دمعٌ جَرَى فأخجلَ الغماما

سَقَّى الديارَ قطرُهُ انسجاما

Tears flowed, putting the rainclouds to shame;

their streaming drops watered the dwellings.

مدامعٌ تُخبركُمْ عن لوعةٍ

قد قعدَ القلبُ لها وقاما

Tears that tell you of a burning anguish

for which the heart has both sat and risen.

أذلتُها من بعدِ صوني برهةً

لها فأثبتُّ بها الغراما

I humbled them after guarding them awhile,

and through them proved my passion.

وكنتُ مِن قبلِ ولُوعي بالهَوَى

أرى انبجاسَ مائها حراما

Before my infatuation with love,

I deemed the bursting of their waters forbidden.

يا جيرةً أصبحَ صبحُ عيشتي

مِن بعدِ ما ترحَّلوا ظلاما

O neighbors, the morning of my life became,

after they departed, darkness.

عهدي بأوطانِكُمُ آهلةً

تكْنُفُ مِن سكانِها أراما

I remember your homelands full of inhabitants,

sheltering white gazelles among their people—

مِن كلَّ هيفاءَ يُعيرُ قدُّها ال

غصنَ إذا ما خطرتْ قواما

each a slender beauty whose stature lends the—

branch, whenever she sways, its graceful form;

بهنانةٌ ممكورةٌ خَمصانَةٌ

قد جرَّدتْ مِن لحظِها حُساما

a soft, rounded beauty, slender-waisted,

who unsheathed a sword from her glance.

كأنَّني كنتُ أرى وِصالَها

زمانَ جادَتْ لي بهِ مناما

It seemed that I beheld union with her

when once she granted it to me—as a dream.

والعيشُ لا تصحَبُهُ لذاذةٌ

اِلاّ إذا ما أشبَهَ الأحلاما

Life is accompanied by no delight

unless it resembles dreams.

ما مزنةٌ أرخَتْ غزيرَ وبلِها

فروَّتِ الوهادَ والآكاما

No raincloud that loosed its heavy downpour,

watering the lowlands and the hills,

جرَّتْ على وجهِ الثرى ذيولَها

كأنَّها تُشافِهُ الرَّغاما

and trailed its hems across the face of earth

as though pressing its lips against the dust,

عادتْ بهِ الأوشالُ في لصوبِها

مترعةً مِن دمعِها جِماما

beneath whose rain the scant pools became

brimming basins, filled with its tears,

مثلَ دموعي يومَ قيلَثَوَّروا

عيسَهُمُ وقوَّضوا الخِياما

could equal my tears the day it was said, “Rouse

their pale camels, and strike the tents.”

باللهِ يا ريحَ الجَنُوبِ بلَّغي

عنّي إلى أحبابيَ السلاما

By God, O south wind, carry

my greetings to my beloved.

وعَرَّفيهمْ أنَّني في دارِهمْ

أَعلَّمُ النوحَ بها الحماما

And tell them that, within their dwelling,

I teach the doves themselves to lament.

منازلٌ أرعى ذِمامَ أهِلها

اِنَّ الكريمَ يحفظُ الذماما

These are dwellings whose people’s covenant I honor,

for the noble always keeps the covenant.

أصبحَ صبري ناقصاً ولوعتي

يزدادُ وَقْدُ حرَّها ضِراما

My patience has diminished, while my anguish—

the burning of its heat—flares ever fiercer.