ماذا دهى الحسناء

أوتار مبعثرة
ترجمة إنجليزية
شارك:
مَاذَا دَهَى الْحَسْنَاءَ؟ تَغْفُو وَحْدَهَاتَجْفُو وَثِيرَ الْفُرْشِ، تُجْهِدُ قَدَّهَا!
بِحَرِيرِهَا اسْتَلْقَتْ عَلَى كَنَبٍ وَلَمْتَتَذَكَّرِ الْعَانِي لِتُخْفِيَ وَجْدَهَا!
هَلْ أَغْضَبُوهَا؟ لَا أَبَا لِأَبِيهِمُو!هَذَا الْجَمَالُ الْمَحْضُ يُجْثَى عِنْدَهَا!
أَمْ أَنَّهَا أُسِرَتْ بِقَلْبٍ أَخْلَصَتْفِيهِ الْهَوَى مَحْضًا وَأَخْفَتْ وُدَّهَا؟
فَغَفَتْ لِتَحْلُمَ بِالْحَبِيبِ بِنَوْمِهَاوَاسْتَأْثَرَتْ بِعِنَاقِهِ هِيَ وَحْدَهَا

What Has Befallen the Fair One?

  1. What has befallen the fair one? Shunning the soft beds,
    wearying her slender form, she dozes off alone!
  2. In her silks she has lain down on a couch, and given
    no thought to the captive lover, to keep her passion unknown!
  3. Did they anger her? May their fathers have no fathers1!
    This is sheer beauty, beauty before which one must kneel!
  4. Or has she been taken captive by a heart to which she gave
    her love, pure and whole, and then kept her affection hidden?
  5. So she dozed off, to dream in her sleep of her beloved,
    and kept his embrace all to herself, alone2.

Notes

  1. Lā abā li-abīhim, literally 'may their father have no father', is an old Arabic exclamation. The form lā abā laka, 'may you have no father', could be a curse or, as often, a mere cry of astonishment or mock indignation; doubling it to 'their father's father' makes the outburst playful, as the poet pretends to rage at whoever upset her. ↩
  2. The last word, waḥdahā, 'alone', repeats the end of the first verse. There she seemed to be sleeping 'alone', neglected and sad; now the reason is revealed: she sleeps alone so that, in her dream, she may keep her beloved's embrace all to herself. ↩

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