بشرى أتت واليأس مستحكم

والقلب في سبع طباق شداد

Good tidings came, though despair was firm,

Glad tidings arrived when despair had taken firm hold,

And my heart was cloaked in seven layers.

And the heart was locked beneath seven harsh layers of gloom.

كست فؤادي خضرةً بعد ما

كان فؤادي لابساً للحداد

After my heart had worn the garb of grief,

They robed my heart in verdant life after

It was clad in verdure once again.

My heart had been wearing the garments of mourning.

جلا سواد الغم عني كما

يجلى بلون الشمس لون السواد

The blackness of sorrow lifted from me

Dispelling the darkness of sorrow from me, just as

As the light of dawn dispels the dark of night.

The color of blackness is driven away by the light of the sun.

هذا وما أمل وصلاً سوى

صدق وفاءٍ بتقديم الوداد

I have no hope of union save through

All this, though I longed for no union except

True devotion and steadfast affection.

True fidelity through the offering of sincere affection;

فالمزن قد تطلب لا للحياء

لكن لظل باردٍ ذي امتداد

So I seek not a shelter for modesty's sake,

For the rain clouds may be sought not for their downpour,

But for a cool shade that stretches on.

But for their cool, wide-spreading shade.