أنتم هي الجوزة في قشرها

وصعوة تسكن في وكرها

You are she—the walnut in its shell,

and a wren dwelling in its nest,

والمزج من حق ومن باطل

في درة غرقاء في بحرها

and the mingling of truth and falsehood

in a pearl submerged in its sea.

وراءكم أنتم وقدامكم

يا حضرة قد غبت في ذكرها

You yourselves are behind you and before you,

O Presence, I have indeed vanished in remembrance of her.

إلى متى يا قوم في غفلة

أنتم عن البكر وعن خدرها

How long, O people, will you remain heedless

of the virgin and her secluded chamber?

قوموا إليكم واكشفوا ستركم

عنكم وعن سُعدَى وعن سترها

Rise toward yourselves and lift your veil

from yourselves, and from Suʿdā, and from her veil.

فوجهها من خلف أثوابكم

وشمسها تشرق في بدرها

For her face is behind your garments,

and her sun rises within her full moon.

والكون ليل ونهار اللقا

نفس يلوح النور من فجرها

And the cosmos is night, and the day of encounter

is a soul from whose dawn the light gleams.

كم خلعت ثوباً تجلت به

واتشحت بالبرد في صدرها

How many a garment she has cast off in which she revealed herself,

and draped the mantle across her breast.

وهي على ما هي في ذاتها

لم تتغير بانطوا نشرها

And she remains as she is in her essence,

unchanged by the folding up of her unfolding.

وإنما تظهر في هيئة

حسب الذي تختار من أمرها

And she appears only in a form

according to what she chooses concerning her affairs.

وتختفي عنا ومن عالم

لعالم تمشى على قدرها

And she disappears from us, and from one world

to another world she walks according to her measure.

وشأنها هذا كما يقتضي

مقامها والعز من فخرها

And this is her way, as required by

her station; and majesty springs from her glory.