1. إِليكِ غصوني يا طيور الحقائقِ

    ليسمع في ذا الفجر صوت حدائقي

    To you, birds of truth, I offer my branches,

    so the voice of my gardens may be heard at this dawn.

  2. فما إن ارى كالحسن ابدع صامت

    يجلُّ بهِ في الشعر ابدعُ ناطقِ

    For I see nothing like beauty, the most wondrous silent presence,

    through which the most wondrous speaker is exalted in poetry.

  3. وافخم اصوات الطبيعة راعدٌ

    يجلجلُ في الآفاق من حسن بارقِ

    And nature's grandest voice is thunder,

    resounding across the horizons from the beauty of lightning.

  4. فيا خالق الدنيا منىً وحقائقاً

    ليعرفهُ أهل المنى والحقائقِ

    So, O Creator of the world as hopes and truths,

    that the people of hopes and truths may know Him:

  5. لقد يبصر المرءُ السما ونجومها

    وما في العُلى من معجزات خوارقِ

    A man may indeed behold the sky and its stars,

    and the extraordinary miracles in the heights;

  6. ويبصر ما أبدعتَ في الأرض كلها

    مغاربها القُصوى معاً والمشارقِ

    and behold all You have wondrously made in the earth,

    its farthest western reaches and its eastern reaches alike;

  7. ويبصر ما اجملتَ من متناسب

    عجيب وما فصَّلت من متناسقِ

    and behold the proportioned whole You have fashioned,

    so wondrous, and what You have fashioned in harmonious detail.

  8. يرى كل هذا ساكن القلب وامقاً

    بالحاظه واللحظ حُبُّ المنافقِ

    He sees all this with his heart still, loving it

    with his glances—and glances are the hypocrite's love.

  9. بلى ويرى من كبرهِ كل رائع

    ضئيلاً كأن المرءَ في رأس شاهقِ

    Yes, and in his pride he sees every marvel

    as small, as though he stood atop a lofty peak.

  10. ولكن متى يبصر بحسناءَ ينتفض

    ويستشعر المخلوق هيبة خالقِ

    Yet whenever he catches sight of a beautiful woman, he trembles,

    and the creature feels awe before a creator.

  11. يرى لحظها مسترسلاً في فؤَادهِ

    يفكك ما بين المنى من علائقِ

    He sees her gaze flowing freely through his heart,

    unraveling the bonds between his hopes.

  12. وتغمرهُ من حسنها كل موجة

    يميل عليها القلب مثل الزوارقِ

    Every wave of her beauty engulfs him,

    and his heart sways upon it like boats.

  13. وتملأُهُ شوقاً يطيف بروحهِ

    فيُشعرها الإِجلالُ من كل شائقِ

    She fills him with longing that circles his soul,

    so reverence stirs it through all that awakens longing.

  14. وتتركهُ في الحسّ كالروح نفسها

    وكالفكر في ذوق المعاني الدقائقِ

    And she leaves him, in feeling, like the soul itself,

    and like thought in savoring subtle meanings.

  15. هناك يرى في كل مبتسمٍ ضيا

    ينيرُ من الآمال في كل غاسقِ

    There he sees light in every smile,

    shining with hopes in every darkness.

  16. هناك يرى فجراً لكوكب قلبهِ

    وناهيك من نجم على الفجر خافقِ

    There he sees a dawn for the star of his heart,

    and what a star, quivering above the dawn!

  17. هناك حواشي الفجر رفَافةُ الندى

    تمجُّ رشاش الكوثر المتدافقِ

    There, dawn's fringes, fluttering with dew,

    spout the spray of surging Kawthar.

  18. هناك باقصى الفجر اجملُ مشرقٍ

    يرى منهُ نور الله أَجمل شارقِ

    There, at dawn's farthest reach, is the loveliest sunrise,

    from which he sees God's light, the loveliest light to rise.

  19. لعمري لقد كانت لحواءَ فطنة

    وكان أبونا آدمٌ غير حاذقِ

    By my life, Eve indeed had discernment,

    while our father Adam was not shrewd.

