وَفِتيَانٍ كَمَا انتُقِيَت لآلٍ

يَلُوحُ الدَّهرُ مِنهُم فِي حُلاهُ

And lads like pearls that were picked for finery

Time flashes from them in its unveiling

أَلِفتُهُم بِلَيلٍ قَد تَجَلَّت

بِأَوجُهِهِم وَأَكؤُسِهِم دُجَاهُ

I met them by night when it was unveiled

By their faces and their goblets' concealing

علَى حبشيَّةٍ بَلقَاءَ خَاضَت

عُبَابَ البَحرِ واقتَعَدَت مَطَاهُ

Aboard an Abyssinian ship that plunged

Into the billows and climbed their scaling

كَأَن شِرَاعَهَا شَيبٌ بِفَودَي

نَجَاشِيٍّ تَثُورُ ذُؤَبَتَاهُ

As if her sails were the white locks of

An aged Najashi whenever they’re flailing

وَبَحرٍ كَالسَّمَاءِ لَهُ حَبَابٌ

لَهَا بِكَوَاكِبِ الأُفقِ اشتِبَاهُ

And a sea like unto heaven, it has foam

Like it twinkles with the stars of the trail in

تَبَدَّت في ذُرَى الأَموَاجِ دُرّاً

كَمِثلِ الزَّهرِ تَحمِلُهُ رُبَاهُ

She showed in the spindrift of waves some pearls

As flowers carried by the winds unveiling

فَطَارَدنَا هُنَاكَ الحُوتَ صَيداً

بِكَيدٍ نَستَبِيحُ بِهِ حِمَاهُ

We hunted the whale therein as game

With a guile by which we’d rightly curtail him

نُرِيهِ أَنَّنَا نَقرِيهِ بَرّاً

فَنَأكُلُهُ وَلَم يَأكُل قِرَاهُ

We show him we’d be kind and spare his life

Yet we eat him, though he spared our ailing

كَأَنَّ المَوجَ لَما أَن فَرَعنَا

هُنَالِكَ فِي تَصَيدِنا ذُرَاهُ

As if the wave, when we sped there to hunt

Were mountains emerald and whales conveying

جِبَالُ زُمُرُّدٍ وَالحُوتُ فِيهَا

سَبَائِكُ كَاللُّجَينِ لِمَن يَرَاهُ

Scooping like sickness for those who spy them

It saw we would lessen its sons by prevailing

رَآنَا البَحرُ نَرزَؤُهُ بَنِيهِ

فَضَعضَعَ مِن مُنَانَا مَا بَنَاهُ

And its wind blew at us with snarling

Nearly igniting the water that's trailing

وَهَبَّت رِيحُهُ فِينَا زَفِيراً

فَكَادَت تَلتَظِي مِنهُ المِيَاهُ

And nearly sent us back to our source

As pearls belong only to seas as their dwelling

وَكَادَ يَرُدُّنَا للأَصلِ مِنَّا

لأَنَّ الدُّرَّ مَوطِنُهَا حَشَاهُ

We fled and for us prayer was wings

After despair He saved us from impaling

فَطِرنَا وَالدُّعَاءُ لَنَا جَنَاحٌ

وَبَعدَ اليَأسِ أَفلَتَنَا رَدَاهُ