أَعد الذي عاينت من ليلتي فجرُ

وفيها أبى أن ينقضي مني العمرُ

I reckon what I have witnessed of my night to be dawn,

though within it my very lifetime refused to end.

ولو كان يعطى الدهر يوماً كهذه

يطول كما طالت لما نفد الدهرُ

If Time were to grant a day like this,

and it stretched as this night has, Time itself would never run out.

ومن كان مثلي لا يرى من يجيرهُ

من الليل إِلا الصبح ضاقَ به الأمرُ

And one like me, who sees no one to deliver him

from the night except dawn—his distress grows dire.

خليليُّ أما النوم لا تذكرانهِ

فما لامرئ مثلي إِذا ذاقه عذرُ

My two companions, as for sleep, do not mention it;

a man like me would have no excuse if he tasted it.

وكيفَ يذوقُ النوم من بات جفنهُ

وباطنه بحرٌ وظاهرهُ نهرُ

How could sleep be tasted by one whose eyelid passes the night

an inward sea, an outward river?

لقد كان دمعي غالباً قبل هذه

فأَرخصتهُ فاليوم ليس له سعرُ

Before this, my tears were precious;

I cheapened them, and today they have no price.

لقد كنتُ ذا طرفٍ طموحٍ إِلى الهوى

وأحسب أن الحب ما استحسن العمرُ

Once I had a roving eye, aspiring to love,

and thought that love was whatever life found beautiful.

وأعشقُ في ليل من الغيد عدة

وقلبي يستدعي وهم حوله كُثرُ

Each night I would fall in love with several sheltered maidens,

and my heart would summon them, though many already thronged about it.

أَهيم بهذي ثم أعشق هذِه

وعن تلك ذى تسلي ولي عند ذى فكرُ

I would be infatuated with this one, then fall in love with that;

this one would distract me from that, yet with this one I remembered the other.

واشتاقَ من لم يدن مني لمن دنا

ويصبح قلبي وهو من حبهمَ صفرُ

I would yearn for the one who stayed far from me over the one who drew near,

and by morning my heart would be empty of their love.

أسر بمن حولي وألعب بالهوى

ولم أدر ما البين المشتت والهجرُ

I delighted in those around me and toyed with passion,

knowing nothing of dispersing separation or abandonment.

إلى أن دعاني الحتفُ يوماً لهذه

فأصبحت في أذني من غيرها وقرُ

Until Death one day summoned me to this one,

and my ears grew deaf to every woman but her.

غزالٌ براها الله لولا جمالها

وما أوتيت في الحسن ما سمح البدرُ

A gazelle God fashioned—were it not for her beauty,

and all the loveliness she was granted, the full moon would never seem generous.

قليلٌ لها عندي الصبابةُ والبكا

كثيرٌ لنا منها التوجعُ والذكرُ

Passion and weeping seem little for her, in my eyes;

from her come anguish and remembrance for us in abundance.

لها منه عندي إذا مت عندها

فقال لها في المعزي لك الأجرُ

If I die beside her, this much of me is hers:

let whoever consoles her say, “Yours is the reward.”

يقولون لي صبراً وما أنا والذي

يقولون لو يدرون ما قد حوى الصدرُ

They tell me, “Patience!” Yet, by Him to whom they say it—

if only they knew what this breast contains.

وما الصبرُ مما لو تأتي أطعته

أعوذ بربي أن يجاوز لي الصبرُ

Patience is not a thing whose command I can obey;

I seek refuge in my Lord lest patience ever dwell beside me.

أعنْ حبها أسلو ويوم لقيتها

على الشِّعبِ قالت قد أضرَّبَك الهجرُ

How could I forget my love for her? The day I met her,

upon the mountain pass, she said, “Abandonment has harmed you.”

على لها دمعٌ إِذا ما رأيتهُ

مع القطر يهمي قلت أيهما القطرُ

I owe her my tears whenever I see her,

streaming with the rain, and ask, “Which of the two is rain?”

وحرُّ اشتياقي يلفح الجمرَ وقدهُ

إذا ما دنا منه فيحترق الجمرُ

The heat of my longing scorches the embers and their flame;

whenever the embers draw near it, they burn.

فيا كبدي إن كنت مني تقطعي

ويا أعيني لم لَم يكن ذلكَ البحرُ

O my liver, if you are part of me, then split apart;

O my eyes, why were you not that sea?

ألم تشهدي يمني الوزير ومدها

يفيضُ عطَاءً ليس من مدهِ جزرُ

Have you not witnessed the minister’s right hand and its flood,

pouring forth gifts—a tide whose flow knows no ebb?