فرحة الوصل

أنت أبهى
ترجمة إنجليزية
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فَرْحَةُ الْوَصْلِ أَطَلَّتْ بِمُحَيًّامُزْهِرٍ كَالْوَرْدِ، أَحْيَا حِينَ حَيَّا
كَانْبِلَاجِ الصُّبْحِ مِنْ بَعْدِ دُجًىكَانْبِثَاقِ الزَّهْرِ إِينَاعًا وَرَيًّا
فَاجَأَتْنِي أَبْهَرَتْنِي وَأَرَتْنِيمِنْ رُؤَاهَا، وَبَدَتْ لِي كَالثُّرَيَّا
نَائِيًا يَبْدُو ثُرَيَّا فِي عُلَاهُهَامِسًا بِالنُّورِ مُنْسَابًا نَجِيًّا
شَعْرُهَا السَّاجِي نَدِيمٌ سَاحِرٌوَسَنَاهَا كَادَ يُعْشِي مُقْلَتَيَّا
ضَحِكَتْ لِي كَانْهِمَارِ الْمُزْنِ صُبْحًايَا لَأُنْسِ الْقَلْبِ مِنْ حُسْنِ الْمُحَيَّا
ضَحِكَتْ لِي فَانْتَشَى قَلْبُ مُحِبٍّرَتَّلَ الْوَجْدَ رَبَابًا عَبْقَرِيًّا
«يَا حَبِيبِي» أَبْدَعَتْ إِذْ رَنَّمَتْهَا«شَاعِرِي» فِي ظِلِّهَا الْقَلْبُ تَفَيَّا
أَيْنَعَتْ تَرْجُو قِطَافًا، كَيْفَ لَا أَقْـطِفُ رَيْعَانَ جَنًى لِي قَدْ تَهَيَّا؟
أَزْهَرَتْ إِزْهَارَ غُصْنٍ، وَهْيَ تَزْهُوخُيَلَاءً حِينَ تَشْتَاقُ إِلَيَّا…

The Joy of Union1

  1. The joy of union dawned upon a face
    blooming like a rose, that gave life as it greeted me2,
  2. like dawn that breaks when darkness is done,
    like blossoms bursting open, ripe and dewy.
  3. It took me by surprise, it dazzled me, and let me see
    some of its visions, and appeared to me like the Pleiades,
  4. far off, it seems a Pleiades3 upon its height,
    whispering with light, and flowing, confiding in me.
  5. Her hair, still as the night4, is a spellbinding companion,
    and her radiance all but blinded me.
  6. She laughed for me like rain-clouds pouring at morning:
    oh, the heart’s delight in that face’s beauty!
  7. She laughed for me, and a lover’s heart grew drunk with joy,
    a heart that chanted its passion, a rebab5 of rare artistry.
  8. “My darling”… “my poet”: how exquisitely she sang it!
    In its shade my heart took shelter.
  9. She has ripened, hoping to be gathered: how could I not gather
    the prime of a harvest that stands ready for me?
  10. She has blossomed as a bough blossoms, and she preens
    in pride whenever she longs for me…

Notes

  1. Waṣl, ‘union’, is the lovers’ meeting after separation (hajr), one of the central pairs of Arabic love poetry. The poem begins by personifying the joy itself and slides into a portrait of the beloved, so that the two become one. ↩
  2. Muḥayyā, ‘face’, aḥyā, ‘gave life’, and ḥayyā, ‘greeted’, all come from the same root, because the Arabic greeting ḥayyāka Allāh means ‘may God give you life’. The face that greets is, literally, life-giving. ↩
  3. Thurayyā, the Pleiades, repeats the last word of the previous verse: what first appeared like the Pleiades now seems to be a Pleiades itself, far off upon its height. The Pleiades are proverbial in Arabic for what is lofty and out of reach; here the star cluster is remote, yet generous with its light, and speaks to the poet in whispers. ↩
  4. Al-sājī, ‘still, calm’, is said above all of the night when darkness settles (Qurʾan 93:2, ‘by the night when it grows still’). Her dark hair is quiet as the night; nadīm is a boon companion at a drinking party, so the hair keeps him company and casts its spell on him. ↩
  5. Rattala means to chant slowly and melodiously, the word used for reciting the Qurʾan; the rabāb is a bowed string instrument. ʿAbqariyy, ‘of genius’, here ‘of rare artistry’, derives from ʿAbqar, a legendary valley of the jinn, source of all marvellous workmanship. ↩

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