معان بدت فينا حروف سطورها

وقد أعجزت أفهامنا عن خطورها

Meanings appeared in us, letters whose lines

Perplexed our minds, unable to grasp their import

تلوح بنا فينا لنا ثم تختفي

فيحشرنا عنا لها نفخ صورها

Beckoning to us in us then hiding away

So we are expelled from ourselves by the blowing of their images

إذا رام موسى العقل ينظرها أبت

ولكن له قد كملت فوق طورها

When Moses' intellect sought to behold them they refused

Yet for him their perfection was completed atop the mount

أمات عليها القوم أنفسهم هوى

وأفنوا دعاوى هم أسارى غرورها

The people killed themselves in passionate love of them

And wasted their claims, captives of their own delusion

فكانوا بها في جنة عجلت لهم

تمتعهم منهم بهم في قصورها

So by them they were in a garden hastened for them

Allowing them to enjoy through them in them in its castles

تبارك قلب وحيها فيه نازل

بآيات حق ناسخ لزبورها

Blessed is the heart receiving revelation therein

With signs of truth, repealing its psalms

وجل فتى يدري جمال صفاتها

على وجه ولدان الجنان وحورها

Sublime is the youth who knows the beauty of its attributes

Above the cherubs and houris of the Gardens

غزالة روض القلب ترنو بأعين

إلينا فتنفي الصبر خوف نفورها

A gazelle of the heart's meadow glancing at us with eyes

That steal away patience, fearful of its aloofness

تبدت بوجه نوره بهر الورى

وقد سترتني عنه خلف ستورها

It appeared with a face of light, dazzling all creation

And I am veiled from it behind curtains

ولو لم يكن ماء الحياء بوجهها

يدافع عني لاحترقت بنورها

Were it not for the water of bashfulness on its face

Defending me, I'd have burned from its light