ذرينيَ قُسطنطينُ آكلُ شهوتي

ذرينيَ قُسطنطينُ آكلُ شهوتي

وتُبشمُنِي إني بذلك راضي

وتُبشمُنِي إني بذلك راضي

Let me be, Qusṭanṭīn, to eat as my appetite desires,

Let me, Constantine, eat what I crave,

and be left glutted; with that I am content.

and let it give me indigestion—I am content with that.

فأكثرُ ما ألقى من الزادِ كَظَّةٌ

فأكثرُ ما ألقى من الزادِ كَظَّةٌ

مَدَى يومها واليومُ أسرعُ ماضِي

مَدَى يومها واليومُ أسرعُ ماضِي

For the most that food can visit upon me is a surfeit

For the worst I suffer from food is an oppressive fullness,

lasting the span of a day—and a day passes swiftly.

lasting its day—and a day is the swiftest to pass.

ولكنَّ أمراً قد بُليتُ بحُبّه

ولكنَّ أمراً قد بُليتُ بحُبّه

قواضيه إن أنْحَت عليَّ قواضي

قواضيه إن أنْحَت عليَّ قواضي

But there is a thing with whose love I have been afflicted,

But there is something I have been afflicted with loving:

whose dire consequences, when they bear down upon me, prove fatal.

its calamities, if they bear down upon me, are death-dealing.

تلذّين أُولاه ويُوردُ غبُّهُ

تلذّين أُولاه ويُوردُ غبُّهُ

حياضاً من المكرُوهِ بعد حِياض

حياضاً من المكرُوهِ بعد حِياض

You savor its beginning, but its aftermath brings you

You delight in its beginning, and its aftermath leads you

to pool after pool of suffering.

to pools of misery, pool after pool.

فما هو إلا أن تَجرَّ ذُيولها

فما هو إلا أن تَجرَّ ذُيولها

ليالٍ على آثارِ ذاكَ مَواضي

ليالٍ على آثارِ ذاكَ مَواضي

Then it takes only the trailing of their hems—

Then it is only a matter of their trailing their skirts—

nights passing over the traces of that ordeal—

nights passing in the wake of that—

وتَنْسين ذاكَ الهولَ حتى تُعاودي

وتَنْسين ذاكَ الهولَ حتى تُعاودي

رُكوب طوالٍ كالرّشاء عِراض

رُكوب طوالٍ كالرّشاء عِراض

for you to forget that terror, until once again you return

and you forget that terror, until you return

to mounting long, broad ones, like well-ropes—

to riding long, thick ones like well-ropes.

كأنك ما أُثقلْتِ تسعة أشهرٍ

كأنك ما أُثقلْتِ تسعة أشهرٍ

بحمل ولا قاسيتِ ضربَ مخاض

بحمل ولا قاسيتِ ضربَ مخاض

as though you had not been weighed down for nine months

As though you had not been burdened for nine months

by pregnancy, nor endured the pangs of labor.

with child, nor endured the blows of labor.