كم ذا تُفزّعني بالُعَتْبِ اسماء
وما كذا يتعادونَ الأحباءُ
How you trouble me with reproach, Asma!
Yet loved ones do not act thus.
ما بالَها ملأَتْ أحشاي مذ نزحت
حَرّاً وقد بردت من تلك احشاءُ
Why has she filled my heart since she departed,
With burning pain, though now my heart is cooled?
طبيُ الفلاةِ نَفُورُ وهي انسة
وليسَ تعرفَ كُحلاً وهي كَحْلاٌ
She is averse to me in the wilderness, yet gentle;
She knows no kohl, yet she is kohl.
قالت حذارَك منْ أهلي فقلت لها
نبئتُ أهلّك إنّ سَرّوا وإِنْ سأوا
She said, “Beware of my people.” I said to her,
“I have told your people, be they happy or sad.”
قالت فما لضك تعوي حولَ حِلّتِنا
كالذِئب قلتُ غرِيبُ الدار عَوّاءُ
She said, “Why do you lurk around our tents
Like a prowling wolf?” I said, “A stranger is a howler.”
قالت فكم تتشكى الحب قلتُ لها
عرفت شيئاً وغابت عنكِ أشياء
She said, “How do you complain of love?” I said to her,
“I knew something, yet things were hidden from you.”
قد كان يذكر حورٌ في الجنانِ لنا
عِيِنٌ فَلِم أنت في ذا الدهرِ حوارءُ
Once, houris were mentioned for us in Paradise,
Yet why are you, in this age, a gossip?
وكيف يُذكر مصرٌ والخَصِيْبُ مَعاً
وذا أبو بكر عند والكُدَيْراءُ
How can Egypt and Khadid be mentioned together?
And this, along with Abu Bakr, with Kudeira!
بِجيلةُ ابنة عَبْس هم سِبَاعُ وَغاً
وذا الغضنفر إن هاجَتْه هيجاء
Jaila, the daughter of ‘Abs, they are lions in the thickets.
And Al-Ghadanfar—if she incites him, he is stirred!
لا تبع القومُ الأَظِلَّ رايته
والرأي ما شاء ليس الرأي مَا شاءوا
The people do not follow the man of many shadows;
Opinion is not what it desires, but as opinion desires.
أوصاهم باكتساب الخيل قال لهم
الخيل عزٌّ وأهلوها أعزّاءُ
He exhorted them to acquire horses, and said to them:
“Horses are glory, and their people glorious!”
فما ترى قط بيتاً من بيوتهم
إلاّ وأجردَ حوليه وجرداءُ
So you never see a house of theirs
Without a tethered horse pacing around it.
