بقربك

أوتار مبعثرة
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
بِقُرْبِكِ عِشْتُ الْخِصْبَ وَالْحُبُّ وَارِفُوَبِالْبُعْدِ ذُقْتُ الْمُرَّ وَالنَّزْفُ رَاعِفُ
سِنِي يُوسُفَ السَّبْعُ السِّمَانُ خَبَرْتُهَاوَحِضْنُكِ فِي صَدْرِي عَلَى الْحُبِّ عَاكِفُ
سَنَابِلُكِ الْمَلْأَى تَذَوَّقْتُ طَعْمَهَاوَعَانَقْتُهَا دَهْرًا وَشَوْقُكِ جَارِفُ
وَهَا أَنَا فِي السَّبْعِ الْعِجَافِ أَخُوضُهَافَيَلْسَعُنِي جُوعٌ إِلَى الْحِضْنِ رَاجِفُ
أُعَانِي مِنَ الْوَجْدِ الْمُمِضِّ مُفَتِّتًاعِظَامِي وَقَلْبِي مِنْ بُعَادِكِ تَالِفُ
يُكَبِّلُنِي فِيهَا عَنِ الْوِرْدِ أَنَّنِيمَعَ السَّغَبِ الْمُضْنِي عَلَى الْحَدِّ وَاقِفُ
فَكِيلِي بِصَاعِ الشَّوْقِ حُبَّكِ وَاجْمَعِيبَقَايَا فُؤَادٍ، وَهْوَ بِالْبُعْدِ وَاجِفُ
وَأَلْقِي قَمِيصَ الْوَجْدِ فِي وَجْهِ فَاقَتِيلِأَرْتَدَّ فِي خِصْبٍ وَأُنْسٍ أُلَاطِفُ
فَلَمْ أَسْرِقِ الْمِكْيَالَ بَلْ جِئْتُ حَاضِنًابَقَايَاكِ فِي صَدْرِي وَشَوْقُكِ نَازِفُ

Near You

  1. Near you, I lived in plenty, and love spread wide its shade;
    apart from you, I tasted gall, and my wound bled and bled.
  2. I have known Joseph's seven fat years1, while your embrace
    kept its retreat2 within my breast, devoted to love.
  3. I tasted all the flavour of your full ears of grain,
    and held them close an age, swept on by your longing's flood.
  4. And here I am now, wading through the seven lean years,
    stung by a trembling hunger for the embrace.
  5. I suffer from a searing passion that crumbles all my bones,
    and through your distance my heart is wrecked and left for dead.
  6. What keeps me fettered in these years from coming to the water
    is that, worn out by wasting hunger, I stand upon the edge.
  7. So measure out your love to me by longing's measure3, and gather
    the remnants of a heart that, in the distance, trembles4.
  8. And cast the shirt of passion on the face of my want,
    so I may be restored5 to plenty, and to closeness and caress.
  9. I did not steal the measuring cup6; no, I have come holding close
    within my breast what's left of you, while your longing bleeds.

Notes

  1. The whole poem is built on the Qurʾanic story of Joseph (Sūrat Yūsuf). Joseph interpreted the king’s dream of seven fat cows eaten by seven lean ones, and seven green ears of grain and seven dry, as seven years of plenty followed by seven of famine (Qurʾan 12:43–49). Nearness to the beloved is the years of plenty; separation is the famine. ↩
  2. ʿĀkif is one who stays devoted in a place of worship (iʿtikāf, spiritual retreat in the mosque). The embrace ‘keeps retreat’ in his breast, devoted to love as a worshipper to prayer. ↩
  3. Kīlī, ‘measure out’, and ṣāʿ, a measure of grain, recall Joseph’s brothers coming to Egypt in the famine to have grain measured out to them (Qurʾan 12:59–65). The lover comes as they did, starving, asking for his portion. The ṣāʿ also anticipates the ṣuwāʿ, the king's measuring cup of verse 9. ↩
  4. Wājif, ‘trembling, throbbing with fear’, is the word the Qurʾan uses of hearts on the Last Day: ‘hearts that day will tremble’ (qulūbun yawmaʾidhin wājifa, Qurʾan 79:8). Distance leaves the lover’s heart in pieces, quaking as if at the end of the world. ↩
  5. When Joseph’s shirt was cast upon the face of his father Jacob, who had gone blind with grief, Jacob ‘was restored to sight’ (irtadda baṣīrā, Qurʾan 12:93–96). The poet uses the same verb, ‘to be restored’ (li-artadda): the beloved’s shirt of passion, thrown on the face of his poverty, would restore him to plenty. ↩
  6. In the story, Joseph had the king’s measuring cup placed in his brother Benjamin’s saddlebag, and the brothers were accused of theft (Qurʾan 12:70–76). The lover protests his innocence: he has stolen nothing, but carries only what is left of her within him. ↩

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