قد كان حبي محض

فرد لست الأغاني

My love had once been pure,

for Sitt al-Aghani alone.

فصاحبتها أُخيرى

من الحسان الغواني

Then another woman joined her,

one of the beautiful, alluring women.

فأصبح الحب مقسو

ماً بين حب وثاني

And so love became divided

between one beloved and another.

جمعت عشرين ظبياً

في قبضتي وبناني

I gathered twenty gazelles

in my grasp and fingers.

وسوف أملأ بيتي

من الوجوه الحسان

And I shall fill my house

with beautiful faces,

من كل ذات قوام

مجدولة كالعنان

with every woman of shapely form,

slender and taut as a rein,

لا بالطوال العوالي

ولا القصار السمان

neither tall and towering,

nor short and plump.

يسلبن جيداً ولحظاً

من الظباء الرواني

They steal their necks and glances

from softly gazing gazelles.

يمشين مشي حمام

مقيد الخطو عان

They walk with the gait of doves,

captive, with fettered steps.

فهذه بدر تم

وهذه غصن بان

So this one is a moon at its full,

and this one a bough of the bān tree.

تبيت هذي ببطني

لسانها في لساني

This one spends the night against my belly,

her tongue against mine;

وتلك تلطى بظهري

وكفها في الفلاني

and that one nestles against my back,

and her palm on my you-know-what.

قد أمسكته وقالت

حتى توفي ضماني

She took hold of it and said,

“Until you pay me my due.”

أدور من ذي إلى ذي

وليس عندي تواني

I turn from this one to that,

and there is no slackening in me.

قسمت قسمة عدل

والعدل في الحب شاني

I have made a fair division,

and fairness in love is my way.

حتى إذا جمحا لي

وحان وقت الطعان

Until, when the two grew wild for me

and the time for thrusting came,

طعنت بالرمح حتى

غيبت نصل سناني

I thrust with the spear until

I buried the blade of my spearhead.

وذلك الشيء منها

كمثل ترس يمان

And that thing of hers

was like a Yemeni shield.

لقيت منها شجاعاً

في الحرب غير جبان

In her I met a valiant warrior,

no coward in battle.

تراه كل أوان

عن قرنه غير وان

You see him at every moment,

never flagging before his opponent.

والله يبقي كريماً

بفضله قد كفاني

And may God preserve a generous man

who through his bounty has provided for me:

ذاك التقي المرجى

لنائبات الزمان

that pious man, looked to with hope

in the calamities of time.

أصبحت من جور دهري

بجوده في أمان

From the tyranny of my days I am now

safe through his generosity.

أرى صروف الليالي

ويعنها لا تراني

I see the vicissitudes of the nights,

yet their eye does not see me [reading uncertain].

رب الفصاحة تعنو

له رقاب البيان

Master of eloquence, before whom bow

the necks of rhetoric.

ألفاظ نثر ونظم

مملوءة بالمعاني

Words of prose and verse,

filled with meanings.

ذو المن ليست عليه

نقيصة الامتنان

A man of bounty, free from

the fault of reminding others of his favors.

مولاي دعوة شيخ

قد عاش إلف قران

My lord—an old man's prayer,

who has lived through a thousand conjunctions [reading uncertain].

وشعره فيك يبقى

بقيت والشيخ فان

And his verse in your praise will endure;

may you endure, while the old man perishes.

قل للإمام أقمها

فقد سمعت أذاني

Tell the imam, “Begin the prayer,

for you have heard my call to prayer.”