جمالك ليس يسمح بالجميل

وقلبي ليس يرضى بالبديل

Your beauty allows no kindness,

And my heart accepts no substitute.

بقانون المحبة قد قبلنا

وهل يسع المحب سوى القبول

We have accepted the law of love;

And can a lover do anything but accept?

فكيف رفضت لائحة المعنى

بمؤتمر الهوى قبل المثول

How, then, did you reject the tormented lover's petition

At love's assembly, before he could appear?

وكان بها صلاح من فساد

وكان بها شفاء من غليل

In it was a remedy for corruption,

And in it was relief from burning thirst.

بأي سياسة نحظى بوصل

لقد حيرت ارباب العقول

By what diplomacy can we gain union?

You have indeed bewildered the masters of reason.

ترد دليل حبي واشتياقي

وتصغي للوشاة بلا دليل

You reject the proof of my love and longing,

And listen to slanderers without proof.

اتسمع قول واش مستبد

وأنت الحر ذو الرأي الأصيل

Do you heed the words of a despotic slanderer,

Though you are free and possessed of sound judgment?

ملكت بحسنك الأحرار لكن

جهلت ادارة الملك الجليل

With your beauty you have ruled the free, but

You have not learned to govern that glorious kingdom.

بطلعتك استضاء الشرق نوراً

فصن هذا الطلوع عن الافول

At your appearance, the East shone with light;

So guard this rising from setting.

اسيل الخد ما طلت دماء

تضرع وجنة الخد الأسيل

O smooth-cheeked one, no blood has gone unavenged

That humbles the cheek of that smooth face.

حجت فاعلن الأعداء حرباً

فكائن حول خدرك من قتيل

She went on pilgrimage; then the enemies declared war.

How many lie slain around your curtained chamber!

وحول الثغر قد حاموا عطاشى

إلى ورد الزلال السلسبيل

Around your mouth they have hovered, thirsty,

Seeking a drink of clear, sweet-flowing water.

فجرد دون ثغرك سيف لحظ

رهيف الحد ليس بذي فلول

So unsheathe, in defense of your mouth, the sword of a glance,

Keen-edged, with no notches in its blade.

ويا ريماً تعرض لاقتناص

حذارك من اخي قنص خنول

And O gazelle that has exposed itself to capture,

Beware a master hunter [epithet unclear].

تغزلنا بحسنك فاستبانت

مزاياه وكانت في خمول

We sang love verses about your beauty, and there emerged

Its charms, which had lain in obscurity.

نجاهد في هواك وأنت تحمى

على أهل الهوى نهج السبيل

We strive in your love, while you bar

The clear path to the people of love.

اقام ذووك في جدل ورحنا

ضحايا من صريع أو جريل

Your kin remained in dispute, while we became

Victims, either slain or wounded [uncertain reading].

فنحن اصول مفخرك الزواكي

فكيف الفرع يهزأ بالأصول

We are the flourishing roots of your glory;

How, then, can the branch mock the roots?

عذارك أيها الرشأ المفدى

صحافي الفرع يهزأ بالأصول

Your cheek-down, O fawn for whom lives are offered,

Is a journalist; the branch mocks the roots.

سرى والشمس عال مجتلاها

ظلام العارض الساري العجول

While the sun's radiance stood high, there crept

The darkness of the cheek-down, hurrying through the night.

تدب نماله من حول ثغر

جنى الشهد معلول الشمول

Its ants creep out from around a mouth—

A harvest of honey, steeped in wine.

اغرب العارضين حللت شرفا

من الخدين جل عن الحلول

O raven of the cheeks [uncertain reading], you have alighted on a height

Upon the two cheeks, too exalted for settlement.

وكان الخد بالتوحيد أولى

فما معنى مشاركة الحلول

The cheek was more entitled to oneness;

What, then, does shared indwelling mean?

يظن اللحظ كل وللمنايا

مكان في شبا اللحظ الكليل

The glance is thought to have dulled, yet death has

A place in the points of that dull glance.

وما ألحاظه الا نصول

حذار حذار من تلك النصول

His glances are nothing but blades;

Beware, beware of those blades.

بعثنا بالنسيم لهم رسولا

فخان وما رعى شرف الرسول

We sent the breeze to them as a messenger;

But it betrayed us and did not uphold a messenger's honor.

وما نقل الحديث لهم صحيحاً

وهل يرجى الصحيح من العليل

It did not convey the message to them correctly;

Can what is sound be hoped for from the ailing?

فحسن عندهم وصل المعادي

وحسن عندهم هجر الخليل

So it made union with the enemy attractive to them,

And made forsaking the friend attractive to them.

فجامعة سعي فيها رمتنا

بتفريق العشيرة والقبيل

So a league for which efforts were made has cast us

Into the division of clan and tribe.

وقد برح الخفاء لكل عين

فما يغني اعتذار المستقيل

Concealment has now departed for every eye;

What use, then, is the apology of one seeking release?

تستر بالدجى فبدا هلال

فبين موقف الداء الدخيل

He hid himself in darkness, but a crescent appeared,

And revealed where the intruding illness lay.

فقل للكنك ان النيل وافى

يسومك خطة العاني الذليل

So tell the Ganges that the Nile has arrived,

Imposing on you the lot of an abject captive.

ولست بتارك هندا وسعدى

على ضغط المراقب والعذول

And I will not forsake Hind and Su'da

Under pressure from the watcher and the reproacher.

باكناف الحمى وطن سقينا

ثراه بعارض الدمع الهطول

In the environs of the sanctuary is a homeland; we watered

Its soil with a raincloud of streaming tears.

سألناه فلم يسمح برد

سوى ان قال للعبرات سيلى

We questioned it, but it would grant no reply,

Except to tell the tears, 'Flow!'

عهدت به الظباء العين قدماً

ممنعة الكناس بأسد غيل

Long ago I knew the wide-eyed gazelles there,

Their lairs guarded by lions of the thickets,

غيارى لا يكاد الطيف وهناً

يلم بذلك السرب الخذول

Jealous guardians: scarcely could a dream-phantom in the night

Draw near that secluded herd.

وللراجي به غيث الايادي

وللاجى به حرم النزيل

For the hopeful there was a rain of favors,

And for the refugee there was a guest's sanctuary.

فقد اضحى حماه مستباحاً

كأن العز آذن بالرحيل

But now its sanctuary lies open to violation,

As though glory had announced its departure.