أَلَم تَرَ جَنبي عَن فِراشي جَفا بِهِ
طَوارِقُ مِن هَمٍّ مُسِرٍّ دَخيلُها
Have you not seen how insomnia kept me from my bed,
As worries, though joyful, stole upon me?
وَكَم عَرَضَت لي حاجَةٌ فَتَقَيتُها
بِكَفَّيَّ بَعدَ اليَومِ لا أَستَقيلُها
And how often a need has confronted me, but I endured it
With both my palms, after this day I shall not endure it.
إِذا ضَمَّتِ الناسَ المَنازِلُ وَاِلتَقى
وَرائِيَ طَودا خِندِفٍ وَفُحولُها
When people are gathered in their homes,
Behind me are the remains of an old encampment.
أَلَسنا بِأَربابٍ لِقَومٍ وَأُمَّةٍ
خَلائِفُهُم مِنّا وَمِنّا رَسولُها
Are we not the lords of a people and a nation,
Their successors, and from us came their messenger?
مُلوكٌ تَرى الأَقوامَ يَتَّبِعونَنا
إِلَينا اِنتَهَت حاجاتُها وَرَجيلُها
Kings whom people follow,
To us have come their needs and their envoys.
إِذا ضاقَ عَن قَومٍ مَكانٌ رَأَيتَنا
لَنا العَرضُ مِن أَرضِ السَماءِ وَطولُها
When a land grows too small for a people, we are seen
Possessing the horizon from end to end.
نَهَزتَ بِدَلوٍ يَملَأُ الأَرضَ نِصفُها
وَخَيرُ دِلاءِ المُستَقينَ سَجيلُها
You scooped with a bucket that fills half the earth,
Yet the best well-rope is one made of palm-fibre.
عَلى نَبَطٍ مِن أَهلِ حَورانَ أَصبَحَت
مُوَشَّمَةَ الأَيدي لَئيماً فُلولُها
Upon a Nabataean of the people of Hauran dawned
One marked of hand, a wretched remnant.
وَإِنّي أَنا النَجمُ الَّذي عُذِّبَت بِهِ
قُرى أُمَّةٍ بادَت وَبادَ نَخيلُها
And I am the star for which a people were tormented,
Their dwellings vanished and their palms vanished.
وَكانَ الطِرِمّاحُ الأُحَيمَقُ إِذ عَوى
كَبَكرِ ثَمودٍ حينَ حَلَّ فَصيلُها
The dim-witted pen-pusher went astray
Like the she-camel of Thamud when her foal was taken.
سَيَسمَعُ مَن يَعوي إِلَيَّ وَقَومُهُ
عَوائِرَ مِنّي يَصدَعُ الصَخرَ قيلُها
He who wails to me, he and his people
Will hear from me a call that splits rocks.
إِذا قُتِلَ الطائِيُّ كانَت دِياتُهُ
عَلى طَيِّئٍ يودى التُيوسَ قَتيلُها
When the straying one is killed, his blood-price
Falls on Tayy, who must pay for his slain one.
