كتبَت جفونُك فوق خدِّك أسطُراً

يشرَحن فيها ما تجنُّ لمن قَرا

Your eyelids have written lines upon your cheek,

explaining in them what you conceal to whoever reads.

وكأن وجهَ هواك كان ملثَّماً

مُتخفِّياً قبل الفراقِ فأسفَرا

As though the face of your love had been veiled,

hidden before parting—then it unveiled itself.

ومُعاهدٍ للغصنِ أن لا ينثني

مُستحلفٍ للبدرِ أن لا يبدُرا

You who bound the bough to a pledge never to bend,

and made the full moon swear never to rise:

لو كان يملِك أن يُصوِّر نفسَه

ما زاد خالقَه على ما صَوَّرا

had he possessed the power to fashion himself,

his Creator could not have improved upon what he fashioned.

وهو الذي مازال ينكر في الهوى

ما كان معروفاً ويعرفُ منكَرا

He is the one who, in love, has never ceased denying

what was acknowledged, while acknowledging what was denied.

وأخي اقتدارٍ بالنوى لولا الهَوى

والشوقُ كنتُ بها عَليه أقدَرا

My peer in mastery over separation—were it not for love

and longing, I would have mastered it better than he.

وكأنني إذ خفتُ بادرَ عُذره

علمتُه بمخافَتي أن يَغدرا

It was as though, when I feared him, his excuse outran him;

by showing my fear, I taught him how to betray.

مازالَ صَبري تحتَ حُكم جفونِه

متعذِّراً بالغدر حتَّى عَذَّرا

My patience remained beneath the rule of his eyelids,

pleading betrayal as its excuse, until it was excused.

وأَتت خطوبٌ كادَ يُنسي ذكرُها

عهد الهوى ويكادُ أن لا يُذكَرا

Then calamities came whose memory almost made me forget

love’s covenant, until it nearly went unremembered.

إن كانَ هَذا صَرف دَهرٍ واحدٍ

فلقد أقامَ مُنازلاً لي أدهُرا

If this is but one turn of a single age,

it has stood against me in battle for ages.

ولقلَّما يجني زماني بعدها

إلا لقيتُ بما جناهُ مُيسَّرا

And seldom, after that, does my Time commit a wrong

but I meet what it has wrought, ready to face it.

سلِّم إلى الملوكِ شدةَ بأسِه

واجعل لمالكِهِ النصيبَ الأوفَرا

Concede fierce prowess to kings,

but assign its possessor the fullest share.

ماضٍ فما تنهي إليه ظُلامةٌ

من طارق الحدثانِ إلا غيَّرا

Resolute: no grievance is brought before him

from the assaults of calamity but he sets it right.

أقلامُه ينطُقنَ عنه كأنَّها

لولا الدِّرايةُ أضمرت ما أضمَرا

His pens speak on his behalf, as though,

but for their discernment, they would hide what he hid.

فكفَتهُ أن يعتدَّ أبيضَ صارماً

ومثقَّفاً يوم الكريهةِ أسمَرا

Thus they spare him the need to muster a keen white sword

or, on the day of battle, a straightened brown spear.

صَدقَت فِراسَتُه فما في خاطرٍ

إلا يحاذرُ علمَهُ أن يخطُرا

His discernment has proved true: there is no thought

that does not fear his knowledge before it dares arise.

تلقى الوجوه إذا اكفرَّهت أوجهٌ

ما قاصِديها ضاحكاً مستبشِرا

He meets all faces—when the faces of some

scowl at those who seek them—laughing and radiant.