الدمع السخين

لا تفطميني عن هواك حبيبتي
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
ذَرَفَتْ مِنْ لَوْعَةٍ دَمْعًا سَخِينَاوَأَحَسَّتْ فِي الْحَشَا شَوْقًا دَفِينَا
حَبَسَتْ فِي نَفْسِهَا مَا قَدْ أَحَسَّتْوَاسْتَمَرَّتْ تَعْلُكُ السَّاعَاتِ حِينَا
وَحَبِيبُ الْقَلْبِ مِنْ جَانِبِهَا فِيغَيْبَةِ الْحِسِّ بَعِيدٌ أَنْ يَلِينَا
كَمْ لَهُ هَمَّتْ بِوَجْدٍ أَنْ تُلَبِّيوَأَبَتْ مِنْ عِزَّةٍ أَنْ تَسْتَكِينَا
وَهْوَ كَمْ هَمَّ وَلَكِنْ صَدَّهُ الْكِبْــرُ كَمَا قَدْ صَدَّهَا مِنْ قَبْلُ حِينَا
هِيَ مَنْ قَدْ عَلَّمَتْهُ الْقَسْوَةَ الْقُصْــوَى وَلَوْ دَامَتْ عَلَى ذَاكَ سِنِينَا
كُلَّمَا مَرَّتْ عَلَيْهَا لَحَظَاتٌقَالَتِ الْآنَ سَيُفْضِي لِي الْحَنِينَا
وَهْوَ مَهْمَا مَرَّ حِينٌ فِي انْتِظَارٍلَحْظَةَ الْإِفْضَاءِ مِنْهَا أَنْ تَحِينَا
أَهْيَ حَرْبٌ مِنْهُمَا مِنْ غَيْرِ فَتْكٍلَسْتَ تُصْغِي مِنْ حَوَالَيْهَا رَنِينَا
أَمْ هُوَ الْحُبُّ سُرُورًا وَشُجُونًافِي ضُلُوعٍ لَمْ تُرَدِّدْهُ أَنِينَا
جَفْوَةٌ قَدْ سَبَّبَتْهَا كَلِمَاتٌصَدَرَتْ غَضْبَى فَأَوْرَتْ مُسْتَكِينَا
أَشْعَلَتْ نَارًا وَأَذْكَتْ جَذَوَاتٍوَتَمَنَّى قَلْبُهَا أَنْ لَا تَكُونَا

نيروبي-كينيا
4/1/94م

Hot Tears1

  1. Out of anguish she let fall hot tears,
    and felt, deep in her breast, a buried longing.
  2. She held inside herself all she had felt,
    and went on chewing2 at the hours a while.
  3. And he, her heart’s beloved, far from her side, beyond
    her senses’ reach3, was nowhere near relenting.
  4. How often, in her passion, she was on the point of answering his call,
    and yet, from pride, refused to yield!
  5. And he, how often he was on the point, but pride
    held him back, as it had held her back before, a while.
  6. It was she who taught him harshness at its utmost,
    even were it to last for years4.
  7. Each time a few moments passed over her,
    she said, “Now he will pour out to me his yearning.”
  8. And he, however long the time that passed, was waiting
    for the moment of her confession to arrive.
  9. Is it a war between the two, without a killing,
    from all around which you can hear no clash of arms, no ringing?
  10. Or is it love, its joy and sorrows, pent
    inside their ribs, that never echoed it in moaning?
  11. An estrangement, brought about by words
    that came out angry, and struck fire from one who had been calm5:
  12. they lit a fire and fanned its embers,
    and her heart wished that they had never been.

Nairobi, Kenya, 4 January 1994

Notes

  1. In Arabic, ‘hot tears’ (dumūʿ sakhīna) are the tears of grief, as opposed to the ‘cool’ tears of joy. Hence the old blessing ‘May God cool your eye’, meaning ‘may He give you joy’, and its opposite, ‘may God make your eye hot’, meaning ‘may He bring you grief’. ↩
  2. Taʿluku al-sāʿāt: ʿalaka is to chew something that does not dissolve, like gum or mastic. She chews the hours over and over, slowly and endlessly, without their passing. ↩
  3. Min jānibihā fī ghaybat al-ḥiss is compressed. The reading chosen takes it to mean that he was away from her side and beyond the reach of her senses, so she could perceive no softening in him. Min jānibihā can also mean ‘as far as she was concerned’, that is, to her mind he was unlikely to relent; and fī ghaybat al-ḥiss can describe him as numb to feeling, unaware of her pain. ↩
  4. Wa-law dāmat ʿalā dhāka sinīnā, ‘even were it to last for years’, refers to the harshness she taught him: it was so thorough that he could keep it up for years. ↩
  5. Awrā is to strike fire from a flint or fire-stick. Mustakīn is one who is still, quiet or submissive. The angry words struck sparks from a heart that had been at rest, and the next verse follows the fire as it spreads. ↩

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