ذكريات

لا تفطميني عن هواك حبيبتي
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:

(على سفوح كلما نجارو
مع السيد محمد بن سعيد البيض)

يَا صَبًا ذَكَّرَ أَيَّامَ الصِّبَافَرَنَتْ عَيْنِي وَقَلْبِي قَدْ صَبَا
وَرَأَيْتُ الْبَرْقَ يَزْهُو بِالسَّنَافَنَمَا الْعِشْقُ زُهُورًا وَرُبَى
أَمْطَرَ الْحُبُّ اشْتِيَاقًا وَجَوًىفَكَسَا الْخُضْرَةَ قَفْرًا أَجْدَبَا
وَالَّذِي كَانَ ظَلَامًا حَالِكًاصَارَ بِالْإِشْرَاقِ نُورًا مَا خَبَا
كَمْ ذَكَرْنَا عِنْدَهَا مِنْ مَعْهَدٍذَابَ دَمْعُ الْعَيْنِ فِيهَا عَجَبَا
رِحْلَةٌ قُمْنَا بِهَا نَحْوَ الْجَنُوبْفَصَفَتْ مِنْهَا نُفُوسٌ وَقُلُوبْ
كُنْتُ فِيهَا بِاصْطِحَابِ الْعُلَمَافِي دُرُوبِ الْهَدْيِ نَسْعَى وَنَجُوبْ
فِي مَغَانٍ كَمْ تَمَنَّيْتُ بِهَالَوْ أُلَاقِي فِي ثَنَايَاهَا الْحَبِيبْ
فَنُغَنِّي بَيْنَ زَهْرٍ وَوُرُودْمِثْلَمَا غَنَّى بِذَاكَ الْعَنْدَلِيبْ
كُلَّمَا وَسْوَسَ شَيْطَانُ الْهَوَىنَذْكُرُ اللَّهَ فَنَبْكِي وَنَتُوبْ
وَطَلَعْنَا عِنْدَهَا «تَلَّ الْجُذَامْ»فَرَأَيْنَا قُدْرَةَ اللَّهِ الْقَدِيرْ
فَذَكَرْنَا اللَّهَ فِي أَدْغَالِهِوَحَثَثْنَا السَّيْرَ صُعْدًا بِالزَّفِيرْ
سَلْ هُنَاكَ الدَّرْبَ كَمْ طَابَ الْمَسِيرْفَانْتَشَقْنَا الْعِطْرَ فِيهِ وَالْعَبِيرْ
هَاهُنَا وَادِي شُجَيْرَاتِ الْهَوَىوَهُنَا يَجْرِي غَدِيرٌ بِنَمِيرْ
عَجَبِي مِنْهُ بِفِكْرِي مَا انْقَضَىوَخَيَالِي مِنْهُ حَيْرَانُ حَسِيرْ
ذِكْرَيَاتٌ طَوَّفَتْ بِي بَيْنَ بَيْنْوَأَسَالَتْ مِنْ دُمُوعِ الْمُقْلَتَيْنْ
وَأَهَاجَتْ مَا بِقَلْبِي مِنْ هَوًىلِحَبِيبٍ فِي ضُلُوعِ الْجَانِبَيْنْ
فَاشْتِيَاقِي لَكَ أَوْرَى مُهْجَتِيوَادِّكَارِي لَكَ أَدْمَى النَّاظِرَيْنْ
كُلَّمَا طَافَ خَيَالِي فِي الْفَضَاخِلْتُهُ يَخْتَالُ بَيْنَ النَّيِّرَيْنْ
لَمْ أَزَلْ أَذْكُرُهُ مُنْذُ ارْتَحَلْعَنْ عُيُونِي وَفُؤَادِي قَدْ حَلَلْ(1)
يَرْشُقُ السَّهْمَ فَيَسْبِي خَاطِرِيرَائِقُ الْمَبْسِمِ حُورِيُّ الْمُقَلْ
يَا رَشِيقَ الْخَطْوِ مَهْلًا هَكَذَاحَوَرُ الْعَيْنَيْنِ أَصْمَى وَقَتَلْ
يَا مُدِلًّا بِخُطَاهُ بَيْنَنَاخَطْوُكَ الْيَوْمَ حِمَى الْقَلْبِ اسْتَحَلّْ
فَاغْتَفِرْ مُرَّ عَذَابِي بِكَ يَامَنْ يُرِينِي فِي حِمَاهُ مَا يَجِلّْ
  1. (1) «حَلَلْ» بفك الإدغام للقافية، والمراد «حَلّ»
لَسْتُ أَدْرِي يَا شَبِيهًا بِالْعَذَابْأَوَ أَنْتَ الْمَاءُ أَمْ أَنْتَ السَّرَابْ
فِي سَمَاءِ الْحُبِّ هَلْ أَنْتَ الَّذِيإِنْ دَعَاكَ الصَّبُّ تَرْمِي بِالشِّهَابْ؟
فِي بِحَارِ الْحُبِّ هَلْ أَنْتَ الَّذِيإِذْ يَعُومُ الصَّبُّ تُرْغِي بِالْعُبَابْ؟
وَإِذَا مَا غَامَ أُفْقٌ فِي السَّمَاوَارْتَجَى الظَّامِئُ رِيًّا مِنْ سَحَابْ
فَرَّقَتْ كَفُّكَ غَيْمَاتِ الرَّجَافَاخْتَفَى الْغَيْمُ وَوَلَّى ثُمَّ غَابْ

