1. أترى لداء صبابتي ابلال

    ولذلك الصدر الصدى بلال

    Do you think there is healing for the sickness of my longing,

    and moisture for that thirsty breast?

  2. هيهات كل دواء وجد بعدكم

    داء لدىّ وكل ماء آل

    Far from it! Every remedy for love's anguish, since you left,

    is sickness to me, and all water a mirage.

  3. أمسي وأصبح آيساً من صحتي

    وصلاحى العوّاد والعذال

    I pass evening and morning despairing of recovery;

    and my cure rests with sickbed visitors and reproachers.

  4. واسوّدت الأيام بعدكم أسىً

    فلذا ليالى المستهام طوال

    And sorrow has blackened the days since you left;

    thus the love-stricken one's nights are long.

  5. امخيمين بذى الأراك وواردى

    ماء هناك اليه يهدى الضال

    O you encamped at Dhu al-Arak, and drawing

    water there, to which the lost are guided:

  6. ان كان عن ميت الكرى غبتم ففى

    حيّ الصبابة أنتم نزال

    if you are absent from one whose sleep is dead, then in

    one whose longing lives you are lodged.

  7. وعلى الحقيقة ما يزل تعطشى

    أبداً ولو أنّ الغرام وصال

    And in truth my thirst does not abate,

    ever—even if passion were union.

  8. ما زلت صبّا فى الدنوّ وفي الأسى

    متشوقا لكم ولست أزال

    I have remained lovesick, in nearness and in sorrow,

    yearning for you, and shall never cease.

  9. ويزيدني لكم تعاليل المنى

    شوقاً فمن آلامي الآمال

    And hope's consoling promises increase, for you,

    my longing—so hopes are among my pains.

  10. وأكاد شوقا أن أطير اليكم

    لكن علىّ من الجوى أثقال

    And in my longing I almost fly to you,

    but burdens of heartache weigh upon me.

  11. ويضيق بى رحب الفضاء واننى

    مما نحلت كأنما أنا آل

    And the wide expanse closes in on me; indeed I

    seem a mirage, so wasted have I grown.

  12. ولئن بقيت فلا يحادث سلوة

    حاشا غرامى يعتريه كلال

    And if I live on, my love will have no converse with forgetfulness;

    far be it from my love to be overtaken by weariness.

  13. فلقد خفيت عن العيون فانما

    أنا فى الظنون لدى الانين خيال

    For I have vanished from sight, and so

    I am but a phantom, guessed at when I moan.

  14. يا ساكنى البلد الحرام تحية

    من مغرم لندنوّكم يحتال

    O dwellers in the Sacred City, a greeting

    from a lover devising ways to draw near you.

  15. عودوا لموطنكم الذى من بعده

    ماء الحياة من الجفون مذال

    Return to your home; since you left it,

    the water of life has been shed from my eyelids.

  16. لله ذاك العيش مرّ فما حلت

    من بعده حال لنا أو مال

    How wondrous, by God, was that life! It passed, and nothing has been sweet

    to us since—neither circumstance nor wealth.