هَل لِدِيارٍ حَيَّيتَها دُرُسِ
مِن صَمَمٍ ما هَتَفتَ أَو خَرَسِ
Is there for homelands you once greeted
Do the effaced abodes you greeted possess...
A deafness from stillness, or mute from neglect?
...deafness to your call, or merely muteness?
غُيِّبَ عَنهُنَّ سَكنُهُنَّ فَما
بِهِنَّ مِن جِنَّةٍ وَلا أَنَسِ
Their dwellers are lost to them, no trace remains
Their inhabitants have vanished, leaving behind...
Of garden or companion there in that place
...neither jinn nor humankind within them,
إِلّا شَبيهاً بِهِنَّ في وَضَحِ ال
جيدِ وَحُسنِ العُيونِ وَاللَعَسِ
Save one who resembles them, with bright neck
Save for those resembling them in the brightness...
And beautiful eyes and a supple young face,
...of the neck, the beauty of eyes, and dark-hued lips.
وَصاحِبٍ رُعتُهُ وَقَد ماتَتِ ال
ظَلماءُ إِلّا حُشاشَةَ الغَلَسِ
Whose flock he tended that now is deceased,
And a companion I startled when the darkness had died...
Naught left alive save shadows encased,
...except for the last faint breath of pre-dawn gloom,
بِخَمرَةٍ تُجتَلى لِخاطِبِها
كَجَلوَةِ البِكرِ لَيلَةَ العُرُسُ
With wine he addresses, as she glows for her lover
With a wine unveiled to its suitor...
Like a bride on her first night dressed,
...like the unveiling of a virgin bride on her wedding night.
ما اِنفَكَّ لِلَّهِ في رَعِيَّتِهِ
ذَخيرَةٌ مِن رَبيعَةِ الفَرَسِ
For God ne’er lacks among His peoples
God has never ceased to hold within His subjects...
A heir of the noble studs’ race,
...a stored treasure from the lineage of Rabi'ah al-Faras;
إِذا سَنى ذا خَبا لِمَدَّتِهِ
أَضرَمَ مِن ذاكَ زاكِيَ القَبَسِ
If one grows old in his station
Whenever the light of one fades at its appointed term...
Another arises young in his place
...He kindles from that source a pure, blazing flame.
