يا ليته بيَ يرفق!

لا تفطميني عن هواك حبيبتي
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:

كلانا يحاول أن يخلق سببًا، أو يشعل شرارة تكون للحديث مفتاحًا ثم التصافي…. وكلٌّ ينتظر الآخر، رغم السرير الواحد واللحاف الواحد.

أَنْفَاسُنَا تَتَلَاقَىوَالْأَنْفُ بِالْأَنْفِ مُطْبَقْ
شِفَاهُنَا لَاهِثَاتٌفِي لَهْفَةٍ تَتَشَوَّقْ
وَالدِّفْءُ تَحْتَ لِحَافٍمُوَحَّدٍ.. يَتَطَرَّقْ
بَيْنَ الْقُلُوبِ حَنِينٌوَالْجِسْمُ بِالْجِسْمِ مُلْصَقْ
وَالصَّمْتُ ثَمَّ حَدِيثٌمِنَ الْهَوَى لَيْسَ يُنْطَقْ
أَحْلَى مِنَ النُّطْقِ لَكِنْلُغَاهُ فِي الْحُبِّ أَسْبَقْ
كُلٌّ يَوَدُّ لِيُلْقِي..عِبْئًا عَلَى النَّفْسِ أَطْبَقْ
أَشْجَى مِنَ الْحُزْنِ أَنْكَىمِنَ الْجِرَاحِ وَأَعْمَقْ
فِي ذَاتِ نَفْسِي حَنِينٌيَكْوِي الْفُؤَادَ وَيُحْرِقْ
وَفِيهِ مِنْ مِثْلِ مَا بِيفَمَنْ تُرَاهُ سَيَسْبِقْ؟
أَنَا عَيِيتُ وَلَكِنْيَا لَيْتَهُ بِيَ يَرْفُقْ!!

نيروبي – كينيا
1992م

If Only She Would Be Gentle with Me!1

Each of us is trying to find a reason, or to strike a spark, that might open the way to talk and then to making up… And each is waiting for the other, though we share one bed and one blanket.

  1. Our breaths come together,
    nose pressed close to nose.
  2. Our lips are breathless,
    yearning, as eagerness grows.
  3. And warmth, beneath one blanket
    we share… creeps in and flows.
  4. Between our hearts, a longing,
    and body to body pressed close.
  5. And the silence there is a speech
    of love that no lips disclose,
  6. sweeter than speech; and yet,
    in love, its language comes first2.
  7. Each of us longs to cast off…
    a burden clamped down on the soul,
  8. more mournful than grief, more cruel
    than wounds, and deeper than those.
  9. Deep in myself is a longing
    that brands the heart and burns,
  10. and in her is the same as in me:
    so who will go first? Who knows?
  11. I am tongue-tied3, but oh,
    if only she'd be gentle with me!!

Nairobi, Kenya, 1992

Notes

  1. The Arabic uses the masculine pronoun for the other person (laytahu, 'if only he', and fīhi, 'in him'). Classical Arabic love poetry customarily speaks of the beloved woman in the masculine, out of discretion and convention. The introduction places the two in one bed under one blanket, waiting to make up, so the English uses 'she'. ↩
  2. Lughāhu fī al-ḥubbi asbaq: silence 'is quicker' or 'comes first' in love. Before either of them has said a word, their silence has already said everything. The 'yet' marks the paradox: the silence is not speech, and still it outruns speech. ↩
  3. ʿAyītu means 'I am unable, at a loss', and the word is used especially of failing to find words (ʿiyy, faltering of the tongue). He cannot find the way to break the silence, so he hopes the first gentle move will come from her. ↩

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