أنت في مشرق النهار بخيل

وإذا الليل جن كنت كريما

You are stingy at the dawn of day

In the brightness of day you are withholding and stingy,

Yet generous when night falls

Yet when the night falls dark, you become generous.

تجعل الشمس منك لي عوضا هي

هات ماذا الفعال منك قويما

The sun makes up for your absence

You offer the sun as your substitute for me—alas,

What righteous deeds have you to show?

How far is such conduct of yours from being just!

زارني طيفك البعيد فيأتي

واصلاً لي وعائداً ونديما

Your distant specter visits me

Your distant phantom visited me, arriving

As a kinsman, returning, a boon friend

To unite with me, visit me in illness, and keep me company as a companion.

غير أني منعتني من تمام العي

ش لكن أبحت لي التشميما

Save that completing the pleasure of your company

Yet you denied me the full bliss of life's joy,

Was denied me, though yearning remained

Permitting me only to catch a fleeting scent.

فكأني من أهل الاعراف لا الفر

دوس داري ولا أخاف الجحيما

So I am like one on the Heights, neither

Thus I am like one of the people of al-A‘rāf: neither is Paradise

Treading my abode, nor fearing Hell

My dwelling, nor do I fear the flames of Hellfire.