لي أن أهنيك!!

لا تفطميني عن هواك حبيبتي
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:

تهنئة الأخ عبد الفتاح محمد الهادي في يوم زفافه.

لِيَ الْخَيْلُ صَاهِلَةً فِي الْمَدَىبِأَلْفِ قَصِيدٍ .. تَحَدَّى الرَّدَى
رَهِيفًا عَلَى السَّمْعِ فِي رِقَّةٍخَفِيفًا عَلَى الْقَلْبِ إِنْ أُنْشِدَا
لِيَ الشِّعْرُ فِي كُلِّ بِكْرِ الْمَعَانِيفَيُرْوِي الظِّمَاءَ وَيَجْلُو الصَّدَى
كَمِثْلِ الصَّلِيلِ بِسَاحِ الْوَغَىوَفِي الْعُرْسِ كَالطَّيْرِ إِنْ غَرَّدَا
فَلِي أَنْ أُغَنِّيكَ لِي أَنْ أُهَنِّيــكَ مِنْ دُونِ كُلِّ الْوَرَى مُفْرَدَا
وَلِي أَنْ أُبَارِكَ مِنْكَ الْفُؤَادَوَلِي أَنْ أُصَافِحَ مِنْكَ الْيَدَا
فَتًى كُنْتَ .. مَا فَلَّ مِنْ عَزْمِهِعَصِيُّ الشَّدَائِدِ فَاسْتَأْسَدَا
وَلَكِنَّ ظَبْيَ الْحِمَى إِنْ بَدَتْبِدَلٍّ وَغُنْجٍ سَبَتْ سَيِّدَا(1)
رَمَتْكَ .. وَيَا سَعْدَ مَنْ قَدْ رَمَتْهُلِيَسْعَدَ بِالْوَصْلِ حُلْوَ النَّدَى
فَصِرْتَ بِهَا بَعْدَ أَنْ قَفَّصَتْكَبِأَقْفَاصِهَا أَسَدًا أَصْيَدَا
وَصِرْتَ ابْتِدَاءً بِلَا مُنْتَهًىوَكُنْتَ انْتِهَاءً بِلَا مُبْتَدَا
وَكُنْتَ كَنَحْلٍ بِلَا زَهْرَةٍوَهَا لَكَ مِنْ كُلِّ زَهْرٍ نَدَى
وَكُنْتَ كَطَيْرٍ بِلَا أَيْكَةٍيُرَفْرِفُ فِي الْجَوِّ أَنَّى اغْتَدَى
وَهَا هِيَ ضَمَّتْكَ فِي أَيْكِهَايُنَاغِيكَ مَبْسِمُهَا بِالنِّدَا
تَقُولُ «بِرَبِّكَ مَاذَا تُرِيدُبِدُنْيَاكَ حَتَّى أَكُونَ الْفِدَا؟»
كَفَاكَ .. فَصُنْهَا .. فَإِنَّ الْغَزَالَ شَرُودٌ .. إِذَا هُوَ قَدْ شُرِّدَا
سِيَاسَتُهَا كِلْمَةٌ حُلْوَةٌتُرَدَّدُ فِي السَّمْعِ تَجْلُو الصَّدَا
تَفُكُّ لَكَ الْيَوْمَ أَبْوَابَهَاوَبَابُ الْهَوَى قَبْلُ قَدْ أُوصِدَا
  1. (1) «ظبيُ الحمى» مذكّر وأُسند إليه «بدت/سبت» مؤنثًا؛ حُمل على المعنى (المحبوبة)، ولو قيل «ظبية» انكسر الوزن

ممباسا – كينيا
1996م

Mine to Wish You Joy!1

Congratulations to my brother Abdulfattah Mohamed al-Hadi on his wedding day.

