Ibrahim Naji (Egyptian): El-Atlaal (The Ruins)

1

من خيال فھوى اكان صرح .. الھوى هللا رحم ا فؤادي ي

مع روى.. اسقني واشرب على أط"له وارو عني طالما الد

من أحاديث الجوى اوحديث .. اأمسى خبر كيف ذاك الحب

و انطوىوھ اھم تواروا أبد .. م من ندامى حل ااط وبس

2

يت ومصباحي انطفا .. عصفھا دأ ا ليس يھ رياح يا نضب الز

ما وفى س وأفي العمر لنا.. وأنا أقتات من وھم عفا

Q الھوى مال وQ الجفن غفا.. بت على خنجره تقل كم

كلما غار به النصل عفا.. وإذا القلب على غفرانه

3

ه فى طعم ا كالموت أو قدر .. ا كان مني في دمي ياغرام

وقضينا العمر في مأتمه .. ما قضينا ساعة في عرسه

واغتصابي بسمة من فمه .. ما انتزاعي دمعة من عينيه

؟أين يمضي ھارب من دمه .. ليت شعري أين منه مھربي

4

قيق بفم عذب المناداة ر .. يتني ند لست أنساك وقد

من خ"ل الموج مدت لغريق.. ويد تمتد نحوي كيد

شكت ا_قدام أشواك الطريق .. أقدامي إذا لة بآه يا ق

؟أين في عينيك ذياك البريق .. يظما الساري له وبريق

5

وحم الط� ت ن م أد ف مى الش� ر بالذ .. نيت ي ر أغ وقد أنساك لست

ي محض روحأن ك لو ف أع لك .. أناي و ائ م في س روح أنت

بسرينا نبوحو نت.قى .. اھ ا ب قمم كن, ن ا م ا لھ ي

ل في السفوح. ظ ى الناس ر ون .. اھ اج ر أب ن ب م ي نستشف الغ

6

نا عندي أحزان الطفل أو .. ضحاه لم يزل في أنت حسن

وخيوط النور من نجم أفل .. وبقايا الظل من ركب رحل

نيا أشباح الملل يل وأرى حو .. بعيني سئم ألمح الد

وQت فوق أجداث ا_مل مع .. راقصات فوق أش"ء الھوى

1

O heart of mine, may your love rest in peace,

‘twas a fortress made of dreams now erased.

So quench my thirst, toast love’s memory upon my ruin,

and tell, long as tears do tell upon my face,

how love faded like old news,

a tale of the tales of love’s unfinished race,

a shroud for those dreamt and mourned;

their shroud folded and kept but they without a trace.

2

O winds that blow! Their storming never ends;

My lamp now drained, my light expired,

I live on crumbs of illusions passed,

holding a trust that others have retired.

I toss and turn upon love’s blade,

but my love won’t fade, and my eyes are oh so tired;

And though all this my heart forgave,

tis all repeated when again it strikes and expires.

3

Desire was in me, she was in my blood,

like a fated death or death tasted;

Not a single hour were we happily wed,

all our years were in her funeral wasted;

I dispossessed her eyes of just a single tear,

and from her mouth a single smile arrested.

How I wish that poetry could my escape provide,

but where can one flee from his own blood however he hasted?

4

I can’t forget you, how you called me

with a mouth so soft and whose voice agrees,

with a hand held out my way as if

thrust through a wave to one in drowning seas.

You fix my path and steer me right

should my feet complain as thorns increase;

With that shine travelers by night do seek,

Where is that shine within your eyes that keeps?

5

I can’t forget you, how you enticed me

at the height of mountain peaks and I addicted to aspire,

You’re the spirit in my sky, and I

as if mere spirit do ascend toward you to retire;

O the peaks that we did scale,

where we met and talked of the secrets we conspired,

and perceived from high upon our towers the unknown,

and saw people far below like mere shadows on the shire.

6

You are a beauty in full light of day unceasing,

while the sorrows of a fading dusk are all I’ve met,

like half shadows cast by caravans now leaving,

and the faintest threads of light from stars now set.

I glance upon the world with weary eyes

and see about me ghosts bored and yet

they dance upon the severed limbs of love

and howl ore the grave of hopes I could not get.

