1. أشدُّ الهوى ما يمنعُ العينَ أن تكرى

    ويملأُ سمعَ المرءِ عن عذلِه وقرا

    The fiercest love is that which keeps the eye from sleeping,

    and fills a man's hearing with deafness to reproach.

  2. ويُضحي ونارُ الشوقِ بين ضلوعِه

    تُؤججُها الشكوى وتُضرِمُها الذكرى

    And he passes the morning with longing's fire between his ribs;

    lament fans it, and remembrance sets it ablaze.

  3. ويوسِعُه الوجدُ الذي في فؤادِه

    لأهلِ الحمى نهياً على البينِ أو أمرا

    And longing heaps upon him—the longing in his heart

    for the sanctuary's people—prohibitions or commands concerning separation.

  4. ويُمسي حليفَ الشوقِ ذا جسدٍ له

    بحكمِ الهوى بالٍ وذا مقلةٍ عبرى

    And at evening he is longing's ally, his body

    worn out under love's rule, his eye full of tears.

  5. غريبَ هوًى سقّى الديارَ بأدمعٍ

    جَرَتْ في عِراصِ الربعِ هامعةً تترى

    An exile in love, he watered the dwellings with tears

    that flowed through the campsite's open grounds, streaming in succession.

  6. بكى جَزَعاً لمّا رأى الربعَ بعدهمْ

    مِنَ الجيرةِ الغادينَ مُستوحِشاً قَفْرا

    He wept in anguish to see the campsite, after they had gone—

    the departing neighbors—desolate and empty.

  7. اِذا هطُلتْ فيه سحابةُ دمعهِ

    وأنفدَها التَّذكارُ أعقبَها أُخرى

    Whenever the cloud of his tears pours down there,

    and remembrance exhausts it, he follows it with another.

  8. أحبَّتنا هل ذلكَ العهدُ باللَّوى

    يعودُ كما قد كنتُ أعهدُه دهرا

    Our beloved ones, will that time at al-Liwa

    return as I once knew it for so long?

  9. وهل تلكمُ الأيامُ تَرجِعُ بعدَما

    حشا كبدي تذكارُ أوقاتِها جمرا

    And will those days return, after

    the memory of their hours has filled my liver with embers?

  10. لئن مَنَّ هذا الدهرُ بالقربِ بعدَما

    تناءيتمُ عنّي سأُوسِعُه شكرا

    If this age grants me nearness, after

    you have drawn far from me, I shall lavish thanks upon it,

  11. وأقبلُ منه العُذْرَ في كلَّ حادثٍ

    يجيءُ به حتى أُفهَّمُهُ العُذْرا

    and accept its excuse for every event

    it brings, even explaining the excuse to it.

  12. تكلَفُني الأيامُ صبراً عليكمُ

    وهيهاتَ لا أسطيعُ بعدكمُ صبرا

    The days demand that I bear your absence patiently;

    but far from it! I cannot be patient after you are gone.

  13. وأسألُ عنكم كلَّ برقٍ على الحمى

    يلوحُ فيبدي لمعُه عَذَباً حُمرا

    And I ask every lightning flash above the sanctuary about you,

    as it flashes, its gleam displaying red streamers.

  14. عقدتُ به أهدابَ جفني وطَلَّقَتْ

    لأجلكمُ عينايَ تهويمَها النَّزْرا

    I tied my eyelid's lashes to it, and my eyes divorced,

    for your sake, their scant dozing.

  15. أُهَيْلَ الحِمى قد ضقتُ ذرعاً ببينكمْ

    فهل مِن دنوًّ منكم يشرحُ الصَّدْرا

    O dear people of the sanctuary, I cannot bear separation from you;

    so will you draw near and bring relief to my breast?

  16. فلا تَصْرِفوا وجهَ المودَّةِ بعدما رأينا

    زماناً في أساريرِه البشرا

    So do not turn affection's face away, after we have seen,

    for a time, gladness in its features.

  17. ولا تُتبِعُوه بعدَ طيبِ حديثكمْ

    حديثاً أرى في ضمنِه نظراً شَزْرا

    And do not follow it, after the sweetness of your talk,

    with speech in which I see a hostile sidelong glance.

