1. هل هداك الله ففاضت عيوننا

    دماء وراح القلب بالنار لاهبا

    Has God guided you, that our eyes overflowed

    with blood and the heart blazed with fire?

  2. ويا رب وقت بالاحبة مشرق

    رأينا به مما يسر الغرائبا

    And oh, many a time radiant with loved ones,

    in which we saw wondrous things that bring delight.

  3. مضى فظننا صادع البين صادقا

    ووقت اجتماع الشمل قد كان كاذبا

    It passed, and we deemed separation's herald truthful,

    and the time of reunion a liar.

  4. فكم من جفون رحن يمطرن عندما

    وشيب غدا من عندم الدمع خاضبا

    For how many eyelids went on raining crimson dye,

    and gray hair took its coloring from the tears' crimson dye.

  5. شؤن لو البدر المشعشع شامها

    لاصبح مطموس الوضاحة ناحبا

    Tear ducts: had the radiant full moon beheld them,

    its brightness would have been blotted out, and it would have sobbed.

  6. وأيام قرب فرق الدهر جمعها

    وأبدلها مطموس الوضاحة ناحبا

    And days of nearness whose gathering Time scattered,

    and replaced them with one dimmed in brightness, sobbing.

  7. وأيام قرب فرق الدهر جمعها

    وابدلها بعد الصفاء المتاعبا

    And days of nearness whose gathering Time scattered,

    and, after serenity, replaced them with hardships.

  8. لها خطرات في القلوب ملحة

    كستها من البث العريض جلاببا

    Their memories persist within the hearts,

    having clothed them in robes of vast sorrow.

  9. الا يا وسيع الرأي در بهمومنا

    ولا تذكرن ركبا من الحي غائبا

    Ah, you of broad judgment, attend to our sorrows,

    and do not mention riders absent from the clan.

  10. وهات أحاديث التجني فإنها

    لتبرد بالآمال منا الترائبا

    And bring tales of unjust reproach, for they

    surely cool our breasts with hope.

  11. الم يكف ان العرب منا اعاجما

    غدت وجفاة العجم صارت اعاربا

    Was it not enough that our Arabs became non-Arabs,

    and coarse non-Arabs became Arabs?

  12. تذكرنا بالماضيات تهكما

    وقد اشبعتنا الماضيات مضاربا

    You remind us of bygone days in mockery,

    though those days have already given us our fill of blows.

  13. بعيشك لا تذكر اويقات قومنا

    أأنت عدو واتخذناك صاحبا

    By your life, do not recall our people's fleeting days.

    Are you an enemy, when we took you for a friend?

  14. ترفق بنا كي ننسى ما مر او حلا

    فكم انشبت فينا الهموم المخالبا

    Be gentle with us, that we may forget what was bitter or sweet;

    for how often sorrows have sunk their claws into us!

  15. عظيم لدينا ذكر سود ذوائب

    لهن غدت منا القلوب ذوائبا

    The memory of black tresses is overwhelming to us,

    for those tresses, our hearts have melted away.

  16. وآيات اجفان اذا ما تلوتها

    تصير لها الاجفان منا سواكبا

    And the verses of eyelids: whenever you recite them,

    our eyelids pour forth tears for them.

  17. اخا الرأي املنا بعودة من غدوا

    فكم ولدت حبلى الليالي العجائبا

    O man of judgment, give us hope of the return of those who departed,

    for how many wonders the pregnant nights have borne!

  18. وكيف يعود الميتون وانما

    هي الناس في الاموال تمضي مذاهبا

    Yet how can the dead return, when it is only

    people taking differing paths in matters of wealth?

  19. الم تر منا من معاركة النوى

    قنالا على هزل المناكب شائبا

    Have you not seen among us, from battling separation,

    a nape [uncertain reading], gray above wasted shoulders,

  20. ورقة اجساد يكاد كثيفها

    بلطف الجوى يغدو عن العين غائبا

    and bodies so frail that even their solid substance almost

    vanishes from sight through the subtlety of love's anguish?

  21. عسى تخلف الايام عن قومنا الألى

    كراما بهم ننسى النوى والنوائبا

    May the days give us, in place of our former people [uncertain reading],

    noble men through whom we may forget separation and calamities.

  22. وقال فلان قد رأيتك ماشيا

    فقلت رأيتك راكبا

    And so-and-so said, 'I have seen you walking.'

    So I said, 'I have seen you riding.'

  23. يرى الدهر طيشا للطغام مسالما

    وللساده الزهر الكرام محاربا

    Time, in its folly, seems at peace with the rabble,

    and at war with the radiant, generous lords.

  24. يفيضون فيض الغيث ما في جيوبهم

    ولم يشهدوا الا غضوبا وعاتبا

    They pour out the contents of their pockets like rain,

    yet have encountered only the angry and the reproachful.

  25. ورب بخيل والمثالب ثوبه

    له عد اعداء المعالي مناقبا

    And many a miser, whose garment is faults,

    has the enemies of nobility count those faults as virtues.

