أعاد الدهرُ حُمْرَتَك اصفرارا

أعاد الدهرُ حُمْرَتَك اصفرارا

فعادَ نشاطُكَ الحَسَنُ انكسارا

فعادَ نشاطُكَ الحَسَنُ انكسارا

Time has turned your redness into yellowness.

Time has turned your reddish complexion pale

So your fine vigor has turned to dejection.

So your graceful liveliness has become broken

وعاثتْ في محاسِنِكَ الليالي

وعاثتْ في محاسِنِكَ الليالي

فقد أضحتْ معالِمُهَا قِفَارا

فقد أضحتْ معالِمُهَا قِفَارا

And the nights have ravaged your lovely features,

The nights have wreaked havoc on your beauty

So their landmarks have become barren wastes.

So its features have become barren

لقد أصبحتَ عند الناس ليلاً

لقد أصبحتَ عند الناس ليلاً

وَقِدْماً كنتَ عندهُم نهارا

وَقِدْماً كنتَ عندهُم نهارا

Indeed, you have become night in people's eyes,

You have become like the night to people

And once you were day in their eyes.

Yet formerly you were their day

أحُسْنُكَ ويكَ ذاك الحسنُ لا بل

أحُسْنُكَ ويكَ ذاك الحسنُ لا بل

أراهُ كان عندي مُسْتَعَارا

أراهُ كان عندي مُسْتَعَارا

Is your beauty—alas!—that same beauty? No, rather,

Your beauty, alas that beauty was not real

It seems to me that it was borrowed.

Rather I see it was borrowed