1. أحب الحمى والبانَ وجداً بأهلهِ

    وإن عاقني عنه الزمان بملطهِ

    I love the protected pasture and the bān trees, yearning for its people,

    And though time keeps me from it with its delays.

  2. وواحرَّ أنفاسي مقالةَ شائقٍ

    إلى بانهِ وقتَ الهجير وظلهِ

    Ah, the burning of my breaths—the cry of one yearning

    For its bān trees in the midday heat, and their shade.

  3. وما حُلَّ في الأطلالُ خيطُ مدامعي

    فلا عاقها خيطُ الغمام بحله

    Whenever the thread of my tears is unloosed among the ruins,

    May the clouds' thread not hinder them as it unravels.

  4. وإن تربت كفّ الديار من الحيا

    وهبتُ مغانيها الغنى قبل وبلهِ

    And if the dwellings' palm grows poor for lack of rain,

    I give their haunts riches before its downpour.

  5. ووجهِ غديرٍ رحتُ عنهُ بغلَّةٍ

    تزيد على ورد الزُّلال وعلِهِ

    And many a pool's face I left with burning thirst

    That grew upon drinking limpid water, and drinking it again.

  6. وثغر أقاحٍ قبّلت نظمَهُ الصَّبا

    ونُقّط بالتبرين دمعي وطلهِ

    And a daisy-mouth whose ordered row the east wind kissed,

    And spangled with gold and silver—my tears and its dew.

  7. وربَّ حليم الجهل في عرصاتها

    بكى لي من دمعي الهتون وجهله

    And many a man, his rashness restrained, within their courts,

    Wept for me at my pouring tears and their wild abandon.

  8. وأكسبه عطفاً عليَّ ورقَّةً

    ضياعِ الفؤاد المستهام وعذلهِ

    And he was moved to compassion for me and tenderness

    By the loss of the lovesick heart and the blame laid upon it.

  9. زمانَ الصبا أبكي وما كنت باكياً

    زمانَ الصبا لو جادَ دهرٌ بمثله

    I weep for the days of youth; I would not be weeping

    For the days of youth, had time bestowed their like.

  10. وقالوا سلا بعض السلو عن الحمى

    لقد كذبوا وأشغلَ كلي بكلهِ

    And they said, 'He has partly ceased to pine for the protected pasture.'

    Indeed they lied: it engrossed all of me with all of itself.

  11. وأهيفَ من أعطافه ولحاظهِ

    بُليت بقد السمهري وفعلهِ

    And many a slender-waisted one—through his curves and glances,

    I was afflicted by a Samharī spear's stature and its effect.

  12. وقد كنت في حسن التجلد في حمى

    فمن دلَّهُ حتى سباني بدلهِ

    And I had been safe in the refuge of fine endurance;

    Who then led him to me, until he captured me with his coy charm?

  13. ولما حنى منحاجبيه حنيَّة

    تيقنت أن الهدب أمثالُ نبلهِ

    And when he curved his eyebrows into a bow,

    I knew for certain that his eyelashes were like his arrows.

  14. دعوا مقلتي في حبه وسهادها

    وخلوا له ما بين قلبي ونثله

    Leave my eye to love him and to its sleepless vigil,

    And leave him a clear path between my heart and his drawn arrows.

  15. نفى حركاتِ الشوق من بات ساكناً

    وأصبح في خفض السلو ورسلهِ

    He who passed the night at rest denied longing's stirrings,

    And greeted morning in the ease of forgetfulness and its repose.

  16. فويلاه من قبح المشيب وهجره

    وآهاً على حسن الشباب ووصلهِ

    Alas for gray hair's ugliness and its estrangement!

    And ah, for youth's beauty and its union!

  17. وكم رحت مهزوز الجوانح والحشى

    بزينبه ذات الجمال وجُملهِ

    And how often I went with ribs and heart trembling

    For its Zaynab, possessed of beauty in all its fullness.

  18. أشببُ تعليلاً بأغصان بأنه

    وأنسب تمثيلاً لكثبان رمله

    I sing love verses of its bān branches for solace,

    And sing of its sandy dunes in love poetry, by way of likeness.

  19. فهل من مشوقٍ حافظٍ سرَّ مثله

    بصير بإسناد الغرام ونقلهِ

    Is there a yearning lover who keeps a fellow lover's secret,

    Well versed in love's chain of transmission and its conveyance?

  20. أحمله دونَ الفريق ألوكةً

    تخفُّ على قبِ الفريق وبزلهِ

    I would entrust him, apart from the company, with a message

    Light upon the company's lean mounts and its mature camels:

  21. حنيناً إلى مصر وكرسي جسرها

    وشوقاً إلى ماء السدير وأثلهِ

    Yearning for Egypt and the base of its bridge,

    And longing for the water of al-Sadīr and its tamarisks.

  22. هوى قصرت أيدي الجياد وسوقه

    وضاقت عناق العيس ذرعاً بحمله

    A passion for which steeds' forelegs and shanks fell short,

    And the necks of pale camels were unequal to bearing it.

  23. أفي كل دارٍ لي حبيبٌ مودعٌ

    أذوقُ على كرهٍ مرارة ثكله

    Is there in every dwelling a beloved of mine left behind,

    Whose bitter loss I taste against my will?

  24. وما ضر ضرب السير لو كان ماشياً

    على مهله لما سقاني بمهلهِ

    And what harm would travel's pace have suffered, had it walked

    At its leisure? It would not have made me drink its molten metal.

  25. فشتت شمل البين أخذاً بحكمه

    فكم شفَّ مشتاقاً بتشتيت شملهِ

    So scatter separation's union, enforcing its own decree—

    For how many a yearning lover it has worn thin by scattering his company!