أَلا إِنَّ مَن أَهواهُ ضَنَّ بِوُدِّهِ

وَأَعقَبَني مِن بَعدِ ذاكَ بِصَدِّهِ

Alas! He whom I loved was stingy with his affection,

Alas, the one I love has withheld his affection,

And after that estranged me with his coldness.

And followed that fondness with cold rejection.

فَواحَزَنا بَعدَ المَوَدَّةِ إِنَّهُ

لَيَبخَلُ عَنّي بِالسَلامِ وَرَدِّهِ

So after love there was sorrow, for he

Oh, the grief after love! For he has come to be

Is miserly with me, withholding even a greeting.

Stingy with the greeting and with its reply.

دَعاني إِلَيهِ حُسنُهُ وَجَمالُهُ

وَسِحرٌ بِعَينَيهِ وَخالٌ بِخَدِّهِ

His beauty and grace invited me,

His grace and his beauty summoned me to him,

The magic in his eyes, the mole on his cheek,

With magic in his eyes and a mole upon his cheek.

كَأَنَّ فِرِندَ المُرهَفاتِ بِخَدِّهِ

وَيَختالُ ماءُ الوَردِ تَحتَ فِرِندِهِ

Like the mole on the cheek of a graceful gazelle,

As though the glint of a fine sword lies on his cheek,

With rosewater flowing beneath that mole.

And rosewater struts beneath that shining steel.

فَلَم أَرَ مِثلي صارَ عَبداً لِمِثلِهِ

وَلا مِثلَهُ يَوماً أَضَرَّ بِعَبدِهِ

Yet never did I see one like me become slave to one like him,

I have never seen my like become a slave to his like,

Nor one like him harm his slave in such a way.

Nor his like ever inflict such harm upon his slave.