إذا النظر الفكريّ كان سميري

وكان وجودُ الحقِّ فيه سجيري

When intellectual contemplation was my companion by night,

and the presence of the Real within it my bosom friend,

وعز لوجدانِ الحقيقةِ مطلبي

وكان ورودي في عمى وصدور

my quest to find Reality proved elusive,

and my approach was through blindness and retreat.

تيقنت أني إنْ تأملتُ خاطري

وجدت الذي أبغيه عين ضميري

I became certain that, if I examined my inward thought,

I would find the very thing I sought—the essence of my inmost self.

دعاني إليه الشوق من كلِّ جانب

فكان بشيري بالهوى ونذيري

Longing called me toward it from every side,

and became, in love, both my herald of gladness and my warner.

نفوسٌ عفيفاتٌ أتين يعدنني

وقد ضربوا ما بينهن بسور

Chaste souls came visiting me,

while a wall had been raised between them.

شهدن علينا إذ شهدن بما لنا

وحرمة حبي ما شهدنَ بزورِ

They testified against us when they testified to what was ours;

by the sanctity of my love, they bore no false witness.

لقد ذهبت في حسنِ ذاتي طوائف

ذهاب خبير بالأمور بصير

Factions have gone their ways concerning the beauty of my essence—

the way of one experienced in affairs and clear-sighted.

أضلُّوا على علمٍ فضلوا وضللوا

فيا ليتَ شعري من يكون عذيري

Knowing full well, they led astray; thus they strayed and made others stray.

Ah, would that I knew who might plead my cause.