بعينيك إضرامُهم للأكمْ

بحمُرِ القِبابِ وحُمرِ النَّعَمْ

Before your very eyes, they set the hillocks ablaze

with red pavilions and red camels.

تَخَيّلها الضيفُ نارَ القِرىَ

وما هي إلا قلوبُ الأممْ

The guest imagined them fires of welcome,

yet they were nothing but the hearts of whole peoples.

ورقَّ الحُداةُ لإنصاتِهم

فأبدلْنَها بالسياطِ النَّغَمْ

The cameleers softened at their attentiveness,

and traded the lash for melody.

لقد كذَب الفالُ لما زجرتُ

ظباءَ سُليمٍ بوادى السَّلمْ

The omen proved false when I took augury from

the gazelles of Sulaym in Wadi al-Salam.

فما كنَّ إلا الجوى والسى

وطولَ السهادِ وفرطَ السَّقَمْ

They were nothing but consuming passion and sorrow,

long wakefulness and sickness beyond measure.

أترجو لمن قد هَوِى صحّةً

وما علَّة الحبِّ إلا لَمَمْ

Can you hope for health for one already fallen to passion,

when love’s only malady is madness?

ولما رأى البُرءَ في عَذْله

رماه الهوى بالعمى والصَّمَمْ

When he thought healing lay in reproach,

passion smote him with blindness and deafness.

تظنُّ السحائبَ أجفانَهُ

لو أنَّ السحائبَ تهِمى بدمْ

You would take the clouds for his eyelids,

if only the clouds poured down blood.

ولولا الغرامُ لما شاقَه

حَمامٌ دَعَا أو غزالٌ بَغَمْ

Were it not for passion, he would not be stirred

by a calling dove or a gazelle that bleats.