قل لحباء إن تعيشي فموتي — Bashar Ibn Burd

Say to Ḥubbāʾ: if you live, then die.

We shall accept for you what you have already accepted.

We have accepted what came from you to us,

and we are free of its blame, if you are free of it.

Tell me, for I have fallen into doubt:

did you deliberately provoke our displeasure, or were you unaware,

when you defied my resolve in matters

whose like, had you desired them, you would not have been defied?

Did you resent anything but my saying, when there

was a stumble and a fright, 'May you never suffer'?

If you have no need of us, then we

have still less need of you; go wherever you wish.

Who would put his hopes in you after you sold off a lover

who loved with all his might whatever you loved?

You were never fit for the love

of a noble man—you are like a spider's robe.

We have had our fill of your love, bitter to the taste,

and we have drunk our fill, if you have drunk your fill of us.

Between me and one who is vile,

who keeps no faith with a close friend, there is only silence.

What use is my reproaching a deaf person who cannot hear the

sound, or my longing for one hateful and loathsome?

O daughter of al-ʿĀmirī, there was once a pledge

between us in love, and yet you forgot.

So remember our love, and taste others besides us:

you will remember us and regret it as long as you live.

Or recover from the sickness love inflicts

on a lovesick soul, for you have long been ailing.

By loving this one and that, you will never win

a share in our love as long as you live.

How can I endure, when you, dear to me as my own soul,

are in the place of one kept distant and despised?

So return, if you turn away from an evil resolve,

with a love soft at the edges and steadfast.

And if ever you want my love to be sweet,

then keep ties with me, abstaining from those you have met.

You are a ruby I have gained possession of;

I do not like a partner in the ruby.