على سفوح كيمانجارو
١٩٩١

Memories

(On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, with Sayyid Mohamed bin Said al-Beidh)

  1. O east wind1 that called to mind the days of youth,
    my eyes gazed long; my heart leaned towards love again.
  2. I saw the lightning2 glory in its blaze,
    and passion sprang up into flowers and hills;
  3. love rained a longing and a burning pain,
    and clothed in green a barren, arid plain;
  4. and what had been a pitch-black darkness turned,
    as dawn broke, into light that did not wane.
  5. How many old haunts3 we recalled there,
    where, to our wonder, tears would melt and fall like rain!
  6. It was a journey that we made towards the south,
    and by it souls and hearts were purified.
  7. I made it in the company of scholars;
    along the paths of guidance we would walk and travel wide,
  8. through fair abodes, in which how often I have wished
    to meet the one I love in some fold of the mountainside,
  9. so that we two might sing among the blossoms and the roses,
    just as the nightingale was singing there.
  10. Whenever love's own devil whispered4, we
    would call God to mind, and weep, and be contrite.
  11. And there we climbed “the Hill of Leprosy”5, and saw
    the power of God, the All-Powerful, laid bare.
  12. We called God to mind within its thickets, and pressed
    our climbing upward, panting hard for air.
  13. Ask the path how sweet our going was up there:
    we breathed its perfume and its fragrance there.
  14. Here is the valley of the little trees of love,
    and here a brook flows by with water sweet and clear.
  15. My wonder at it never leaves my thoughts;
    my fancy, dazed and spent6, can only stare.
  16. Memories that swept me round, betwixt and between7,
    and drew the tears in streams from both my eyes,
  17. and stirred up all the love within my heart
    for one who lives between my ribs, on either side.
  18. My longing for you8 has struck fire in my heart's blood,
    and to remember you has made both my eyes bleed.
  19. Whenever my imagination roams the skies,
    I picture him9 there, strutting between the two great lights.
  20. I have not ceased remembering him since he went
    away from my eyes, though in my heart he came to dwell10 (1).
  21. He shoots his arrow, and he takes my mind captive:
    the houri-eyed11, with the pure and radiant smile.
  22. You of the graceful step, go gently! It is thus
    that dark eyes strike12 their quarry dead, and kill.
  23. You who walk proudly in your stride among us,
    today your step has claimed the heart's forbidden sanctuary13 as lawful.
  24. So pardon the bitter torment that I suffer through you,
    you who show me in your sanctuary what is too sublime to tell.
  • (1) Ḥalal: the doubled consonant has been separated for the sake of the rhyme; the intended form is ḥalla, 'he has settled'.
  1. I do not know, you very image of torment14,
    whether you're water, or a mirage that leads astray.
  2. In the sky of love, are you the one who, when
    the lover calls, will hurl a shooting star15 his way?
  3. In the seas of love, are you the one who, when
    the lover swims, will whip the swell to foam and spray?
  4. And when a horizon clouds over in the sky,
    and one who thirsts hopes clouds will give him drink,
  5. your hand scatters the clouds of hope:
    they vanish, turn their backs, and slip away.

