صَبرتُ ولولا أن يقولوا سَفاهةً

لآيستُ عذّالاً على الصّبر من صبري

I kept my patience—but, were it not that they would call it folly,

I would have made my reproachers despair of my patience—no patience at all.

وقالوا لَهَا عنها فقلتُ لأنّكم

جهلتمْ حَزازاتٍ لها سكنتْ صدري

They spoke to her about it; I said, “That is because you

did not know the wounds of hers that settled in my breast.

يقلّبنَ قلبي كلَّ يومٍ وليلةٍ

على جمراتٍ ليتهنّ من الجمرِ

They turn my heart, every day and every night,

upon embers—if only those wounds were mere coals.

بنفسِيَ مَن لا وصلَ مِن بعد هجرهِ

وَلا أَوْبَةٌ منه ترجَّى مع السَّفرِ

My soul be the ransom of one with whom, after her abandonment, no union comes,

nor any return from her may be hoped for while she journeys;

ومن لا سبيلٌ لِي إلى أنْ أزورَه

بِطرفي وإِنْ لَم يُخلِهِ اللَّهُ من ذكري

one whom I have no way to visit,

even with my gaze—though God has not left her without remembrance of me.

فَإِنْ لَم تَكُن أَفنت جميعي فلم تَرِمْ

مُودّعةً إلّا وَقد سكبتْ شطري

If she has not annihilated all of me, never did she,

in bidding me farewell, fail to pour away half of me.

وولّتْ بعمري إذ تولّتْ بطيبه

فها أنا ذا حيٌّ أعيش بلا عمرِ

She departed with my lifetime when she departed with its sweetness;

and here I am, alive, living without a lifetime.