  1. Mine are the horses2 that neigh through the distance,
    in a thousand poems that hold death at bay,
  2. delicate, tender, and soft on the ear,
    and light on the heart when they're chanted aloud.
  3. Mine is the verse of each virgin idea3:
    it slakes the thirsty and burnishes rust4 away.
  4. It rings like the clash of swords on the field,
    and at weddings it sings as a bird sings its song.
  5. So mine is to sing to you, mine to wish you joy1,
    singled out from all mankind, alone, today.
  6. And mine is to bless your heart,
    and mine is to clasp your hand.
  7. A young man you were, and no stubborn ordeal
    could notch your resolve5, and you grew lion-bold.
  8. But the gazelle of the sanctuary6, when she appears
    in coquetry and languor, makes a lord her prey (1).
  9. She shot you7, and happy the man she has shot,
    to delight in union with one whose dew is sweet!
  10. And so, through her, when she'd caged you in her cages,
    you became a lion, head held high8.
  11. You have become a beginning with no end,
    where once you were an end with no beginning9.
  12. You were like a bee without a flower;
    now, see, from every flower the dew comes your way.
  13. You were like a bird without a grove,
    fluttering through the air wherever it flew at break of day.
  14. And here she has gathered you into her grove,
    and her smiling lips coo to you, and call,
  15. saying: “By your Lord, what is it you want
    in this world of yours, that my life may be the price I pay?”
  16. Let that be enough! So guard her well: the gazelle,
    once startled to flight, will bolt10, and will not stay.
  17. The way to rule her is a sweet word
    repeated in her ear, that burnishes the rust4 away.
  18. Today she unbolts her doors for you,
    though the door of love was bolted until today.
  • (1) “The gazelle of the sanctuary” (ẓaby al-ḥimā) is masculine, yet the verbs badat (“she appears”) and sabat (“she takes captive”) are feminine. The construction follows the meaning, the beloved woman; had the feminine ẓabya been used, the metre would have broken.

Mombasa, Kenya, 1996

Notes

  1. The title and verse 5 rest on a play of sound (jinās) between an ughanniyaka, 'that I sing to you', and an uhanniyaka, 'that I congratulate you', which differ by a single letter. Lī an, 'it is mine to …, I have the right to …', repeated through verses 1 to 6, is the proud self-assertion (fakhr) of the poet claiming the privilege of celebrating his brother. ↩
  2. The poems are pictured as war-horses neighing across the open distance, an image of reach, vigour and fame. It recalls al-Mutanabbi's famous boast, 'The horses, the night and the desert know me'. ↩
  3. Bikr al-maʿānī, 'virgin meanings', are original ideas that no poet has touched before, a term of classical Arabic criticism for fresh invention. ↩
  4. Yajlū al-ṣadā plays on two words. Ṣadā is thirst, which fits 'quenches the thirsty'; ṣadaʾ, spelled almost the same, is rust, and jalā, 'to polish', is the verb used for burnishing rust from a sword or a mirror. Poetry both quenches thirst and polishes the heart clean. Verse 17 repeats the phrase: a sweet word burnishes the rust from the bride's heart. ↩
  5. Mā falla min ʿazmihi: falla is to notch or blunt a sword's edge, so resolve is pictured as a blade that no hardship could dent. Istaʾsada means 'he became a lion, grew lion-hearted'. ↩
  6. Ẓaby al-ḥimā, 'the gazelle of the protected pasture', is a stock figure of the beloved in Arabic love poetry: graceful, shy and out of reach, as a gazelle in a guarded sanctuary cannot be hunted. The poet's own note on the grammar of this verse is translated at the end of the poem. ↩
  7. She 'shot' him with the arrows of her glances, the classical image of the beloved's eyes as an archer. Ḥulw al-nadā, 'sweet of dew', can describe her lips, and nadā also means generosity, so union with her is both sweet and bountiful. ↩
  8. The verse is a paradox. The lion is caged, yet caged he becomes more a lion than ever: aṣyad is a lion or a king who carries his head high in pride. Marriage, which seems captivity, has made him a man of standing. ↩
  9. Ibtidāʾ and intihāʾ are 'beginning' and 'end', and mubtadaʾ, 'starting-point', is also the grammatical subject of a sentence. Before marriage his life was an end that led nowhere, a close with no opening; now it is an opening onto an endless future. ↩
  10. Al-ghazāl sharūd: the gazelle is by nature quick to bolt, and once frightened off (shurrida) she will not easily return. The advice to the groom is to guard his bride with gentleness. Kafāka, 'let that suffice you', means that such devotion is all a man could ask. ↩

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