عَيناك وَالسِحرُ الَّذي فيهِما

صَيَّرَتاني شاعِراً ساحِرا

Your eyes and the magic dwelling within them

Have transformed me into a poet, a sorcerer.

طَلَّمَتنِيَ الحُب وَعَلَّمتُهُ

بَدَر الدُجى وَالغُصن وَالطائِرا

You taught me love, and I taught it

To the full moon of the night, the branch, and the bird.

أُِن غِبتِ عَن عَيني وَجُنَّ الدُجى

سَأَلتُ عَنكِ القَمَرَ الزاهِرا

If you are absent from my sight and the darkness goes mad,

I ask the shining moon about you.

وَأَطرُقُ الرَوضَةَ عِندَ الضُحى

كَيما أُناجي البُلبُلَ الشاعِرا

I knock at the garden's gate in the forenoon

So that I may whisper to the poetic nightingale.

وَأَنشُقُ الوَردَةَ في كُمِّها

لِأَنَّ فيها أَرَجاً عاطِرا

And I inhale the rose within its calyx,

Because inside it holds a fragrant perfume

يُذَكِّرُ الصَبُّ بِذاكَ الشَذا

هَل تَذكُرينَ العاشِقَ الذاكِرا

That reminds the yearning lover of that scent—

Do you remember the lover who still remembers?

كَم نائِمٍ في وَكرِهِ هانِئٍ

نَبَّهتِهِ مِن وَكرِهِ باكِرا

How many a sleeper, resting happy in his nest,

Have I startled from his roost at dawn?

أَصبَحَ مِثلي تائِهاً حائِراً

لَما رَآني في الرُبى حائِرا

He became like me, lost and bewildered,

When he saw me wandering among the hills.

وَراحَ يَشكو لي وَأَشكو لَهُ

بَطشَ الهَوى وَالهَجر وَالهاجِرا

He began to complain to me, and I to complain to him,

Of the tyranny of passion, estrangement, and the one who abandons.

وَكَوكَبٍ أَسمَعتُهُ زَفرَتي

فَباتَ مِثلِيَ ساهِياً ساهِرا

And many a star I made listen to my sigh,

Until it spent the night like me, distracted and sleepless.

زَجَرتُ حَتّى النَومَ عَن مُقلَتي

وَلَم أُبالِ اللائِمَ الزاجِرا

I have driven even sleep away from my eyes,

And I heeded not the scolding blamer.

يا لَيتَ أَنّي مَثَلٌ ثائِرٌ

كَيما نَقولُ المَثَلَ السائِرا

Oh, would that I were a stirring parable,

So that we might recite the proverb that travels far.