غدا عامرُ الأوطان في مقلتِي قَفْراً

لِبَيْنك عنها واغتدى سهلُها وَعْرا

The flourishing homeland has become, in my eyes, a wasteland,

because you parted from it, and its plains turned rugged.

وأظلمت الآفاقُ منها توحُّشاً

كأنك كنتَ الصبح والشمس والبدرا

Its horizons darkened, stricken with desolation,

as though you had been the dawn, the sun, and the full moon.

ومالي أرى هذي القصورَ كأَنها

قد امتلأَت مذ غِبت عن أرضها ذُعْرا

Why do I see these palaces as though

since you left their land, they had filled with dread?

ولم أتخلَّف أَنني عنك صابِر

فكيف تُطِيقُ العين عن نورها صبرا

I did not stay behind because I could bear your absence—

how can the eye patiently endure, deprived of its light?

ولكنَّ دهراً عاقني واستهاضني

فخلَّفَني رَغْماً وأوجعني ضُرّا

But fate obstructed me and broke my strength;

against my will it left me behind and wounded me grievously.

ولو طار مِن قبلي مَشُوقٌ لشائقٍ

لِطرتُ بشوق يقطع القلب والصدرا

Had any yearning lover before me flown to one who yearns,

I would have flown with longing that cleaves the heart and breast.

وعلمك بي يكفينَي العذَر كُلَّه

لأنك تدري صفو سِرِّيَ والجهرا

Your knowledge of me suffices as my every excuse,

for you know the purity of my secret and my open word.

فيا ليتني أَفدِيك من كل حادثٍ

وألقَي خطوب الدهر دونك والدهرا

If only I could ransom you from every calamity

and face the blows of fate before you—fate itself.

ولو أنّ عمري كنتُ أدري أتنهاءَه

أحطتُ به علماً وأعطتك الشطرا

And if I could know where my life would end,

I would encompass it in knowledge and give you half.

سَقَى سَردوسَ الغيثُ ما دمتَ ثاوياً

بها وكساها صوبُه الورقَ الخُضْرا

May the rain water Sardūs for as long as you dwell

there, and may its downpour clothe it in green foliage.

ولا برحتْ تختال في حَليْ روضها

كم اختالت العذراءُ في حَليْها كِبرا

May it never cease strutting in the jewels of its meadows,

as a virgin struts proudly in her jewels.

رُبوعُ ديارٍ بالعزيز عزيزةٌ

يطاول فيها مجدُه الأَنجمَ الزُهْرا

The dwellings of a land are mighty through the mighty one;

there his glory rivals the radiant stars.

عليك صلاة الله من مَلِك به

نفى الله عنا الجور والظلم والفَقْرا

May God’s blessing rest upon you—a king through whom

God drove from us injustice, oppression, and poverty.