1. طرفي أقرّ بما لساني يجحدُ

    يكفي البيانُ عليك بعضك يشهد

    My gaze has confessed to what my tongue denies.

    The proof suffices: part of you bears witness against you.

  2. ولرُبّ طرف مُفصح بمقالة

    وبليغ قول ضلّ عنهُ المقصدُ

    And many a glance speaks eloquently with a message,

    While many an eloquent saying has missed its intended point.

  3. طرفي بتعداد الكواكب مُغرمٌ

    فيبيتُ يبكي في الدُّجى ويُعدّدُ

    My gaze is enamored of counting the stars,

    So it spends the night weeping in darkness and counting.

  4. صبري ووجدي في الغرام كلاهُما

    ذا بالهوى يفني وذا يتجدّدُ

    My patience and my passion, both in love—

    The one is consumed by love, while the other is renewed.

  5. لعب الغرامُ بمهجتي فتحكّمت

    فيها سيوفٌ للّواحظ إثمدُ

    Love toyed with my heart; then there held sway

    Within it swords that are kohl for glancing eyes.

  6. وبي الذي في طرفه وقوامه

    للعاشقين مُثقّفُ ومُهنّدُ

    And I am smitten with one whose glance and stature hold

    For lovers, a straightened lance and an Indian-forged sword.

  7. رشأ كتمتُ غرامه فوشى به

    نمّامُ دمع للخدود مُخدّدُ

    A young gazelle: I hid my love for him, but it was betrayed

    By tale-bearing tears that furrow the cheeks.

  8. قطع الطريق على اصطباري لحظه

    لكن لطرق الاشتياق مُسهّدُ

    His glance barred the road to my endurance,

    Yet it keeps me wakeful for longing's nightly visits.

  9. مهما تألّق بارقٌ من ثغره

    فالدّمع وبلٌ والفرائصُ ترعدُ

    Whenever a lightning-flash gleams from his mouth,

    Then tears are a downpour, and my flanks tremble.

  10. أصلى الحشا نارا مشهّد ريقه

    لا تنكرنّ مُصليّا يتشهّدُ

    His honeyed saliva made my heart burn in fire;

    Do not find it strange that one burning recites the testimony of faith.

  11. مهما تثنّي غُصنُ قامته بدا

    لك وهو في جمع الحاسن مُفردُ

    Whenever the branch of his stature bends, he appears

    Before you, unique among the company of the beautiful.

  12. ان ينح تعذيبي شهيُّ رُضابه

    لا غرو إذ هُو في النّحاة مبرّد

    If his sweet saliva aims to torment me,

    No wonder: among grammarians he is Mubarrad.

  13. ولمقلتيه من السّهام خزائنٌ

    عجبا لها نفذت وليست تنفدُ

    And his two eyes have storehouses of arrows;

    How wondrous: they have pierced through, yet are never exhausted.

  14. في ثغره ذهب الكرى عن ناظرى

    كلٌّ تراهُ مُشهّدٌ ومُسهّدُ

    Because of his mouth, sleep has fled from my eye;

    You see them both: one honeyed, the other sleepless.

  15. فالصّبرُ فان في جنان جماله

    والشّوق في ذاك الجنان مُخلّدُ

    So patience perishes in the gardens of his beauty,

    And longing is immortal in that paradise.

  16. من حُسنه ترك اللّواحظ أغيد

    في خدّه للواردين تردّدُ

    A supple youth whose beauty has left glances

    Lingering on his cheek, where visitors keep returning.

  17. أعيى التّردّد في السّلوّ عواذلي

    وبقدر عذلهمُ الهوى يتزيّدُ

    Wavering over forgetting him has exhausted my reproachers,

    And love increases in proportion to their reproaches.

  18. كم ذا التردّدُ منهمُ ويقينهم

    بخلافه أمع اليقين تردّدُ

    How much they waver, though their certainty lies

    In the opposite! Can wavering coexist with certainty?

  19. ان رُمتُ أفتحُ باب سلوة حُبّه

    يوما فسيفُ اللّحظ منه مُسدّدُ

    If I seek to open the door to forgetting my love for him

    One day, then his glance's sword is aimed straight at me.

  20. ولكم بنيتُ على السلّو فينتضي

    من لحظه سيف الغرام يهدّدُ

    And how often I built my hopes on forgetting, only for him to draw

    From his gaze the sword of love, threatening me.

  21. وكم اجتهدتُ لأن يقلّدني يدا

    فبدا وربّ الإجتهاد يُقلّد

    And how often I strove for him to bestow a favor on me,

    Then he appeared, and even a master of independent judgment follows another.

  22. يا من يُذهّبُ في مُفضّض ثغره

    عقلي ولثمي عن جناهُ مُحدّد

    O you who, within your silvered mouth, turn to gold

    My mind, while my kisses are barred from its fruit.

  23. عجبا لبارد ثغرك المحميّ عن

    لثمي به نارُ الحشا تتوقّدُ

    How strange: your cool mouth, guarded from

    My kisses, makes the fire within my heart blaze.

  24. عجبا لوجهك والقوام كلاهما

    بدرٌ سعى غُصنٌ به يتأوّدُ

    How wondrous your face and stature are, both together:

    A full moon that walks, a branch that sways with it.

  25. عجبا لطرفك واللّسان مع الهوى

    هذا يُعرّفُهُ وهذا يجحدُ

    How strange your gaze and tongue are in love:

    This one reveals it, and that one denies it.

  26. ضارعتُ خصرك في تجرّد شخصه

    لا تنكرنّ مُضارعا يتجرّدُ

    I resemble your waist in the bareness of its frame;

    Do not find it strange that one who resembles it is stripped bare.

  27. إكسيرُ نفسي في هواك أذبتهُ

    أو ما تراها في هواك تصعدُ

    I have dissolved my soul's elixir in love for you;

    Or do you not see it rising in love for you?