يا سيدي اني وحقك لم ازل

لهجا بذكر حلاك بين الناس

O my lord, by your honor, I have never ceased

speaking eagerly of your graces among the people.

ما كنت بالناسي لعهدك وهو لي

كل المنى كلا ولا المتناسي

I have never forgotten your pledge, which to me

is all I desire—no, nor have I feigned forgetfulness.

قد ضقت ذرعا بالنوى فلقد كست

جسمي من الاسقام شر لباس

I can no longer bear separation, for it has clothed

my body in the worst garment of disease.

فكأنني وسط الشتاء مزمل

بلظى اخال دخانها انفاسي

As though, in the heart of winter, I were swathed

in a blaze whose smoke I imagine to be my breath.

قد كنت اطمع ان اراك مصاحبا

للحضرة العليا فياللياس

I had hoped to see you in attendance

at the exalted court—alas, what despair!

شغلت بغيرك حجة ولطالما

وافاك فيها معشر الجلاس

"I am occupied with someone else" is the excuse; yet how often

a gathering of companions has visited you there!

ولقد وقفت ببابها متمثلا

ما وفي وقوفك ساعة من باس

And I have stood at its door, quoting:

"And there is no harm in your standing for an hour."

يا لوعة ما ذاقها ذو وحشة

قبلي ولا مرت بسمع اناسي

O burning anguish, which no lonely soul has tasted

before me, nor has it ever reached human ears!

لله اوقات تقضت خلسة

من كف دهر ظالم خلاس

How precious those hours that passed, snatched

from the grasp of cruel, thieving Time!

حرم العيون جلاء وصلك سبة

سلت من الاجفان طيب نعاسي

It denied my eyes the radiance of union with you—an outrage

that stole the sweetness of sleep from my eyelids.

كم ذا يدوم البين موحش ناظري

من انس قربك يا منى استئناسي

How long will separation last, leaving my sight bereft

of the comfort of your nearness, O hope of my solace?

ولكم امني النفس والاشجان قد

برحن في الاصباح والاغلاس

How often I fill my soul with hopes, while sorrows have

tormented me at dawn and in the predawn darkness.

ليلى بهيم سرمد فكأنما

شدت كواكبه الى امراس

My night is pitch-black and endless, as though

its stars were fastened to ropes.

لي فيه طول تذكر وتشوق

لزمان قربك دون حد قياس

In it, I linger in remembrance and yearning

for the time of your nearness, beyond all measure.

ولنسخ ديوان العروض تضاعفت

مني الهموم فايقظت ايجاسي

And transcribing the volume on prosody has redoubled

my cares, awakening my apprehension.

هذي لعمرك خطة زادت على

كربي ولم تك في حجا حداس

This, by your life, is an undertaking that added to

my distress, and never entered a shrewd guesser's mind.

ان كنت قد اوتيت منها راحة

فلنحن منها في اشد الباس

If from it you have been granted ease,

then we, through it, are in the harshest misery.

لو كان من يشرى اسيود طالعي

لجعلته في قبضة النخاس

If anyone would buy my fortune's little black fellow,

I would put him in the slave-dealer's grasp.

ويلي على بصر الزمان وسمعه

فاليوم قد ايفا عن الاحساس

Woe to me for Time's sight and hearing!

For today both have lost their power of perception.

لا تنفع الشكوى لديه ولا الاسى

ومن البلية ظلم شاك آس

Neither complaint nor grief avails with it;

and one calamity is wronging a grieving sufferer.

الصبر منقبة ولكن حين لا

يفضى الى الاهلاك والابلاس

Patience is a virtue, but only when it does not

lead to destruction and despair.

يا من بمشبهه الليالي لم تجد

لبنى امية او بني العباس

O you whose like the nights never bestowed

upon the sons of Umayya or the sons of al-Abbas,

انت المجلى في العلوم وكم نرى

لك شاهدا من حلبة القرطاس

you are the front-runner in learning; how often we see

testimony for you from the racecourse of the page!

انت الذي ياتيه مقتبس الهدى

فيقول هاؤكم عن النبراس

You are the one to whom a seeker of guidance's light comes,

and who says, "Take this from the lamp."

في أي فن شئته ان قلت لم

ينكر عليك القول قط نطاسي

In any discipline you choose, if you speak, no

expert will ever challenge your words.

ما ان يعارضك امرؤ في النظم او

في النثر الا كان ذا وسواس

No man challenges you in verse or

in prose unless he is prey to delusion.

لا يستوي متضلع مع شارب

من فضلة قد اسئرت في الكاس

One who has drunk his fill is not equal to one drinking

from a remnant left behind in the cup.

اني اعيذك ان تكون مساعدا

دهري على بجفوة وتناس

I pray you never become an ally

to my fate against me, through coldness and feigned forgetting.

قد عالني صبري بما انا واجد

من ذا البعاد ولات حين مؤاس

My patience has failed me under what I suffer

from this separation—and now is no time for a comforter.

فاذا شكوت فليس لي من راحم

واذا اسيت فليس لي من آس

So if I complain, there is no one to pity me;

and if I grieve, there is no one to comfort me.

ذي حالتي في غربة جاءت على

وهن القوى مني كطود راس

Such is my state in exile, which has fallen upon

my failing strength like a firmly rooted mountain.