رنت باجفان غزال اكحل

قانصة اسد الشرى بالكحل

She gazed with the eyelids of a dark-eyed gazelle,

hunting the lions of al-Sharā with kohl.

ثم انثنت تميس في معاطف

تزري باعطاف الرماح الذبل

Then she turned, swaying in curves

that put the bends of slender spears to shame.

شمس الضحى في خجل من حسنها

من حسنها شمس الضحى في خجل

The forenoon sun is abashed by her beauty;

by her beauty, the forenoon sun is abashed.

يا من رأى شمسا على غصن نقا

يميله سكر الصبا في الحلل

O you who have seen a sun upon a dune's bough,

swayed within its robes by youth's intoxication.

ظبية خدر مالها من قانص

شمس جمال مالها من مجتلى

A gazelle of the secluded chamber, with no hunter;

a sun of beauty, with none to behold her.

قلبي صريع طرفها وكم رمت

فاقصدت مقلتها من مقتلي

My heart lies slain by her glance; how often she has shot,

and her eye struck me dead through my vital spot!

فمصرع العشاق من قوامها

وطرفها بين القنا والاسل

Thus lovers meet their death through her figure

and her glance, between lance-shafts and spearpoints.

ارى السيوف بالدروع تتقي

الا سيوفا تنتضى من مقل

I see swords warded off with armor,

except swords unsheathed from eyes.

اصبح قلبي غرضا ترشقه

بالنبل ربات العيون النجل

My heart has become a target, shot at

with arrows by wide-eyed ladies.

ما هي الا لحظة واحدة

تجمع ما بين المنى والاجل

It is only a single glance

that brings desires and death together.

فتك الضبا حين تسل وضبا

اجفانها قواتل في الخلل

Blades deal death when drawn, yet the blades

of her eyelids kill through the gaps.

تبسم عن مفلج رقت به

سلافة الراح وصفو العسل

She smiles, revealing spaced teeth that refine

the choicest wine and the purest honey.

ما لطعين عاسل من قدها

برء سوى رضابها المعسل

For one pierced by her figure's quivering spear, there is no

cure but her honey-sweet saliva.

ما لذي لي غير الرضاب منهل

واظمأ القلب لذاك المنهل

No spring has been sweet to me except her saliva,

and the heart is left thirsting for that spring.

ما ضرها لو سمحت برشفة

من ريقة فيها شفاء العلل

What harm would it do her if she granted a sip

of saliva that contains the cure for ailments?

يا زمن الوصل على كاظمة

اعائد أنت بذاك العيش لي

O time of union at Kāẓima,

will you return to me with that life?

إذ موردي عذب وروض بهجتي

غض وحبل الوصل لم ينفصل

When my watering place was sweet, and the garden of my joy

was fresh, and the cord of union had not broken.

أيام أنس قد بلغت وطري

فيها وأدركت قصارى أملي

Days of intimacy: I attained my desire

in them, and reached the utmost of my hope,

بكل نشوى اللحظ من سكر الصبا

تسعى بكاسات الرحيق السلسل

with each woman whose gaze was drunk with youth,

going about with cups of smooth-flowing pure wine.

هيفاء مقلاق الوشاح ان مشت

لكنها صامتة المخلخل

Slender-waisted, she sets her sash swaying when she walks,

yet her anklet remains silent.

أين الشقيق الغض من وجنتها

والغصن من قوامها المعتدل

How does the fresh anemone compare with her cheek,

or the bough with her well-proportioned figure?

قد عطلت من الحلي جيدها

غانية بالحسن عن كل الحلى

She has left her neck bare of jewelry,

her beauty sufficient without any adornment.

اصبحت اهوى عذلي لذكرها

لذكرها اصبحت اهوى عذلي

I have come to love being reproached, for it mentions her;

for it mentions her, I have come to love being reproached.

رقيقة الخدين قاس قلبها

خفيفة الخصر رداح الكفل

Her cheeks are delicate, her heart hard;

slender of waist, ample of hips.

كم بخلت بوصلها عن عاشق

لو سألته نفسه لم يبخل

How often she withheld union with her from a lover

who, had she asked him for his life, would not have begrudged it.

وشادن يعطو بجيد اتلع

وناظر بسحره مكتحل

And a young gazelle reaching up with a long neck,

and an eye kohl-lined with its own enchantment.

ظبي إلى الفرس انتمى جماله

فكيف اضحى طرفه من ثعل

A gazelle whose beauty traces its descent to the Persians—

how, then, has his glance come from Thuʿal?

ليت الذي اعل جسمي طرفه

كان بوعد وصله معلل

Would that he whose glance has sickened my body

would soothe me with a promise of union with him.

لم أنس يوم المنحنى موقفنا

كان بوعد وصله معلل

I have not forgotten our standing on the day at the bend;

he was soothing me with a promise of union with him.

والنفس قد طارت شعاعاً بدداً

من لوعة الوجد وبرح الوجل

And my soul had flown apart, scattered in fragments,

from love's burning anguish and fear's torment.

ولم يكن الا وقوف ساعة

حتى حدا بالركب حادي الابل

And it was only a moment's halt

until the camel-driver sang the caravan onward.

قد كان حظ العين يوم رامة

خلسة لحظ من خلال الكلل

The eye's share on the day at Rāma was

a stolen glance from between the curtains.

لا تطلبوا لي عن هواهم بدلا

فلست أرضى بعدهم بالبدل

Do not seek for me a substitute for loving them,

for after them I will accept no substitute.

من بعدهم حال سواد مفرقي

شيبا ولكن حبهم لم يحل

After them, the blackness of my hair's parting turned

to gray, but my love for them did not change.

يا قلب ما لا قيت من صبابة

بجائر في حكمه لم يعدل

O heart, what longing you have suffered

for an oppressor who has shown no justice in his rule!

يرى دمي محللا ووصله

محرماً علي لم يحلل

He deems my blood lawful to shed, yet union with him

forbidden to me; he has not made it lawful.

هل لك ان تصحو من سكر الهوى

فقد أتى صحو النزيف الثمل

Can you sober up from love's intoxication?

For the wine-dazed drunkard has already sobered.