7

لم يكن وعدك إQ شبحا .. ذھب العمر ھباء فاذھبي

حاعليھا وم ت الحب ثب أ .. الدھر بھا د ذھب صفحة ق

بحاا ذ وأنا أحمل قلب .. اح نظري ضحكي ورقصي فر ا

حى.. اا طائر ويراني الناس روح والجوى يطحنني طحن الر

8

المقادير أرادت Q يدي ..كنت تمثال خيالي فھوى

حطمت تاجي وھدت معبدي.. ويحھا لم تدر ماذا حطمت

يا يبابا ما به من أحد .. يا حياة اليائس المنفرد

يا سكون ا_بد .. من نجي .. Qفحات ما بھا ايا قفار

9

فيه نبل وج"ل وحياء .. أين من عيني حبيب ساحر

ظالم الحسن شھي الكبرياء .. ااثق الخطوة يمشي ملك و

بى حر كأنفاس الر اھم الطرف كأح"م المساء س .. عبق الس

ماء .. مشرق الطلعة في منطقه لغة النور وتعبير الس

10

ت سناء وسنى .. أين مني مجلس أنت به فتنة تم

حائر منك دنا فراش و .. دم ووأنا حب وقلب

ونديم قدم الكاس لنا.. ل بينناوومن الشوق رس

نا.. وسقانا فانتفضنا لحظة لغبار آدمي مس

11

تحكم الحي وتطغى في دماه .. ي صولة الجسم التفنا قد عر

د وتعذيب إله سوط ج" .. ة في رعدھا وسمعنا صرخ

وأبينا الذل أن يغشى الجباه .. أمرتنا فعصينا أمرھا

وطردنا خلف أسوار الحياه .. حكم الطاغي فكنا في العصاه

7

My years are vanished as fine dust; so leave me then;

Your promise is a ghost and that effaced;

Ages have passed upon this solitary page,

Love was therein writ but now erased.

View my laughter and my jig with joy,

but deep within there lies my slaughtered heart encased,

Others think of me a soaring spirit but how

grinded am I by the mill of love and its relentless pace.

8

You were the statute I imagined but then fell to naught;

such was desired by the fates, not by my hand.

Woe to those fates, they know not what they have crushed—

my crown and my altar gone, but they don’t understand;

O sad and solitary life;

No one in sight, how desolate the land,

a desert wind and scorching too,

No soul with whom to speak, a silence endless in its span.

9

Where can I find that charming love of mine?

Nobility, modesty, and majesty acquired,

Each step is confident, her stride angelic to behold;

Unfair even in her beauty and her pride to be desired,

A charmed aroma she, like fields of breathing flowers,

An arrow shot from out the eye, like dreams in nights retired

In appearance shinning bright is she, and from her lips there

comes the language of light dressed in heavenly attire.

10

Where am I from your resting place,

that enchantment, fully lit and shinning

where all I am is love, and heart and blood,

and butterflies in flight—all these toward you combining?

And twixt us two my longing would a messenger be,

a partner at the bar with our raised glass confiding;

We drank and for a short while shook,

as we were in the dust of our humanity conspiring.

11

Our bodies launched their attack on us in full,

like tyrants in the blood they rule the living;

We heard a cry within their thunderous roar,

The snap of a flogger’s whip, a torture unforgiving;

Our bodies ordered us but we obeyed them not,

and refused upon our brow fate’s shameful bidding;

The great tyrants judged us but we would not

and so beyond the walls of life exiled for not submitting.

12

خور .. في الوعور يا لمنفيين ض" دميا بالشوك فيھا والص

روعة الQtم في المنفى الطھور .. فا كلما تقسو الليالي عر

رير .. طردا من ذلك الحلم الكبير ود والليل الض للحظوظ الس

نيا بنور .. يقبسان النور من روحيھما كلما قد ضنت الد

13

بى يول كثرت ح .. أمري عجبا أنت قد صيرت أطيار الر

د لسوى ليلى أبى.. فإذا قلت لقلبي ساعة قم نغر

غير عينيك وQ مطلبا.. تأبى لعيني مأربا ب ج ح

أنني أسدلت ھذي الحجبا.. أنت من أسدلھا Q تدعي

14

دعھا : فيرد القدر الساخر .. ولكم صاح بي اليأس انتزعھا

لم اطعھا اأنني ابصر شيئ .. لو يا لھا من خطة عمياء

ولي الويل إذا لم أتبعھا.. ولي الويل إذا لبيتھا

ة نفسي لم أبعھا.. قد حنت رأسي ولو كل القوى تشتري عز

15

طائر الشوق اغني ألمي ..أيكه ايوم ا زرت ياحبيب

وتجني القادر المحتكم .. لك إبطاء المدل المنعم

والثواني جمرات في دمي.. وحنيني لك يكوي أضلعي

مع لوقع القدم .. وأنا مرتقب في موضعي مرھف الس

12

O pair of exiles, lost in the roadless wild

Bled by thorns therein and cut upon the stones

When ‘ere the night the worse became they did learn

pure exile and the sweetest suffering moaned;

Exiled were they from that great dream

to fortunes black and blinded nights alone,

but drew they light required from out their own spirits

when life deprive them and its light was not shown.

13

My situation you made into a thing unbelievable;

Birds of the fields gathered round,

and if I told my heart, “For just a single hour

let’s sing without Layla,” its refusal would resound;

Veils do prevent the vision and pursuit

of all but your own eyes whatever else may surround;

‘Twas you who drew these curtains over me,

Don’t claim it was I who laid them down.

14

How often hopelessness did raise its voice, “Tare those veils down!”

But fate’s own irony replied, “Let them stay.”

O what a blind plan this is!

Should I see anything of it I will not obey;

But woe is me if I follow not,

and woe if I don’t follow in its way.

It bowed my head, but though all the powers that may be

offer a price for dignity I’m not selling mine away.

15

O lover! I visited her tree one day,

a bird of longing and desire I sing out my pain;

Your advice and grace both patient and divine,

steadfast as God is in his rule and reign;

While the longings I have for you brand me as your own,

Each tick of time a burning ember in my vein,

While in this my spot I sit and wait,

the steps of your approach to hear I lean and strain.