1. كتابك كان فاتحة السرورِ

    وبشِّرني بإتمام الأمورِ

    Your letter was the beginning of joy,

    And give me glad tidings of matters fulfilled.

  2. كأني كنت مأسوراً أتاهُ

    بفكِّ الأسر توقيعُ الأميرِ

    As though I had been a captive to whom there came

    The emir's decree of release from captivity.

  3. وقلبي كان أعمى عن هُداه

    فأبصر بالكتاب المستنيرِ

    And my heart was blind to its guidance,

    Then gained sight through the radiant letter,

  4. كيعقوب النبيِّ جَلا عَماهُ

    موافاةُ القميص مع البشيرِ

    Like the prophet Jacob, whose blindness was dispelled

    By the shirt's arrival with the bearer of glad tidings.

  5. ولم أرَ مثل مِيلك وهو نِقسٌ

    تغشّى ناظري ببياض نُورِ

    And I have never seen the like of your kohl-stick, though it is ink,

    That veiled my eyes in the whiteness of light.

  6. وكان الفوز لو بُشِّرت فيه

    بأنك زائري أو مستزيري

    And triumph would have been mine, had I been told in it

    That you would visit me, or invite me to visit you,

  7. لخلوة مجلسٍ ولأنس وصلٍ

    تُضَمُّ به النحورُ إلى النحورِ

    For a secluded meeting and the intimacy of union,

    In which bosoms are pressed to bosoms.

  8. كتبتُ إليك والعبرات تمحو

    كتابي بالأنين وبالزفيرِ

    I wrote to you while tears erased

    My letter, amid moaning and sighs.

  9. ويشهدُ لي على ما في ضميري

    سطورُ الدمع ما بين السطورِ

    And bearing witness for me to what is in my heart

    Are the lines of tears between the lines.

  10. كتمنا ما بنا حتّى أبانت

    صدور الكتب عمّا في الضميرِ

    We concealed what was in us, until there was revealed

    By the letters' openings what lay within the heart.