أسَالَتْ غَدّاةَ البَيْنِ لُؤلُؤَ أَجْفَانِ

وأَجْرَتْ عَقِيْقَ الدَّمْعِ في صَحْنِ عِقْيَانِ

The morning of parting shed pearls of dew

From her eyelids and poured rubies of tears in the basin.

وأَلْقَتْ حُلاَهَا مِنْ أَسىً فكأنَّما

أَطَارَتْ شَوَادِي الوُرْقِ عن فَنَنِ البانِ

She cast off her necklaces out of grief, as though

The leaves were stripped from the branches of the ban tree.

وأَذْهَلَها داعِي النَّوَى عن تَنَقُّبٍ

فَحَيَّا مُحَيَّاهَا بِتُفَّاحِ لُبْنَانِ

The caller to departure made her distraught, without searching,

So he greeted her farewell with apples from Lebanon.

وقد أَطْبَقَتْ فوق الأَقَاحِي بَنَفْسَجاً

كما خَمَشَتْ وَرْداً بِعُنَّابِ سُوْسَانِ

She has covered the meadows with violets

As if she had plucked roses with hyacinths of Susa.

وليلٍ بهيْمٍ سِرْتُهُ ونُجُوْمُهُ

أَزاهِرُ رَوْضٍ أو سَوَاهِرُ أَجْفَانِ

A night I walked in, with its stars,

Flowers of a garden or lamps of eyelids.

كأنَّ الثُّرَيَّا فيه كأسُ مُدَامةٍ

وقد مَالَتِ الجَوْزَاءُ مِيْلَةَ نَشْوَانِ

As if the Pleiades in it were a cup of wine

And the Gemini leaned tipsily.

وما الدَّهْرُ إلاَّ لَيْلَةٌ مُدْلَهِمَّةٌ

وشَمْسُ ضُحَاهَا أحمدُ بنُ سُلَيْمَانِ

Life is but a gloomy night,

With Ahmad ibn Suleiman its shining sun.