أسرع فقد ضاق الخناق مسلكه

والحب ما شقَّ على من يسلكه

Hasten, for the noose's opening has narrowed;

and love is no hardship for whoever treads its path.

أخي مالي صيح بي كأنني

أجرب لا يطلى عليه حككه

My brother, why am I shouted at, as though I were

a mangy beast whose itching sores receive no salve?

خوي بي الدهر الضليع باركا

نضو غرام قد قلاه مبركه

Massive Time spread itself, kneeling upon me—

a love-wasted beast, spurned by its resting place.

والدهر لم تجد به ذائقةٍ

الا الذي يصدق حين تأفكه

And no palate has found in Time

aught but one who speaks truth when you lie to him.

جزعت حتى آل بي من جزعي

ان احبس القلب على من يهلكه

I grieved until my grief brought me

to confine my heart to one who destroys it.

رمى لكي يصيد قلبي شركاً

حتى اذا افلت قلبي شركه

He cast a snare to catch my heart,

until, when my heart escaped his snare,

نجا فكيف عاد ينجو قاصداً

حبالة الصيَّاد منه رتكه

it was safe; how could it escape again, intent on

the hunter's snare, its own quick trot carrying it there?

ابحته سفك مدامعي دماً

وقلت ما ضرّ دمي لو يسفكه

I allowed him to shed my tears as blood,

and said, 'What harm to my blood if he should spill it?'

يملأ دمع العين مني محجري

حتى عدت تطفح فيه بركه

My eye's tears fill my eye socket,

until its pools surge, overflowing within it.

منبسط الاطراف الَّا وسطٌ

مكسر طيّ الحرير عككه

His limbs are spread wide, save for a waist

whose folds are creased like folded silk.

طلبته على اقبّ هيكل

ينقش لي شكل الهلال سنبكه

I sought him on a lean-flanked, mighty steed,

whose hoof engraves the crescent's shape for me.

افركه بأنملي وانما

يضوع نشر العود حين تفركه

I rub him with my fingertips; it is only

when you rub aloeswood that its fragrance spreads.

ألجمني وقادني حيث الهوى

يعلكني طوراً وطوراً اعلكه

He bridled me and led me wherever desire lay;

at times he chews me, at times I chew him.

اغرق مني بالشؤون سامكا

واليمُّ لا يغرق فيه سمكه

He drowned a towering one in my tear ducts,

yet the sea's fish do not drown within it.

هو العليم بالذي اخفيته النَّ

اس وأن ظن به مشككه

He knows full well what I concealed from the

people, and his doubter's conjectures about him.

قد صنته والسر في ضمائري

فراح للسر المصون يهتكه

I guarded him, keeping the secret in my inmost heart;

then he set about laying the guarded secret bare.

جعلته حشو جفوني والحشا

ورداً ولكن لا يشوك حسكه

I made him fill my eyelids and my heart,

a rose whose thorns, however, do not prick.

قالوا استحِ شبت الا تتركه

قلت شبابي لست طوعاً اتركه

They said, 'Have shame! You've gone gray—will you not leave him?'

I said, 'He is my youth; I will not willingly leave him.'

قد كادت العين اذا عبّ الكرى

لولا اكاذيب الخيال تمسكه

My eye, when slumber drinks deep, would almost

hold him, were it not for the dream-image's lies.

بي قمراً في فلك الحسن بدا

يا قمراً انجم فيه فلكه

I am smitten with a moon revealed in beauty's sphere.

O moon, your sphere has grown starry within you!

يا مفرد الحسن الذي ليس له

ثانٍ وددت انَّ عشري تشبكه

O peerless one in beauty, who has no

equal—I wish my ten fingers could clasp him.

عقدت يا ربّي بقلبي حبه

قد عاث يا ربي من يفككه

You tied his love within my heart, my Lord;

it has wrought havoc, my Lord—who will untie it?

او كان قلبي الف قلب لوهى

كيف ولا قلب بقلبي اشركه

Or were my heart a thousand hearts, it would grow weak;

how then, with no other heart to join to mine?

يعدّ هفواتي عليَّ مالك

ما عدّ للانسان ذنبا ملكه

A master counts my lapses against me,

though a man's own angel has not reckoned them a sin.

محمد صلى عليك نافلا

متهم العينين عفّ حنكه

Muhammad, blessings were freely offered you

by one whose eyes are suspect, yet whose mouth is chaste.

كيف وانت العين بل ضياؤها

والليل جؤشوش احمٌّ حلكه

How otherwise, when you are the eye—indeed, its light—

while night is pitch-dark, its gloom coal-black?

رحت وانت الراح يا ريحانها

والذهب المحلول يا من يسبكه

You went away, though you are wine, O its sweet basil,

and molten gold, O you who cast it.