أَبادَت بَقايا الصَبر طارِقةُ الدَهرِ

وَعَهد التَصابي وَهِيَ رَيحانة العُمرِ

Time’s sudden calamity destroyed the last remnants of patience,

and the days of youthful dalliance—the fragrant basil of life.

وَكَأسيَ فيها كانَ درديَ يسرة

مَحَت رَسمَهُ منّا مُنادَمةُ العُسر

In those days, even the dregs of my cup were ease;

keeping hardship company erased every trace of it from us.

وَطارَ بي البين المشت وَإِن لي

فِراخاً ضِعاف السَير عَن مفحص الوكر

Dispersing separation swept me away, though I have

fledglings too weak to walk beyond the hollow of the nest.

كَفى حُزناً حالي وَما حالُ مُغرَم

يَبيت عَلى يَأس وَيُصبح في أَسر

My own condition is sorrow enough—what, then, of a lover

who goes to bed in despair and wakes in captivity?

لَئَن حارَ مَهجور سِوايَ بِأَمرِهِ

فَقَد حارَ بي مِما أُنازلهُ أَمري

If a forsaken man other than I is bewildered by his plight,

then my very plight, because of what I confront, is bewildered by me.

كَأَني لَم أَصنَع بِجلَّق مِن يَدٍ

إِذا ذَكَرت أَشتَمُّ رائِحَة الشُكر

As though I had never performed a favor in Jallaq

which, when remembered, lets me smell the fragrance of gratitude.

نَسوني وَلَو كانُوا مِن الناس ما عَموا

عَن القَمَر الساري وَلا جهلوا قَدري

They forgot me; had they been human, they would not have been blind

to the moon journeying by night, nor ignorant of my worth.

تَرَكت بِهُم مِن كانَ يُؤنس وَحشَتي

إِذا سَئمت روحي وَضاقَ بِها صَدري

Among them I left one who used to solace my loneliness

whenever my spirit wearied and my breast grew too narrow for it.

أَتى زائِري مِن بَعد حَول مُوَدِعاً

وَطَوق الدُجى قَد صارَ في قَبضة الفَجر

After a year my visitor came, bidding farewell,

when the collar of darkness had already fallen into dawn’s grasp.

فَأَخجَلتُهُ بِالعَتَب حَتّى رَأَيتُهُ

يَزيح الثُرَيا بِالهِلال عَن البَدر

I shamed him with reproach until I saw him

shift the Pleiades, with the crescent, away from the full moon.

وَغَرّبت عَن أَهلي وَسارَ مشرِقاً

ولَستُ بِما يَجري القَضاءُ إِذاً أَدري

I journeyed west away from my people, while he traveled east,

and I do not know what destiny will then bring to pass.