أَشاقَكَ بِالقِنعِ الغَداةَ رُسومُ
دَوارِسُ أَدنى عَهدِهِنَّ قَديمُ
Your beauty drew me with a veil this morning,
Young maidens whose youth is freshly bloomed.
يَلُحنَ وَقَد جَرَّمنَ عِشرينَ حِجَّةً
كَما لاحَ في ظَهرِ البَنانِ وُشومُ
They sway though twenty pilgrimages have passed,
Like peaks on the mountain's back at dawn.
مَنازِلُ أَمّا أَهلُها فَتَحَمَّلوا
فَساروا وَأَمّا صَبُّهُم فَمُقيمُ
The dwellings - while their people bore their load
And journeyed on, their youth remained behind.
كَأَنّي بِها لَمّا عَرَفتُ رُسومَها
ثَقيلٌ لَدى أَيدي الرُقاةِ سَليمُ
They seemed, when I knew their features first,
A precious trust in sculptors' hands designed.
وَإِنّي لِما إِستودِعَتُ يا أُمَّ مالِكٍ
عَلى قِدَمٍ مِن عَهدِهِ لَكَتومُ
When I entrusted you, O mother of Malik,
To time, firm on foundations long enshrined
وَإِنّي عَلى الشَوقِ الَّذي أَنا داخِلٌ
إِذا باحَ أَصحابُ الهَوى لَضَمومُ
My passion that within me stirs, when friends
Reveal their love, I keep concealed, resigned.
فَلَم تَرَ عَينَي مَربَعاً بَعدَ مَربَعٍ
بِذي العُشِّ لَو كانَ النَعيمُ يَدومُ
No home, though filled with happiest life, has held
My eyes beyond a transitory stay.
فَلَيتَ وَليَّ العَهدِ كانَ مُحَرَّماً
عَلى المَوتِ مَعقودٌ عَلَيهِ تَميمُ
Would he the heir, predestined for our realm,
On whom is bound an amulet 'gainst death's claim!
صَحائِبُ لا مِن صَيِّبٍ ذي صَواعِقٍ
وَلا مُحرِقاتٍ ماؤهُنَّ حَميمُ
Clouds, not of lightning-charged rainstorm, but rather
Of gentle draft whose water is pure balm.
وَلا مُخلِفاتٍ حينَ هِجنَ بِنَسمَةٍ
إِلَيهُنَّ هَوجاءُ المَهَبِّ عَقيمُ
Nor trailing clouds that when the hot wind blows
Let through a barren, flaming blast of drought.
إِذا ما هَبَطنَ الأَرضَ قَد ماتَ عودُها
بَكَينَ بِها حَتّى يَعيشَ هَشيمُ
When they alight upon the earth, its boughs expire,
And weep for them until the brushwood lives.
