ما للقلوب من العيون امان

هي محنة وفتورها فتان

Hearts have no safety from eyes.

They are a trial, and their languor bewitches.

تدع الهزبر اسيرها ولكم نرى

من ضيغم فتكت به الاجفان

They leave the mighty lion captive; how often we see

a lion slain by eyelids!

يا صاحب الطرف الكحيل ارفق بمن

هو من صدودك والنوى حيران

O you of the kohl-dark gaze, be gentle with one

bewildered by your rejection and separation.

رصعته بنبال طرفك فانبرى

مضنى وفي احشائه نيران

You studded him with arrows from your gaze, and he emerged

wasted, with fires in his entrails.

يبكي ويذهله الغرام فقلبه

في لوعة وجميعه اشجان

He weeps, and passion bewilders him; his heart

is in anguish, and his whole being is sorrow.

قامت قيامته لهجرك والهوى

صعب وايام البعاد خشان

Your desertion has brought his day of doom, and love

is hard, and the days of separation are harsh.

يا ساكنا قلب الولوه وفي القلو

ب كشأنها ومرامها السكان

O dweller in the lovesick one's heart—and in hearts

the dwellers accord with their nature and desire.

لي أي وحقك لهفة مطوية

لك في الضمير عن الضمير تصان

I have—yes, by your worth—a folded-away yearning

for you within my heart, guarded even from my awareness.

فاذا ذكرت فكل عيني مسمع

واذا برزت فقالبي انسان

When you are mentioned, my whole eye becomes a listening ear;

and when you appear, my frame becomes an eye's pupil.

واعلم بانك اين غبت فحاضر

في السر مالك من سواه مكان

And know that wherever you are absent, you remain present

in the inward secret; you have no place other than it.

علمتني علم الهوى وجعلتني

محوا محال طرازه امكان

You taught me the lore of love and made me

an effacement—an impossibility embroidered with possibility.

اشكو اليك ومنك اشكو فاكفني

نارا صلاها المدمع الهتان

I complain to you, and of you I complain; shield me from

a fire whose searing heat is the ceaseless flow of tears.

ولرب راقصة بروض مزهر

مالت بكل فجاجه الاغصان

And many a dancer in a flowering garden,

where branches swayed through all its pathways,

غنت فحنت مهجتي لما شدت

واثار وجدي البارق الحنان

sang, and my heart yearned when she warbled;

and the tender lightning-flash stirred my passionate longing.

وحمامة في الدوح ناحت فالتوى

قلبي ونحت ودمعي المرجان

And a dove lamented in the lofty trees, wrenching

my heart; I lamented, and my tears were coral.

شاركت خالية ولم اك خاليا

وتبعت نائحة وبي احزان

I joined a carefree one, though I was not carefree,

and followed a mourner, while sorrows filled me.

ويلاه من آلام فقد مزعج

اضنى فؤادا روحه الجيران

Alas for the pains of a shattering loss

that wasted a heart whose soul is its neighbors!

جرتم اجيراني وشط مزاركم

وتباعد الاحياء والاوطان

You dealt unjustly, O my neighbors, and your abode grew remote;

the settlements and homelands grew far apart.

بحياتكم هل لا وصلتم حبل من

هو في الهوى لمديحكم حسان

By your lives, will you not renew the bond of one

who, in love, is a Hassan in praising you?

سلمانكم هو والمحبة شاهد

ولكل بيت شبهه سلمان

He is your Salman, and love bears witness;

and every household has a Salman like him.

ترك الوجود لاجلكم فوجوده

فقد وحشو فؤاده وجدان

He forsook existence for your sake, so his existence

is loss, while his heart is filled with ecstasy.

اهفا واخطأ ناسيا فصددتمو

هل يكتب الهفوات والنسيان

Did he slip and err forgetfully, so you turned away?

Are lapses and forgetfulness written down?

وجمالكم وجلالكم هو مفرد

بغرامكم ما فل منه عنان

By your beauty and majesty, he is set apart

by passion for you; no rein of his has given way.

هو في محبتكم نسيج زمانه

فذ وان هو كله نقصان

In loving you, he is the unique weave of his age,

peerless, though he is all imperfection.

كم يدعي صدق المحبة كاذب

ويطول منه بما ادعاه لسان

How many a liar claims sincerity in love,

and his tongue grows long with what he claims!

ومتى المحك جرى عليه تحققت

ازغاله والزور والبهتان

But when the touchstone is applied to him, revealed are

his impurities, falsehood, and slander.

خالف هوى من راح يزعم في الهوى

صدقا اخيّ ويفضح الكتمان

Oppose the desire of one who goes about claiming, in love,

sincerity, my brother, and what is concealed will be exposed.

راح الكرام الصادقون وقد مضوا

وتخالف الاطوار والازمان

The noble and truthful have gone; they have passed away,

and ways and times are at odds.

ها نحن في زمن شؤن رجاله

حرباؤُها ضحكت لها الاكوان

Here we are in an age whose men's affairs

have a chameleon at which all the worlds laugh.

تمضي الرجال على خيال ذعومها

وكذا فلان شأنه وفلان

Men proceed along the fantasies of their claims,

and such is so-and-so's way, and so-and-so's.

ذهبت قفول الخيرين ونحن في

قوم متى صدعوا بحال خانوا

The caravans of the virtuous have gone, and we are among

a people who prove faithless whenever they profess a state.

قلّ الذين اذا الملمة ازعجت

حرسوك حبا بالنفوس وصانوا

Few are those who, when calamity troubles you,

guard you out of love with their lives, and keep you safe.

هذا الزمان وهذه اطوار من

هم اهله وهمو له عنوان

This is the age, and these are the ways of those

who are its people and are its emblem.

فالفت عنانك للمحبة والتفت

عن غيره يا من له اذعان

So turn your reins toward love, and turn away

from all else, O you who submit.

ان المحبة في قلوب رجالها

لطرازها شجر لها فنان

Indeed, love in the hearts of its men

has trees for its embroidery, and those trees have boughs.

تعطي لعمرك كل شيء حقه

ونظامها لأولي النهى ميزان

By your life, it gives everything its due,

and its order is a balance for those of understanding.

معنى تخف به الرجاح ونكتة

هي للعقول وطورها ديوان

A meaning that makes weighty minds grow light, and a subtle point

that is a register for minds and their states.

وبرمزها سر خفي غامض

حارت به الالباب والاذهان

And in its symbol is a hidden, obscure secret

at which intellects and minds are bewildered.

دع عنك من جهل المحبة او بغى

في دينها فكلاهما خسران

Leave aside whoever is ignorant of love or transgresses

against its faith, for both are losers.

واعمل بشرع الب شامخ همة

فهي المرؤة اصلها الايمان

And act according to love's law, lofty in aspiration;

for this is nobility of character, rooted in faith.

واذا دهاك من الوساوس طارق

فاطرحه فهو الظلم والعدوان

And if a night-visitor from whispering doubts assails you,

cast it away, for it is injustice and transgression.

وكن الكريم ولا تكن ذا خسة

عمل الكريم قوامه الاحسان

Be noble, and do not be base;

a noble person's deeds rest on benevolence.

وتنح عن زعم البقاء ونم فما

في الدار الا القاهر الديان

Withdraw from claims of permanence, and sleep, for none

is in the abode but the Subduer, the Judge.