The Way of the Mantle (Nahj al-Burdah) by Aḥmad Shawqī
1. On the plain, between the ban-tree and the mountain,
a white gazelle-fawn
Has found it licit in forbidden months
to shed my blood.
2. With the two eyes of a wild calf
fate shot a lion.
O [gazelle] that dwells on the plain,
[slay the lion] that dwells in the thicket!
3. When [the gazelle-fawn] gazed [upon me],
my soul spoke saying:
"Alas, your side has been struck
by a well-aimed arrow.
4. I denied [my soul] and hid the arrow
in my liver/heart.
For me, the wounds of lovers
cause no pain.
5. You have been endowed/blessed with the most generous
of human virtues,
If you are one who seeks excuses for
the sins of others.
6. O you who blame me for this love,
though love is fate,
If passion had so emaciated you, you would not
have blamed and censured [me].
7. You have lent me your ear,
but it is unaware;
For often, though a man can hear,
his heart is deaf.
8. O you with drowsy eye, you've never
tasted passion.
You've kept your pining [lover] awake,
preserving passion, so sleep!
9. A thousand times I would be your ransom,
and your night-phantom's, too.
Though [passion] makes you stingy [with your love to me],
and your phantom generous.
10. Your phantom came [to me] by night,
found a bleeding wound, and healed it.
How many are the gifts that dreams
to lovers bring!
11. From among the [maidens] that sway
like ban-trees on a hill, slender as spears,
Are those who play with my soul
and spill my blood.
12. Those who reveal [faces] like full moons
in the late morning,
Who stir the late morn's sun to jealousy
with their jewels and necklaces.
13. Those who slay with eyelids
sick with languor,
And sickness has been known
To lead to death.
14. Those who stumble over men's hearts,
and there is nothing
That can steady the coquettish stumbling
of their gait.
15. Those whose burning cheeks glow
to reveal
An enchantment that inflames
men's hearts/livers. [=sharḥ]
or:
Those who inflame [men's] cheeks
till they glow and reveal
The infatuation that inflames
their hearts/livers. [=me]
16. Those who bear the banner of beauty,
however varied
Its forms; yet beauty is one
and indivisible.
17. Every [maiden] white or tawny
delights the eye,
For beauty is found in both the white gazelle
and [tawny] mountain goat.
18. They are frightened by a raised glance,
which is strange,
Since by [merely] pointing their ʿanam[-like fingers],
they can capture the lion.
19. I abased my cheek [to the gazelles]
and divided my heart [among them] in the hills;
In their coverts they were frightened by it
and on the rises.
20. O daughter of the full-maned [lion]
whose lair is protected,
Shall I meet you in the forest,
or in the palace?
21. I didn't know,
till his abode appeared,
That death and desire dwelt
in the same tent.
22. Who made a [swaying] bough grow
from a male/sharp sword?
And drew forth a whilte gazelle
from a ravening lion?
23. Between you [my beloved] and me
the way is blocked by brown [spears],
And likewise by an ʿUdhrī veil
of chastity.
24. I never visited your abode except
in the folds of slumber;
Your abode, for him who desires you,
is more distant than Iram.
25. O my soul, your worldly abode
conceals every tearful thing,
Though it reveal to you
the beauty of a smile.
26. Break her teeth [lit: mouth] with your godliness
each time she laughs/smiles,
Just as you break the speckled viper's fangs
to spill its venom.
27. Betrothed, as long as mankind has existed,
betrothing;
From the beginning of time, she has never been
widowed or without a spouse.
28. Time fades away
but her evil deeds remain
A wound to Adam that forever
makes him weep.
29. Don't be concerned with her gifts [lit. fruits]
or with her crimes,
For death with flowers is just like
death with coals.
30. How many a man sleeps and does not see her,
though she's awake;
Were it not for hopes and dreams,
he would not sleep.
31. Sometimes she bestows on you
prosperity and health;
Another time she sets you down in the abode
of disease and misery.
32. How often has he led you astray!
For when a man's sight is veiled
If he comes upon the bitter ṣāb he drinks;
if he finds ʿalqam, he grazes.
33. O woe is me for my soul!
She is struck with terror
By the black pages of evil deeds on
her white forelocks.
