Sol 6.1

  1. مَنْ للريب هَفَتْ بِهِ الفِكَرُ

    لاَ العَيْنُ تُؤْنِسهُ وَلاَ الأَثَرُ

    Who will help one whom thoughts have swept into doubt?

    Neither sight nor trace consoles him.

  2. لا تُلْتَقى أَجفانُه سَهَراً

    فكأَنَّما أَهدابُهُ إِبَرُ

    His eyelids do not meet, so sleepless is he,

    as though his lashes were needles.

  3. من طول ما يرمي بصحبتها

    يبكي البكاء ويسهر السهر

    So long has he been plagued by their company

    that he makes weeping weep and sleeplessness stay awake.

  4. يا طُولِ لَيْلي لاَ صَبَاحَ لَهُ

    سَحَرُوا الظَّلامَ فَمَا لَهُ سَحَرُ

    How long my night—there is no morning for it!

    They bewitched the darkness, leaving it no dawn.

  5. ولقد تجلَّى عَنْ مَنَازِلِه

    طَيفٌ لِطُولِ سُرَاه مُنْبَهِرُ

    And from its dwellings there emerged

    a phantom, breathless from its long night journey.

  6. يأْتي إِليَّ لِنَقْع غُلَّته

    فَيَردُّه مِنَ مَدْمَعِي نَهَرُ

    It comes to me to quench its thirst,

    but a river from my tearful eye drives it back.

  7. وعَهِدْتُ قَلْبي جِسْرَ مَعْبَرهِ

    لكنَّ ذَاكَ الجِسْرَ مُنْكَسِرُ

    I once knew my heart as the bridge for its crossing,

    but that bridge is broken.

  8. قد نِمْتُ لكن في كَرَى ولَهِي

    خُيِّلْتُ أَنَّ خياله القَمَرُ

    I did sleep, but in the slumber of my yearning

    I imagined his phantom was the moon.

  9. يا دَهْرُ يَا مَنْ لا حُنُوَّ لَهُ

    أَوَ مَا عَلِمتَ بِأَنَّني بَشَرُ

    O Time, O you who have no tenderness,

    did you not know that I am human?

  10. لو كُنْتَ تَنْطِقُ قُلْتَ لُمْ بَطَراً

    فَجَمِيعُ مَا بِكَ أَصْلُه البَطَرُ

    If you could speak, you would say, 'Blame arrogance:

    all that ails you springs from arrogance.

  11. تأْتي حَمَاةَ وتَشْتكي كَدَراً

    أَوَ مَا عَلِمْتَ بِأَنَّها كَدَرُ

    You come to Hama and complain of murk;

    did you not know that it is murk itself?

  12. وبَقِيتَ لاَ أَهلٌ ولاَ ولَدٌ

    فِيها ولا وَطَنٌ ولا وَطَرُ

    And you remain without family or child

    there, with neither homeland nor heart's desire.'

  13. صه يا زمانُ فإِنَّني رَجُلٌ

    لَيْسَتْ تُغَيِّرُ صَبْرَهُ الغِيرَ

    Hush, Time, for I am a man

    whose patience is unchanged by reversals of fortune.

  14. ماءُ البَشَاشَةِ مِلْءُ صَفحتِه

    والقَلْبُ فيه النَّار تَسْتَعر

    The water of cheerfulness brims upon his face,

    while fire blazes within his heart.

  15. ولربَّما هَطَلَتْ مَدَامِعُه

    ومُرادُه أَن يَغْرَق الْحَوَرُ

    And sometimes his tears pour down;

    his wish is that the eyes' black-and-white beauty should drown.

  16. والخدُّ مَيْدَانٌ صَوَالِجهُ

    هُدْبٌ لَهَا مِنْ دَمْعِه أُكَرُ

    The cheek is a playing-field whose polo mallets

    are lashes, with balls formed from his tears.

  17. والنَّبْع قالوا مَالَهُ ثَمَرٌ

    أَمَّا أَنا فالدَّمْعُ لي ثمَرُ

    They say the nabʿ tree bears no fruit;

    as for me, tears are my fruit.

  18. ولأَرْكَبَنَّ الصَّعْبَ غُرَّتُه

    غَرَر وخَطْرَةُ عِطْفِه خَطَر

    And I shall surely ride the unruly steed, whose blaze

    is peril, and whose flank's sway is danger.

  19. إِمَّا وإِمَّا وَهْيَ وَاحِدَةٌ

    فِيهَا مُرَادُ النَّفْس يَنْتَظِرُ

    Either this or that—it is but one,

    within which the soul's desire awaits.

  20. ريحَ الجَنُوبِ أَراك مُدْنَفَةً

    هَلْ شَفَّ جسْمَكِ مِثْليَ السَّفَرُ

    South wind, I see you ailing;

    has travel wasted your body, as it has mine?

  21. وأَراك طيِّبةً مُعَطَّرةً

    هَلْ فيكِ مِنْ أَحْبَابِنَا خَبَرُ

    And I find you sweet-scented and perfumed;

    have you any news from our loved ones?

  22. تلك الأَحبَّةُ رَوْضُ ودِّهِمُ

    خَضِل وغمرُ صَفَائِهم خَضِرُ

    Those beloveds—the garden of their affection

    is dew-moist, and the flood of their sincerity is green.

  23. قد أَعْجَزَتْ أَخْبَارُ سُودُدِهم

    لولا لَقُلْنَا إِنَّها سُوَرُ

    The tales of their nobility have defied imitation;

    but for a reservation, we would call them surahs.