  18. وخيرُ خِلالِ المرءِ وجهٌ مُسَهَّلٌ

    وخُلْقٌ رضيٌّ يَمْلِكُ الرجلَ الحُرّا

    And the finest of a man's traits are a welcoming face

    and a pleasing character that holds a free man in thrall.

  19. فأُقسمُ مذ بانَ الخليطُ عنِ الحِمى

    تبدَّلتُ حلوَ العيشِ من بعدِه مُرّا

    So I swear: since the companions left the sanctuary,

    I have exchanged life's sweetness, since their departure, for bitterness.

  20. فما بالُ طيفِ العامريَّةِ هاجري

    وقد كانَ قبلَ اليومِ لا يعرفُ الهجرا

    What, then, ails the ʿAmiri woman's dream-phantom, that it forsakes me,

    though before today it knew no desertion?

  21. أمِنها تُراهُ عُلَّمَ الغدرَ آنفاً

    وقد مرَّ دهرٌ وهو لا يعرفُ الغدرا

    Was it from her, do you think, that it was lately taught treachery,

    though an age had passed while it knew no treachery?

  22. لئن زارني والشامُ داري ودارُه

    بنجدٍ ومرماها لقد أبعدَ المسرى

    If it visits me, while al-Sham is my home and its home lies

    in Najd and its far reaches, it has journeyed far by night.

  23. فلا كان قلبي كيف يصبرُ بعدما

    تناءتْ وسارَ الواخداتُ بها عَشْرا

    Then perish my heart! How can it endure after

    she has gone far away, and swift-striding she-camels have carried her ten nights?

  24. منعَّمةٌ حوراءُ يفضحُ وجهُها

    بلألائهِ الشمسَ المنيرةَ والبدرا

    A pampered, dark-eyed beauty, whose face puts to shame

    with its brilliance the shining sun and the full moon.

  25. لقد كنتُ ألقى منه في كلَّ ساعةٍ

    ومِن بشرِه في وجهِ آماليَ البُشرى

    Indeed, at every hour I used to receive from it,

    and from its cheer, glad tidings upon the face of my hopes.

  26. وأرشفُ ظلمَ الثغرِ عذباً مُجاجُه

    بنفسيَ أفدي ذلكَ الظلمَ والثغرا

    And I would sip the mouth's lustrous moisture, sweet the liquid it yields.

    With my own life I would ransom that moisture and that mouth.

  27. فمَنْ للفتى الولهانِ أن لم يفزْ بهِ

    على ظمأٍ منه وللكبدِ الحرّى

    Who, then, will aid the lovesick youth, if he fails to win it,

    while thirsting for it—and who will aid the burning liver?

  28. وما روضةٌ قد فوَّفَ القطرُ نبتَها

    فأطرى لسانُ الحالِ عن نَورِها القَطْرا

    And no garden whose plants the rain has brocaded—

    so its wordless tongue praises the rain on its blossoms' behalf—

  29. وفاحَ نسيمٌ في الرياضِ كأنَّما

    تَحمَّلَ وهناً من لطائمها عِطرا

    where a breeze wafts fragrance through the gardens, as though

    it bore perfume, late at night, from their scent-laden caravans,

  30. ونوّعتِ الأزهارُ أرجاءَ دوحِها

    اِذا ما مضى نشرٌ شممنا لها نشرا

    and whose flowers variegate the reaches of its spreading trees,

    where, whenever one scent fades, we breathe another from it,

  31. كشعري إذا نضَّدتُ جوهرَ لفظِه

    ونظَّمتُ منه في عقودِ العُلى دُرّا

    can match my verse when I array the jewels of its words,

    and string from it pearls in the necklaces of glory.

  32. وسائطُ لفظٍ لو تنضَّدَ دُرُّهُ

    على عُنُقِ الجَوزاءِ أكسبَها فخرا

    Central gems of speech—if its pearls were arrayed

    upon al-Jawza's neck, they would bring her pride.

  33. وما النجمُ أنأى منه بعداً ومطلباً

    اِذا رامَهُ الجهّالُ يوماً ولا أسرى

    And no star is more remote than it in distance and reach,

    when the ignorant seek it one day, nor more far-ranging by night.

  34. له في بلادِ اللهِ أوسعُ مَرْكَضٍ

    اِذا طائرُ الأشعارِ ألزمَها الوَكْرا

    It has the widest course to run through God's lands,

    when the bird of poems confines them to the nest.