ركب شوق بدار قلبي أناخا

أم فؤادي مع الغرام تواخى

Has a caravan of longing encamped in my heart's dwelling,

or has my heart become a brother to passionate love?

لي بشرقيِّ رامةٍ فزرودٍ

صفوُ عيش هناك كان رخاخا

Mine, east of Ramah, then Zarud,

was life's pure delight, easy and abundant there.

مع صحب عن العيان استقلوا

فطووه سباسباً وسباخا

With companions who journeyed beyond the visible realm,

and traversed it—open wastes and salt flats.

رفقة لي بهم قديم عهود

لا يشوب الثبوت فيها انتساخا

Mine is a fellowship with them, ancient in its pledges;

no revocation taints its steadfastness.

ما تغنت بهم حداة المطايا

قط إلا وصرت كلّي صماخا

Never did the drivers of the mounts sing of them

without my becoming all ear.

وبهم كلما تألق برق

ملت عن عالم الكيان انسلاخا

And through them, whenever lightning flashed,

I turned from the world of being, stripping myself free.

وإذا هبت الصبا هب قلبي

معها لايني ولا يتراخى

And when the east wind blows, my heart rises

with it, neither flagging nor slackening.

يا حبيباً هواه دين أناس

هم عليه قد عاهدوا الأشياخا

O beloved, love for whom is the faith of a people

who have pledged themselves to it in covenant with the sheikhs.

غائب الذات حاضر الوصف فينا

عرف أسمائه هو المسك فاخا

Absent in essence, present in attributes within us;

the fragrance of his names is musk wafting abroad.

وجهه يوجب الفناء انكشافاً

والفنا فيه يغسل الأوساخا

His face, unveiled, entails annihilation;

and annihilation in him washes away impurities.

لي على قربه دواوين عشق

نظمها العذب أطرب النساخا

I have volumes of love-verse on his nearness;

their sweet verse has enraptured the copyists.

لا تقل وجهه تحجب عني

هو بالعز لم يزل شماخا

Do not say: his face has veiled itself from me;

he has never ceased to be lofty in majesty.

إنما أنت عنه خلف حجاب

عاجزاً عن شهوده وخواخا

It is only you who stand behind a veil from him,

unable to behold him, feeble as you are.

وعليه من القلوب طيور

حاضنات نفوسها الأفراخا

And upon him are birds made of hearts,

brooding their souls as fledglings.

حسنه للعيون لا زال نوراً

وتجليه للقلوب مناخا

May his beauty ever remain a light to the eyes,

and his self-revelation a resting place for hearts.

يا نديمي بحانة الغيب إن ال

غيب كالعين لم يزل نضاخا

O my drinking companion in the tavern of the unseen, indeed the

unseen, like a spring, has never ceased to gush.

فأملأ الكأس لي ولا تترنّم

بسوى من به السوى فيه ساخا

So fill the cup for me, and do not sing

of any but him, through whom all else sank within him.

وأتى أمره إليَّ بروح

قام في زمر نشأتي نفاخا

And his command came to me with a spirit

that arose, blowing through the pipes of my being.

صاد كل القلوب بالحسن لما

مد أكوانه لهن فخاخا

He caught all hearts with beauty when

he spread his worlds for them as snares.

وأنا صيده بغير شباك

لا حراكا لا نفرة لا صراخا

And I am his prey, without nets:

no movement, no flight, no cry.

نخلتي أثمرت هواه جنياً

حين مدت حشاشتي شمراخا

My palm tree bore love for him as ripe fruit,

when my life's last spark put forth a fruit-stalk.

وأنا اليوم عنده في مقام

مطربٍ كلَّ من إليه أصاخا

And today I am with him in a station

that enraptures all who lend it an ear.

قص لي ذكر حاطب في قريش

والكتاب الذي أتى روض خاخا

Recount to me the tale of Hatib among Quraysh,

and the letter that reached Rawd Khakh.

أنا بدريُّ وجهه لا ارتشاشاً

نوره في سابقاً وانتضاخا

I belong to the Badr of his face, not by mere sprinkling;

his light was in me beforehand, and in gushing profusion.

أخذتني عيونه النجل لما

بي تجلى فكان سيلاً جلاخا

His wide eyes seized me when

he revealed himself in me and became a sweeping torrent.