غَراميَ فِيكمْ مَا أَلَذّ وأَطْيَبا

وَأَهْلاً بِسُقْمِي مِنْ هَواكُم وَمَرْحَبا

How sweet, how delightful is my passion for you!

And welcome—welcome the sickness born of loving you.

غَزالُكُم ذاكَ المَصونُ جَمالُهُ

إِلَى غَيْرِه في الحُبّ قلبي ما صَبا

That gazelle of yours, whose beauty is so well guarded—

toward none but him has my heart ever inclined in love.

تَجلَّى على كلِّ القُلوبِ فَعِنْدَمَا

سَبى حُسْنُه كُلَّ القلوبِ تَحجَّبا

He unveiled himself before every heart; but when

his beauty captured every heart, he veiled himself.

أَأَحْبابنا هَلْ عائِدٌ في حِماكُمُ

أُوَيْقاتُ أُنْسٍ كُلّها زَمَنُ الصِّبا

O our beloved ones, will there return within your precinct

brief hours of intimacy—all of them the season of youth?

على حُبِّكم أفنيتُ حاصِلَ مَدْمَعي

وَغَيْر وَلاكُمْ عَبْدكُمْ ما تكسّبا

For love of you, I have exhausted the entire store of my tears;

your servant has gained nothing save devotion to you.

وَحَاشَاكُمُ أَنْ تُبْعِدوا عن جَمالِكم

حَليفَ هوىً بِالرّوحِ مِنْكُمْ مُعذَّبا

Far be it from you to banish from your beauty

one bound to passion, his very soul tormented because of you.

وإِن تَهْجُروا مَنْ وَاصلَ السّهْدَ جَفْنُهُ

وَهَذَّب فِيكم عِشْقَهُ فَتَهَذَّبا

If you forsake one whose eyelid has made sleeplessness its constant companion,

and who refined his love for you until it grew refined—

وَأَحْسَنْتُم تَأديبَهُ بِصُدودكُمْ

فلا تَهْجرُوه بَعدَما قَدْ تَأَدَّبا

when you have schooled him well through your aloofness,

do not forsake him now that he has learned good conduct.

ولي مُهْجَةٌ دِينُ الصَّبابةِ دِينُها

فَكيْف تَرى عَنْكُمْ مَدى الدَّهْرِ مَذْهَبا

I have a soul whose creed is the creed of passionate love;

how, for all time, could it find any path away from you?