والله لا استطيع صدك — Shabrawy

By God, I cannot bear your rejection,

Nor do I want life without you.

O my slayer, have I committed a sin

That warrants this rejection from you?

By God, by God, my beloved,

You promised union—fulfill your promise.

For I have a heart that melts with longing

For you, whenever I recall your absence.

You made me drink estrangement, bitter as it is,

And long have I sipped your honey.

And you betrayed my covenant; would that I knew:

Have you broken your pledge among the lovers?

Who will give me justice against you, O king?

You have made all the beautiful ones your troops.

And among the beautiful I have no adversary

Except you—but how implacable you are!

Every lovesick lover joins me in loving you,

Since you alone possess all beauty.

And the reproacher has spread word that I

Liken your stature to boughs.

Yet to me you are too exalted for

The garden roses to resemble your cheek.

Nor, O full moon, would I consent that

Heaven's full moon should become your slave.

O bough, you have turned away from a tormented lover

Who, in love, reserved you for his heart.

My reach falls short of you, O bough;

Exalted is He who endowed you with beauty.

Ah, God is enough for you, O gazelle!

You have assailed your lion with your two eyes.

You abandon me in jest, and yet

Your jesting with estrangement [has surpassed] earnestness.

And may God curse my gaze on your account,

For it is what obeyed the passion you inspire.

So may God not protect my heart on your account,

For how often through it have you attained your aim!

And you, O my reproacher, be gentle,

For you have overstepped your bounds.

You urge right guidance on a love-besotted man

Who counts your guidance as the very essence of error.

Be however you wish, my beloved;

May whoever turns you from your desire cease to be!

And forsake me if you wish, or else reunite with me,

And be proudly coy with all your might.

For, by God, I have no fear of

Anything except tasting the loss of you.