نظرت بكأسٍ ليس يصحو شاربه

وقتاً فيسأل عنه كيف عواقبُه

She gazed with a cup whose drinker never sobers—

not for even a moment, so that he might ask how it will end.

وأراكَ معتكفاً عليه تلومُه

فكأنك السكرانُ حين تعاقبُه

And I see you bent over him, reproaching him,

as though you were the drunken one when you punish him.

يكفيكَ ما حَملت له أجفانُها

دعه فطاعنه هناكَ وضاربُه

What her eyelids have brought against him is enough for you;

leave him—for his stabber and assailant are already there.

وانظر لنفسك في الخلاص فطرفُها ال

والي وحاجبها المزجّج حاجبُه

See to your own escape, for her glance is the

governor, and her penciled brow his chamberlain.

ومقلّدٍ بالدرِّ أبكته النوى

ليكونَ جامدُه عليه وذائبُه

And one bedecked with pearls, whom separation made weep,

so that both its solid and its liquid might rest upon him.

إني لأعجبُ من بكائِك ما الذي

يُبكيك من شيء وعزمك راكبُه

Indeed, I marvel at your weeping—what is it

that makes you weep, when your resolve bestrides it?

ومضى يُسايِرُه الفراقُ وما هما

إلا كما اجتمعَ الخراجُ وكاتبُه

He went on, separation keeping pace beside him; the two

were simply the land tax and its clerk together.

هذا تضيقُ به القلوبُ إذا أتت

أوقاتُه أبداً ويثقلُ واجبُه

This constricts hearts whenever

its appointed times arrive; its due is forever heavy.

ولحبِّ هذا في النفوس تصرُّف

وكأنه في كلِّ قلبٍ صاحبُه

Yet love of this man has gained dominion in souls,

as though in every heart he were its master.

قد قيلَ أفعال الرجال وجوهُها

وبها يخاطبُك الفتَى وتخاطبُه

It has been said: men’s deeds are their faces;

through them a young man addresses you, and you address him.

ولأجل ذلك ما يسمّى باسمه

حسناً ولم يلحقه إلا غاصبُه

For that reason, no one called by his name

is truly Hasan; whoever bears it besides him merely usurps it.

ورأيتُه لمّا تفرّد بالندى

سُدَّت على المتشبِّهينَ مذاهبُه

And when I saw him stand alone in generosity,

its paths were closed against would-be imitators.

وقفت يداه في سبيل عَطائِه

ما كان وارثه وما هو كاسبُه

His hands were consecrated to the cause of giving—

a bounty he neither inherited nor earned.