أوَ لم ترَي يَدَهُ على أحشائهِ

فهي الدواءُ لِمَن يموتُ بدائهِ

Have you not seen his hand upon his guts,

It is the cure for one who dies of his illness.

إن كنتِ رائفةً ومُشفقَةً على

مُضناكِ فابكي مرَّةً لبُكائه

If you are kind and compassionate to

Your troubled one, then cry once for his crying,

وتنفّسي مثلَ النَّسيمِ ونفِّسي

كرَباً فأنتِ عليمةٌ بدَوائه

And breathe like the breeze and breathe out

The distress, for you know its cure.

واستقبليه كالرَّبيعِ بزهرهِ

وبطيبهِ وبعشبهِ وبمائه

And receive him like the spring with its flowers

And its fragrance and grass and water,

فلعلَّ نضراً منكِ يُنضرُ قلبهُ

فلطالما عَصفَت رياحُ شقائه

Perhaps some vitality from you will revive his heart

For the winds of his misery have blown for so long.

لطفت عواطفُهُ فذابَ تلطُّفاً

ولطافةُ الرحمنِ في شُعرائه

His feelings have softened so he melted with tenderness

And God’s tenderness is in his poets.

فتلطَّفي واللّطفُ فيكِ سجيَّةٌ

بفَتى دعاهُ الحبُّ من شُهدائه

So be tender, and tenderness is your nature,

With a young man whom love called from its martyrs.

إن البلاءَ من المحبَّةِ أصلُهُ

فبلاءُ آدمَ كانَ من حوّائه

Verily, the test is from love in its origin

For Adam's test was from his snake.

عَجَباً أبردكِ زرقةً وتموجاً

من موجةٍ في البحر يومَ صفائه

How strange you have been cooled blueness and waves

From a wave in the sea on its clearest day.

أم في الظلامِ البدرُ ألبسَ أختَهُ

بُرداً جميلاً من برودِ سمائه

Or did the full moon dress his sister

With beautiful coolness from the cold of its sky?