Arabic Poems- Tranlslated by A Z Foreman- Poems Found in Translation

Poems Found In Translation: “ˁAbÄ«d bin Al-Abraá¹£: Lament for his People in Rawḥān (From Arabic)”

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ˁAbÄ«d bin Al-Abraá¹£: Lament for his People in Rawḥān (From Arabic) Posted: 22 May 2015 12:55 PM PDT The poetry attributed to the pre-Islamic poet ˁAbÄ«d bin Al-Abraá¹£, like that attributed to Al-Muhalhil, is traditionally reckoned by medieval commentators to be among the very earliest to survive. Judging by the fact that his most famous of poems  (which I am also in the process of translating) has an anomalous meter that falls outside the meters allowable in classical khalÄ«lian prosody, as well as the fairly high frequency of anomalous syntactic constructions and unusual vocabulary of most of his work (anomalous and unusual, that is, from the point of view of the later and better-understood stages of Arabic) there is no reason to disagree with them on this point, at least with regard to the bulk of the material. Fortunately for the modern reader of Early Arabic (or, at least, fortunately for me) ˁAbÄ«d's language is often as moving as it is difficult, the more so thanks to his most frequent subject: the disaster that befell his tribe, the BanÅ« Asad. The nature of the disaster remains unspecified in the poems and therefore unknown to us, but judging by the evidence from the poems it would have involved some sort of attack by superior forces (presumably one of the sedentary Arab kingdoms) which left many of the BanÅ« Asad dead, and forced most of the rest to flee much of their former territory.   The historical reality underlying the poetry is murky and probably will never be cleared up, barring an extraordinary fortuitous discovery by Arabian archaeologists (we have inscriptional evidence attesting to Lakhmid action against the BanÅ« Asad, but none that I know of dated to even remotely the right period.) The information on ˁAbÄ«d's life accompanying the poetry in Islamic literary compendia does not help much, as it has every sign of being based more on the poems than anything else, though it may contain some refraction of general truth about conflict with Kindite royalty.  Moreover is the case with most pre-Islamic poetry some (though by no means most) of the content which bears the poet's name seems (on linguistic grounds) to come from a much later period. Indeed, I have my own unshakable, yet unprovable, suspicions (as does Alan Jones, whose stimulating commentary I consulted) that the last verse of the poem translated here was either added or (more likely) somewhat altered in Islamic times. But it is a fine verse which adds to the poem, and I saw no reason not to include it in the translation, not least because it seemed completely unjustifiable to make excisions based on chronological doubt in translating pre-Islamic Arabic poetry, when I don't do so, and never have, in dealing with Biblical Hebrew poetry (where dating is much messier.)   In any case, even admitting the qualifications which must attend any corpus which has gone through centuries of oral transmission, I see no substantive reason not to read the body of material attributed to ˁAbÄ«d as basically genuine pre-Islamic poetry, as much of it can at the very least be securely dated quite early on lexical, syntactic or metrical grounds. That does not definitively prove, of course, that all such early work attributed to ˁAbÄ«d is necessarily by him. In pre-Islamic poetry, proving a positive is often much harder than proving a negative. It may well be that only a few poems are genuinely his, and that ˁAbÄ«d as we know him is a half-archetypal