تذكرتُ وشك البين قبل حلوله

فجادت عيوني بالدموع على الخد

I recalled the imminent separation and my eyes overflowed with tears

I remembered the imminence of parting before it befell,

While in my heart raged fires, burning hot through my bones to my skin

So my eyes flowed freely with tears upon my cheek.

وفي القلب نيرانٌ تأجّج حرّها

سرت في عظامي ثم صارت إلى جلدي

I've no soul able to bear their loss-

And within my heart are fires whose heat has raged,

Oh, would that to the grave I'd gone before this home!

Coursing through my bones, then reaching to my skin.

وما لي نفس تستطيع فراقهم

فيا ليت قبل البيت سارت إلى اللحد

To God I complain of the blows of fate-

I possess no soul capable of bearing their separation;

A heavy burden no hands can carry.

Oh, would that it had journeyed to the grave before leaving home.

إلى اللّه أشكو ما ألاقي من النوى

وحملي ثقيل لا تقوم به الأيدي

In Taybah was a life so sweet, now bitter to the taste-

To God I complain of the torment of distance I face,

Ill-fortune nursed at good fortune's breast!

For my burden is heavy, and no hands can sustain it.

بطيبة طاب العيش ثم تمرّرت

حلاوته فالنحس أربى على السعد

I glance between Wadi-`Uqayq and her dear home,

In Tayba life was pleasant, but then it turned bitter—

Then turn aside, distraught, to neither road nor stead.

Its very sweetness gone, for misfortune has outweighed good fortune.

أردّد طرفي بين وادي عقيقها

وبين قبا ها ثم ألوي إلى أحد

The dwellings of her I loved as child, as youth,

I cast my gaze between the valley of its al-'Aqiq,

As man, till with white hairs grayed, in the cold of life.

And its Quba, then I turn towards Mount Uhud—

منازل من أهواه طفلاً ويافعاً

وكهلا إلى أن صرت بالشيب في برد

The dwellings of the one I have loved since childhood and youth,

And through maturity, until I became cloaked in the gray of age.