34. I urged her [like a she-camel] to the lush pasturage
of disobedience and sin,
And I did not take the precaution of obedience
against indigestion.
35. She yearned, thirsting after the traces
of delights, seeking them;
For the soul, when it is called to youthful passion,
yearns/thirsts for it.
36. For your own good, you must return
to morality;
Straighten out your soul with morals
and it will follow the straight path.
37. It is best for the soul
to graze on wholesome pasture grounds;
The worst thing for the soul
is to graze on noxious grass.
38. The soul, when it is emboldened by
delight and passion,
Is as unruly as [fiery] steeds
when they champ at their bits.
***
39. If my sin is too great/grave
to be forgiven,
Yet I have hope that God
will grant me refuge. [omitted: best]/ place me in His protection.
40. I will place my hope, when the Protector appears
in all His might,
In [Muḥammad,] the dispeller of sorrow and cares
In both abodes.
41. When I humble myself before him to ask
for the most precious [gift of] intercession,
What I ask for will be nothing to him
but a paltry thing.
42. And when the pious man presents himself
with his good deeds,
I will present before him
tears of repentance/ my repentant tears.
43. I will cling to the door
of the Prince of Prophets,
For he who holds tight to the key of the door of God,
will prosper.
44. For every virtue, benefit and favor,
whether performed [lit. accepted] [freely]
Or compelled/required,
comes from Him.
45. I will hold tight to a rope of praise for him,
which will avail me on a day
When bonds of lineage and kinship
are on no avail.
46. My poetry, when I praise [the Prophet],
disdains Zuhayr,
And the dew of Harim's gifts cannot compare
to the downpour of bounty I receive.
47. Muḥammad, who is the choice of the Creator,
His mercy [to mankind],
God's desire from among creation
and mankind.
48. The master of the water-trough on the day
when [even] God's messengers are supplicants,
When the time has come for drink
And even trusted Jibrīl is thirsty.
49. His majesty and his glory are [like]
the sun rising,
For the celestial body is in its sphere and its light
Illuminates the world.
50. The stars [in the heavens]
fell short
Of his ancestors' lofty dominion
and haughty mien.
51. [His forebears' lineage] is traced to him
so they increased in nobility among mankind;
How often is the root traced in glory
to a branch!
52. In the lofty heights of purity there contained him
before [the time of] his forebears
Two lights that took the place
of loins and womb.
53. When [the monk] Baḥīrā beheld him,
he said, "We know/recognize him
From the names and signs
we have preserved."
54. Ask Mt. Ḥirāʾ and the Holy Spirit [Jibrīl],
whether they knew
The guarded secret that was concealed
[from view].
55. How often was the flood-plain of Mecca
honored
By his coming and going
at morning and at evening?
56. How often did Ibn ʿAbd Allāh [Muḥammad] find
seclusion more to be desired
Than the company
of friends and servants.
57. He waited u at night for inspiration
before it came down to him,
For he who is given glad tidings
is marked with the sing of goodness.
58. When the Companions, out of thirst,
called out for water
A vessel-filling stream gushed forth
from your two hands.
59. There shaded him, then came
to seek his shade [= protection],
A cloud that was pulled along by the best
of continuous rains.
60. Love for the Messenger of God
was given to drink
To the cloistered monks of the monastery
and the hermit monks of mountain tops.
61. For if one's character is gentle
it can sway
Both obdurate rocks and
all things that have breath.
62. A voice called out [to Muḥammad], "Recite!'
Great is God who said [these words],
For before they were said to [Muḥammad]
they had never crossed any lips.
63. There[upon] he called out
to the Merciful,
And the ears of Mecca were filled
With the sanctity/holiness of his voice.
64. So don't ask about Quraysh,
how great was their confusion
And how they fled [in panic]
to plain and mountain.
65. They asked each other about this great event
that had befallen them
And thrown old men and youths
Into confusion [lit. = madness].
66. O you who are ignorant of the Guide
and of his Call,
Do you not know the rank
of the great and truthful man?
67. You nicknamed him the "trustworthy" one
of the tribe in his youth,
And the speech of the trustworthy man
should not be suspect.
68. In beauty he exceeds the moon,
and in glory the prophets,
How great then are his form
and character? ??
