O gazelle that shelters me, how beautiful you are!
Yā ġazālan bil-ḥimā mā ajmalak
ﻧﻮﻉ ﺍﻟﺸﻌﺮ: غزل ﻋﻠﻰ ﺑﺤﺮ ﺍلكامل
ﺍﻟﺸﺎﻋﺮ: مجهول
منطقته: ﺍﻷﻧﺪﻟﺲ
ﻋﺼﺮ: ﻗﺮﻥ الثامن-الخامس عشر
يا غزالًا بالحِمى ما أجملَك
يا تُرى في قتلتي مَن حلّ لك
كنتَ لا تغْفُلُ عني ساعًة
عَلَّمُوك الهجرَ حتى لَذَّ لك
زارني طيفُ خيالٍ في الكرى
قلتُ يا طيف الخيال مَن أرسلك
قال مَن تَعْشَقُه أرسلك
الذي بعد هواك أشغل لك
قلتُ خَلَّ العشقِ لا تعبأَ به
قال لولا العشقُ ما دارَ الفَلَك
قلتُ في العشقِ امتحانٌ للفتى
وعلى العُشّاقِ هانَ الهَلَك
أنا مملوكٌ وحبي مالكي
ليس لي حُكْمٌ على ما قد مُلِك
Type of poem: Ġazal (poetry on love) in Kāmil metre
Name of poet: unknown
Region of poet: al-Andalus
Era: 8th-15th century
O gazelle that shelters me, how beautiful you are!
you see the very end of me[1], who gave you my permission?
You did not take your eyes off me, even in my sleep,
they taught you of estrangement, that drew you back to me[2]
I saw a ghostly shadow[3] appearing in my dreams
I said: O vision[3], who has sent for me?
It said: she whom that loves you has sent me
she, from whose love you are wasting away
I said: the passion that plagues me cannot exhaust me!
It said: were it not for your love, the stars would go out[4]
I said: for a young man, in love there is a test
but for the lovers, easier is death
I am but taken and my love is whom reigns me
and I no longer know whom has taken my heart
[1] e.g. in your presence that captivates me I perish in your beauty
[2] lit. "until/so that, even when it was delicious/pleasant [e.g. enticing] to you"
[3] The trope of "Ṭayfu l-Ḫayyāl" - lit. apparition, ghost, spectrum of/in the (one's) imagination, mind, being, spirit, shadow - is of major significance in love (ġazal) poetry with origins in cultural and poetic traditions and tropes stretching back to ancient days and difficult to translate owing to context.
As such, it simply refers to a vision, in the sense of a being inasmuch as the "visionary" experience thereof, in a dream, the words for which in Arabic do also have connotations of and relations with the notion of a vision as well as things that are hoped for and wished for, as opposed to simply seen without any other implicit meaning. Specifically, a beloved person, whether dead or alive, that one has previously departed from or vice versa, very often owing to tribal, political, social, etc. circumstances less so than volition - or simply fate - which is seen as torment and yet also blissful.
The origins of this trope go as far back as to the tradition of the pre-Islāmic - moreso semi-nomadic/nomadic - Arabs to stop and halt by the traces of the former campsite of their beloved to engage in remembrance thereof, as if to momentarily bring their being, their spirit back - at least within the confines of their minds, Ṭayf can be taken as to mean either of spirit or mind - and then weep, such as in the famous poem of Imruʔu l-Qays: "Let us stop and weep for the memory of my beloved and where once she had dwelt / by Siqṭi l-Liwā, between the deserts of Duḫūl and Ḥawmal" - and, of course, making these places a recurring object and subject of travel in actual reality and poetry.
By the Umayyad and certainly ʕabbāsid era and the inevitable evolution of Arabic poetry that came along with them, this was further developed into the trope of "Ṭayfu l-Ḫayyāl" in the nascent genre of love (ġazal) poetry.
[4] lit. "were it not for your love/longing/desire/passion, [the stars] would stop to revolve [around the] sphere(s)"
