mā bayna mu‘taraki l-’aḥdāqi wal-muhajī |
’ana l-qatīlu bi-lā ’ithmin wa-lā ḥarajī |
wadda‘tu qabla l-hawā rūḥī li-mā naẓarat |
‘aynāya min ḥusni dhāka l-manẓari l-bahijī259 |
Particularly euphonious are lines 29–34:
tarāhu ’in ghāba ‘annī kullu jāriḥatin |
fī kulli ma‘nan laṭīfin rā’iqin bahijī |
fī naghmati l-‘ūdi wan-nāyi r-rakhīmi ’idhā |
ta’allafā bayna ’alḥānin mina l-hazajī |
wa-fī masāriḥi ghizlāni l-khamā’ili fī |
bardi l-’aṣā’ili wal-’iṣbāḥi fī l-balajī |
wa-fī masāqiṭi ’andā’i l-ghamāmi ‘alā |
bisāṭi nawrin mina l-’azhāri muntasijī |
wa-fī masāḥibi ’adhyāli n-nasīmi ’idhā |
’ahdā ’ilayya suḥayran ’aṭyaba l-’arajī |
wa-fī ltithāmiya thaghra l-ka’si murtashifan |
rīqa l-mudāmati fī muntazahin farijī |
Meter (al-basīṭ): XXSL XSL LLSL SSL / XXSL XSL LLSL SSL.
The Egyptian ‘Umar Ibn al-Fāriḍ (576/1181–632/1235) is one of the greatest mystical (Ṣūfī) poets in Arabic. He uses profane themes and imagery, taken from love poetry (as here) or Bacchic verse. The ultimate aim of the mystic is Union with God, through annihilation of the self. In their endless attempts to express the inexpressible, the mystic poets find many suitable motifs in secular love poetry, especially of the ‘Udhrite type, where the beloved is remote and the lover relishes his suffering. The following poem elaborates this theme in several paradoxes.
Amidst the battleground of eyes and souls
I’m slain, but without sin or guilt.260
I bade my soul farewell before I fell in love,261
after my eyes beheld that radiant sight.
O eyelids, justly sleepless on account of you,
in yearning, and a heart anguished with love,
And ribs wasted with love, their crookedness
straightened, almost, by the hot passion of my heart,
And streaming tears, in which I nearly drowned,
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had I not sighed hot breaths from passion’s fire!
Welcome to sicknesses because of you, that hid me from
myself:262 my proofs that in love’s court stand up.
Morning and evening I am sad because of you,
yet do not cry in anguish: “Misery, be gone!”
I long for every loving heart preoccupied with love,
for every tongue that speaks of love,
For every ear that to the slanderer263 is deaf,
and every eyelid that is not inclined to sleep:
Love’s passion cannot be if eyes are dry,
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nor any ardor if one’s yearnings are not stirred.
Torment me any way you wish except with being far from you,
and you’ll find me the truest lover, glad with all that pleases you.
Take what remains of what you’ve left of my last breath:
there is no good in love that spares one’s life.
Who’ll help me to destroy my spirit for the love
of a gazelle, sweet-natured, mingled with the souls?
Whoever dies in him for love will live, raised up
among the Lovers, in the highest rank.264
He’s veiled; were he to walk in darkness like his locks,
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his dazzling, beaming face would serve him for a lamp;
And if I wandered in the black night of his hair,
the bright dawn of his face would show me the right path.
Were he to breathe, musk would confess to those who know
its fragrance: “All my perfume spreads from him.”265
The years he turns toward me are like days, so short;
but if he turns away one day it is like years in length.
If he goes far away, then O my soul, depart!
If he is near and visits me, then O my eye, rejoice!266
Say to the one who blames me and reproaches me:
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Leave me alone and spare me your ill-judged advice!
For blame is baseness: none has ever been extolled for it;
and did you ever see a lover for his love lampooned?
My friend, I’m being kind, compassionate;267 I give
you freely my advice: don’t stop to turn to yonder tribe!268
O you with tranquil heart: don’t look at my soul’s comfort, but
keep safe your heart, beware of those bewitching eyes!
For him I’ve thrown off all restraint, cast off
all my acknowledged piety, all my accepted pilgrimage.
My passion’s face has whitened, loving him; the face
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of my rebuke on his account has blackened with clear proofs.
Blessed be God! How sweet his nature, which
has slain and then revived so many souls!
My ear loves those who keep reproaching me,
because I hear his name, but not the blame.
I’ve pity on the lightning when at night it claims to be
kin to his mouth, since it is shamed by his white teeth.269
When he is absent all my limbs see him
in every subtle, splendid, radiant thing:
In tones of lute and the melodious flute,
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when they combine to make their thrilling tunes;
In thickets where gazelles roam freely, in
cool afternoons and when the morning dawns;
In places where the dew drops from the clouds
on carpets made of blossom woven with flowers;
In places where the soft breeze drags its skirts,
and brings me, at daybreak, the sweetest scent;
And when I kiss the wine cup’s mouth and sip
the wine-saliva, in a pleasure ground.
I don’t know what it is to be a stranger far from home
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when he’s with me; I’m undisturbed wherever we may be.
That home is my home where my love is present, and
where he appears, the turning of the sandy dune is where I turn.270
Happy the riders traveling by night and you among them, when
they travel in a dawn that breaks from you!
And let them do whatever they want: they are the men
of Badr: they shall have no fear of any guilt.271
I beg, by my defiance of my slanderer, and my
obedience to the blaze that burns between my ribs:
Look at a heart that, for the love of you, has melted down,
40
and at a bloodshot eye, submerged in tears!
Have mercy on my hopes that falter, my reverting to
my self-deceiving wishes for a promise of relief!
Have pity on my humble craving for a “Will it be?” or a “Perhaps”;
grant me relief in my constricted breast!
Welcome to that event that I do not deserve: the words
of him who brings glad tidings of relief after despair:
“Good news for you! Take off what you are wearing,272 for
you have been mentioned There,273 despite your crookedness.”