1. دَعاهُ على سَهل الغَرام وَصَعبهِ

    فماذا عليكم إِن أَضَرَّ بِقَلبِهِ

    Leave him to love’s ease and hardship.

    So what is it to you if he harms his own heart?

  2. أَقِلّا عليه في المَلام فإنَّه

    يَرى الموتَ أَصفى من كدورة خَطبِهِ

    Be gentler in reproaching him, for he

    Sees death as purer than the murk of his plight.

  3. وَلَيسَ بمُجدٍ يا خَليليَّ لومُه

    فإنَّ الهوى قد سيطَ منه بلُبِّهِ

    And reproaching him is useless, my two dear friends,

    For passion has been stirred into his very core.

  4. وَلَو ذُقتُما ما ذاقَ من لاعج الهوى

    لأَيقنتُما أَنَّ العذابَ بعَذبِهِ

    And had you both tasted what he tasted of passion’s searing heat,

    You would know for certain that torment lies in its sweetness.

  5. يَبيتُ على جَمر الغَرام وَيَنطوي

    وَتصبيه ذكرى غورِ سَلعٍ ومَن بهِ

    He spends the night on love’s embers and folds inward,

    And the memory of Salʿ’s lowland and those there stirs his longing.

  6. يحنُّ إلى أَوطانِه ثمّ يَنثَني

    على قَلبه كي لا يَذوبَ بكَربهِ

    He yearns for his homelands, then bends

    Over his heart, lest it melt from his anguish.

  7. وإِن لاحَ من نَجدٍ وميضٌ توقَّدت

    بأَحشائه نارُ الغَرام وجَنبهِ

    And if a gleam appears from Najd, there blazes

    Within his entrails and his side the fire of love.

  8. وَلَيسَ له عن منهج الحبِّ منهجٌ

    وَكَيفَ وَمهما أومضَ البَرقُ يُصبِهِ

    And he has no path away from the path of love.

    And how could he find one, when every flash of lightning stirs his longing?