1. أَواقِف أَنتَ من صَبر عَلى ثِقَة

    أَم مُستَكينٌ لِرَيب الدَّهر مُعتَرفُ

    Are you standing firm, confident in your patience,

    or submissive to time's misfortunes, resigned?

  2. يا مُؤذني بِنَوىً قَد كُنتُ آمَنُها

    منك الفُراق وَمِنّي الشَّوق وَالأَسَفُ

    O you who announce to me a parting I had felt safe from,

    from you comes parting; from me, longing and sorrow.

  3. أَودَعتَ قَلبِيَ من ذِكر الفُراق جَوىً

    باتَت سواكنُ من قَلبي لَهُ تَجِفُ

    You lodged in my heart a burning grief at the mention of parting;

    what lay still within my heart trembled all night because of it.

  4. لَمّا اِنطَوَيتَ عَلى عَزم بعثتَ بِهِ

    عَلَيّ لِلدَّهر يَوماً دونه التَّلفُ

    When you settled upon a resolve, with it you sent

    against me a day of fate, worse than death.

  5. طويتَ هَمّاً بِقَلب قَد أُتيح لَهُ

    حِمى الهُموم وَعَينٌ دَمعها يَكِفُ

    You folded sorrow into a heart already allotted

    the sanctuary of sorrows, and an eye whose tears drip.

  6. أَحين ذَلّت لِيَ الأَيّامُ فَاِحتجزت

    مِنّي حَوادِثُها وَاِنقادَ لي الأَنِفُ

    Was it when the days bowed to me, and there withdrew

    from me their calamities, and the haughty yielded to me,

  7. وَإِذ رفعتَ عَلى الأَعداءِ بي سَبَبا

    أَخسُّ يَومَيَّ فيهِ يَوم أَنتَصِفُ

    and when you raised me to a station above my enemies,

    where the lesser of my two days was the day I won redress,

  8. أشرعتَ لي مَورِداً أَعيت مَصادِرُه

    فَلَستُ أَدري أَأَمضي فيهِ أَم أَقِفُ

    that you opened for me a watering-place whose ways out defied me?

    So I do not know: shall I go on into it, or stand still?