قف العيس بين ربوع الطلول

قف العيس بين ربوع الطلول

لعلك تقرأُ سطر المحولِ

لعلك تقرأُ سطر المحولِ

Halt the pale camels amid the ruined dwelling-sites,

Stop, doe, among the meadows' hills,

Perhaps you may read the line of desolation.

Perhaps you might read the line of fate,

هي الدار غيَّر من آيها

هي الدار غيَّر من آيها

هبوب الرياح ومجرى السيول

هبوب الرياح ومجرى السيول

This is the dwelling; some of its traces were altered

This is the house whose state

By the blowing winds and coursing torrents.

The winds and floods' flow changed.

فلم ارَ الا بها نأيها

فلم ارَ الا بها نأيها

والا ثلاث اثاف حلول

والا ثلاث اثاف حلول

So I saw nothing there but its encircling trench,

I saw it not but in remoteness,

And three hearthstones still in place.

Save three or four ruins.

اغيَّض ما لو جرى مسبلا

اغيَّض ما لو جرى مسبلا

امامي لسدَّ عليَّ سبيلي

امامي لسدَّ عليَّ سبيلي

I hold back what, were it to stream down

I weep for what, if it flowed openly

Before me, would block my path.

Before me, would bar my way.

فقام كانَّ به جنَّة

فقام كانَّ به جنَّة

تغشَّته او بعض داء دخيل

تغشَّته او بعض داء دخيل

Then he rose as though afflicted by madness

So it stood, as if endowed

That had overcome him, or some deep-seated illness.

With some madness or chronic ill,

والقى الربيقة عن ذعلبٍ

والقى الربيقة عن ذعلبٍ

تلفُّ حزون الملا بالسهول

تلفُّ حزون الملا بالسهول

And he cast the tether-loop off a swift she-camel

And it cast away a goblet

That folds the open country's rugged tracts together with its plains.

Circling the flexuous sands in eddies.

وخفَّ يراود لي رودة

وخفَّ يراود لي رودة

رداحاً تميل بحقف ثقيل

رداحاً تميل بحقف ثقيل

And he hastened to woo for me a graceful maiden,

And it hid a tenderness for me

Full-hipped, swaying with a heavy, curved dune.

Inclining with a heavy lid.

اذا هي همَّت تريد النهوض

اذا هي همَّت تريد النهوض

به انهال مثل الكثيب المهيل

به انهال مثل الكثيب المهيل

Whenever she makes to rise

When it was about to rouse itself,

With it, it slumps like a loosely heaped sand dune.

Down upon it poured, like a slipping dune.

ومذ جاز ورد قفا ضارج

ومذ جاز ورد قفا ضارج

رأى العيس صادرة بالقفول

رأى العيس صادرة بالقفول

And when he passed the watering-place behind Darij,

And when it had passed beyond the valley's edge

He saw the pale camels leaving the water, homeward bound.

The doe saw it returning.

فالقى تحيته مجملاً

فالقى تحيته مجملاً

ولاقى الجمال بوجهٍ جميل

ولاقى الجمال بوجهٍ جميل

Then he offered his greeting graciously,

So she greeted it with a nod

And met beauty with a beautiful face.

And met Beauty with a lovely face.