رُبَّ لَيلٍ قَطَعتُهُ بِاِنتِحابِ

رُبَّ دَمعٍ هَرَقتُهُ في التُرابِ

Many a night I passed weeping,

Many a night I have endured in wailing,

Many a tear I shed on the ground,

Many a tear I have poured out upon the dust.

رُبَّ ثَوبٍ نَزَعتُهُ بِعَصيرِ الـ

ـدَمعِ بَدَّلتُ غَيرَهُ مِن ثِيابِ

Many a garment I tore with tears -

Many a robe I cast off, drenched with the essence

Only to replace it with other clothes.

Of tears, exchanging it for fresh attire.

لَم يَجِفَّ المَنزوعُ عَنِّيَ حَتّى

بَلَّتِ العَينُ ذا لِطولِ اِنتِحابِ

My torn garments had barely dried

Yet the one I discarded had not dried before

Before my eyes again began weeping.

My eyes soaked the new one with prolonged weeping.

رُبَّ سِلمٍ قَد صارَ لي فيكِ حَرباً

رُبَّ نَفسٍ كَلَّفتُموها عِتابي

Many who were once at peace with me

Many a peace has turned, for your sake, into war;

Now reproach and contend with me.

Many a soul you have burdened with my rebuke.

إِنَّما يَعرِفُ الصَبابَةَ مَن با

تَ عَلى فُرقَةٍ مِنَ الأَحبابِ

Only those struck by separation know

None understands the true agony of passion save he

What it's like to lose one's loved ones.

Who spends the night severed from his beloved.

أَبعَدَ اللَهُ يا سُلَيمانُ قَلبي

هُوَ أَيضاً يَهوى بِغَيرِ حِسابِ

O Sulayman! May God keep you

May God damn this heart of mine, O Solomon!

And your fickle heart far from me.

For it, too, falls in love without reckoning.

قُل لَهُ ذُق وَلَو عَلِمتَ بِأَمري

لَم تُبَدِّل قَطيعَةً بِتَصابِ

Tell him, though he knows my state,

Tell it: "Taste the bitter fruit!" for had you known my state,

He has not replaced estrangement with intimacy.

You would not have traded freedom for desire.

أَخلَقَ الحُبُّ لِاِنقِطاعِ التَصابي

وَتَدُسُّ الرُشا إِلى الكُتّابِ

Love itself severs intimate ties

Love wears down the soul to end all youthful folly,

And letter-bearers start prying.

And secretly slips its bribes to the scribes;

فَإِذا صارَ صَكُّ رِقِّكَ فيهِم

خَتَموهُ بِخاتَمِ الأَوصابِ

So when your letter reaches them

So when the deed of your enslavement comes before them,

It is sealed by peers given to gossip.

They stamp it with the seal of eternal torment.