اتمرضنا وانت لنا طبيب

وتبعدنا وانت لنا قريب

Do you make us ill, though you are our physician?

And keep us distant, though you are near to us?

وتوعدنا ومنك الخلف جار

وتهجرنا وانت لنا حبيب

And threaten us, though you keep breaking your word?

And abandon us, though you are our beloved?

وتطلع في سماء القلب شمسا

لها في كونه شيء عجيب

And you rise as a sun in the heart's sky,

with something wondrous about it in the heart's universe.

تقيم ببرجه نورا مقيما

اتحسبها اذا طلعت تغيب

You establish an abiding light in its celestial mansion;

do you think that, once it rises, it will set?

احبك لا احب سواك شخصا

ودمعي دمعه السيل الصبيب

I love you; I love no one besides you,

and my weeping—its tears are a pouring torrent.

بحبك ذاب يا مولاي كلي

وتبغضني فذا شيء عجيب

With love for you, my lord, my whole being has melted,

yet you hate me—how strange!

فداء الحب ليس له دواء

هو الداعي وذو الوجد المجيب

For love's malady has no remedy;

it is the caller, and the one possessed by longing answers.

ولم يبرأ صميم القلب منه

ولو كان المسيح له طبيب

And the heart's very core has not recovered from it,

even if the Messiah were its physician.

الست وعدتني يا قلب اني

اذا قاطعت من ثهوى تطيب

Did you not promise me, O heart, that

if I broke with the one you love, you would recover?

وقد عاهدتني اني بأني

اذا ما تبت عنه اذن تتوب

And you had pledged to me that I—that I—[wording unclear],

if I renounced him, then you would renounce him.

واني تبت عن حبي لحبي

لاني فيه سامتني الخطوب

And I have renounced my love for my beloved,

because calamities tormented me in it.

وانت تقول زورا تبت عنه

فمالك حين اذكره تذوب

And you falsely say, 'I have renounced him';

then why do you melt when I mention him?

وكم في الناس من حسن ولكن

بلاء الحب اذ يقضى نصيب

And how much beauty there is among people! Yet

love's affliction, once decreed, is one's allotted share.

مليك الحسن من تهوى وحقا

الذ العيش ما اشتهت القلوب

The one you love is beauty's sovereign; and truly,

the sweetest life is what hearts desire.

ربيع العمر جلاس فخام

كرام حيث تحضر او تغيب

Life's springtime is distinguished companions,

noble whether you are present or absent,

ووقت بالامان له ازدهاء

ومحبوب يعانقه حبيب

and a time resplendent in safety,

and a beloved whom a lover embraces.

فيا عطشي وهذا الماء جار

وناري في الفؤاد لها لهيب

So, oh my thirst, while this water flows!

And my fire within the heart blazes!

ويا بعدي وريم الروض جاري

ويا شوقي ومحبوبي قريب

And oh, my distance, while the meadow's gazelle is my neighbor!

And oh, my longing, though my beloved is near!

اذا كان المحب قليل حظ

تبدت من محاسنه العيوب

If a lover has little luck,

flaws emerge from his very virtues.

يحاربه الزمان ورغم انف

فما حسناته الا ذنوب

Time wages war on him, forcing his nose into the dust;

so his good deeds are nothing but sins.