  26. فكم قلبوا الاعيان بالوهم خسة

    وجهلا وصفوا في الحضيض الكواكبا

    For how often, in baseness, they have inverted realities through delusion,

    and, in ignorance, pictured the stars in the lowest depths!

  27. وقد ابرزوا جرب الثعالب للوغا

    اسودا وقد سموا الاسود ثعالبا

    They have brought mangy foxes onto the battlefield

    as lions, and called the lions foxes.

  28. تعدوا حدود الله فاسود رأيهم

    ورد لهم من غارة الوهم خائبا

    They transgressed God's limits, and their judgment turned black,

    and returned to them thwarted from delusion's raid.

  29. لقد امنوا شؤم العواقب في غد

    وهل عاقل من لا يخاف العواقبا

    They have felt safe from the evil of tomorrow's consequences;

    but is anyone who fears no consequences sensible?

  30. فما بال مخمور الغرور بسكره

    يروح لحق المجد والفضل غاصبا

    So what ails the man intoxicated with conceit, who in his drunkenness

    goes about usurping the rights of glory and virtue?

  31. اظن بما يقني من المال ان يرى

    عزيزا وكم ظن يجر المصائبا

    Does he think that, through the wealth he acquires, he will be seen

    as mighty? How many a presumption brings calamities!

  32. مضى قبله آلاف قوم قد امتطوا

    ذرى المجد واختالوا ساقوا الكتائبا

    Before him passed thousands of people who had mounted

    the heights of glory, strutted, and led battalions.

  33. وما فاز الا الصالحون ومن مضى

    الى الله من كل المآثم تائبا

    Yet none triumphed but the righteous and whoever went

    to God, repenting of every sin.

  34. زوى العزم عن ليلى وسلمى وزينب

    وراح على صدق الى الله هاربا

    He turned his resolve away from Layla, Salma, and Zaynab,

    and set out in sincerity, fleeing to God.

  35. ومن عرف الدنيا خيالا رأى التقى

    طريقاً ولم يبغ العلا والمناصبا

    Whoever recognized this world as an illusion saw piety

    as a path, and did not seek eminence and offices.

  36. وقائلة ما بال عزمك لم يزل

    جموحا يرى قطع المراتب واجبا

    And a woman said, 'Why has your resolve remained

    headstrong, deeming the surmounting of ranks a duty?'

  37. فقلت لها كفي فاني ابن سادة

    باخمصهم داسوا النجوم الثواقبا

    I said to her, 'Desist, for I am the son of lords

    who trod the piercing stars beneath the arches of their feet.

  38. وعينيك لم اكفر لذي الفضل نعمة

    ولم ألو يوما للدنايا المآريا

    And by your eyes, I have never denied a benefactor's kindness,

    nor ever turned my aims [uncertain reading] toward baseness.

  39. ولي همة شماء عن شيم علت

    لقد اخذت الا عن الله جانبا

    Mine is a lofty aspiration, sprung from exalted traits;

    it has kept apart from all but God.

  40. لذا فالوقار المحض درعي ورونقي

    ولو خضت في صون الوقار الصعائبا

    Therefore pure dignity is my armor and my splendor,

    even if I must plunge into hardships to preserve dignity.

  41. واني بحمد الله فرع اصوله

    لقد تخذوا بيد الوطيس ملاعبا

    And I, praise be to God, am a branch whose roots

    have made the wastelands of battle's furnace their playgrounds.

  42. اولوا الهندوانيات ان ما ذكرتهم

    ذكرت الاسود الطاهرين الا طايبا

    Wielders of Indian swords: if ever you recall them,

    you recall the pure, most excellent lions.

  43. علوا قمة المجد الاسم

    وقد عطر واشرق الورى والمغاربا

    They scaled the summit of lofty glory [uncertain reading],

    and it perfumed and brightened humankind and the western lands.

  44. وكم قد جلوا بالمكرمات عيد

    وجازوا من الفخر المنيع سباسبا

    And how often, through noble deeds, they have made a festival shine,

    and crossed the desert plains of unassailable glory.

  45. وطافت بهم اهل القلوب وللهدى

    لهم اقلقت زهر الوجود النجائبا

    And people of the heart circled them; in quest of guidance,

    creation's flowers stirred the noble riding-camels for them.

  46. اجل بني العلياء اصلا ومظهرا

    واطول سادات البرايا ماسبا

    The most august sons of eminence, in lineage and bearing,

    and the loftiest lords of creation in lineage [uncertain reading].

  47. اذا ام للدين المؤمل غيرهم

    يروح عنان المستحيلات جاذبا

    If a hopeful seeker turns to others for religion,

    he goes about tugging at the reins of impossibilities.

  48. أبي الله الا ان نسير بأثرهم

    رضينا بهاتيك الخلال مشاربا

    God would have us do nothing but follow in their footsteps;

    we have accepted those virtues as springs from which to drink.'