أراك وقد فتنت الناس قل لي

براك اللَه فتنة من يراكا

I see you have bewitched the people; tell me:

did God fashion you as a temptation to whoever sees you?

اراك ولست اعذر مستهاماً

يراك وليس يحتقر الأراكا

I see you, and cannot excuse a love-crazed man

who sees you yet does not disdain the arak tree.

يروم سواك يمضغه ولكن

اغار الريم تمضغه سواكا

He seeks something other than you to chew; yet

it has made the gazelle jealous as you chew it as a tooth-stick.

اخوك الظبي ضلَّ بكل وادٍ

به الاغصان تشتبك اشتباكا

Your brother, the gazelle, has strayed through every valley

where branches intertwine in tangled masses.

فدىً لك يا ظبيّ الضال هدي

وهدي ابي وحسب ابي فداكا

May my offering ransom you, O gazelle of the wild lote trees,

and my father's offering—my father himself is ransom enough.

ترى الغورين تقطب ماء ورد

بجدول ماء خدِّك ام طلاكا

Do you see the two hollows mixing rosewater

with a stream of your cheek's moisture—or your wine?

اما والشمس رائدة ضحاها

اليتنا بشمسك او ضحاكا

Indeed, by the sun as it seeks its morning light,

our oath is by your sun or your morning glow.

احلت المشرقين بجعد فرع

سوادا شقَّ غيهبه سناكا

With curling hair you turned the two Easts

to darkness whose gloom your radiance split.

ارى الدنيا تضيء بزبرقانٍ

بدا قمراً يشعشع من ضياكا

I see the world shining with a full moon

that appeared as a moon, radiant with your light.

احاك الحسن بردك ذا والا

فمن لك برد هذا الحسن حاكا

Did Beauty weave this mantle of yours? And if not,

then who wove you a mantle of such beauty?

حلاك لديك وهي معطَّلات

فطوَّق كل ذي عطل حلاكا

Your ornaments lie with you, unused;

so your beauty has garlanded every unadorned one.

غناك لفقر داع ايّ داع

فزاد اللَه فقري من غناكا

Your wealth is a summons to poverty—what a summons!

May God increase my poverty through your wealth!

فصل وصلاً يكن هجراً لهجري

نوىً قذفاً قذفتُ بها نواكا

Then grant a union that parts me from my estrangement—

a far-flung parting with which I cast your distance away.

واردى الربرب الغادي غزالٌ

رماك ولست تدري من رماكا

And the deadliest of the dawn-roaming herd is a gazelle

that shot you, though you do not know who shot you.

واسبى السرب بالعلمين خشفٌ

سباك وانت تعلم من سباكا

And the most captivating of the herd at al-‘Alamayn is a fawn

that took you captive, while you know who captured you.

كفاني ما اكفكف ماء عين

كفى الخمس الورود وما كفاكا

The tears I keep wiping away are enough for me;

they have sufficed camels at their fifth-day watering, yet not you.