69. The [other] prophets brought miracles
that lapsed,
But you have brought us wisdom that
Is never cut off.
70. His miracles, however much time passes,
remain new;
Yet the splendor of antiquity and age
adorns them.
71. A single ennobled/exalted word from him
may be enough
To guide you toward
truth and piety and mercy.
72. O most eloquent of all of those
that utter ḍād,
Your speech is [pure] honey to him
who tastes and understands.
73. With the jewels of [your speech] you decked
the unadorned neck of eloquence
In every prose utterance that bore
the beauty of poetry.
74. With every noble word
that you utter
You revive the hearts [of men],
you revive dead aspirations.
75. The glad tidings of the Guide and his birth
spread east and west
The way light travels
in the darkness.
76. [The news] snatched the hearts' blood
from the Arab despots
And made fly [from fear] the souls
of the Persian/foreign tyrants.
77. The battlements of Īwān Kisrā were so alarmed
at [the news],
That the cracked from the shock of the truth,
not the shock of bold warriors advancing.
78. When you came
mankind was in such chaos
They were like idols infatuated
with idols.
79. And the earth was
full of oppression
And subject to every despot
who held sway over mankind.
80. The Persian sovereign
oppressed his subjects;
Pride made the Byzantine Caesar blind and deaf
[to his people's needs].
81. The tortured the worshippers of God
on grounds of suspicion,
And slaughtered them
like sacrificial sheep.
82. Among mankind, the strong
shed the blood of the weak,
Like lions [killing] sheep
or whales [killing] minnows.
83. God conveyed you by night
to the Farthest Mosque,
Where His angels and Messengers stood
[gathered to receive you].
84. When you strode in
they thronged round their master,
Like planets round the full moon,
or troops around their flag.
85. Each man of rank among them
prayed behind you, followed you in prayer,
For whoever follows God's beloved
will triumph.
86. You traversed the heavens
or what lies above them
On a luminous mount
with a bridle of pearl.
87. You had a mount that was
in might and nobility
Neither from among the steeds
nor the hard-stepping she-camels.
88. [It is of] the will of the Maker Creator
and of His make,
For the power of God is above
all suspicion and doubt.
89. [You rode Burāq] until you reached
a heaven to which
No wing can fly,
no foot can tread.
90. [A voice] said, "Let every prophet [stand]
according to rank,"
And "O Muḥammad, this is [God's] Throne,
so touch it!"
91. You have written out the sciences
of [both] religion and the world,
O reader of the Tablet!
O holder of the Pen!
92. Some among them you enclosed
in secrecy,
And the stores of knowledge and wisdom
were revealed to you.
93. [Your] closeness [to God] multiplied
beyond reckoning
The necklaces of favor bestowed upon you
and crowns of grace.
94. Then ask the band of polytheists
searching [lit. = pasturing] round the cave
--were it not for pursuing God's Chosen One,
they would not have been searching—
95. Did the see the radiant trace
of hear the whisper
Of voices glorifying God
or reciting the Qur'ān?
96. Did the spider's web/weave seem
like a forest to them?
The downy hovering [doves]
like carrion-vultures?
97. So they turned back,
while the faces of the earth cursed them,
Like falsehood fleeing from
the majesty of truth.
98. But for God's hand,
the two companions would not be safe;
But for His eye [watching out for] the pillar of religion,
it would not still stand.
99. They were concealed and covered
by the wing of God;
For whomever God's wing enfolds
will not be harmed.
100. O Aḥmad of goodness, I have the dignity
of being named for you,
For how can one named for the Messenger
not reach exalted rank?
101. The panegyrists and the lords of passion [= Sufis]
are all followers
Of the Master of the redolent Mantle [=al-Būṣīrī],
who takes precedence.
102. His praise for you [spring from]
sincere love and passion,
For true love dictates
true words.
103. God is my witness, I would not [dare]
compete with him,
For who could rival the rainfall
of a pouring widespread cloud?
104. I am merely one of those
who emulate him,
And [surely] he who tries to emulate your saint
is not to be rebuked or blamed.
105. [Praise of the Prophet] is a [spiritual] station
acquired from the Most Merciful;
Its aweful dignity would leave even the [eloquent] Saḥbān
struck dumb.
106. The full moon falls short of you