ألَمْ تَرَني أُدنِيتُ عمداً إِلى رَمْسي

وأُلْبِستُ أثوابَ الضنا أيَّما لُبْسِ

Did you not see me draw near on purpose to Ramla

And don the garments of distress, whatever the dress?

أروحُ كما أغدو كئيباً متيَّماً

من الضُرِّ والبلوى وأُضحى كما أُمسي

I go as I come, sad and yearning,

From harm and tribulation, and I become in the evening as I was in the morning.

أأعرضَ سُؤلي حين قيلَ هَجَوْتُه

فيا ليتَهُ يَرْضَى وأَهجو له نفسي

Did you spurn my question when it was said I satirized you?

Oh, would that you be pleased, and I would satirize my own soul for you.

فكيف أعيبُ البدرُ من غيرِ علَّةٍ

يُعابُ بها بل كيف أُزري على الشمس

So how can I find fault with the full moon without cause?

With what could he be blamed? Nay, how could I be hostile to the sun?

أأهجو الذي لو كُلِّفَ الخُرسُ مَدْحَهُ

لما عَجَزَتْ عن مَدْحِه أَلْسُنُ الخُرْس

Shall I satirize him whom if the mute were charged to praise,

The tongues of the mute could not praise him enough?

عدوتُ إِذن في الحبِّ قدري وَجُزْتُ في

هوائيه عن سُبْلِ البيانِ إلى اللَّبس

I am incapable, then, in love of my lot, and in my passion for him

I have swerved from the ways of eloquence into perplexity.

لقد فاق حُسْنَ الحور حُسنُ محمدٍ

فما ظَنُّكمْ يا قومُ بالجنِّ والإِنس

The beauty of Muhammad surpassed the beauty of the houris,

So what think ye, O people, of the jinn and mankind?

لئن ظلَّ عندي من صدودكَ مأتمٌ

لما زِلْتُ دهراً من وصالِكَ في عرس

If estrangement from you has left for me a place of grief,

I would never for a day have desisted from union with you at a wedding feast.

تمنَّيتُ أني لا أعيشُ إلى غدٍ

حِذارَ الذي لاقيتُهُ منك بالأمس

I wished I did not live until tomorrow,

For fear of that which I encountered from you yesterday.

بكى قلمي حُزْناً وكفّي كليهما

لما كتبا حتى لقد أبكيا طِرْسي

My pen wept from sorrow, and both my hands,

When they wrote, until they made my pages bleed.