ولّى ليلُ الذل

لعينيك ياقدس
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
أَقْبَلَ أَطْفَالٌ يَرْمُونَ الْأَحْجَارْ.
أَحْجَارٌ تَهْطِلُ مِثْلَ الْأَمْطَارْ.
قِيلَ لَهُمْ: كُفُّوا. كُفُّوا…
لَا يُجْدِيكُمْ هَٰذَا الْعُنْفُ.
فَهْوَ لَكُمْ أَبَدًا حَتْفُ.
قَالُوا:لَا..لَا..
نَحْنُ نَرَى إِينَاعَ الْأَثْمَارْ.
وَانْهَارَ الْخَوْفُ جِدَارًا بَعْدَ جِدَارْ.
وَانْدَكَّتْ أَسْوَارٌ تِلْوَ الْأَسْوَارْ.
هَتَفَ الْكَوْنُ مُذِيعًا أَحْلَى الْأَخْبَارْ.
“وَلَّى لَيْلٌ.. أَيًّا كَانَ..وَجَاءَ نَهَارْ.”
عَبِقَتْ فَرَحًا وَاسْتِبْشَارًا كُلُّ الْأَزْهَارْ.
وَتَفَتَّحَ عَبَّادُ الشَّمْسِ مَشُوقًا …
حِينَ رَأَى الظُّلْمَةَ تَنْهَارْ.
أَوْرَقَتِ الْأَشْجَارُ وَغَنَّتْ كُلُّ الْأَطْيَارْ.
فَاضَتْ نَغَمًا كُلُّ الْأَنْهَارْ.
عَزَفَتْ أَلْحَانًا جَذْلَى..أَحْلَى الْأَوْتَارْ.
قَدْ يَبْزُغُ فِي الْعَتْمَةِ فَجْرٌ كَاذِبْ.
فَيَصِيحُ الدِّيكُ.. وَيَصْحُو النَّائِمُ أَوْ يَتَثَاءَبْ.
لَٰكِنَّ النَّاعِسَ يَغْفُو ثَانِيَةً.
وَيَكِيلُ اللَّعَنَاتِ الْكُبْرَى لِلْفَجْرِ الْكَاذِبْ.
قَدْ يَنْبُتُ عُشْبٌ فِي قَفْرٍ مُجْدِبْ.
فَتَجِيءُ الرِّيحُ تُغَطِّيهِ بِرَمْلٍ غَاضِبْ.
لَٰكِنَّ الْعُشْبَ يُغَنِّي مُنْتَفِضًا..
أَوْ يَخْضَرُّ بِجَوْفِ الرَّمْلِ.
يَنْمُو.. يَعْلُو فَوْقَ الرَّمْلِ.
فَيَجِيءُ الْغَاصِبْ.
عَاصِفَةً تَقْلَعُهُ.. وَيَقُولُ:مُشَاغِبْ!!
لَٰكِنَّ الشَّمْسَ إِذَا بَزَغَتْ..
لَا تَتَفَاوَضُ وَالظُّلُمَاتْ.
بَلْ تُشْرِقُ بِالنُّورِ السَّاطِعِ فِي الطُّرُقَاتْ.
لِتُثَبِّتَ مَنْ هُوَ صَاحِبُ أَرْضِ الْقُدْسِ
وَتَفْضَحَ مَنْ هُوَ غَاصِبْ.

نُشرت في مجلة «المؤاخاة» الإلكترونية
(1999–2001م)

The Night of Humiliation Has Passed

  1. Children came forward, letting their stones fly1,
  2. stones like rain pouring down from the sky.
  3. They were told: Stop it. Stop…
  4. This violence of yours is all in vain;
  5. for you it will be death, and death again.
  6. They said: No… no…
  7. we can see the fruit begin to ripen.
  8. And fear came crashing down, wall after wall,
  9. and ramparts fell to rubble, rampart after rampart.
  10. The universe cried out, proclaiming the sweetest news of all:
  11. “A night has gone… whatever night it was… and here is day.”
  12. Every flower breathed out the fragrance of joy and glad tidings.
  13. And the sunflower opened, full of longing…
  14. when it saw the darkness fall away.
  15. The trees came into leaf, and every bird sang out.
  16. Every river overflowed with melody.
  17. The sweetest strings struck up their jubilant airs.
  18. A false dawn2 may break in the dark,
  19. and the cock crows… and the sleeper wakes, or gives a yawn.
  20. But the drowsy one dozes off again,
  21. and heaps the direst curses on the false dawn.
  22. Grass may spring up in a barren land;
  23. then the wind comes and buries it in angry sand.
  24. But the grass sings as it shakes itself free3…
  25. or turns green in the belly of the sand.
  26. It grows… it rises above the sand.
  27. Then comes the usurper,
  28. a storm to tear it out by the roots… and he says: Troublemaker!!4
  29. But the sun, when it rises,
  30. does not negotiate with the darkness5;
  31. it blazes instead through the streets in dazzling brightness,
  32. to establish who owns the land of Jerusalem6
  33. and to expose who is the usurper.

Published in the online magazine Al-Muʾākhāt7 (1999–2001)

Notes

  1. The stone-throwing children are the emblem of the Palestinian Intifada (literally 'shaking off'), the popular uprising against the Israeli occupation that began in December 1987 and flared again in 2000. Arabic poetry of the period calls them aṭfāl al-ḥijāra, 'the children of the stones'. ↩
  2. Al-fajr al-kādhib, the 'false dawn', is a term of Islamic timekeeping: a faint glow that rises in the eastern sky before the true dawn (al-fajr al-ṣādiq) and then fades, leaving the night dark again. Prayer and fasting are timed by the true dawn. Here it is an image of hopes that flare and die: the sleeper is fooled, curses it, and goes back to sleep. ↩
  3. Muntafiḍan, 'shaking itself, rising up', comes from the same root as intifāḍa, the name of the Palestinian uprising. The grass that shakes off the sand is doing exactly what the children are doing. ↩
  4. Mushāghib, 'troublemaker, rioter', is the kind of label an occupying power pins on those who resist it. The double exclamation mark underlines the irony: the usurper, himself the storm, calls the grass a troublemaker for daring to grow. ↩
  5. The sun that 'does not negotiate with the darkness' may be read as a pointed allusion to the negotiations between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in the 1990s (the Oslo process): light does not bargain with darkness, it dispels it. Ẓulumāt, 'darknesses', is the plural the Qurʾān uses for the darkness of error, set against the single light of truth. ↩
  6. Jerusalem is al-Quds in Arabic, literally 'the Holy'. The collection in which this poem stands takes its title from the city: For Your Eyes, O Jerusalem. ↩
  7. Al-Muʾākhāt means 'brotherhood', the bond of brotherhood in faith; the word recalls the pact of brotherhood the Prophet (PBUH) established between the Emigrants of Mecca and the Helpers of Medina. ↩

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