my morning:
    how sweet a morning it has been, of all my days!
  5. with the joy of her face, and a winsome mouth revealing
    its pearls, and parting in a smile like camomile's2 array.
  6. She speaks to my heart's blood with a ray of light,
    and shapes her letters, out of passion, into purest Arabic3.
  7. Whenever Eid comes round, I say: “My Eid
    is meeting you: it brings me more joy, and more inspiration.”
  8. So is there any Eid like mine, when there come my way
    two Eids together: meeting her, and Adha?
  9. And had this Eid brought nothing but her eyes
    wishing me joy, it would have counted as a true and valid4 Eid.
  10. I pour my passion out to her eyes, and to a heart
    whose black core5 I have entered by that outpouring, as a conqueror makes his way.
  11. So now, whenever her heart beats, she can feel
    my love throbbing in every part of it.
  12. She has lived it as an overflowing yearning,
    that it might keep her joyful all her days.
  13. When she yearns, she finds me at a heart's command;
    once a heart has won you, refusing turns to giving6.
  14. In giving up my soul, I will not heed
    a reproacher7 who harps on blaming me, and presses, and will not give way,
  15. who says that he is kind, a faithful counsellor and true,
    who gives to lovers counsel that is pure and honest,
  16. and that in my love I am deaf and blind8. I said:
    “Yes! Then stand aside, and get out of my way!”
  17. Had I loved anyone but you, it would weigh light9;
    but for loving you, no blame can come my way.
  18. Whoever knows nothing of my love, and of the one
    I love, knows nothing of love, not even at a glance.
  19. Your beauty is a radiant marvel10, never seen before,
    and all adornment but your own is wiped away.
  20. I would give my life for your soul, which loves the heights:
    it soared in meaning, and to me alone disclosed that meaning.
  21. You swept by, and a fragrance steeped the path you took,
    and wove in wafts of scent through the gusting breeze.
  22. The roses stirred, sending you their greetings,
    and the birds sang out, crying “Hail!” to you.
  23. Hail, then, to her, but for whose love
    the heart would not still brim over with the breath of ease11!
  24. For my soul is her soul, and my heart
    lives by her; and so the body cannot bear restraint.
  25. And my Adha sacrifice12, if you will have it, is my heart:
    I lay it, slaughtered, at your feet.
  26. So may I hope that you will accept13 it, so that I
    may wish it joy, and it be glad, and blamed no more?

Notes

  1. Aḍḥā, the name of the feast (ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā, the Feast of the Sacrifice), comes from the same root as ḍuḥā, the bright forenoon when the sun is high, and as a verb aḍḥā also means simply 'it became'. The poet plays on all of this: through her beauty the Eid has 'become Aḍḥā', that is, it has earned its name by being filled with morning brightness, because her face outshines the forenoon. Aṣḥā, 'clearer', is used of a cloudless sky. Abhā, 'more radiant', is the word in the title of the collection, You Are More Radiant (Anti Abhā). ↩
  2. Yaftarru is to part the lips in a smile so that the teeth show. Aqḥā refers to the uqḥuwān, the camomile or white daisy, whose small white petals are a standard image in Arabic poetry for bright, evenly set teeth. Pearls are the other standard image, and the verse uses both. The verse turns from 'you' to 'her' (iltifāt), speaking of the beloved in the third person for a while before addressing her again. ↩
  3. Fuṣḥā means 'most eloquent, purest in speech', and is also the Arabic name for Classical Arabic. Her letters are made of light and passion, yet they are as clear and perfect as the finest language. ↩
  4. Ṣaḥḥa means 'it would be valid, sound', the word used of a religious act that has been properly performed. Her congratulating eyes would be enough by themselves to make the Eid a valid, genuine Eid. ↩
  5. Sawād al-qalb, 'the black of the heart' (also suwaydāʾ), is the innermost core of the heart, where love and secrets are thought to lie. Fatḥ means both 'opening' and 'conquest', the word used of a conqueror's entry into a city: his outpouring of love has opened her heart and taken it. ↩
  6. Manʿ, 'refusal', and manḥ, 'giving', differ by a single letter, an effect Arabic rhetoric calls jinās, and they are also opposites (ṭibāq). The verse is a maxim: once a heart has captured you, you can refuse it nothing. ↩
  7. The ʿādhil, the reproacher who blames the lover and urges him to give up his love, is a stock figure in Arabic love poetry. The lover's defiance of him is a set theme, and the next two verses report the reproacher's claims in his own words. ↩
  8. The reproacher's charge echoes a well-known saying attributed to the Prophet (PBUH): 'Your love of a thing makes you blind and deaf' (reported by Abu Dawud). The lover's reply is ironic: he agrees, and draws the conclusion that, being deaf, he cannot hear the advice, so the adviser may as well leave. ↩
  9. Hānat, 'it would have been slight, easy', has no stated subject: it is the matter of his love, or the blame for it. Had he loved someone else, reproach might be expected and borne lightly, but loving her puts him beyond reproach. ↩
  10. Bidʿa, 'something new, without precedent', usually carries a negative sense in religious usage, 'a reprehensible innovation'. Here it is used in its root sense: her beauty is an original marvel that has never been seen before. ↩
  11. Rawḥ, 'ease, relief, refreshing breeze', and rūḥ, 'soul', which opens the next verse, are written with the same letters and differ only in their vowel. The poet moves from one to the other: her love keeps the heart overflowing with rawḥ, and his rūḥ is hers. ↩
  12. Uḍḥiya is the animal sacrificed on Eid al-Adha in remembrance of Abraham, who was ready to sacrifice his son until God ransomed him with 'a great sacrifice' (dhibḥ ʿaẓīm, Qur'an 37:107). The poet's dhibḥ, 'slaughtered offering', echoes that Qur'anic word, and his offering is his own heart. ↩
  13. Qabūl, 'acceptance', is the word used of God accepting a sacrifice or an act of worship; at Eid Muslims greet one another with taqabbala Allāhu minnā wa-minkum, 'may God accept it from us and from you'. The lover hopes that she will accept his heart as its sacrifice, and that the heart can then be congratulated as a worshipper is at Eid. ↩

English translation prepared by artificial intelligence and reviewed against the Arabic for accuracy of meaning and rhetoric.