وارعى نجوم الليل شوقا الأوجه

تطلعن في ليل الذوائب انجما

And I watch the stars of night, longing for faces

that rise like stars in the night of tresses.

إذا جرت الاجفان غرب دموعها

ذكا جمر أشجاني بها وتضرما

When the eyelids pour forth their torrents of tears,

the embers of my sorrows flare through them and blaze.

فلله أيام بحزوى تصرمت

وابقت جوى في القلب لن يتصرما

To God belong those days at Hazwa, now gone,

which left a burning ache in the heart that will never cease.

ربوع جمال كم اقام بها الهوى

بغير رقيب للمحبين موسما

Abodes of beauty—how often love held there

a festival for lovers, without a watcher.

جنيت بها الورد المضرج وجنة

وقبلت فيها الأقحوانة مبسما

There I plucked the crimson rose of a cheek,

and kissed there the daisy of a smiling mouth.

وعانقت غصن البان قد امهفهفا

عناقي في الروع الوشيج المقوما

And I embraced a ban-tree bough, a slender figure,

as I clasp the straightened spear amid battle's dread.

دع الحي أنى شاء خيم إنه

أقام بقلب المستهام وخيما

Let the clan camp wherever it wishes; indeed, it

has settled in the love-stricken heart and pitched its tents.

إذا العارض الساري تهلل ودقه

فجاد ربوعاً بالعقيق وارسما

When the night-wandering cloud smiles with rain,

and drenches abodes and traces of camps at al-Aqiq,

عسى شمل أنس بددته يد النوى

يعود كما شاء المشوق منظما

may a bond of companionship scattered by separation's hand

return reunited, as the yearning lover wishes.

ويا رب ليل بت فيه منعما

بوصل وغازلت الغزال المنعما

And how many a night I spent in bliss,

in union, courting the pampered gazelle.

غرير يحيينا بوردة خده

ونسقي الرحيقين المدامة واللمى

A guileless beloved greets us with the rose of his cheek,

and we are given two nectars to drink: wine and dark lips.

فلي نشوة من راحة ورضا به

ولكن راح الثغر انقع للظما

Mine is a rapture of ease and contentment with him,

but the wine of the mouth better quenches thirst.

وغيداء يا الردف ضامية الحشى

لها الحسن يعزى والملاحة تنتمى

And a graceful woman—O her hips!—slender-waisted,

to whom beauty is ascribed, and loveliness belongs.

إذا خطرت غنى الوشاح بخصرها

فأفصح والخلخال اصبح اعجما

When she sways along, the sash sings at her waist,

speaking clearly, while her anklet falls mute.

وتشدو بالحان الغرام صبابة

فتعرب عن اسحاق فيها ترنما

And she sings love's melodies in ardent longing,

giving voice to Ishaq in her trilling.

جرى عن دم الأحشاء دمعي فضرجت

به وجنة الخود الجميلة عندما

My tears flowed from the blood of my entrails, and I dyed

with it the lovely maiden's cheek dragon's-blood red.

فريدة حسن تخجل البدر طلعة

إذا قابلت في وجهها قمر السما

A peerless beauty, whose appearance shames the full moon,

when she confronts the moon of heaven with her face.

احلت دمي من غير ذنب وصيرت

سلوي وان طال الزمان محرما

She made my blood lawful, though I had done no wrong, and made

my forgetting her forbidden, however long the years.

بطرف وجيد والتفات ونظرة

تعلمها ريم الفلا فتريما

With an eye, a neck, a turn, and a glance,

which the desert gazelle learned, thus becoming gazelle-like;

وخصر أعار الجسم سقماً ووجنة

اعارت فوادي جذوة فتضرما

and a waist that lent sickness to the body, and a cheek

that lent my heart an ember, so it burst into flame.

فيا واصفاً قد أوصفت مشاهدا

ويا واصفاً خصرا وصفت توهما

So, O describer of a figure, you describe what you have seen;

and O describer of a waist, you describe what you imagine.

كتمت هواها غير ان مدامعاً

جرين فأبدين الغرام المكتما

I concealed my love for her, except that tears

flowed and revealed the love kept hidden.

إذا منع الواشي على كلامها

فما منع الاحشاء ان تتكلما

If the tale-bearer puts a ban on her speech,

he has not barred the inward heart from speaking.

أنازع قلبي سلوة فيقول لي

رضيت بسيف اللحظ فينا محكما

I wrestle with my heart to forget, and it tells me:

You accepted the sword of the glance as arbiter over us.

على نحرها عقد كأن فريده

من الثغر أو من لفظها قد تنظما

Upon her throat is a necklace whose pearls seem

to have been strung from her mouth or from her words.

