ما لقلبي

أوتار مبعثرة
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
مَا لِقَلْبِي.. سَلَكَ الْحُبُّ بِهِ .. مَا قَدْ سَلَكْ
وَثَوَى فِيمَا سِوَاهُ .. دُونَ عِلْمٍ .. قَدْ هَلَكْ
تَيَّمَتْهُ غَادَةٌ .. فِي الْحُسْنِ أَبْهَى .. مِنْ مَلَكْ!
لَا تَسَلْنِي كَيْفَ حُبِّي، فَهْوَ كُلِّي قَدْ مَلَكْ
فَخُذِي نَبْضِي وَرُوحِي وَحُطَامِي .. فَهْوَ لَكْ
يَا مَلَاكًا .. جَلَّ مَنْ صَاغَ الْبَهَا .. إِذْ أَكْمَلَكْ!
أَنْتِ نُورٌ .. يَبْعَثُ الْإِشْرَاقَ فِي .. لَيْلِ الْحَلَكْ
وَأَنَا صَبٌّ .. يَدُورُ الْعُمْرَ فِي .. هَذَا الْفَلَكْ
فَاعْذِرِي بَوْحِي .. إِذَا مَا شَوْقُ قَلْبِي .. أَخْجَلَكْ
يَا فُؤَادِي .. أَيُّ سِحْرٍ .. مِنْ لِحَاظٍ .. أَذْهَلَكْ
كُنْتَ تَمْضِي .. لَا تُبَالِي .. أَيُّ هَمْسٍ .. بَدَّلَكْ؟
كَمْ تُدَارِي .. مَا تُقَاسِي .. وَحَنِينٌ .. أَثْقَلَكْ
لَا تُكَابِرْ .. أَنْتَ تَدْرِي .. أَنَّ بُعْدًا .. أَذْبَلَكْ
كُلَّمَا رَقَّ نَسِيمٌ .. خِلْتَ طَيْفًا .. قَبَّلَكْ
وَإِذَا غَنَّى هَزَارٌ .. هَاجَ وَجْدٌ .. زَلْزَلَكْ
لَا تُصَدِّقْ كُلَّ عَذْلٍ .. رُبَّ نُصْحٍ .. ضَلَّلَكْ
كَمْ حَسِبْتَ الْحُبَّ مَوْتًا .. وَهْوَ سِرٌّ .. أَكْمَلَكْ
نَمْ قَلِيلًا .. يَا فُؤَادِي .. رُبَّ حُلْمٍ .. وَاصَلَكْ
لِلَّذِي تَهْوَى .. وَتَرْجُو وَصْلَهُ .. قَدْ أَوْصَلَكْ
وَاكْتُمِ الْحُلْمَ .. إِذَا مَا .. ضَوْءُ فَجْرٍ .. سَاءَلَكْ

What Ails My Heart?

  1. What ails my heart? Love has led it down a road, and what a road1!
  2. It made its dwelling in what was not itself, and perished, never knowing.
  3. A maiden has enslaved it, lovelier, more radiant than an angel2!
  4. Do not ask me how my love is: it has taken possession of all of me.
  5. So take my heartbeat, take my soul, my wreckage: it is all for you.
  6. O angel! Glorious is He who fashioned splendour when He perfected you!
  7. You are a light that wakes the sunrise in the pitch-black night,
  8. and I, an ardent lover, circle all my life within this orbit.
  9. So forgive my confession, if my heart’s longing has made you blush.
  10. O my heart3, what magic in her glances has bewildered you?
  11. You used to go your way without a care: what whisper changed you?
  12. How much you hide of what you suffer, while a yearning weighs you down!
  13. Don’t put on a brave face: you know that distance has withered you.
  14. Whenever a breeze grows soft, you fancy that a phantom kissed you.
  15. And when a nightingale sings, a passion stirs and shakes you to your core.
  16. Do not believe every reproach4: many a counsel has misled you.
  17. How often you thought love was death, when it’s a secret that perfected you5!
  18. Sleep a little, my heart: many a dream has kept its tryst with you,
  19. and brought you to the one you love, whose union you pursue.
  20. And keep the dream a secret when the light of dawn questions you6.

Notes

  1. Salaka al-ḥubbu bihi mā qad salak, literally ‘love has taken it along what it took’: the vagueness is deliberate (ibhām), a way of magnifying what cannot be described. The next verse continues the thought: the heart went to live ‘in what was not itself’, that is, in the beloved, and was lost there without knowing. ↩
  2. The rhyme plays on identical words of different meaning (jinās tāmm): malak, ‘angel’, here, and malak, ‘it possessed’, in the next verse, followed by lak, ‘yours’, in the verse after. The heart is possessed by an angel, and so belongs to her. ↩
  3. Here the speaker turns from the beloved to address his own heart (iltifāt), and speaks to it for the rest of the poem. ↩
  4. ʿAdhl is the reproach of the ʿādhil, the censurer, a stock figure of Arabic love poetry who blames the lover and urges him to give up his love. ↩
  5. Akmalaka, ‘perfected you’, repeats the verb of verse 6, where God ‘perfected’ the beloved. The same word now describes what love does to the heart: the beloved was perfected by her Maker, and the lover is perfected by loving her. ↩
  6. The phantom of the beloved (ṭayf) visits by night and must vanish at dawn, and lovers are bound by the old code of kitmān, keeping love secret. The dawn is pictured as a questioner who would expose the night’s encounter. ↩

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