أَرى ذَلِكَ القُربَ صارَ اِزوِرارا

وَصارَ طَويلُ السَلامِ اِختِصارا

I see that closeness has become rare

I see that our intimacy has turned to avoidance,

And prolonged greetings, brief

And the prolonged greeting has become curtailed.

تَرَكتَني اليَومَ في خَجلَةٍ

أَموتُ مِراراً وَأَحيا مِرارا

You left me today in embarrassment

You have left me this day in such confusion and shame,

I die repeatedly and live repeatedly

That I die repeatedly, and repeatedly revive.

أُسارِقُكَ اللَحظَ مُستَحيِياً

وَأَزجُرُ في الخَيلِ مُهري سِرارا

I steal glances at you bashfully

Bashfully, I steal glances at you in secret,

And hold back my racing horse

And privately rebuke my colt amidst the steeds.

وَأَعلَمُ أَنّي إِذا ما اِعتَذَرتُ

إِلَيكَ أَرادَ اِعتِذاري اِعتِذارا

And I know if I apologized to you

For I know full well that were I to offer an excuse,

My apology would want more apology

My very excuse to you would require an apology of its own.

كَفَرتُ مَكارِمَكَ الباهِرا

تِ إِن كانَ ذَلِكَ مِنّي اِختِيارا

I denied your shining virtues

I would be denying your dazzling acts of grace,

If that was my choice

Had this silence been a choice of my own making.

وَلَكِن حَمى الشِعرَ إِلّا القَليلَ

هَمٌّ حَمى النَومَ إِلّا غِرارا

But poetry's fever spared little

But worry has barred my verse, save for a little,

Like sleep's fever spared little

A worry that has barred my sleep, save for a snatch.

وَما أَنا أَسقَمتُ جِسمي بِهِ

وَما أَنا أَضرَمتُ في القَلبِ نارا

And I did not make my body ill with it

It was not I who brought this sickness upon my body,

Nor ignited a fire in my heart

Nor I who kindled this fire within my heart.

فَلا تُلزِمَنّي ذُنوبَ الزَمانِ

إِلَيَّ أَساءَ وَإِيّايَ ضارا

So do not blame me for the sins of time

So do not charge me with the sins of Time,

It did evil to me and harmed me

For it is Time that wronged me, and Time that did the harm.

وَعِندي لَكَ الشُرُدُ السائِراتُ

لا يَختَصِصنَ مِنَ الأَرضِ دارا

And for you are my wanderings

Yet I hold for you fugitive verses that roam the world,

That choose no land as their abode

That claim no single dwelling in all the earth.

قَوافٍ إِذا سِرنَ عَن مِقوَلي

وَثَبنَ الجِبالَ وَخُضنَ البِحارا

Camels, when they walk away from my words

Rhymes that, when they depart from my tongue,

Climb mountains and plunge into seas

Leap over the mountains and plunge through the seas.

وَلي فيكَ ما لَم يَقُل قائِلٌ

وَما لَم يَسِر قَمَرٌ حَيثُ سارا

And I have in you what no sayer has said

I possess words for you that no speaker has ever spoken,

And what no moon has reached wherever it traveled

That travel where even the traversing moon has never gone.

فَلَو خُلِقَ الناسُ مِن دَهرِهِم

لَكانوا الظَلامَ وَكُنتَ النَهارا

So if people were created in their eras

For were men created from the substance of their age,

They would be darkness and you would be day

They would be the darkness, and you the radiant day.

أَشَدُّهُمُ في النَدى هِزَّةً

وَأَبمَدُهُم في عَدُوٍّ مُغارا

The fiercest of them in waving

You are the most spirited of them in the tremor of giving,

The lamest of them in racing

And the farthest-reaching in the raid against the foe.

سَما بِكَ هَمِّيَ فَوقَ الهُمومِ

فَلَستُ أَعُدُّ يَساراً يَسارا

By you my worries are above worries

My ambition has soared with you above all other cares,

So I do not count ease as ease

So that I count no common wealth as true riches.

وَمَن كُنتَ بَحراً لَهُ يا عَلِيُّ

لَم يَقبَلِ الدُرَّ إِلّا كِبارا

And whoever you were an ocean to, O Ali

And he for whom you are the ocean, O Ali,

Would not accept pearls unless big

Will accept no pearls but the very greatest.