وقد لبست وشي الجمال مهللا

كما لبست وشي الحرير منجما

And she has donned beauty's brocade, adorned with crescents,

as she has donned silk brocade, adorned with stars.

ترى ان فيض الدمع في العين خلقة

بما لا ترى الامشوقا متيما

She thinks the flood of tears in the eye is inborn,

since she sees only a yearning lover enslaved by love.

حمت ورد خديها عقارب صدغها

على عاشقيها ان يثم ويلثما

The scorpions of her temple-locks guard the roses of her cheeks

against her lovers, lest they be smelled and kissed.

وترسل في الأرداف وارد شعرها

فينساب في حقف من الرمل ارقما

And she lets her long hair fall across her hips,

so it glides like a mottled serpent over a curving sand dune.

ورب خلي لامني ولوانه

رماه الهوى مثلي لأصبح مغرما

And many a heart-free man blamed me; yet had

love struck him as it struck me, he would have become enthralled.

يحاول سلواني واي متيم

اطاع بسلوان الأحبة مغرما

He tries to make me forget; but what love-enslaved lover

has ever agreed to forget beloved ones while still in love?

اشيم وميض البرق في غلس الدجى

فأحسبه ثغر الحبيب تبسما

I watch the lightning's flash in the murk of darkness,

and think it my beloved's mouth breaking into a smile.

وانشق نفح الطيب يأرج مسكه

إذا ما نسيم الحي صبحاً تنسما

And I inhale the waft of perfume, its musk fragrant,

when the clan's breeze wafts in the morning.

واذكر أيام الحمى ونعيمها

فتجرى بتذكار الدمى ادمعي دما

And I remember the days of the protected grounds and their bliss,

and, remembering those doll-like beauties, my tears flow as blood.

إذا ما رنا ظبي الكناس بطرفه

تقنص من اسد العرينة ضيغما

When the gazelle of the covert gazes with his eye,

he hunts down a mighty lion among the lions of the lair.

ولم يدر من أودى بأعين سربه

ترامين لحظا أم ترامين أسهما

And whoever perished by the eyes of his herd did not know

whether they were casting glances or shooting arrows.

ولم أر كالألحاظ وهي فواتر

فواتك فينا ظالماً متظلما

And I have seen nothing like those glances: though languid,

they are deadly against us, wronging us while crying wrong.

يذود ويحمي العين ان ترد الكرى

تذكر عهد بالعقيق تقدما

What drives sleep off and keeps the eye from reaching slumber is

the memory of an earlier time at al-Aqiq.

فحياه ان لم يروه الغيث عارض

تجود به كف تكرما

May a cloud revive it, if rain has not watered it—

a cloud a hand pours forth in generosity.

وفي الغيث ري للثرى غير انني

رأيت الايادي أكرما

Rain waters the earth, yet I

have found hands more generous.

وماذا عليهم ان يمنوا ويسمحوا

بطيف خيال يعتريني مسلما

And what would it cost them to grant and allow

a phantom vision to visit me with a greeting?

فدون تلاقينا غيارى تحوطها

وتمنع حتى الناظر المتوسما

For jealous guardians stand in the way of our meeting, surrounding her,

and turn away even a searching onlooker.

تسجف عزا بالحديد خدورها

فلو رام اقداماً بها الليث احجما

Her chambers are proudly curtained with iron,

so even a lion would draw back, were he to attempt an advance there.

فهل نوهوا باسم الملك

فهابت به اسد العرين التقدما

Have they, then, proclaimed the king's name,

so the lions of the lair feared to advance because of it?

همام إذا الابطال في الحرب عبست

اشاح إليها ضاحكا متبسما

A valiant man: when champions scowl in war,

he turns toward it laughing and smiling.

وتستبشر العقبان في غزواته

فهن مع الرايات يجنحن حوما

And eagles rejoice at his campaigns,

for they circle on the wing alongside his banners.

يثقن بان النصر رائد جيشه

فمن جثث الأعداء يطلبن مطعما

They trust that victory leads his army,

and seek their food from the corpses of his enemies.

يعود من الفتح الجليل مظفرا

ولم يصطحب الا المكارم مغنما

He returns triumphant from his mighty conquest,

bringing nothing but noble deeds as spoils.

وتنتجع الوفاد روضة بشره

فتلقى به بحر السماحة مفعما

And visiting delegations seek pasture in the meadow of his cheerful welcome,

and find in him a brimming sea of generosity.

تقسمت الأفكار في مدحه كما

غدا وفره بين الوفود مقسما

Thoughts divided themselves among his praises, just as

his abundant wealth was divided among the delegations.

كتائبه كتب تجر إلى العدى

من الرعب خفاق البنود عرمرحا

His battalions are books that draw toward the foe

a vast host of terror, with fluttering banners.