كَتَمتُ الحُبَّ يا حَكَمُ

وَلا وَاللَهِ يَنكَتِمُ

I concealed love, O Hakam

I kept my passion secret, O Hakam,

No, by Allah, it does not conceal

Yet by God, it refuses to remain concealed.

وَلَم أَرَ مِثلَ هَذي النا

سُ لَم أَعلَمهُمُ عَلِموا

And I have not seen the like of this love

I have never seen the likes of these people,

If they knew, they would blame me

I told them nothing, yet somehow they knew.

وَلَيسَ سِوى مُلاحَظَتي

إِذا ما جِئتُ أَتَّهِمُ

And nothing but my gaze upon them

It was nothing but the way I glanced,

When I come to accuse them

Whenever I approached, that made me suspect.

هَجَرتُ مَعاشِراً لَكِ في

هِمُ اِبنُ العَمِّ وَالرَحِمِ

I avoided my cousins and relatives

For your sake, I abandoned a whole assembly,

The son of the paternal uncle and relatives

Among whom were the cousin and close kin.

وَحُبُّ بُنَيَّةِ الوَضّا

حِ حُبٌّ لَيسَ يَنصَرِمُ

And love for the cheek of al-Wadah

And the love for the young daughter of al-Waddah,

Is a love that does not fade away

Is a love that shall never act severed or thin.

أَمَ اِنتِ بِجارِهِ رَهَنٌ

سَقى جيرانَهُ الدِيَمُ

Are you by neighbor a hostage

Are you not held hostage within his domain?

His neighbors quenched the blood price

May the pouring rains water his neighbors' plain.

أَلا يا أَيُّها القَسُّ ال

لَذي قَد صادَهُ صَنَمُ

Oh you, the pagan priest

Pay heed, O priest, O man of the cloth,

Who has turned him away from his idol

Who has been ensnared by a beautiful idol,

وَلَولا حُبُّهُم لَم تَخ

طُ بي لِلِقائِهِم قَدَمُ

If not for my love of them

Were it not for my love of them, no foot,

My feet would not have walked to meet them

Would step forth to seek their arrival.

يَغُمُّكَ قَولُ أَقوامٍ

لَحَوكَ لِأَنَّهُم عَلِموا

It saddens you what some people say

The talk of the people brings you distress,

They reviled you because they knew

They censured you the moment they knew.

فَلَيسَ لَهُم هَوىً صَقِبٌ

وَلَيسَ لَهُم هَوىً أَمَمُ

They have no pure love

For they possess no passion close at hand,

And no sacred love

Nor any love within their view.

فَصَحَّوا وَاِزدَهَوا مَرَحاً

وَأَنحَلَ جِسمَكَ السَقَمُ

They were merry and boastful

So they stayed sober and strutted in pride,

And your sickly body recovered

While sickness wasted your body through.

وَقالَ أَخوكَ مِن أَسَدٍ

أَخٌ مِن سوسِهِ الكَرَمُ

And your brother from Asad said

And your brother of the Asad clan declared,

A brother from generous Sus

A brother whose nature is noble and true:

لَقَد أَيقَنتُ أَنَّكَ لا

مَحالَةَ سَوفَ تَرتَطِمُ

I was certain that you

'I have become certain that you, without fail,

Will inevitably crash

Will surely plunge into the depths of this mire.'

وَبَدرٌ مِن بَني حَوّا

ءَ تَعشو دونَهُ الظُلَمُ

And Badr from Bani Hawa

She is a full moon among the daughters of Eve,

Lives in darkness without him

Before whom the darkness is blinded by light.

يَلومُكَ فيهِ أَقوامٌ

بِبَلوى اللَومِ ما أَلَموا

Some people blame you

Crowds cast their blame upon you for her sake,

With the blame of blame though they have not known

Yet felt not the pain of the blame they recite.

وَعابوهُ فَكانَ أَشَد

دَ ما عابوهُ أَن زَعَموا

And they dispraised him, so the most

They sought to find fault, but the worst of their flaws

intense of what they dispraised was their claim

Was the very description they claimed was a blight:

بِأَنَّ أَميرَتي غَرّا

ءُ في عِرنَينِها شَمَمُ

That my princess was

That my princess is radiant, bright of brow,

Haughty in her theorizing

With a nose standing proud, an elegant height;

وَفي أَردافِها ثِقَلٌ

وَفي أَترابِها هَضَمُ

And heavy in her hips

That a heaviness rests in the curve of her hips,

And crushing in her sides

While her waist is slender, delicate, and slight;

وَفي أَنيابِها فَلَجٌ

فَأَطرَوها وَما عَلِموا

And wide in her fangs

And her teeth show a gap, enticing and sweet,

So they portrayed her wrongly without knowledge

So they praised her perfection, unaware of their plight.

فَلا عَدِمَ الهَوى قَلبي

لِغَيظِهِمُ وَلا عَدِموا

My heart will not lack love

May my heart never lose the torment of love,

Or anger for their spite

To spite them—and may they remain in their spite,

خُلُوّاً مِن هَوى البيضِ ال

لَذي بِشِفاهِها حَمَمُ

Empty of love for the white one

Devoid of the passion for fair-skinned dames,

Whose lips are red

Whose lips bear the dark, enchanting night.

إِذا ما الحُبُّ لَم يَجعَل

أَيادي مِنكَ تُقتَسَمُ

If love does not

If love does not cause you to sever your self,

Make your hands distributed

So your very being is shared and spread,

وَكانَ لِواحِدٍ حَتّى

يَضُمُّكَ في الهَوى رَحِمُ

And one embraced you

And devoted to one, until in that bond,

In love as a relative

You are joined as if by a kinship thread,

فَلامَكَ فيهِ أَقوامٌ

فَقَد جاروا وَقَد ظَلَموا

So people blamed you

Then though people may cast their blame upon you,

They were unjust and oppressive

They have truly been unjust and misled.