  24. فارقْتُهم فَتَمَايَلُوا أَسَفاً

    حَتَّى ظننَّا أَنَّهم سَكِرُوا

    I parted from them, and they swayed with grief,

    until we thought they were drunk.

  25. فكأَنَّهم لدِمُوُعِهم شَرِبُوا

    وكأَنَّهم بِأَنِينِهِمْ نَعرُوا

    As though they had drunk their tears,

    and as though they bellowed with their groans.

  26. كَمْ فِيهمُ مَنْ غَضَّ نَاظِرَه

    لمَّا خَلاَ مِنْ شَخْصِيَ الْبَصَرُ

    How many among them lowered their gaze

    when my form vanished from their sight,

  27. وَيَظُنُّ ظنّاً أَنَّ مُقْلَتَهُ

    لَوْلاَي لَمْ يُخْلَقْ لهَا نَظَرُ

    and believed, indeed, that their eyes

    would have had no sight created for them but for me.

  28. يَا وَيْحَ طَرْفٍ بَعْدَ فُرْقَتِهم

    مرَّت بِهِ العَبْرَاتُ والعِبَرُ

    Alas for an eye, after parting from them,

    through which tears and lessons have passed!

  29. صَدَقَ الَّذِي قَالتْ بَلاَغَتُه

    لَمْ يَجْرِ دَمْعٌ بَلْ جَرَى قَدَرُ

    He spoke truly whose eloquence declared:

    'No tears flowed; rather, fate flowed.'

  30. كَمْ كَنْتُ أَحْذَرُ مِن فِرَاقِهمُ

    وإِذَا وَهيَ قَدَرٌ فَلاَ حَذَرُ

    How greatly I feared parting from them!

    Yet when it is fate, no caution avails.

  31. لَهْفِي عَلَى عَيْشٍ بِنِعْمَتِه

    كَانَتْ ذُنُوبُ الدَّهرِ تُغْتَفَرُ

    Ah, my yearning for a life through whose bliss

    Time's sins were forgiven,

  32. وَمَنَازِلٍ بِاللَّهو آهِلَةٍ

    تُزْهَى بِهَا الآصَالُ والبُكَرُ

    and for dwellings thronged with merriment,

    that made late afternoons and early mornings radiant,

  33. ومنارةٍ من حُسْن حُلَّتِها

    يُنْشى الحبُورُ ويُنْشَر الخَبَرُ

    and for a minaret, from the beauty of whose adornment

    joy is stirred and word is spread,

  34. وأَحبَّةٍ سُمْرٍ شُعُورُهُمُ

    لَيْلٌ فَصَوت حُليِّهم سَمَرُ

    and for dusky beloveds whose hair

    is night, their jewels' sound its night-time talk.

  35. شعر كَلَيْلَةِ وَصْلِ صَاحِبه

    حُسْناً ولَكِن مَا بِه قِصَرُ

    Hair like a night of union with its owner

    in beauty, though there is no shortness in it.

  36. تلك الغُصُونُ شُعُورُهَا وَرَقٌ

    متكلِّلٌ وعقودُهَا زَهَرُ

    Those boughs—their hair is foliage,

    forming a crown, and their necklaces are blossoms.

  37. تحت النهُودِ كأَنَّها بِدَرٌ

    سُرُرٌ تُفَرَّغُ فِيهم صُرَر

    Beneath breasts that seem like purses of coins

    are navels; purses are emptied on them.

  38. آهاً لِثَغْرٍ لوْ ظَفِرْتُ بِه

    وكذا الثُّغُورُ يُرَى بِهَا الظَّفَر

    Ah, for a mouth—if only I could win it!

    And at frontier strongholds, too, victory is seen.

  39. مِنْ شَادِن طَرْفي لِفُرقَتِه

    زَنْدٌ وجَمْرُ مَدامعي شَرَرُ

    Of a young gazelle: at parting from him my eye

    is a fire-stick, and my tears' embers are sparks.

  40. متبرِّجٌ في وَجْهِهِ الخَفَرُ

    متَحيِّرٌ في طَرْفِه الحَوَرُ

    Modesty flaunts itself upon his face;

    the eyes' black-and-white beauty is bewildered in his gaze.

  41. لو لم يكن في الجَفْنِ عَسْكَرُه

    مَا قِيلَ إِن الجَفْنَ يَنْكَسِرُ

    If his army were not within the eyelid,

    no one would say the eyelid gives way.

  42. حفَّتْ بَوَادِره قَلائِدُه

    ويلاه ذا خَصَر وذا خَصِرُ

    His necklaces encircle the sides of his neck;

    alas—here is chill, and here one chilled!

  43. لم أُحصِ كم عانَقْتُ قامَتَهُ

    فتكسَّرتْ مِنْ ضمِّه الدُّرَرُ

    I never counted how often I embraced his form,

    so that the pearls shattered from clasping him.

  44. أَصَبَرْتَ حتى يَوْمَ فُرْقَتِه

    يَا قَلْبُ والتَّحقيق يا حَجَرُ

    Did you endure until the day of parting from him,

    O heart—or, in truth, O stone?

  45. ومُقَرْطَن طَرْفي لِفُرقَتِه

    زَنْدٌ وحُمْرُ مَدَامِعِي شَرَرُ

    And an earring-adorned one: at parting from him my eye

    is a fire-stick, and my red tears are sparks.