أَذاتَ اللثامِ الحَمِّ وَالشَفَةِ اللَميا

بعادُكِ لي مَوتٌ وَقُربُكِ لي مَحيا

O you of the dark veil and the dusky lip,

Your distance is death to me, and your nearness life.

سكَنتِ فُؤاداً لَم يَزَل مِنكِ خافِقاً

وَصيَّرتِ حُلوَ العَيشِ يا مُنيتي شَريا

You have dwelt within a heart that has never ceased to throb because of you,

And turned life’s sweetness into bitter aloe, O my heart’s desire.

بِرُوحِي الَّتي زارَت بِليلٍ وَأَقبَلَت

تَجُرُّ عَلى آثارِها العُصبَ وَالوَشيا

My soul be ransom for her who visited by night and drew near,

Trailing tasselled hems and figured cloth in her wake.

هَداها سَناها نَحوَ طاوٍ ضُلوعَهُ

عَلى سَلوَةٍ ماتَت وَوَجد بِها حَيّا

Her own radiance guided her toward one whose ribs enfolded

A solace that had died and a passion for her still alive.

تحلَّت بدُرٍّ فَوقَ لَبّاتِ نَحرِها

فَكانَ لِذاكَ الدُرِّ لَباتُها حليا

She adorned the upper breast beneath her throat with pearls,

Yet that breast itself became an ornament for those pearls.

وَمَسَّت بِمِسواكٍ موشَّرَ ثَغرِها

فَذاقَت لَهُ مِسكاً وَمَجَّت بِهِ أَريا

With a miswak she touched the sawlike row of teeth in her smile;

From it she tasted musk, and with it spat honey forth.

وَأَلقَت بِهِ نَحوي لتُبرد غُلَّتي

بِرَشفِي لَهُ فازدادَ قَلبي بِهِ غَليا

Then she tossed it toward me, to cool my burning thirst

As I sipped from it—yet through it my heart boiled all the more.

مِن التُركِ ضاقَ العَينُ مِنها لِبُخلِها

وَلَيسَت مِن العِينِ الَّتي تُشبِهُ الظَبيا

One of the Turks, her eye made narrow by her stinginess with glances,

Not one of the wide-eyed women who resemble gazelles.

سُمَيراءُ حاكى طائر السُمر قَدُّها

حَكاهُ وَلَكن أينَ أَردافُه الرَيّا

A dusky beauty—the bird of the samur trees mimicked her stature;

It copied her—but where were its lush, full hips?

أَبى الدَمعُ إِلا نَشرَ حُبّي وَإِن غَدا

فُؤادي طَواه عَن جَميع الوَرى طَيّا

My tears would have nothing but proclaim my love, though

My heart had folded it away from all humankind, utterly concealed.