في القلب منزلةُ الغزال الشامسِ

فقل السلام على النّفور الآنسِ

In my heart is the dwelling place of the shy gazelle,

So greet the aloofness that is intimate.

هزَّ الصبا عطفيه يوم سويقةٍ

هزَّ الصّبا عطف القضيب المائس

The morning breeze waved its shoulder on the day of Suwayqah,

The morning breeze waved the shoulder of the bending spear.

أسفي لقلبٍ ما لهُ من مطلقٍ

فيه ودمعٍ ما له من حابس

I grieve for a heart that has no escape,

In it are tears that have no detainer.

فحذارِ جذوةَ وجنايهِ فإنها

باللحظ تعلق في فؤاد القابس

So beware the spark and crime of passion,

For with a glance it clings to the heart of the perceiver.

وأطرب لورد حيائها من روضةٍ

وأعجبْ لنرجس طرفه من حارس

And I am enchanted by the rose of her shyness from a garden,

And I admire the narcissus of her glance from a keeper.

عنفتْ بباكٍ في هواكِ لضاحكٍ

وبساهرِ الليل التّمام لناعس

She was violent with weeping for your love to a laugher,

And to one asleep, the complete night-watcher.

ألقى ذوائبهُ وفضل لثامه

فسريت في صبحٍ وليلٍ دامس

He cast off his tresses and exceeded his cover,

So I wandered in a morn and a dark night.

ذو طلعةٍ سبحانَ فالقَ صبحها

ومعاطف جلَّت يمين الغارس

With a rising for which glory to the splitter of its dawn!

And robes that have rolled up the right of the planter.

بمحبّهِ المشتاقِ ما بحلتهِ

بعد النوى من صفرةٍ ووساوس

By his ardent love she has not been permitted

After resolve, from yellowness and suspicions.

كم زورةٍ كان الظلام مؤازري

فيها وثغرُ الصبح فيه منافسي

How many times has the darkness been my supporter

In it, while the mouth of dawn against me a rival!

ألقاهُ منتصراً بغرَّةِ طامعٍ

وأعود منكسراً بذلّةِ آيس

He cast it down, victorious, with the ignorance of a coveter,

And I return vanquished with the humiliation of a despairer.

مرَّتْ بأرجاءِ الفؤاد طيوفهُ

فبكتْ على ربع السلوّ الدارس

The ghosts of it passed through the quarters of my heart,

So it wept over the bedouin quarter of the cultivated area.

وأبي الهوى لو كنتُ أملك قوّةً

لجدعتُ من أنف الصباح العاطس

And I refuse passion—if I possessed power

I would mutilate the nose of the sneezing morn.

فهصرتُ غصن القدِّ غيرَ مراقبٍ

ولثمتُ ورد الخدِّ غير مخالس

So I broke the branch of the hand without a watcher,

And I kissed the rose of the cheek without a toucher.

ولقد سريت إلى العلى في فتيةٍ

خلقوا لطيّ تنائفٍ وبسابس

And I had wandered into the lofty ones in some youths

Created for folding up the heels and saddling.

هبّوا فما كيرُ السماءِ بواكرٍ

خوفاً ولا وحشُ الفلاة بكانس

They went and the sky is not harmed by rising clouds,

Fearfully, nor the desolate place by a weeper.

وفليتُ أحشاءَ البلاد وأهلها

حتى وجدتُ الصبح بين حنادس

Would that I had made my way through the regions of the country

Until I found the morn between protective walls.

في حيث لا وجهُ الزمان بضاحك

طلق ولا وجهُ العزيز بعابس

Where there is no face of time smiling openly

Nor face of the dear one frowning.