إِن لاحَ كالغُصنِ أَورق

خلعتُ فيهِ عَذاري

If a branch blooms like a youth

In whom I shed my chastity,

مهفهفٌ ذو غَنَج

حُلو الدَلال تُركي

A wavering, singing drunkard,

Sweetly tender, a Turk,

سعيي لَهُ وَحُججي

وَفيهِ ضاع نسكي

My efforts toward him and pleading

Yet through him my devotion's lost.

عذاره بنفسجي

وَالخالُ مِنه مسكي

His chastity's my lilac,

His mole is musky to me,

وَالريقُ خَمري وَالشجي

مولَّعٌ بِالفتكِ

His spittle's my wine, his illness

Is enamored with death.

وَبالجَفا أَنا مُحرَق

وَخَدُّهُ جُلَّناري

By cruelty am I consumed,

His cheek an inferno to me.

أَشكو بِأَحشائي لهب

شرارُه من دَمعي

I complain unto his breast a blaze

Whose sparks are from my tears,

وَفرقةً أَرى عجب

وقوعَها بِجَمعِ

And I see a wondrous separation

Whose occurrence was despite union.

يا هاجري بلا سَبَب

هَل لِلِّقا من رجعِ

O ye who migrated without cause!

Can there be a return from this farewell?

اِقتُل وَلا تخش الطلَب

بالوتر لا وَالشفعِ

Kill me and fear no revenge;

By my love, do not hesitate.

فَإِنَّ قَومي لأرفَق

أَن يَطلبوك بِثاري

For my people are more compassionate

Should they seek you in vengeance for my death.

قَلبي للاحٍ ما اِرعوى

ولا أَطاع الناهي

My heart yielded to the branch—it would not

Obey the reproacher.

ولا مُعيني في الهَوى

إِلّا الخَليع اللّاهي

Nor assists me in passion

Save the vile deceiver,

وَلا يسلِّيني سِوى

مَديح فضل اللَهِ

And I've no consolation

Save praise for God's bounty.

معتِقُ رقّي مِن جوى

فيهِ الحَديث واهي

The freedman of my slavery from ardor

In Whom discourse has faded.

له الولا حين أَعتَق

وَالمَدح فيهِ شعاري

To Whom belong might when He granted

Deliverance, and praise that's my trait,

مولىً له جدّ علا

من أَصله والحظِّ

A Lord Whose ancestor is Sublime

In lineage and fortune—

بَحرٌ بِدُرٍّ مُجتلى

أَبصَرتُهُ ذا لَفظِ

A sea with brilliant pearls

I saw, endowed with speech,

في الفَضل لا يصغي إلى

مموّهٍ بالوعظِ

In merit He pays no heed

To a preacher's censure.

مجدُ الفخار وَالعلا

حامي الوَرى باللحظِ

Glory's protector of mankind

By glance and eminence

وَما عليه محقّق

في فَضله من غبارِ

Confirmed in merit, no blemish

Cleaves to His loftiness.

وَغادَةٍ قالَت سُبي

عَقلي بحبّ أَسمَرِ

And a maid said, “A brown man took

My reason by love.”

يا جارَتي ليش بالنّبي

ما تسألي عَن خبري

“O neighbor, by the Prophet why

Ask you not of my tidings?

علقتُ غصنا مرَّ بي

عذارُه الطاري طري

I clung to a branch that passed me by

Whose chastity is fleeing.

رميت زوجي وَأَبي

من أَجل هَذا القمرِ

I spurned my man and father

For this lovely moon.”

ليش ما اِترك الشَيخَ واِعشق

عُذيّر اِخضَر وَطاري

“Why discard the Sheikh and love

A tender, green, fresh bough?”