هَذِهِ مِلفِردُ قَد لاحَت رُباها

فَاِنسَ يا قَلبُ اللَيالي وَأَذاها

This place unveiled its beauty

This is Milford; its hills have come into view,

So my heart forgets the nights and their torment

So forget, O heart, the nights and their pain.

وَاِشهَدِ الفَنَّ سُفوحاً وَذُرىً

وَالهَوى الصافي أَريجاً وَمِياها

And witness the art on the hillsides and flowers

And witness art upon the slopes and the peaks,

And pure love fragrant and watered

And the pure air, like fragrance and flowing waters.

هَهُنا أَودَعتُ أَحلامَ الصِبا

أَفَما تَلمَحُ نوراً في ثَراها

Can you not see a light in its burial?

Here I have entrusted the dreams of my youth;

I was like an eagle, free in its plumes

Do you not glimpse a light within its very soil?

هَهُنا بَِلأَمسِ في دارَتِها

كُنتُ مِثلَ النَسرِ حُرّاً في ذُراها

Receiving inspiration from its nightingale

Here, yesterday, within her domain,

Infatuated singing for its beloved

I was like an eagle, free upon her summits.

أَتَلَقّى الوَحيَ عَن بُلبُلِها

وَهوَ وَلهانٌ يُغَنّي لِرُباها

And I feel the inspiration descending

Receiving inspiration from her nightingale,

From its sky in the morning and evening

As he sings, mad with love, to her hills.

وَتُحِسُّ الوَحيَ روحي هابِطاً

مِن سَماها في ضُحاها وَمَساها

Twenty years went by in separation

And my soul senses the revelation descending

If only I perished then, not in anything else

From her skies in the morning light and at dusk.

ذَهَبَت عُشرونَ في فُرقَتِها

لَيتَا فيها اِنقَضَت لا في سِواها

How we sat under its tree

Twenty years have passed in separation from her;

I complain of passion and it complains of love

Would that they had been spent there, and nowhere else.

كَم جَلَسنا تَحتَ صَفصافَتِها

أَشتَكي وَجدي وَتَشكو لي هَواها

The rain clouds hid except their rain

How often we sat beneath her willow tree,

And the open plains slept except their aroma

I complaining of my passion, and she confiding her love.

وَالسَواقي اِستَتَرَت إِلّا غِناها

وَالرَوابي هَجَعَت إِلّا شَذاها

And the echo in the forest we did not chatter

The streams were hidden, save for their singing,

Except telling their tales and stories

And the hills slumbered, save for their fragrance.

وَالصَدى في الغابِ لَم نَنبُس مَعاً

نِسبَةً إِلّا وَعاها وَحَكاها

We whisper and my hand is in hers

And the echo in the woods—we uttered not a word together

If an apparition appears we flirt

But that it caught the sound and recounted it.

نَتَناجى وَيَدي في يَدِها

فَإِذا لاحَ خَيالٌ نَتَلاهى

I am a life full of youth and passion

We whispered secrets, my hand within hers,

And she is like a garden perfected in its adornment

And if a shadow appeared, we feigned distraction.

أَنا دُنيا مِن شَبابٍ وَهَوىً

وَهيَ كَالرَوضَةِ قَد تَمَّت حَلاها

The best days of the era went by

I was a world composed of youth and passion,

Oh if only whoever buried it would expose it

And she was like a garden whose beauty was complete.

أَحسَنُ الأَيّامِ في العَصرِ اِنقَضَت

آهِ لَو يَنشُرُها مَن قَد طَواها

I became in New York a wandering ghost

The finest of days passed in that afternoon;

With ghosts wandering its expanse

Ah, if only He who folded them away would spread them out again.

صُرتُ في نِيويوركَ طَيفاً شارِداً

مَعَ طُيوفٍ حائِراتٍ في سَراها

It cast off its visions and went

In New York, I became a wandering phantom,

Seeking glory in which is its misery

Among phantoms confused in their night-journey.

طَرَحَت عَنها رُؤاها وَمَضَت

تُنشِدُ المَجدَ الَّذي فيهِ شَقاها

Like sheep blinded in sight

They cast aside their visions and moved on,

And straying in seeking food their strength

Seeking the glory that holds their very misery.

كَنِعاجٍ عَمِيَت أَبصارُها

وَوَهَت في طَلَبِ العُشبِ قُواها

Whenever it struggled to attain it

Like sheep whose sight has gone blind,

It found it became on earth behind it

Their strength failing in the pursuit of grass.

كُلَّما جَدَّت لِكَي تُدرِكَهُ

وَجَدَتهُ صارَ في الأَرضِ وَراها

Where in myself is a vision to make it happy

Whenever they strove to grasp it,

New York stole the visions from my soul

They found it had fallen on the ground behind them.

أَينَ في نَفسي رُأىً تُسعِدُها

سَرَقَت نِيويوركُ مِن نَفسي رُؤاها

In my hands is my fate yet I do not own it

Where within my soul are the visions that bring it joy?

And with me is my self yet I fear to see it

New York has stolen its visions from my soul.

في يَدي أَمري وَلا أَملُكُهُ

وَمَعي ذاتي وَأَخشى أَن أَراها

This is the mother of cities, stand in its protection

My fate is in my hand, yet I do not possess it;

My soul rests from some of its atmosphere

I have my self, yet I fear to look upon it.

هَذِهِ أُمُّ القُرى قِف في حِماها

تَستَرِح نَفسِيَ مِن بَعضِ جَواها

Do not say to me you came bare

This is the Mother of Villages; stand within her sanctuary,

For its poverty is beautiful to me like its riches

That my soul may rest from some of its burning sorrow.

هَهُنا الإِنسانُ يَلقى ذاتَهُ

هَهُنا لا يَحجِبُ المال الإَِلهَ

The scent of summer never ceased in it

Here, man encounters his true self;

And the summer sky is still its sky

Here, wealth does not veil the face of God.

لا تَقُل لي جِئتَها عارِيَةً

فَقرُها عِندي جَميلٌ كَغِناها

Love still flows in its waterfalls

Do not tell me I have come to her while she is bare;

And its deserts conversation and watchfulness

Her poverty, to me, is as beautiful as her wealth.

لَم يَزَل لِلصَيفِ فيها عَبَقٌ

وَسَماءُ الصَيفِ ما زالَت سَماها

Winter did not strip it of its adornment

A fragrance of summer still lingers within her,

But clothed it in splendor over its openness

And the summer sky remains her sky.

لا يَزالُ الحُبُّ في شَلّالِها

وَبَواديها حَديثاً وَاِنتِباها

It is in a raiment of its dye

Love still resides in her waterfalls,

None saw it except coveted it

And in her valleys, as a story and an awakening.

لَم يَجرُدها في الشِتا مِن وَشيِها

بَل كَساها رَوعَةً فَوقَ بَهاها

Winter has not stripped her of her finery;

Rather, it has clothed her in splendor beyond her usual beauty.

فَهيَ في ديباجَةٍ مِن صَبغِهِ

ما رَآها أَحَدٌ إِلّا اِشتَهاها

She is draped in a brocade of his own dyeing;

No one has seen her without desiring her.