عاطفتي حزن طويل على

ماض من العمر و مستقبل

My emotion, long sorrow for

My emotion is a long sorrow over

A past from life and a future

a life past and a future to come.

عاطفتي أنّه مضنى بكى

على زمان للصبا أوّل

My emotion, he complained crying

My emotion is the moan of an exhausted one who wept

For a time of youth at first

over the earliest days of youth.

عاطفتي لحن يثير الأسى

و يخلق الهمّ بقلب الخلي

My emotion a tune that stirs sorrow

My emotion is a melody that stirs grief

And creates worries in the heart of the friend

and creates sorrow in the heart of the carefree.

عاطفتي حبّ بعيد المدى

أصاب في رميته مقلتي

My emotion a far reaching love

My emotion is a far-reaching love

That hit its target my eyelids

whose arrow struck my eye.

عاطفتي زفرة حرّ كليم

ثار على الدّهر و لم يحفل

My emotion the sigh of a hot rock

My emotion is the sigh of a wounded free man

Rebelled against fate and did not care

who rebelled against time and did not care.

من يشتري عاطفتي منكم

بغيرها من هذه العاطفات

Who will buy my emotion from you

Who among you will buy my emotion

With other than it from these emotions

in exchange for another of these emotions?

لا تعذلوني حين أبكي أسى

العدل كلّ العدل أن أعذر

Do not blame me when I cry in sorrow

Do not blame me when I weep in sorrow;

Justice, all justice, that I excuse myself

it is the utmost justice that I be excused.

سبّب لي هذا الشعور الأسى

مصيبة الإنسان أن يشعرا

This feeling of sorrow caused me

This feeling has caused me grief;

The tragedy of man is that he feels

the tragedy of man is to feel.

من يشتريه منكم خاسرا

أولى بشاري الدمع أن يخسرا

Who will buy it from you losing

Whoever among you buys it is a loser,

More worthy of my tears that I lose

and the buyer of tears deserves to lose.

قضى عليّ الدهر و اشقوتي

بالدّهر – أن أبكي و أن أسهرا

Fate condemned me and my misery

Time has decreed for me—oh, my misery

With fate - that I cry and stay up at night

with time—that I must weep and stay awake.

من يشتري منّي عقود النظيم

ببسمة تسلمني للكرى

Who will buy from me the prose of harmony

Who will buy from me strung necklaces of verse

With a smile that saves me from worries

for a smile that delivers me to slumber?

من يشتري الشعر و ألحانه

ببسمة واحدة في الحياة

Who will buy poetry and its tunes

Who will buy poetry and its melodies

With one smile in life

for a single smile in life?

عاطفتي ... مرحمة و اذهبي

لم يبق من عمري غير القليل

My emotion... goodbye and go away

My emotion... have mercy and go away,

Nothing remains of my life but little

for there is but little left of my life.

أبليت من جدّة عهد الصبا

ظلما و عجّلت أوان الرحيل

I have worn out the days of youth

You have worn out the freshness of my youth

Unjustly and hastened the time of departure

unjustly, and hastened the time of departure.

أنا عليل بائس فاهربي

لا خير في صحبة نضو عليل

I am a miserable ill person so run away

I am sick and wretched, so flee;

No good in keeping company with a feeble ill person

there is no good in the company of an emaciated sick man.

ماذا جاد يا عاطفتي . و الكريم

يضنّ عند الفقر ضنّ البخيل

What was generous, oh my emotion? And the generous one

What generosity is left, my emotion? Even the generous

Is stingy in poverty, the stinginess of the miser

withholds in poverty with the stinginess of a miser.

لم يبق فيه ويحه من قرى

يرضى صروف الدّهر و العاديات

Nothing remains in it, woe

There remains in him, alas, no hospitality

That is content with the turns of fate and traditions

to satisfy the vicissitudes of time and calamities.

سألت قربانا فقدّمته

للهيكل الأقدس قربانا

I asked for an offering so you presented

You asked for an offering, so I presented it

To the holiest temple an offering

to the holiest temple as a sacrifice.

و فوق ذا المذبح ضحيّته

و ما درى الناس ببلوانا

And above this altar his sacrifice

And upon this altar, I sacrificed him,

And people do not know our misery

while people knew nothing of our affliction.

ويحي تلاشت فيك أجزاؤه

كأنّه بالأمس ما كانا

Woe, its parts have faded in you

Woe is me, his pieces have vanished into you,

As if yesterday it did not exist

as if yesterday he had never been.

أعطاك ما شئت و أعطيته

ما لم يشأ همّا و أحزانا

He gave you what you wanted and you gave him

He gave you what you wished, and you gave him

Worries and sorrows he did not desire

what he did not wish: sorrow and grief.

أهكذا يجزى المحبّ القديم

و يوسع الآمل حرمانا

Is this how the loyal old lover is rewarded?

Is this how a long-standing lover is rewarded,

And expands hope deprivation

and the hopeful one given vast deprivation?

أفنيته ظالمة فارقبي

غدا عقاب الله للظالمات

You destroyed him unjustly so watch out

You have annihilated him, cruel one, so await

Tomorrow God's punishment for the unjust

tomorrow God's punishment for the unjust.

أكلّما أنّ أخو لوعة

كلّفتني الحزن و طول الأنين

Whenever a brother of sorrow

Whenever a brother of anguish groans,

Assigned me sorrow and long moaning

do you burden me with sorrow and prolonged moaning?

