1. أهلُ الهوى بالذي أهواهُ قد علموا

    اِنْ كان حقاً فتعذيبي بهمْ نِعَمُ

    Those who love have learned whom I love.

    If that is true, my torment through them is bliss.

  2. يكفي المحبينَ لطفٌ منهمُ ويدٌ

    متى أحاطَ بما يَلْقونَ علمُهمُ

    Kindness and a favor from them suffice lovers,

    whenever they fully know what lovers endure.

  3. أحبّة بعدوا عني ولو علموا

    بما أُعانيهِ مِن بُعدِ الهوى رَحموا

    Beloved ones have gone far from me; if they knew

    what I endure from love's distance, they would show mercy.

  4. تَهُزُّني نشوةُ التَّذكارِ قاتلةً

    اِذا أدارَ عُقارَ الشوقِ ذكرُهمُ

    The rapture of remembrance shakes me, deadly,

    whenever their memory passes round the wine of longing.

  5. وأنثني مِن لظى الأشواقِ في حُرَقٍ

    اِذا استقلتْ عنِ الجرعاءِ عيسُهمُ

    And I turn back, burning in the blaze of yearning,

    whenever their pale camels depart the sandy tract.

  6. لا كنتُ أن لم أمتْ من بعدِهم أسفاً

    وهل يردُّ عليَّ الفائتَ الندمُ

    May I cease to be if I do not die of grief after them!

    And can regret restore to me what is lost?

  7. قومٌ إذا قلتُ طولُ البُعدِ يُحِوجُني

    الى سلوَّهم أغرانيَ الَدَمُ

    A people: whenever I say long separation compels me

    to forget them, blood spurs me on.

  8. قومٌ أسلموني إلى البلوى فليتهمُ

    مِنَ الزمانِ ومِن احداثهِ سَلِموا

    A people who delivered me to affliction—would that they

    might remain safe from time and its calamities!

  9. ابكي ويبكي

    اِذا سطّرتُ مشتكياً

    I weep, and weeps—

    when I write, complaining

  10. مِنَ الفراقِ ومِن ساعاتهِ

    القلمُ

    of separation and its hours—

    the pen.

  11. اِنْ كنتُ أضمرتُ غدراً أو هَمَمْتُ به

    فلا سَعَتْ بي إلى أوطانِهم قَدَمُ

    If I have harbored treachery or contemplated it,

    may no foot carry me to their homelands.

  12. هويتُهمْ والصَّبا تندى نضارتُه

    وما سلوتُ وهذا الشيبُ والهرمُ

    I loved them when youth's freshness was still dewy,

    and I have not forgotten them, though here are gray hair and old age.

  13. ألقى الغرامَ على العلاّتِ مِن جسدي

    بناحلٍ شفَّهُ التبريحُ والسقمُ

    I face passion, despite my body's ailments,

    with a wasted frame worn thin by torment and sickness.

  14. متى تبسَّمَ ثغرُ البرقِ قلتُ له

    قبل النوى هكذا قد كنتُ أبتسمُ

    Whenever lightning's mouth smiles, I tell it:

    'Before separation, that was how I used to smile.'

  15. ساروا فعندي مِنَ الأشواقِ ما عجزتْ

    عن حملِ أيسرِه الوخّادَةُ الرسُمُ

    They left; I bear longings that could not be borne—

    not even their lightest part—by swift, long-striding camels.

  16. لم القَ يومَ النوى إلا حشاً قَلِقاً

    ومدمعاً بأتيَّ الدمعِ ينسجمُ

    On the day of parting, I found only a troubled heart

    and an eye streaming with a torrent of tears.

  17. يا حارِ أين ليالينا بذي سَلَمِ

    مرَّتْ سراعاً وساعاتُ الدُّنا حُلُمُ

    O Ḥār, where are our nights at Dhū Salam?

    They passed swiftly; the hours of this world are a dream.

  18. أنظرْ معي هل تبدَّى البرقُ منصلِتاً

    كالنَّصلِ أو لاحَ لي مِن ارضهم علمُ

    Look with me: has lightning appeared, unsheathed

    like a blade, or has a landmark in their land shone before me?

  19. فِانَّ طرفي وقد سارتْ ركائبُهم

    عنِ الربوعِ بفيضِ الدمعِ مُتَّهَمُ

    For my eye, now that their riding-camels have departed

    from the dwellings, is untrustworthy with its flood of tears.

  20. واعجبْ لنارِ هوًى عندي وان ذَرَفَتْ

    عيني الدموعَ من التفريقِ تَضْطَرِمُ

    And marvel at the fire of love within me: though

    my eye sheds tears of separation, it blazes on.

  21. في مسمعيَّ عنِ العُذّالِ ويحَهمُ

    وعن زخاريفِ ما جاؤوا به صَمَمُ

    In my ears, toward the reproachers—woe to them!—

    and toward the gilded falsehoods they bring, there is deafness.

  22. أأشتكيهمْ وهمْ مَنْ قد شكوتُ لهمْ

    وجدي قديماً فما ملُّوا ولا سئموا

    Shall I complain of them, when it was to them I confided

    my passion long ago, and they neither tired nor grew weary?

  23. أكاد أعتبهم حيناً فيمنعني

    ما كنت ألقى من الاحسان عندهم

    At times I almost reproach them, but am held back

    by the kindness I used to receive from them.

  24. معاذَ قلبيَ أن ينسى جميلَهمُ واِنْ أضاعوه

    أو يُلهيهِ غيرُهمُ

    May my heart never forget their kindness, though they forsake it,

    nor may anyone else distract it.

  25. في كلَّ ما شَعرةٍ منّي أخو كَلَفٍ

    مغرًى بعهدهمُ لا حالَ عهدُهمُ

    In every single hair of mine dwells a lover,

    devoted to their pledge—may their pledge never change!

