متى؟

أوتار مبعثرة
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
مَتَى يَلْصَقُ الصَّدْرُ الْحَنُونُ بِمِثْلِهِلِيَسْمَعَ مِنْهُ النَّبْضَ وَالْقَلْبُ يَخْفِقُ؟
مَتَى أَرْشُفُ الثَّغْرَ الْعَذُوبَ رُضَابَهُوَيَرْتَاحُ فَوْقَ الْخَصْرِ كَفٌّ وَمِرْفَقُ
وَتَسْبَحُ بَيْنَ الشَّعْرِ حُرُّ أَنَامِلِيوَتَعْبَثُ مَا شَاءَتْ، وَتَحْنُو وَتَرْفُقُ
وَأَلْثِمُ تَحْتَ الْجِيدِ نَشْوَانَ لَاهِثًاوَتَلْفَحُنِي الْأَنْفَاسُ مِنْهَا فَتُغْدِقُ
وَتَعْبَثُ حَلْمَاتُ الثُّدِيِّ بِنِدِّهَامُدَاعِبَةً أَيَّانَ بِالصَّدْرِ تَلْصَقُ

When?1

  1. When will the tender breast press close against its like,
    to hear the pulse within it, while the heart is fluttering?
  2. When shall I sip the nectar2 of the sweet mouth,
    while hand and elbow on the waist are resting,
  3. and my free fingertips swim through the hair,
    and play at will, so tender and caressing,
  4. and I kiss below the throat, drunk and breathless,
    while her breath blows hot on me3, and floods me, pouring,
  5. and nipples tease their match in play,
    each time the breast against the breast is pressing?

Notes

  1. The whole poem is one long question. The opening 'when?' (matā) is repeated at the start of verse 2 and then governs every clause that follows, joined by 'and', so that each image is another part of the same longing question. It is a question of yearning, not a request for a date. ↩
  2. Al-ruḍāb is the moisture of the beloved's mouth, a conventional image in classical Arabic love poetry, where it is likened to honey, wine or musk. ↩
  3. Talfaḥunī is used of a hot wind that scorches the face; tughdiq, of rain that falls in abundance. Her breath is at once burning and generous. ↩

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