أكلّما ناح محبّ أسى

حشرتني في زمرة النائحين

Whenever a lover of sorrow moaned

Whenever a lover wails in grief,

You included me among the wailing ones

do you gather me among the throng of wailers?

أكلّما مرّت على خاطري

صورة بؤس رحت في البائسين

Whenever the image of misery

Whenever there crosses my mind

Passed in my mind, I walked among the miserable

an image of misery, do I become one of the miserable?

أشقى مع الأيتام مستعبرا

و أسهر الليل مع العاشقين

I am most miserable with the orphans, sympathizing

I suffer with the orphans, shedding tears,

And stay up at night with the lovers

and I stay awake at night with the lovers.

كتبت آيات العذاب الأليم

غضون همّ فوق هذا الجبين

I wrote verses of painful torment

You have written verses of painful torment

Above the brows of worry on this forehead

as wrinkles of sorrow upon this forehead,

تتلى و لا يخطئها قارئ

فيا لآيات الأسى البيّنات

They are recited and no reader makes a mistake

recited, and no reader can miss them;

So verses of clear sorrow!

oh, what clear signs of grief!

عاطفتي رحماك و استبدلني

بجسمي الناحل جسما صحيح

My emotion, have mercy and replace me

My emotion, have mercy and exchange me,

With my thin body, a healthy body

replacing my emaciated body with a healthy one;

جسم فتى لم يدر معنى الأسى

و لا مشى يوما بقلب جريح

A body of a youth who does not know the meaning of sorrow

the body of a youth who has not known the meaning of sorrow,

And never walked one day with a wounded heart

nor walked a single day with a wounded heart;

و لا حبته بالأسى مقلة

دعجاء أو وجه بهيّ صبيح

Nor did a swollen or beautiful radiant eyelid love him

nor was he gifted grief by an eye,

Leave him to live some of his hours

large and dark, or by a radiant, beautiful face.

دعيه يحيا بعض ساعاته

بمهجة حرّى و جفن قريح

With the fervor of the free and the eyelid of the calm

Let him live a few of his hours

He dragged the tails of bliss as he wished

with a burning soul and a sore eyelid.

جرّر ما شاء ذيول النعيم

و لم يطمع بالكأس نصح النصيح

And did not covet the cup of sincere advice

He has trailed the garments of bliss as he pleased,

So teach him how the young man suffers

and the advisor's counsel did not tempt him with the cup.

فعلّميه كيف يشقى الفتى

و كيف ترعى سرحه النائبات

And how absence shepherds his serenity

So teach him how a youth suffers,

I saw her one morning when she had sent

and how calamities graze in his pastures.

رأيتها صبحا و قد أرسلت

ذكاء في الأفق نثير الذهب

Intelligence scattered in the horizon shaking gold

I saw her in the morning, having sent forth

And a breeze blew in the garden the morning breeze

the sun in the horizon, scattering gold.

و هبّ في الروض نسيم الصبا

محمّلا طيب الربى حين هب

Carrying the scent of pasture when it blew

And the east wind blew through the garden,

And the wind had an intoxicating musk

laden with the fragrance of the hills when it blew.

و للرياحين شذا مسكر

يفعل ما تفعل بنت العنب

That does to it what the grapes do to the vine

And the sweet basil has an intoxicating scent,

The bride of dreams I loved her

doing what the daughter of the grape does.

عروسة الأحلام أحببتها

و هل يلام المرء في من أحب

And can a person be blamed for who he loved?

The bride of dreams, I loved her,

I loved her ember on my innermost being

and is a man to be blamed for whom he loves?

أحببتها جمرا على مهجتي

و للهوى في الناس شأن عجب

And love has a wondrous way among people

I loved her as an ember upon my soul,

And I dreamed of her while I was a speck

and love has a wondrous effect on people.

و همت فيها و أنا ذرّة

هائمة في هذه الكائنات

Wandering in these creatures

And I wandered in love with her, while I am but an atom,

Patience is praiseworthy but I

wandering lost in these universes.

ألصّبر محمود و لكنّني

لم يرضني الصبر و لم أرضه

Was not content with patience nor did it satisfy me

Patience is praiseworthy, but I

I love, yes I love, and I have a look

was not pleased by patience, nor did I please it.

أهوى نعم أهوى و لي ناظر

فارق مذ فارقته غمضه

That left when it left its blinking

I love, yes I love, and I have an eye

Put your hand on the heat of my heart

whose slumber departed since I departed from her.

ضعي على حرّ فؤادي يدا

كأنّها من خالص الفضّه

As if it were of pure silver

Place a hand upon the heat of my heart,

And smile with brilliant white teeth

as if it were made of pure silver.

و ابتسمي عن لؤلوء و اسفري

عن بشرة ناعمة بضّه

With a smooth complexion speckled

And smile to reveal pearls, and unveil

On your beautiful radiant cheek

a soft, delicate skin.

في خدّك القاني الشهيّ الوسيم

تفاحة مترفة غضّه

An arrogant apple, green

In your deep red, tempting, handsome cheek

Your rule of beauty among lovers

is a lush, tender apple.

حكمك الحسن بأهل الهوى

حسبي الهوى ما أظلم الحاكمات

My love, how unjust are the rulers!

Your beauty has ruled over the people of love;

love is enough for me—how unjust are the female rulers!