وصل السقامَ فصدَّ عن لوَّامه

إنَّ الملام يزيد في آلامهِ

Illness befell him, so he shunned his blamer,

Indeed, blame increases his pains.

لا تنكرنْ طربي إلى بان الحمى

فحمامُ صبري في هديل حمامهِ

Do not deny my joy towards the one with fever,

For the pigeon of my patience coos in its crooning.

حلَّ الهوى العذريّ فيمن خدّه

وعذاره كالصّبح تحت ظلامهِ

Passion settled upon my excuse among those he caressed,

And his affection is like the dawn under its darkness.

كم رحت لابسَ لأمةٍ من سلوتي

والصُّدغ يعطفني بعطفة لامهِ

How often have I walked wearing the garment of a female servant,

While he turns to look at me with a twist of his cheek.

ما البدر يحج به الظلام ترفّعاً

عن شائميه كوجهه وأمامهِ

The full moon does not need to make pilgrimage with what darkness ascends

Above my slanderers like its face and its front.

ظبيٌ وما للظبي سحر جفونه

غصنٌ وما للغصنِ لين قوامهِ

A gazelle, but the gazelle has no magic in its eyelids,

A branch, but the branch has no softness to its posture.

ذو الخصرِ ينحلني دوام نحوله

والجفن أعدى صحتي بسقامهِ

The one with the slender waist makes me melt with his continual leanness,

And the eyelid corrupts my health with its sickness.

ضاهى مقبّلهُ فريدُ عقوده

في منعهِ وضيائهِ ونظامهِ

His kissing competes with unique necklaces

In its abstinence, radiance, and organization.

أبداً يشتت لوعتي تشتيتهُ

ويزيد في ظمإي مدام مدامهِ

Forever he disperses my passion with his dispersion,

And increases my thirst with goblet after goblet.

كالمسك نشراً والسُّلاف مذاقةً

والقولُ قولُ أراكهِ وبشامهِ

Like musk in its diffusion and honey in its taste,

And words that I see him and smell his fragrance.

بعث السُّهاد مع الخيال فيا له

لو جاد بالتهويم ضنَ لمامهِ

Imagination sent dreams with the sleepless, oh if only

He would give freely with hallucinations and restrain his blame.

فالطرف بين صباحهِ وسهاده

ما بات بين جفونه ومنامهِ

So the glance between his wakefulness and his sleep

Did not spend the night between his eyelids and his slumber.

عمرَ الظلامُ متى ظفرت بطيفه

والغمضُ عمرَ وصاله وذمامهِ

How long did darkness live when it found his apparition?

And closing the eyes lived the time of his union and his intimacy.

أو عمرَ وعدِ الفاضل اتصلت بهِ

تلك الأيادي البيض من إنعامهِ

Or it lived the promise of the virtuous one I reached out to,

Those white hands from his favor.