بي منك يا ذات الدمالج مَا كفَىَ

منك السَّقامُ لمهجتي وبك الشفا

I have found enough suffering from you, O Possessor of beauty,

From you comes the illness of my heart, and in you lies the cure,

ورأيتُ وَدّك لا يدومُ لعاشقٍ

ورأيتُ قومَك لا يفونَ لمنْ وفى

And I saw your love does not last for a lover,

And I saw your people do not keep faith with those faithful.

جَعَلوا الجيادَ على خِبَاك سُرادقا

والسمهرية والحديدَ المرهفا

They made the horses over your traces a canopy,

As though the horses were ostriches and the iron shod with sharpness,

مالي وَمَالَك لا تزالَ مدامعي

سُحْباً على أطلالِ رَبْعِك وُكَّفَا

Why should I and why should you - my tears are still

Clouds over the ruins of your abode, and will not cease,

الظبي جيدُك أجيد وبوده

لو كان مثلُك بالشنوفِ مُشنّفَا

The doe of your neck is more delicate, and her love

As though she were adorned with colocynths hung in clusters,

عَلْمتَ غصنَ البان إذ جاورته

هَيفَ الحَشّا والغصنُ ينظر أهيفاَ

You knew the boughs of musk when you dwelt near them,

The hot wind and the bough looking gracefully bent.

أنا إن جهلت وإن نكرت معارفي

فسلي النجائب والبناق العسفا

If I am ignorant and deny my friends,

Then ask the gazelles and the fleeing oryxes.

أنا إنْ قطعتُ بها القفارَ وكم بها

كم قد عسفتُ مهامها لن تُعسفا

If I crossed the deserts with them, and how often

I subdued their mad courses they will not be subdued,

وإذا نَبا مورق وأجدب سرددٌ

وسِهَامَ زُرْتُ زمانَ خَصْبَ المعتفى

And when a fleet ostrich passes at morn, and a fleet

Wild cow, arrows have I aimed at the time of a fertile year,

وبأيمن التربات قصرٌ حجهُ

فرضٌ كمن حج الأباطحَ والصَّفا

And in the right-hand of the sand hills is a palace

Its courtyard is as one who has kissed the Black Stone and Safa,

اوصاه يلقي الخيلُ إن هي أقبلت

شعثاً ويقتحم العجاج الأكلفا

I charged him to meet the horses, if they came,

Disheveled, and plunge among the terrified ostriches,

وإذا أتته الخيلُ صَفَّنَا ذادَها

وإذا أتاه الألف ضَيْفاً ضيّفَا

And when the horses come we repel them,

And when the guests come in thousands, receive them,

ولقد يروق مُسَالما ومَسَلِّماً

ولقد يروع مُدّرّعاً ومُجفّفَا

And he may proceed peaceably and submissively,

And again he may proceed armed and defiant.