  26. أين الأحبَّةُ لا شيءٌ يعادِلُهمْ

    عندي ولو عدلوا في الحكمِ أو ظلموا

    Where are the beloved? Nothing equals them

    in my eyes, whether they judge fairly or unjustly.

  27. همُ المنى لو وردتُ الموتَ مِن ظمأ

    وقيلَ ليما الذي تختارُ قلتُهمُ

    They are my desire: were I to approach death from thirst

    and be asked, 'What do you choose?' I would say, 'Them.'

  28. بانوا فلم يبقَ لي من بعدِهم أملٌ

    قد كنتُ أرجوه إلا وَهْوَ بيْ ألَمُ

    They left; after them, no hope remains for me

    of all I once cherished, save as pain within me.

  29. ما بالُ دمعي كما قد كان منسفحاً

    مِنَ الفراقِ وهذي دارُهمْ أَمَمُ

    Why are my tears still pouring, as they used to

    at parting, when their dwelling is nearby?

  30. أمِنْ تغيُّرِ ما بيني وبينهمُ

    وقد وثقتُ بودًّ ليس ينفصمُ

    Is it because what lies between us has changed,

    though I trusted in an affection that would never break?

  31. أم مِن توقُّعِ بينٍ بتُّ أَحْسَبُهُ

    خوفاً على مُهجتي لا عشتُ بعدهمُ

    Or from anticipating a parting I spend the night imagining,

    fearing for my life? May I not live after them!

  32. سقتكِ ديمةُ جفني يا ربوعَهمُ

    حفظاً لعهدكِ أن لم تسقِكِ الدَّيَمُ

    May the steady rain of my eyelid water you, O their dwellings,

    in fidelity to your covenant, if the steady rains do not.

  33. وكيف تَروي صدى الأطلالِ

    لا ظمئتْ مدامعٌ ردَّها التفريقُ وهي دمُ

    And how can the ruins' thirst be quenched

    by tears—may they never run dry!—that separation has turned to blood?

  34. تبدَّلتْ وحشةً من بعدِما ظعنوا

    عن ربعِها لا عدا الآثارِ انسُهمُ

    The dwellings grew desolate after they journeyed

    from their abode—may their warmth never desert its traces!

  35. ما كانَ عندي وقد كنتُ الضنينَ به

    في مثلِ حبَّهمُ أن تُخفرَ الذَّمَمُ

    I never imagined, though I guarded it so jealously,

    that in a love like theirs covenants could be betrayed.

  36. ولا علمتُ وهذي شيمةٌ عُرِفَتْ

    مِنَ الزمانِ بأنَّ الحُرَّ يُهتضَمُ

    Nor did I know—though this is a trait well known

    of time—that a noble man is wronged.

  37. واِنَّما الحظُّ يحيا أو يموتُ كما

    تَبلَى وتُنشَرُ مِن أجداثِها الرَّمَمُ

    Fortune only lives or dies, just as

    mortal remains decay and are raised from their graves.

  38. ومد لِجينَ على الأكوارِ رنَّحَهمْ

    فرطُ النعاسِ فمالتْ منهمُ القِمَمُ

    And night travelers upon camel-saddles were swayed

    by overpowering drowsiness, and their heads drooped.

  39. أفناهمُ فوقها طولُ الذميلِ فما

    تطوي المهامةَ إلا العيسُ والهِمَمُ

    The long, brisk trot exhausted them upon the camels; none

    traverse the wastes but the pale camels and high resolves,

  40. في حيث للبيدِ آلٌ عَبَّ زاخرُه

    وموجُه بعتاقِ العيسِ يَلتطِمُ

    where the deserts have a mirage whose swelling flood surges,

    and whose waves collide with the noble pale camels.

  41. ضلوّا فأرشدَهمْ والسبلُ طامسةٌ

    رأيٌ ودون المرادِ البيدُ والظلمُ

    They lost their way, but with the paths effaced, they were guided

    by sound judgment; before their goal lay deserts and darkness.

  42. وربَّ حلبةِ شعرٍ جئتُ سابقَها

    لم يَثنِ جامحَ شعري دونها الُّلجُمُ

    And many a tournament of verse I entered as its winner;

    no bridles checked my headstrong poetry short of it.

  43. فما ارجحنَّتْ دواعي الفكرِ آونةً

    حتى رأيتُ القوافي الغرَّ تزدحمُ

    Scarcely had the promptings of thought swayed a moment

    when I saw the radiant rhymes crowding together.

  44. ما استوقفتْها ولا وسَّمنَ شرّّبها

    وقد شُنِقْنَ على آنافِها الحكَمُ

    They were not halted, nor were their muzzles scarred,

    though the bridle-irons were drawn taut upon their noses.

  45. تأتي وفي لفظِها ما راقَ مسمعُه

    حسناً وفي طيَّها الأمثالُ والحِكَمُ

    They come in words whose sound delights

    with beauty, while proverbs and wisdom lie within.

  46. مِن كلَّ قافيةٍ ما زلتُ أرصفُها

    بالفكرِ فهي على الاِيثارِ تلتئمُ

    Each rhyme I have never ceased arranging

    through thought fits together as I choose.

  47. كالدرَّ نَظَّمتُها حتى إذا اتسقتْ

    تعلمَّ الدرَّ منها كيف تَنْتَظِمُ

    I strung them like pearls until, when they fell into order,

    pearls learned from them how to be strung.

  48. فمثلَها

    وهي في عصرٍ يؤخَّرُها

    Their like—

    though this is an age that holds them back—

  49. فليُنتجِ الفكرُ أو فلتنَظمِ الأممُ

    let thought bring forth, or let the nations compose!