1. نعم لقلوب العاشقين سرائرُ

    من الغيب قد ضمت عليها الضمائرُ

    Yes, lovers' hearts have secrets

    from the unseen, around which their inmost selves have closed.

  2. يحركها صوت السماع بوقعه

    فتظهر منها للعيان الأشائر

    The sound of devotional music stirs them with its beat,

    so their signs emerge in plain sight.

  3. هو الدف والطنبور والوتر الذي

    يسير به للوتر في الكون سائر

    It is the frame drum, the tanbur, and the string by which

    a traveler through the world journeys toward the One.

  4. أعد ما بدا يا منشد القوم عندنا

    بصوتك واطربنا فيرشد حائر

    Repeat what has appeared here among us, O singer of the company,

    with your voice, and enrapture us, so a bewildered one may find guidance.

  5. وتفتح أغلاق المعارف واللقا

    تدق له بين القلوب البشائر

    The locks of spiritual knowledge open, and the meeting

    is heralded among the hearts by ringing glad tidings.

  6. كشفت حجاب الكون عنا بذكر من

    عليه من الأغيار مدت غدائر

    You lifted the world's veil from us by invoking Him

    over whom tresses of otherness had been spread.

  7. وأظهرت سراً طالما قد كتمته

    وبالغير في أرض القريحة غائر

    And you revealed a secret I had long concealed,

    and lay buried through otherness in the soil of innate insight.

  8. وأذكرت عهداً مِن ألستُ بربكم

    به شخصت منا إليه البصائر

    And you brought to mind a covenant from "Am I not your Lord?"

    through which our inward eyes were fixed upon Him.

  9. وقد حَيْعَلَ المزمار بالوجد بيننا

    وضجَّت بتأذين الغناء المنابر

    And the pipe has cried "Come!" in ecstasy among us,

    and the pulpits resounded with song's call to prayer.

  10. ألا أيها الناي الرخيم كشفت عن

    سرائر شوقي يوم تبلى السرائر

    Ah, O mellow reed flute, you have uncovered

    my longing's secrets, on the day when secrets are tested.

  11. وأشبهتني في نفخ روحي وقد بدت

    لقلبي هنا من سر قلبي ذخائر

    And you resembled me in the breathing of my spirit, and there appeared

    here to my heart treasures from my heart's secret.

  12. عليل الهوى أضحى يعلله الهوى

    وقد جبرت بالكسر منه الجبائر

    The one sick with love is now soothed by love,

    and the splints have been mended by the breaking that comes from it.

  13. يموت ويحيى كلما لمعت له

    بروق الحمى النجديْ وغرد طائر

    He dies and lives whenever there flash before him

    the lightning bolts of Najd's sanctuary, and a bird sings.

  14. وإن نفحت ريح الصبا في دياره

    بها هو نقع كله وهو ثائر

    And if the east wind wafts through his abode,

    by it he is dust, all of him, and rises.

  15. سمعت كلاماً قد أتاني به الصبا

    عن المطلع الشرقيْ له أنا دائر

    I heard words that the east wind brought to me

    from the eastern rising-place, around which I circle.

  16. فهمت بوجدي إذ فهمت رموزه

    فها أنا للبرق اللموع أساير

    I understood through my ecstasy when I understood its symbols,

    so here I am, keeping pace with the flashing lightning.

  17. وما كل أذن طارقات الهوى تعي

    ولا كل طرف فيه تجلى الحرائر

    And not every ear comprehends love's visitations,

    nor are freeborn ladies revealed in every eye.

  18. تغار سليمى إن رأى غيرها امرؤٌ

    كما قد عهدناها تغار الضرائر

    Sulayma grows jealous if a man sees anyone but her,

    as we have known her—jealous as rival wives are.

  19. صدقتك هذا الركب طال به السرى

    وجار علي بالمحبة جائر

    I have spoken truly to you: this caravan's night journey has grown long,

    and a tyrant has wronged me through love.

  20. ولولا التسلي بالتجلي لأحجمت

    دوائر أفلاك الوجود الدوائر

    Were it not for solace through manifestation, there would halt

    the revolving circles of the spheres of existence.

  21. على مثل هذا الوجه تلتهب الحشى

    ومن حسنه فينا تشق المرائر

    At a face like this, the inward parts blaze,

    and its beauty rends the gallbladders within us.

  22. وما ذاك إلا وجه سلمى فإنه

    يغاير للأشيا وليس يغاير

    And that is nothing but Salma's face, for it

    differs from things, yet does not differ.

  23. بدا فأزيلت عنه أستار غيره

    وقد غفرت للمذنبين الكبائر

    It appeared, so the veils of all else were lifted from it,

    and the sinners were forgiven their grave sins.

  24. وكنا وما كنا وكان ولم يكن

    وما ثم إلا قدسه والحظائر

    And we were, and we were not; He was, and He was not,

    and there was nothing but His holiness and the enclosures.

  25. وجود ولا أعني الوجود الذي بدت

    من الكون أشباه له ونظائر

    Existence—and I do not mean the existence for which there appeared

    from the world likenesses and counterparts.

  26. ولكن وجود مطلق عن تقيُّدٍ

    بإطلاقه والكل منه شعائر

    But an absolute existence, free from being bound

    by its own absoluteness; and all things are its sacred signs.

  27. وكل وجود مطلق أو مقيد

    بعقل وحس فهو عنه ستائر

    And every existence, absolute or conditioned,

    as grasped by reason and sense, forms veils that hide it.

  28. إذا لاح غبنا فيه عنا جميعنا

    وإن غاب نحن السائبات البحائر

    When it shines forth, we all vanish into it, lost to ourselves;

    and if it is absent, we are the she-camels set loose, the slit-eared ones.