figure around whose name various early poems of disparate authorship, containing a particular species of tribal lamentation, coagulated. If true, this would account for some the toponymic discrepancies that perplexed the commentators. But there are other ways to solve those problems, and this is all idle, proofless speculation. But I now digress unjustifiably, as questions of authenticity, attribution and dating, though of interest to historians, are rather beside the point for the lover of poetry. For the pain of displacement and deracination, and the anguish of surviving a tragedy that has gutted one's people, are universal topics that have animated poets throughout recorded history to produce some of the most enduringly memorable verse in such disparate languages as Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, Sumerian, Greek, Cherokee, Nahuatl and many others.   Lament for His People in Rawḥān ˁAbÄ«d ibn Al-Abraá¹£ Translated by A.Z. Foreman Were those my people's dwellings　 　　that in the stoneland lie? 　They are now a dwindled vestige 　　　changed by the hands of Time.  There did I halt my camel　 　　to question those dead traces, 　But had to turn away,  　　　tears gushing from my eyes  In a stream as though the lids　 　　had suddenly burst forth 　 The downpour of a cloud   　　　from winter-laden skies. Oh mine was once the kindest　 　　of ordinary peoples  　To all who had fallen captive 　　　or fallen on hard times, Good players drawing lots　 　　for camels' meat when winds 　Blew winter-hard, and neighbors 　　　came together inside.  And when the moment called for spear-thrusts　 　　they always did 　Dye their spear-tips deep 　　　in blood as battle cried. And when the moment called for sword-strikes ã€€ 　　they always did  　Beat back the foe as lions 　　　protective of their pride. And when they heard the call "Dismount!"  　　they always rushed 　In coats of mail on foot 　　　 headlong into the fight. They are gone. I am still here 　　but I am not forever. 　Change is the fate of things, 　　　the many shades of life.  God knows what I know not 　　about the end they met. 　What I have is remembrance 　　　of things lost in their time.   The Original: قال عبيد ابن الابرص في رثاء قومه لِمَنِ الدِيارُ بِبُرقَةِ الرَوحانِ  Ø¯ÙŽØ±ÙŽØ³ÙŽØª وَغَيَّرَها صُروفُ زَمانِ فَوَقَفتُ فيها ناقَتي لِسُؤالِها  ÙÙŽØµÙŽØ±ÙŽÙØªÙ وَالعَينانِ تَبتَدِرانِ سَجماً كَأَنَّ شُنانَةً رَجَبِيَّةً  Ø³ÙŽØ¨ÙŽÙ‚َت إِلَيَّ بِمائِها العَينانِ أَيّامَ قَومي خَيرُ قَومٍ سوقَةٍ  Ù„ِمُعَصِّبٍ وَلِبائِسٍ وَلِعاني وَلَنِعمَ أَيسارُ الجَزورِ إِذا زَهَت ريحُ الشِتاءِ وَمَألَفُ الجِيرانِ أَمّا إِذا كانَ الطِعانُ فَإِنَّهُم  Ù‚َد يَخضِبونَ عَوالِيَ المُرّانِ أَمّا إِذا كانَ الضِرابُ فَإِنَّهُم  Ø£ÙØ³Ø¯ÙŒ لَدى أَشبالِهِنَّ حَواني أَمّا إِذا دُعِيَت نَزالِ فَإِنَّهُم  ÙŠÙŽØ­Ø¨ÙˆÙ†ÙŽ لِلرُكَباتِ في الأَبدانِ فَخَلَدتُ بَعدَهُمُ وَلَستُ بِخالِدٍ  ÙÙŽØ§Ù„دَهرُ ذو غِيَرٍ وَذو أَلوانِ اللَهُ يَعلَمُ ما جَهِلتُ بِعَقبِهِم  ÙˆÙŽØªÙŽØ°ÙŽÙƒÙ‘ُري ما فاتَ أَيَّ أَوانِ  Romanization: Li-mani l-diyāru bi-burqati l-rawħāni Darasat wa-É£ayyarahā á¹£urÅ«fu zamāni Fa-waqaftu fÄ«hā nāqatÄ« li-su'ālihā Fa-á¹£araftu wa-l-ˁaynāni tabtadirāni Sajman ka'anna Å¡unānatan rajabiyyatan Sabaqat ilayya bi-mā'ihā l-ˁaynāni Ayyāma qawmÄ« xayru qawmin sÅ«qatin Li-muˁaṣṣibin wa-li-bā'isin wa-li-ˁānÄ« Wa-li-niˁma aysāru l-jazÅ«ri iðā zahat Rīħu l-Å¡itā'i wa-ma'lafu l-jÄ«rāni Ammā iðā kāna l-á¹­iˁānu fa-'innahum Qad yaxḍiˁūna ˁawālÄ« l-murāni Ammā iðā kāna l-ḍirābu fa-'innahum Asadun ladā aÅ¡bālihinna ħawānÄ« Ammā iðā duˁiyat nizāli fa-'innahum YamÅ¡Å«na li-l-rakabāti fÄ« l-'abdāni Fa-xaladtu baˁdahum wa-lastu bi-xālidin Fa-l-dahru ðū É£iyarin wa-ðū alwāni Allāhu yaˁlamu mā jahiltu bi-ˁaqbihim Wa-taðakkurÄ« mā fāta ayya awāni