أتت مثل خوط البان تهتز أو أرقى

وحيت فما لحن الهزار وما الورقا

She came, swaying like a slender moringa bough—or more graceful still.

And she greeted me—what then were the nightingale's song and the dove's?

أتت بعد ما شط المزار متيماً

أخا مهجةٍ كادت تطير لها شوقا

She came, after the meeting-place had grown distant, to a love-struck man,

whose heart had almost flown away with longing for her.

فاحيى لقاها مغرماً ذا صبابةٍ

فلله ما أبهى سنا ذلك الملقى

So meeting her revived a lover full of yearning;

by God, how splendid was the radiance of that encounter!

غزالة حسن تجذب القلب للهوى

لقد ساء قلب لم يهم بالظبا عشقا

A gazelle of beauty, drawing the heart to love;

wretched indeed is a heart not madly in love with gazelles.

مهاة لها روض الحشاشة مرتعا

وشمس غدا قلب المحب لها أفقا

An oryx whose pasture is the garden of the soul,

and a sun for which the lover's heart became a horizon.

فؤادي رقيق في هواها معذب

أصل بشرع الحب تعذيبها الرقا

My heart is a slave, tormented in loving her;

her torment has rooted its bondage in the law of love.

معيرة بدر التم وجهاً وطلعةً

لقد فتكت عيناك فاستعملي الرفقا

You who lend the full moon a face and radiance,

your eyes have killed indeed—so show some gentleness.

رويدك قد اتلفت مهجة عاشقٍ

أسير الهوى العذري لم يطلب العنقا

Gently now! You have destroyed a lover's heart,

a captive of chaste love who never sought the Anqa.

ويا نبل جفنيها واسمر قدها

رويد كما اكثرتما الطعن والرشقا

And O arrows of her eyelids, and brown spear of her stature,

gently, you two! You have dealt so many thrusts and arrow volleys.

أما آن إن أجني الوصال واشتفى

بلى آن ان اجني الوصال وقد حقا

Has the time not come for me to reap union and find healing?

Yes, the time has come for me to reap union, and it is truly due.

آمرتي بالصبر كيف تصبّري

وما ترك البين اصطباراً ولا أبقى

You who bid me be patient, how can I endure,

when separation has neither left nor spared any patience?

بخديك ما أضحى بقلبي من النوى

بعينيك ما الفيت منك وما ألقى

By your cheeks—what separation has brought into my heart!

By your eyes—what I have found from you, and what I still endure!

نديمي كفا لا تزيدا ملامةً

فإني أرى بيني وبينكما فرقا

My two companions, desist! Add no more reproach,

for I see a difference between myself and you two.

ألا فاتركا حبّا تشبث من هوى

أهيل البها والحسن بالعروة الوثقى

So leave alone a love that has clung, through passion

for the dear folk of splendor and beauty, to the firmest handhold.

فلي مذهب بالحب لا تعلمانه

وصعب على من كان مثلكما طرقا

For I have a way in love that you two do not know,

and it is hard for anyone like you two to tread.

أحن إلى الظبي الأغنّ كأنه

يمثل لي الحاظ ميّة والعنقا

I yearn for the soft-voiced gazelle, as though it

conjures for me Mayya's glances and neck.

فلولا محياها وبارق ثغرها

لما بات طرفي يرقب النجم والبرقا

For were it not for her face and her mouth's lightning-flash,

my eye would not spend the night watching the stars and lightning.

فحيّي الحيا داراً عرفت بها الصبا

وبا كرها الوسميُّ يمنحها الودقا

So may the rain greet a dwelling where I knew youth,

and may the autumn rain visit it early, bestowing showers.

ديارٌ بها رقّ النسيم كأنهُ

قريض الهمام الصالح البارع الأتقى

Dwellings where the breeze grew gentle, as though it were

the verse of the noble, righteous, accomplished, most devout man.

هو الفاضل المشهور والناظم الذي

سما أدباً حتى رقى غاية المرقى

He is the renowned man of merit, the poet who

rose in letters until he scaled the utmost height.

أديب فلو جاراه سحبان وائلٍ

أقرَّ على طوعٍ بأن له السبقا

A man of letters: were Sahban Wa'il to rival him,

he would willingly acknowledge the other's precedence.

ولو أنه ماري الإيادي بلاغةً

لا عجزه فهما وافحمه نطقا

And were he to contest eloquence with al-Iyadi,

he would confound him in understanding and silence him in speech.

أمام بني الآداب كل مهذبٍ

إليه مقاليد الفصاحة قد ألقى

Foremost among men of letters—every cultivated man

has yielded him the keys of eloquence.

تسامى به عدل القضاء وقد غدا

مقام القضا لما تسمنه يرقى

Through him, justice in judgment has soared, and now

the judicial seat rises, since he ascended it.

يا صالح الآداب بل تاج عزها

وأوحدها نظماً وأرشدها صدقا

O Salih of letters—nay, the crown of their glory,

and peerless in their verse, most rightly guided in truth.

أتت صبك المشتاق منك قصيدة

يود فؤادي إن يكون لها رقا

A poem from you has reached your longing lover;

my heart longs to be its parchment.

أرتني من السحر المبين معانياً

وما كنت أدري الشحر من قبلها حقا

It showed me meanings of unmistakable enchantment,

and before it I had never truly known magic.

فلو أنشدت يوماً لحوراءَ غادةٍ

لما لبست عقداً سواها ولا طوقا

Were it recited one day to a graceful, dark-eyed maiden,

she would wear no necklace or neck-ring other than it.

تغار نجوم الزهر من در لفظها

ويحسد معناها النسيم إذا رقا

The flower-stars envy the pearls of its words,

and the breeze, when it grows gentle, envies its meaning.

لقد راق مبداها ورقّ ختامها

ومن حسنها لم أدري أيهما أنقى

Its opening charmed indeed, and its ending was tender;

and because of its beauty I could not tell which was purer.

أيا مطلع الفضل الرفيع وصدره

ويا من بهِ عزُّ النظام قد استرقى

O dawning-place of lofty excellence, and its chief,

and O you through whom the glory of verse has risen,

إليك جواباً من محبٍ فؤاده

بغير مياه الحب والود لم يسقا

to you, a reply from a lover whose heart

has been watered only by the waters of love and affection.

فجرَّ ذيول الستر منك تكرماً

عليه ودم للنظم شهماً وسد وأرقا

So graciously draw the trailing hems of your veil

over it; remain noble in verse, hold sway, and rise.