  20. قضى قبل ان يمضي من الخلد ساعةً

    وليس بهِ الاَّ اهتمام المُفارقِ

    Before departing Paradise, he spent an hour,

    with nothing in him but a departing man's anxiety.

  21. بئيسٌ على ما كان مكتئب لما

    يكون بصدر واهن الصبر ضائق

    Wretched over what had been, dejected over what

    was to come, his breast constricted and his patience frail.

  22. فلم يغتنم من ساعة لم تَعُد لهُ

    وكان بها من ساعة جِدَّ واثقِ

    He seized nothing from an hour that would never return to him,

    though only an hour before he had been utterly sure of it.

  23. ولكن حواءَ الجميلة أسرعت

    خواطرها كالبارق المتلاحقِ

    But beautiful Eve's swiftly racing

    thoughts were like lightning flashes in succession.

  24. رأت انها جفَّت على قلب آدم

    ولمَّا تزل في ظل فنينان وارقِ

    She saw that she had withered in Adam's heart,

    though she was still in the shade of a lush, leafy tree.

  25. فكيف اذا ما غادرا الخلد بتَّةً

    وعاد عليها آدم عود حانقِ

    What, then, when they left Paradise for good,

    and Adam turned on her as an angry man would,

  26. وهبَّت اعاصير الجدال وانشأت

    سحائبهُ يرمينها بالصواعقِ

    and whirlwinds of argument blew, and there began

    its clouds' pelting of her with thunderbolts?

  27. وكانت ترى في جنة الخلد جوهراً

    يسمونهُ في الخلد قلب المعانقِ

    She had seen a jewel in the garden of eternity,

    which in Paradise they call 'the Embracer's Heart.'

  28. ولما اتى وقت الخروج وعرّيا

    سوى الحلة الخضراء دون المناطقِ

    When the time to leave came, and they were stripped bare,

    save for green raiment below their girdles,

  29. مشى آدمٌ يشكو لها متباطئاً

    ولكنها زمَّت فماً غير ناطقِ

    Adam walked slowly, complaining to her,

    but she kept her mouth shut and silent.

  30. فأَعجبهُ منها السكوت ولم تكن

    لتسكت في شيءٍ سكوت موافقٍ

    Her silence pleased him, though she was never

    one to remain silent in agreement about anything.

  31. وظن بها من روعة الحزن حكمةً

    تبصّرها في امر هذي العوائقِ

    He imagined in her a wisdom born of grief's shock,

    giving her insight into these obstacles.

  32. ولو فتحت فاها الملائكُ عندها

    لكانت رأَت فيهِ جريمة سارقِ

    Had the angels beside her opened her mouth,

    they would have seen in it a thief's crime.

  33. فقد اخذت حواءُ جوهرة الهوى

    وفازت بحظ في المحبة فائقِ

    For Eve had taken the jewel of passion,

    and won an exceptional share of love.

  34. فحين رآها آدم في ابتسامها

    رأَى الحب ابهى ما يكون لرامقِ

    So when Adam saw her smiling,

    he saw love at its fairest to a beholder.

  35. ومرَّ بعينيه الشعاع وسحرهُ

    يريهِ الهوى احلام يقظان صادقِ

    And the radiance and its magic passed through his eyes,

    as love showed him the dreams of one awake and true.

  36. ففي القبلة الاولى درى حاضر المنى

    وفي القبلة الأخرى نسي كل سابقٍ

    So in the first kiss he knew the present fulfillment of his hopes,

    and in the next kiss he forgot all that had gone before.

  37. لذاك نرى حب الجواهر فطرة

    لكل النسا معدودة في الخلائقِ

    That is why we see love of jewels as an instinct

    in all women, counted among their natural traits.

  38. وما برحت آثار جوهرة الهوى

    تلألأُ في كل ابتسامٍ لعاشقِ

    And the traces of the jewel of passion still

    sparkle in every smile offered to a lover.