صب همى فوق القطيعة شانه

فغدا وأوصاف القطيعة شانه

A lovelorn man: his tears poured down over estrangement;

so he was left marred by estrangement's marks.

ودموعه من بعدما كتم الهوى

نمت بها ووشت بها اجفانه

And his tears, after he had concealed his passion,

his eyelids disclosed, betraying his secret through them.

والحب منه قد تملك رقه

وعليه مال مع الهوى سلطانه

Love has taken possession of him as a slave,

and, with passion, its power has borne down upon him.

من لي به شاكي السلام قوامه

عسالة وسناله وسنانه

Who will bring him to me, fully armed, his stature

a swaying lance, his drowsy gaze its spearpoint? [Reading uncertain.]

متمايل الاعطاف رنحه الصبا

جذلان من خمر الصبا نشوانه

Swaying at the sides, the east wind has made him reel,

joyous, drunk on the wine of youth.

ريان ساجي المحظ ذبله الكرى

ومن العجائب ذابل ريانه

Lush, with a languid gaze, sleep has made him droop;

and wondrous it is that one so lush should droop.

ظبي فؤادي خده وحشاشتي

مرعى له ومدامعي غدرانه

A gazelle—my heart is his lair [reading uncertain], and my life's breath

his pasture, while my tears are his pools.

لو لم يكن من جلنار خده

ما شاقني من نهده رمانه

Had his cheek not been made of pomegranate blossom,

the pomegranate of his breast would not have stirred my longing.

في وجهه بستان حسن ناضر

انسان ناظر مقلتي حنانه

In his face is a garden of radiant beauty;

the pupil of my eye is its loving attendant.

والخد فيه الورد بان محققا

والصدغ فيه مسلسل ريحانه

Upon his cheek the rose has plainly appeared,

and at his temple its basil is strung in chains.

والخال حين به تبدى اسودا

ايقنت ان شقيقه نعمانه

And when the mole upon it appeared black,

I knew its anemone was its Nuʿmān.

واذا بدا متبمسا عن ثغره

فالند ترخص عنده اثمانه

And when he appears smiling, revealing his mouth,

then incense falls in price beside him.

منه تذكرني الشبيبة بارقا

بالمنحنى من اضلعي خفقانه

Youth recalls to me a lightning-flash from him,

its flicker in the curve of my ribs.

يا قده يا ردفه لولاكما

ما شاقني ذاك الكثيب وبانه

O his stature, O his haunches—were it not for you two,

that dune and its bān tree would not have stirred my longing.

يا قاتل الله العذول الى متى

يلقي السو بمسمعي شيطانه

Ah, may God slay the reproacher! How long

will his devil cast evil into my ear?

انا لست اسلو عن ربيع وصاله

ان الحبيب محرم سلوانه

I do not cease to long for the springtime of union with him;

for forgetting the beloved is forbidden.