1. مَاذَا يُعَانِي فِي الْهَوَى أَهْلُ الْهَوى

    مِنْ سَفْكِ دَمْعٍ وَاحْتِرَاقِ صُدُورِ

    What lovers suffer in love—

    Tears poured out and breasts aflame!

  2. فِي الحَيِّ أَعْرَابِيَّة هَدَرَتْ دَماً

    لَوْلاَ الْهَوَى مَا كَانَ بِالْمَهْدُورِ

    In the camp, a Bedouin maiden shed blood with impunity,

    Blood that, but for love, would not have gone unavenged.

  3. حسْنَاءُ تَخْطُر بَيْنَ أَبْيَاتِ الحِمَى

    خَطَرَاتِ عَيْنٍ فِي الحَنَانِ وَحُورِ

    A beauty, she sways among the tents of the protected grounds,

    With an eye's tender motions and the sway of dark-eyed maidens,

  4. بِدَلاَلِ غُصْنٍ فِي حُلَى نَوَّارِه

    وَجَمَالِ شَمْسٍ فِي غِلاَلَة نُورِ

    With the coy grace of a bough adorned in its blossoms,

    And the beauty of a sun in a veil of light.

  5. وَشَتِ الْعَوَاذِلُ بِي فَحَالَتْ دُونَهَا

    وَقَضَتْ حُكُومَةُ أَهْلِهَا بِثُبُورِي

    The reproachers informed against me and barred me from her,

    And her people's tribunal decreed my ruin.

  6. ظَلَمُوا وَمَا بِي رِيبةُ وَتَعَاقَبَتْ

    طَعْنَاتُهُمْ فِي قَلْبِيَ المَفْطُورِ

    They wronged me, though I gave no cause for suspicion, and in succession came

    Their stabs into my broken heart.

  7. لَوْ كَفَّ هَذَا الدَّهْرُ عَنِّي غَرْبَهُ

    وَرَثَى لِحَالِ العَاشِقِ المَهْجُورِ

    If this age would spare me its sharp edge,

    And pity the plight of the forsaken lover,

  8. لَشَفَى غَلِيلَ المُسْتَهامِ بِقُرْبِهَا

    وَشفَى جِرَاحَ النَّاقِمِ المَوْتُورِ

    It would quench the lovesick one's burning thirst through nearness to her,

    And heal the wounds of the resentful, wronged man.