العذل يقلق والصبابة تلبس

والحب يطمع والمواطن يؤنس

Reproach unsettles, and ardent longing envelops me.

Love kindles hope, and familiar haunts bring solace.

وأخو الهوى في شرع أحكام الهوى

رق له وعلى الهوان محبس

Love's devotee, under the law of love's decrees,

is its slave, held captive in humiliation.

لا تعذلوني في الهوى إن الهوى

أكلي وشربي وهو لي فالملبس

Do not reproach me for love, for love

is my food and drink, and is my clothing too.

كم عبرة قد ربعتها زفرة

درست ومجرى وقعها لا يدرس

How many a tear, made fourfold by a sigh,

has faded, though the channel of its fall never fades.

رحمت حشا شتى الظلوع لأنها

تنقد منها عند ما أتنفس

I pitied a breast with scattered ribs, for they

break away from it whenever I breathe.

ظن السراة مقابساً بخياشمي

فأتت إلي لعلها تتقبس

The night-travelers imagined sources of fire in my nostrils,

so they came to me, hoping to take a flame.

وتحقق الراءون أن مدامعي

غدران سارية سرت تتبجس

The onlookers were certain that my tears

were pools of a night-cloud that passed, gushing forth.

إن الهوى في مهجتي ونواظري

وأفيدتي فمقبل ومعرس

Indeed, love is in my life's blood and my eyes,

and my hearts: it arrives and makes its home.

بيت الهوى عندي على شحط الوى

من غير جرم مطلق ومؤسس

Love's house, for me, despite the remoteness of the winding sands,

is unconfined and founded without a physical body.

سيان ما نص العواذل في الهوى

عندي أسانيد الإنابة أونسوا

Alike are the reproachers' pronouncements on love

and, to me, the authorities for repentance; they were comforted [wording unclear].

وأنا الغني بلوعتي وصبابتي

ومن السلو عن الأحبة مفلس

I am rich in my anguish and my yearning,

but bankrupt of forgetting those I love.

ليلي إلى ليلى أحن وإن بدا

فلق الصباح لفيحها أتأنس

Throughout my night I yearn for Layla; and if there appears

the break of dawn, her wafting fragrance brings me solace.

كلي عيون إن بدت أو حدثوا

عنها فكلي مسمع يتوجس

I am all eyes if she appears; or, if they speak

of her, I am all ears, straining to hear.

ما زال ينظرها الفؤاد ومقلتي

يقظى وبطرق طيفها مذ أنعس

My heart keeps gazing at her, and my eye

stays wakeful at her phantom's night-visits whenever I doze.

إن نمت يدرسها الفؤاد تلاوة

ومتى انتبهت بها أهد وأدرس

If I sleep, my heart studies her in recitation;

and whenever I wake, I murmur of her and study.

من لي بها ومجاهل ما بيننا

حالت تتيه بها الجواري الكنس

Who can bring me to her, when trackless wastes between us

bar the way, where the coursing, retreating stars lose themselves?

هل تبلغنيها على شحط النوى

سقاء جاريةٌ وأرحب أعبس

Will there carry me to her, despite the vast distance,

a long-legged, running she-camel and a broad-chested, dark-faced camel?

إني لألبس كل ديجور دجى

لوصلها في خلع ما أتلبس

Indeed, I don every pitch-black darkness of night

to reach her, while casting off what I wear.

وأتيت والسيدان تعوي حولنا

والأسد تعلن بالزئير وتفرس

I came while wolves howled around us,

and lions roared aloud and tore their prey.

وعلى ردايانا ابن داية حائم

وابن العميثل وابن حثل الأفطس

Above our mounts circles Ibn Daya, the crow,

with Ibn al-ʿUmaythil and flat-nosed Ibn Ḥithl.

ولكم وردنا طامس الأرجاء لم

يرد الحمام به المعزى الأطمس

How often we entered wastes with obscured bounds, where never

had even a blind goat come to meet death.

ريش القشاعم حوله فكأنما

نثرت حراب للصياقل طمس

Old vultures' feathers lie around it, as though

the swordsmiths' dulled spears had been scattered.

ومساحب الحيات في أرجائه

فكأنها سحبت رماح دعس

The snakes' dragging tracks across its reaches

look as though thrusting spears had been dragged along.

وهجيرة قالت بها غزلانها

فوق الحزون صوافنا لا تشمس

And a blazing noon when its gazelles took their rest

on the rugged heights, standing with one leg bent, not bolting.

والعود قد صعدت به حرباؤه

مثل الخطيب بمنبر يتنبس

A chameleon has climbed the trunk,

like a preacher speaking from a pulpit.

مرقت مروق السهم لي عيرانه

هوجاء مامون تسير عرندس

My wild-ass-like she-camel shot forth like an arrow,

headlong yet sure in her going, massive and strong,

في فتية شم الأنوف بني لها

في كل كور بالأيانق مجلس

among proud, high-nosed youths, for whom was built

a seat on every saddle of the she-camels.

يتحدثون بوصف ليلى عند ما

حمي الوطيس بهم وحين تغلسوا

They spoke of Layla's qualities whenever

the furnace blazed about them, and when they traveled before dawn.

حتى بدت أعلام ليلى قدست

اسم الإله وهم بها فتقدسوا

Until Layla's landmarks appeared; I hallowed

God's name, while they, there with her, became sanctified.

طوبى لمن ألقى العصي بركنها

وبها سعى ومضى وخاب الأتعس

Blessed is whoever lays down his staffs at her corner,

and strives there and passes on; the most wretched has failed.

يا حبذاك اليوم فهو مبارك

يوماً به فاز السعيد الأكيس

Oh, how welcome that day, for it is blessed—

a day when the fortunate, most discerning one triumphed.

وفقني اللهم حج البيت وأق

بل ما سعيت وما عليه أؤسس

Grant me success, O God, in pilgrimage to the House, and ac-

cept my striving and what I build upon it.