On the slopes of Kilimanjaro, 1991

Notes

  1. The opening line plays on three words of the same letters: ṣabā, the east wind; al-ṣibā, youth; and ṣabā, 'he yearned, inclined to love'. In Arabic poetry the ṣabā is the gentle morning breeze that carries the scent of the beloved's land and stirs memories of love and youth. English cannot keep the chime; the wind, youth and yearning are kept. ↩
  2. Lightning is a classical motif: the lover watches it flash over the beloved's country, and it promises rain. Here the promise is fulfilled in the next verses, where love itself rains and turns the waste green. ↩
  3. Maʿhad is a place once frequented, where friends or lovers used to meet. It belongs to the classical theme of standing by old haunts and weeping over memories. ↩
  4. Waswasa is the Qur'anic word for the whispering of Satan. The verse recalls Qur'an 7:201: 'When a visitation from Satan touches those who fear God, they remember, and at once they see clearly.' The companions of the journey answer the stirrings of love with the remembrance of God (dhikr). ↩
  5. Tall al-Judhām, literally 'the Hill of Leprosy', is given in quotation marks as a place name on the mountain; the name is kept as the poet gives it. ↩
  6. Ḥasīr, 'weary, exhausted', recalls Qur'an 67:3–4, where the gaze that searches creation for a flaw 'returns to you dazzled and weary'. The wonder of the mountain leaves the imagination in the same state before the power of God named in verse 11. ↩
  7. Bayna bayna, literally 'between between', is an Arabic idiom for a state in the middle, neither one thing nor the other, much like the English 'betwixt and between'. The memories keep the poet suspended between past and present, joy and tears. ↩
  8. Awrā is to strike fire, as from a flint; muhja is the heart's blood, the very soul. Here the poet turns suddenly to address the beloved as 'you' (iltifāt), before speaking of him again as 'he' in the next verses. The beloved is spoken of in the masculine, as is common in Arabic love poetry. ↩
  9. Al-nayyirān, 'the two luminaries', are the sun and the moon. 'Him' is the beloved, whose remembrance follows in the next verse and whose proud gait (yakhtāl, 'he struts') the following verses describe. ↩
  10. The verse sets two opposite movements against each other (ṭibāq): irtaḥala, 'he departed, set out on a journey', and ḥalla, 'he alighted, settled'. The beloved has left the eyes but made his home in the heart. ↩
  11. Ḥūr are the houris of Paradise, and ḥawar is the quality of their eyes: the intense black of the iris against the pure white. Rāʾiq al-mabsim is one whose mouth and smile are clear and bright. ↩
  12. Aṣmā is a hunting term: to shoot game so that it dies on the spot. The beloved's dark eyes, with their ḥawar, bring the poet down like quarry at a single glance. ↩
  13. Ḥimā is a protected, inviolable enclosure, and istaḥalla means to treat as lawful what is forbidden. The beloved's proud step has trespassed on the sanctuary of the heart and made it lawful for itself. ↩
  14. ʿAdhāb means 'torment', but its letters also spell ʿidhāb, 'sweet waters', the plural of ʿadhb. The echo leads straight to the question that follows: is the beloved sweet water that quenches, or a mirage that deceives the thirsty? ↩
  15. In Islamic tradition, shooting stars (shuhub) are hurled at devils who try to eavesdrop on heaven (Qur'an 72:8–9; 37:10). The beloved, enthroned in the sky of love, drives the lover away as though he were one of them. ↩

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