سكن الهوى في القلب حيث أجله

إن لم يكن فيه فاين محلّه

Love has settled in the heart, where I revere it;

if it is not there, then where is its abode?

أجد التذلل في الغرام تلذذا

يحلو لمثلي في الصبابة ذله

I find self-abasement in passion a delight;

for one like me, his own abasement in longing is sweet.

كف يصافحني البنان بها متى

لتنعمي قدر الإله يدله

A hand whose fingertips clasp mine—when

will God's decree guide it to my delight?

آثرتها وطويت كل صبابة

طيا كما يطوي الكتاب سجلة

I chose her and folded away every other longing,

folding it as a scribe rolls up his scroll.

ياليتني أحظى بعقد وصالها

ولو استحال على المعنى حله

If only I could secure the knot of union with her,

even if the love-tormented could never untie it.

كيف السلو وهل تأتي لامرىء

الحسن شمسه واللطافة ظله

How can one forget—and can forgetfulness come to a man

whose sun is beauty and whose shade is grace?

في وجهها القمر المنير بدا وفي

وجناتها ورد الربيع وفله

In her face the radiant moon appeared, and in

her cheeks are spring's roses and its jasmine.

ومن اللواحظ أسهم فتاكة

فيث القلب سهم ما استطعت أسله

And from sidelong glances come deadly arrows;

in my heart is an arrow I cannot draw out.

إن حام خاطر سلوة في مهجتي

فيد الملحة للجبين تتله

If a thought of forgetting hovers in my soul,

then the lovely one's hand casts it down upon its brow.

أسفا على الولهان شأنه بينكم

شأن المصفد حول جيده غله

Alas for the love-distraught: his plight among you

is that of a shackled man, his iron collar around his neck.

هذا يراقبه وذاك يشي به

وسواهما ينوي الهدى فيضله

This one watches him, and that one informs against him;

another means to guide him, yet leads him astray.

هذا فؤادي ليس ينفك اضطرا

مه بيد أني بالدموع أبله

This is my heart: unceasing is its

blaze, though I moisten it with tears.

طورا تقلبه على الرمضا مع

ذبتي وطورا بالوعود تعله

At times she turns it on the scorching sand—my

tormentress—and at times gives it promises to drink,

شأن الصغير بكفه ألعوبه

يجري عليها ما يشاءه دله

like a child with a plaything in his palm,

who does to it whatever his caprice desires.

إن قمت اشكوها يجبني حسنها

إن القضا ما يقتضيه توله

If I rise to complain of her, her beauty answers me:

Indeed, the decree is whatever love's rapture demands.

فرضيت عن نفسي بنفسي في الهوى

وكذاك يرضى من عراه تدله

So, in love, I myself became content with myself;

and likewise is anyone content whom love's bewilderment overtakes.