الصدر ذباح

أوتار مبعثرة
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
الْوَجْهُ مُؤْتَلِقٌ بِالْبِشْرِ مُنْطَلِقٌوَالْجِيدُ مُنْتَظِمٌ وَالصَّدْرُ ذَبَّاحُ
قَدْ كُنْتُ أَسْتُرُ إِحْسَاسِي بِفِتْنَتِهَالٰكِنَّ عَيْنِي تَرَى وَالشِّعْرُ فَضَّاحُ
وَالْعَيْنُ تَأْنَسُ وَالْإِبْدَاعُ مُكْتَمِلٌمِنْ دُونِمَا غَبَشٍ وَالشَّوْقُ نَضَّاحُ
تَنْضُو وَتَلْبَسُ مَا يَسْمُو بِفِتْنَتِهَاوَلَوْ تَخَلَّتْ لَجُنَّ الْكَاسُ وَالرَّاحُ

A Breast That Slays1

  1. The face is gleaming, bright with joy, and open;
    the neck is finely set, the breast a breast that slays1.
  2. I used to hide the feelings that her charm aroused;
    but my eye sees, and poetry betrays.
  3. The eye delights; the artistry is perfect,
    with not a blur2; and longing spills in waves.
  4. She takes off and puts on whatever lifts her charm;
    and were she to cast it all aside, the cup and wine would be crazed.

Notes

  1. Dhabbāḥ is an intensive form meaning 'one who slaughters again and again'. Calling her breast a 'slayer' is a lover's hyperbole: it slays all who look on it. The rhyme-words of the poem all share this intensive pattern (faʿʿāl): dhabbāḥ, 'slayer'; faḍḍāḥ, 'one who exposes everything'; naḍḍāḥ, 'ever overflowing'. Only the last, rāḥ, 'wine', breaks it, as the poem ends. ↩
  2. Ghabash is the dimness of the last dark before dawn, and a blurring of vision. The eye sees her perfectly, without haze, and al-ibdāʿ, 'creative artistry', praises her beauty as a flawless work of creation. ↩

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