سُوَيجعَ النيلِ رِفقاً بِالسُوَيداءِ

فَما تُطيقُ أَنينَ المُفرَدِ النائي

Little songbird of the Nile, be gentle with my heart’s dark core;

for it cannot bear the moaning of one alone and far away.

لِلَّهِ وادٍ كَما يَهوى الهَوى عَجَبٌ

تَرَكتَ كُلَّ خَلِيٍّ فيهِ ذا داءِ

God, what a valley—wondrous, just as passion would wish!

You have left every carefree soul within it afflicted.

وَأَنتَ في الأَسرِ تَشكو ما تُكابِدُهُ

لِصَخرَةٍ مِن بَني الأَعجامِ صَمّاءُ

While captive, you lament all that you endure

to a deaf rock sprung from foreign peoples.

اللَهُ في فَنَنٍ تَلهو الزَمانَ بِهِ

فَإِنَّما هُوَ مَشدودٌ بِأَحشائي

For God’s sake, have mercy in the strain with which you beguile time;

for it is tethered to my very entrails,

وَفي جَوانِحِكَ اللاتي سَمَحتَ بِها

فَلَو تَرَفَّقتَ لَم تَسمَح بِأَعضائي

and to those wings of yours which you have freely spread.

Had you dealt gently, you would have spared my limbs.

ماذا تُريدُ بِذي الأَنّاتِ في سَهَري

هَذي جُفوني تَسقي عَهدَ إِغفائي

What do you seek by all these moans throughout my sleeplessness?

Here are my eyelids, watering the memory of my slumber.

حَسبُ المَضاجِعِ مِنّي ما تُعالِجُ مِن

جَنبي وَمِن كَبِدٍ في الجَنبِ حَرّاءِ

My couches have suffered enough of what they must endure

from my side—and from a liver burning within that side.

أُمسي وَأُصبِحُ مِن نَجواك في كَلَفٍ

حَتّى لَيَعشَقُ نُطقي فيكِ إِصغائي

Evening and morning, I am enamored of your secret converse,

until my listening falls in love with my speech of you.

اللَيلُ يُنهِضُني مِن حَيثُ يُقعِدُني

وَالنَجمُ يَملَأُ لي وَالفِكرُ صَهبائي

Night lifts me from the very place where it seats me;

the stars pour for me, and thought is my tawny wine.

آتي الكَواكِبَ لَم أَنقُل لَها قَدَماً

لا يَنقَضي سَهَري فيها وَإِسرائي

I reach the stars without moving a foot toward them;

my vigil among them—my night journeying—never ends.

وَأَلحَظُ الأَرضَ أَطوي ما يَكونُ إِلى

ما كانَ مِن آدَمٍ فيها وَحَوّاءِ

I behold the earth, folding all that is yet to be into

all that has been upon it since Adam and Eve.

مُؤَيَّداً بِكَ في حِلّي وَمُرتَحَلي

وَما هُما غَيرُ إِصباحي وَإِمسائي

Sustained by you whether I stay or set forth,

though these are nothing but my mornings and my evenings.

توحي إِلَيَّ الَّذي توحي وَتَسمَعُ لي

وَفي سَماعِكَ بَعدَ الوَحيِ إِغرائي

You inspire in me what you inspire, and you listen to me;

and in your listening, after inspiration, lies the lure that urges me on.