رويدك كم تجني وكم تتدلل — Alshaghouri

Go gently! How often you wrong me, how often you act coy

With me—and how often I overlook it, how often I abase myself.

You have clung to weariness, never tiring of clinging to it;

So my heart writhes upon the embers of ghada wood.

And you have charged me, by night, to watch its stars,

While you are charged with prolonged avoidance of me.

And no wonder my eyelids have poured forth their water,

When the one I love is miserly with union.

And this displeasure of yours has become second nature;

So if only one day you would adorn yourself with favor.

You unsheathe from your black eyelids a gleaming sword,

Against everyone you gaze upon—and so you slay.

And not a glance but brandishes a sword of Indian steel,

By which a vital spot in one who loves you is struck.

So follow the rule of Time, for it

Acts unjustly time and again, then grows tender and deals justly.

And noble patience was once my ally;

So if this shunning of me persists, that ally will be forsaken.

And the soundest in judgment among God's creatures is a youth who, when

A dwelling proves inhospitable to him one day, moves elsewhere.

So often my sickbed visitor has tired of me, and I have tired of him;

And for love of you I defied whoever reproached me.

And our days are folded away, with no union between us,

And unfolded, while estrangement never departs.

I see that Beauty has granted your cheek's down dominion,

But it will soon be deposed.

So treat us well while that remains possible,

And be gracious, for killing me deliberately is not gracious.