وهيفاء تقتل عشَّاقها

وهيفاء تقتل عشَّاقها

برمح القوام وسيف الحور

برمح القوام وسيف الحور

And a slender-waisted beauty kills her lovers

Wahifa kills her lovers

with the spear of her stature and the sword of her dark-eyed beauty.

With the spear of stature and the sword of maidens

تسدّد بالجفن سهمً الفتور

تسدّد بالجفن سهمً الفتور

وتفتح في الخدّ وردَ الخفر

وتفتح في الخدّ وردَ الخفر

With her eyelid she aims the arrow of languor,

She aims the arrow of aloofness with her eyelid

and makes the rose of bashfulness bloom upon her cheek.

And opens the rose of dawn on her cheek

إذا ما هدت بصباح الجبين

إذا ما هدت بصباح الجبين

قلباً أضلت بليل الشعر

قلباً أضلت بليل الشعر

When, with the dawn of her brow, she guides

When she calms her forehead with the morning light

a heart, she leads it astray with the night of her hair.

A heart she led astray in the night of poetry

أسرُّ إليها بشكوى الهوى

أسرُّ إليها بشكوى الهوى

فتجهرَ باللَّوم فيمن جهر

فتجهرَ باللَّوم فيمن جهر

I confide to her my complaint of love,

I confide to her the complaint of passion

then she openly blames whoever has spoken openly.

So she snarls with blame at he who snarled

فنحن كما قيل فيما مضى

فنحن كما قيل فيما مضى

أريها السُّهى وتريني القمر

أريها السُّهى وتريني القمر

So we are as was said long ago:

We are, as was said in times past

I show her al-Suhā, and she shows me the moon.

I show her yearning and she shows me the moon

وأحور سهماهُ لي مصميانِ

وأحور سهماهُ لي مصميانِ

فسيَّان عندي رمى أو نظر

فسيَّان عندي رمى أو نظر

And a dark-eyed man—his two arrows kill me outright;

And I bend his arrow to me determined

so to me it is all one whether he shoots or gazes.

Bent at me is shooting or gazing from him

إذا مرتَ الحربُ قطر السهام

إذا مرتَ الحربُ قطر السهام

تقلد فوق غديرٍ نهر

تقلد فوق غديرٍ نهر

When war milks a shower of arrows,

When the war of arrows passes

he girds himself with a river above a pool.

She takes command above a flowing stream

وطار على بارقٍ مارقٍ

وطار على بارقٍ مارقٍ

دجى النقع منهُ بعيد السحر

دجى النقع منهُ بعيد السحر

And he flies upon a darting lightning-flash,

Flying on a flashing lightning

the darkness of his dust far from dawn.

The darkness of the plains from it remotely dawn

يحجّب عنَّا نساءَ الخيام

يحجّب عنَّا نساءَ الخيام

ويبدو بكل حسامِ ذكر

ويبدو بكل حسامِ ذكر

He veils the women of the tents from us,

It veils from us the women of the tents

and appears with every virile blade.

And shows with each sword, masculinity

فللوجدِ من حسنه ما أباح

فللوجدِ من حسنه ما أباح

وللشوق منهنَّ ما قد ستر

وللشوق منهنَّ ما قد ستر

So passion has what he has revealed of his beauty,

So for fervor from his beauty what was permitted

and yearning, what he has concealed of those women.

And for yearning from them what was kept hidden