عَرَفْتَ صَبابَةَ هذي النِّياق

فما لكَ تسأل عن دائها

You knew the illness of this languishing gazelle,

So why do you ask about her sickness

كأنَّك لم تَدْرِ أنَّ الهوى

دواها وجالبُ ضرَّائها

As if you didn’t know that passion

Is what cures her and brings her afflictions.

أُعيذك ممَّا بها يا هذيم

غرامٌ أقام بأحشائها

I seek refuge for you from her, O critic,

It is an obsession that resides in her veins.

نَأَتْ عن منازلها في الغميم

سَقَتْها السَّماءُ بأنوائها

She departed from her abodes in the clouds,

The rain quenched her with its streams

وأَجْرَتْ مدامعها حسرةً

على النَّازلين بجرعائها

And she shed tears of regret

For those who share her bitter cups.

ألا صبَّح الغيث تلك الدِّيار

وحيَّى منازلَ أحيائها

Indeed, the rain greeted those homes

And revived the places of her neighborhoods,

فما هي إلاَّ منى العاشقين

تلوح الدِّيار بأرجائها

Which are but the tryst of lovers

Beckoning from all its corners.

فَخَلِّ المطيَّ على ما بها

ووافِقْ تَخَالُفَ أَهوائها

So unleash your riding beast despite her

And accept her changing passions.

لئن وَقَفَتْ بك في الرّقمتين

وَقَفْتَ على بعض أدوائها

If she paused for you at the two stopping places

You’d grasp some of her cures.

فما عُرِفَتْ أوجُهُ المغرمين

لعمرك إلاَّ بسيمائها

For the faces of passionate lovers were not known,

By your life, except by their markings.

وإنَّك إنْ تَعْذِلِ الوامقين

فإنَّك أكبر أعدائها

And you, if you blame the infatuated,

Then you are her biggest enemy.