قدم الصيام وما استقر به السرى

حتى تولى الصبر منفصم العرى

Fasting arrived, and had not yet rested from its night journey,

when patience departed, its bonds snapped.

لم لا وقد جعل الوصال محرما

والضم والتنبيل شيئا منكرا

Why not, when it has made union forbidden,

and embracing and [kissing?] a thing condemned?

والرزق قتره علي ومثلنا

يشكو الكريم إذا رآه مقترا

And it has cramped my livelihood; people like us

complain of a generous man when they find him stingy.

حسب الجبوب من البطون فأصبحت

ان كنت قد ابصرت ربعا مقفرا

[It withheld?] [grain?] from bellies, so they became—

if you have ever seen one—a deserted encampment.

حتى غدا حبي يقول لكيسه

ضل الذي زهم الخلا متعذرا

Until my beloved began saying to his purse:

Astray is he who [claimed?] emptiness impossible.

يا سندس الاكياس يا عالي الذرى

باد هواك صبرت ام لم تصبرا

O fine silk of purses, O one of lofty summits,

your passion is plain, whether you endure or not.

منبا لنقدك وهو فيك كجدول

صاف أظل على رداء أخضرا

[Unclear] for your coin, which is in you like a stream,

clear, casting shade upon a green cloak.

ما دام فيك فإي قلب لم يهم

بمصور لبس الحرير مصورا

While it remains in you, what heart has not been smitten

with a pictured figure wearing patterned silk?

لا حب اعلق بالحشا من درهم

وهو المضاعف حسنه ان كررا

No love clings closer to the heart than love of a dirham,

and its beauty is doubled when it is doubled.

يحدث لصورته العيون وانه

اشهى مهاة للقلوب وجؤذرا

It speaks to the eyes through its likeness, and it is

the oryx and fawn most desired by hearts.

رمضان اعدمه فذاب كأنما

اوردته من نار فكري مجمرا

Ramadan made it vanish; it melted, as though

I had brought it to a brazier of my thought's fire.

ان جئت يا رمضان غير جيوبنا

لمنعت كل سحابة ان تقطرا

If you had come, O Ramadan, somewhere other than our pockets,

I would have forbidden every cloud to rain.

عين بياض وجوهنا بياضها

رحلت فكان لها فؤادي محجرا

An eye whose whiteness was the whiteness of our faces,

it departed, and my heart became its eye-socket.

الريح تجري في جوانب صرتي

والنجم قد صرف العنان عن السرى

The wind runs through the sides of my purse,

and the star has turned its rein away from night travel.

بالصوم ادركني الكلال وخانني

عزمي الذي يدع الوضيح مكسرا

Through fasting, weariness overtook me, and I was betrayed by

my resolve, which leaves the gleaming white thing shattered [reading unclear].

حتى لقد نكر اللسان فصاحني

ضعفا وانكر خاتماي الخنصرا

Until my tongue failed to recognize my [eloquence?],

through weakness, and my two rings no longer recognized my little finger.

ليس الورى منه فحول هلاله

لما رآه وفي الحصا ما لا يرى

Mankind are not, because of it, champions of its crescent [sense unclear],

when one saw it; among the pebbles lies what cannot be seen.

لا في يد الساقي به قدح ولا

قلم لك اتخذ الاصابع منبرا

No cup is in the cupbearer's hand because of it, nor

a pen for you that has taken the fingers as its pulpit.

ملأ البلاد سطا ودوخ اهلها

كالخط يملأ مسمعي من ابصرا

It filled the lands, assailed them, and subdued their people,

like writing that fills both ears of one who sees.

طلب الذي وقد العظام ولم يدع

طلبا لقوم بوقدون العنبرا

It sought what set the bones alight, and left no

request for people who [burn?] ambergris.

ليس الدجا لهم وأوقد شمعه

فرأوا سنا واسنة وممنورا

Darkness is not theirs, and it lit its candles,

so they saw radiance, spearheads, and [unclear].

اخلى الشوارع منهم لا مقبل

فيها ولا خلق ثراه مدبرا

It emptied the streets of them: no one approaching

in them, nor a creature of its soil retreating.

دخلوا البيوت وقفلوا أبوابها

لو كان ينفع خائنا ان يحذرا

They entered the houses and locked their doors,

if being wary could ever benefit a traitor.

وعلى المؤذن في ترقب فجره

جعل الصباح بينهم ان يمطرا

And upon the muezzin, as he awaited its dawn,

it made the morning rain down among them.

يخشى ويرحى وهو لا ينفك من

نار الوغى الا النار القرى

It is feared and [hoped for?], never leaving

the fire of battle except for the fire of hospitality.

ان غاب آب فما يكون القول في

من لاتسابقه الرياح إذا جرى

If it goes away, it returns; what, then, can be said of

one whom the winds cannot outrun when he runs?

نزلت لرتبته الشهور جلالة

ومن الرديف وقد ركبت غضنفرا

The months bowed to its rank in reverence,

and who can ride behind you when you have mounted a lion?

فكأنه الاستاذ في فرق العلا

متملكا متهديا متحضرا

It is as though it were the Master at the crown of eminence,

sovereign, rightly guided, and urbane.

من عترة الصديق ان شاهدته

شاهدت رسطاليس والاسكندرا

Of al-Siddiq's lineage: if you behold him,

you behold Aristotle and Alexander.

يا ليت عين العاذلين على العوى

نظرت إليه كما نظرت فتعذرا

Would that the reproachers' eye, upon [al-ʿAwwā?],

looked at him as I did, and so excused me.

يعطي الكثير ويستقل فلو رأت

وجدته مشغول اليدين مفكرا

He gives much and deems it little; if that eye saw him,

it would find him busy with both hands, deep in thought.

يا فتح قد شغل الجوارح صومها

فكتمته وكفى بجسمك مخبرا

O Fath, the limbs are engrossed by their fasting;

so you concealed it, yet your body tells enough.

ارسلتها تشكو الصيام خريدة

لو كنتها لخفيت حتى تظهرا

You sent her forth, a maiden complaining of fasting;

had you been her, you would have stayed hidden until you appeared.

خاضت حشا الكندي وانتظمت وقد

جذبت قوائمها العقيق الاحمرا

She plunged into al-Kindi's heart and was strung together; already

her legs had drawn the red carnelian.

جاريته وخلصت في تضمينها

من ان أكون مقصراً أو مقصرا

I matched him, and in weaving borrowed lines into her escaped

from falling short or holding back.

لفظا ومعنى كاد يقطر رقة

لما سألت به الغمام الممطرا

In wording and meaning, it almost dripped with delicacy,

when I appealed through it to the rain-bearing clouds.

لا زال للأعياد منه وللندى

الشمس تشرق والسحاب كنهورا

For feast days and bounty, may there always be from him

the sun shining and clouds in towering masses.