ذرينيَ قُسطنطينُ آكلُ شهوتي

وتُبشمُنِي إني بذلك راضي

Let me be, Qusṭanṭīn, to eat as my appetite desires,

and be left glutted; with that I am content.

فأكثرُ ما ألقى من الزادِ كَظَّةٌ

مَدَى يومها واليومُ أسرعُ ماضِي

For the most that food can visit upon me is a surfeit

lasting the span of a day—and a day passes swiftly.

ولكنَّ أمراً قد بُليتُ بحُبّه

قواضيه إن أنْحَت عليَّ قواضي

But there is a thing with whose love I have been afflicted,

whose dire consequences, when they bear down upon me, prove fatal.

تلذّين أُولاه ويُوردُ غبُّهُ

حياضاً من المكرُوهِ بعد حِياض

You savor its beginning, but its aftermath brings you

to pool after pool of suffering.

فما هو إلا أن تَجرَّ ذُيولها

ليالٍ على آثارِ ذاكَ مَواضي

Then it takes only the trailing of their hems—

nights passing over the traces of that ordeal—

وتَنْسين ذاكَ الهولَ حتى تُعاودي

رُكوب طوالٍ كالرّشاء عِراض

for you to forget that terror, until once again you return

to mounting long, broad ones, like well-ropes—

كأنك ما أُثقلْتِ تسعة أشهرٍ

بحمل ولا قاسيتِ ضربَ مخاض

as though you had not been weighed down for nine months

by pregnancy, nor endured the pangs of labor.