قالوا عشقت وما الداعي؟ وليتهم
تحملوا عن فؤادي بعض بلوائي
They said, “You have fallen in love—but what called for it?” If only they
would shoulder from my heart some portion of my affliction—
الناصحون وما جاءوا لمنفعة
واللائمون وكم جاوا لضرائي
the counselors, who came to no good purpose,
and the reproachers—how often they came only to harm me.
يوجهون وصاياهم إلى رجل
فؤاده وقاع في كف عذراء
They direct their counsels to a man
whose heart has fallen into a maiden’s palm.
لي فيك يا شراع الأحباب آنسة
فيها شفائي ومنها إن جفت دائي
In you, O sail of lovers, I have a companion;
in her is my healing—and if she spurns me, from her comes my illness.
أميرتي ومنى نفسي ومالكتي
هل تشعرين بما يجتاح أحشائي
My princess, my soul’s desire, my sovereign,
do you feel what sweeps through my innermost being?
إني أحبك حبا لو شعرت به
هتفت قائلة لبيك مولائي
I love you with a love which, if you felt it,
you would cry, “At your service, my lord!”
ليس الهوى في يدي حتى أصرفه
كما أشاء ولكن في سويدائي
Passion is not in my hand, for me to turn it
as I wish; it lies in my heart’s deepest core.
أعيش فترة حب لو تطوف على
أهل المحبة من موتى وأحياء
I live through a season of love which, if it passed over
the people of love, both living and dead,
لكفر الله عنهم كلما اقترفو
من سيئات وآثام وأخطاء
God would absolve them of whatever they had committed
of misdeeds, sins, and errors,
لأنهم آمنوا بالحب وابتعدو
عما يمت إلى حقد بغضاء
because they believed in love and kept far
from everything akin to rancor and hatred.
سمت نفوسهم طهرا فعاش به
حب ترفع عن سوء وفحشاء
Their souls rose in purity, and through it there lived
a love exalted above evil and obscenity.
الحب ليس لقاءات ينظمه
وعد ولا رسم أفكار لإغراء
Love is not a series of meetings arranged
by a promise, nor a plotted scheme of enticement.
وإنما الحب يسري في جوانحن
كالنور شق طريقا وسط ظلماء
Love, rather, courses through our inmost parts
like light cleaving a path through darkness.
هذا هو الحب أما غيره فلن
عليه بعض اعتراضات وآراء
This is love; as for anything else, there will be
some objections and opinions raised against it.
