1. عيونَ المها مالي بسحركِ من يدِ

    ولا في فؤادي موضع للتجلُّدِ

    O eyes of the oryx, I have no power against your enchantment,

    nor is there room in my heart for fortitude.

  2. رويداً بقلبٍ مستهامٍ متيَّمٍ

    ورفقاً بذا الجفن القريح المسهَّد

    Gently with a heart bewildered and enslaved by love,

    and gently with this wounded, sleepless eyelid.

  3. قفي زوّدينا منك يا أمَّ نالكٍ

    فغيرُ كثيرٍ وقفة المتزوّد

    Stay, and give us something of yourself for the journey, O Umm Nalik;

    for a pause to take provisions is not long.

  4. ففي الظعن ألوى لا يرقُّ لعاشقٍ

    سرى منجداً لكنَّه غير منجد

    For among the departing caravan is a proud one, pitiless toward a lover;

    he traveled by night into Najd, yet brought no help.

  5. وبيض الطُّلى حور المناظر سودها

    وما كحلتْ أجفانهنَّ بإثمد

    And white-necked women, their eyes deep black against bright white,

    though their eyelids have not been lined with antimony.

  6. لعلَّ رجاءً فات في اليوم نيله

    يداركهُ حظٌ فيدرك في الغد

    Perhaps a hope that went unfulfilled today

    will be retrieved by fortune and attained tomorrow.

  7. بليت بفعم الرّدف لدنٍ قوامهُ

    ضعيف مناط الخصر أهيفَ أغيد

    I am stricken by one full-hipped and supple of stature,

    delicate at the waist, slender and softly graceful.

  8. ترى يجتني كفُّ الهوى ثمر المنى

    بهِ من قضيب البانة المتأَوّد

    Will love's hand, I wonder, gather the fruit of wishes

    in him, from the bending bough of the ban-tree?

  9. ذللت لسلطان الهوى بعد عزَّةٍ

    وليست لذلٍ قبلها بمعوَّد

    I submitted to love's dominion after proud independence,

    and had never before been accustomed to humiliation.

  10. ويزعمُ أنَّ السلم بيني مبينه

    فما بالُ سيفِ اللحظ ليس بمغمد

    And he claims there is peace between me and him;

    then why is the sword of his glance not sheathed?

  11. تأمل جبيناً واضحاً تحت طرَّةٍ

    ترى الصبح في جنحٍ من الليل أسود

    Behold a radiant brow beneath a forelock:

    you see dawn in a black wing of night.

  12. سرى القلبُ منه بين نور وظلمة

    فمن أجلها أنيّ أضلُّ وأهتدي

    The heart traveled by night between his light and darkness;

    thus, because of this, I go astray and find my way.

  13. وقفتُ أعاطيه كؤوس عتابه

    غداة صحا من سكرتي وتلدُّدي

    I stood exchanging cups of his reproach with him,

    the morning he sobered from my intoxication and bewilderment.

  14. وأعطفُ منهُ غصنَ بانٍ يقلُّه

    من الردف ملءَ العين والقلب واليد

    And I bend his ban-tree bough, upheld

    by haunches that fill the eye, the heart, and the hand,

  15. وخصرٍ ضعيفٍ مثل صبري نطاقه

    متى شئتَ يحللْ أو متى شئت يعقد

    and a slender waist whose girdle is like my patience:

    whenever you wish it is loosened, or whenever you wish it is tied.

  16. ومالت بعطفي قدهِ نشوة الصّبا

    إلى خلقٍ سبط وصدغ مجعَّد

    And youth's intoxication swayed the two flanks of his figure

    toward a smooth form and a curled temple-lock.

  17. فما شئت من حسنٍ وحزنٍ مضاعف

    ونغمة إدلالٍ وأنَّة مكمد

    So all the beauty you could wish, and doubled sorrow,

    and a note of coquetry, and the groan of one grief-stricken.

  18. ولم أر مثل الحب يهدر شرعهُ

    دماً سفكت أجفانهُ عن تعمُّد

    Nor have I seen the like of the beloved, whose law leaves unavenged

    blood his eyelids deliberately shed.

  19. ولا مثل هذا الدهر أشكو فعاله

    إليه فلا يعدى عليه ويعتدي

    Nor the like of this age: I complain of its deeds

    to it, yet no redress is granted against it, while it commits wrong.

  20. إذا ما جنت أحداثه طلَّ حكمها

    وهاك يدي إن الحوادث لا تدي

    Whenever its calamities offend, judgment against them comes to nothing;

    and here is my hand: calamities pay no blood-money.

  21. لياليه أعداء الفضيلة والنُّهى

    فقد عصفتْ سوداً بكل مسوَّد

    Its nights are enemies of virtue and reason,

    for in their blackness they have swept away every man of rank.

  22. ضلالاً له لو رقَّ بعد تشتُّتٍ

    لشمل العلى أو لان بعد تشدُّد

    Woe to it! If only, after dispersal, it grew tender

    toward the fellowship of nobility, or softened after harshness.

  23. إلا آن يغلو في القطيعة بعدما

    بعثتُ بها هوجاءَ موّارةَ اليد

    But the time has come for it to go too far in estrangement, after

    I drove her on—a headlong she-camel, her forelegs swinging swiftly;

  24. تزيد على هام الجبال شراسةً

    وفي بطن وادٍ أو على ظهر فدفد

    she grows fiercer on the heads of mountains,

    and in a valley's belly, or on the back of a vast plain.

  25. أمنتُ بظلِ العادل الملك ظلمّهُ

    فنال عليٌّ ما أبتغى بمحمَّد

    I found safety from its oppression in the shade of the just king,

    so Ali attained through Muhammad what he sought.