أَنَخنَا قَلُوصَينا وَأَرسَلتُ صاحِبى

عَلَى الهَولِ يَخفَى مَرَّةً وَيَزولُ

We two saddled our riding-beasts, and I sent my friend

Across the awful waste, now hid, now seen.

فَلَمّا أَتاهَا قَالَ وَيحَكِ نَوِّلِى

أخا سَقَمٍ مِن حُبِّكُم وَغَليلُ

When she beheld him, "Woe is me!" she cried. "Return!

A sick man through your love is like to die."

فقالت وَحقِّ اللهِ لَو أَنَّ نَفسَهُ

عَلَى الكَفِّ مِن وَجدٍ عَلىَّ تَسيلُ

"By God," she swore, "if but his life-blood streamed

Upon my palm from his love-wasted frame,

لأَنفعَهُ شَلَّت إِذا ما نَفَعَتُه

بِشَيءٍ وَقَد حُدِّثتُ حَيثُ يَميلُ

It would avail him nothing if I stanched the flow,

When told the tale of how his fancy strayed."

ولمّا بَدَالى مِنكِ مَيلٌ مَعَ العِدَى

عَلىَّ وَلَم يَحدُث سِوَاكِ خَليلُ

And when she turned from me, and leagues of hate

'Twixt me and her were fixed, no friend beside,

صَدَتُ كما صَدَّ الرَّمِيُّ تطاولت

به مُدَّةُ الأَيّامِ وَهوَ قَتيلُ

I barred her, as the Crooked Rib his foe,

Whose life for days was death assured and doomed.

وَعَزَّيتُ نَفساً عضن نَوَارَ كَرِيمةً

عَلَى ما بها مِن لَوعَةٍ وَغَلِيلُ

My soul I schooled to bear the loss of her—

That pearl, whose beauty was with grief distilled—

بكت شَجوَهَا جَهدَ البُكاءِ وَراجعت

لعِرفَانِ هَجرٍ مِن نَوَارَ يَطولُ

She wept till weeping was of no avail,

Then turned in relentlessness away from me.

إِذَا القَولُ لَم يُقبَل ورُدَّ جَوَابُهُ

عَلَى ذِى الهَوَى لم يَدرِ كيفَ يَقولُ

When words are spurned, and answering words repelled,

Where shall the hapless lover turn, and say?—

خَليلىَّ القولُ لَم يُقبَل وَرُدَّ جَوَابُهُ

وَمِيلا لوادى السَّفحِ حَيثُ تَميلُ

"My friend, words profit not, nor answers given;

Down to Love's valley 'neath the hill she bends."

فإِنَّكما إِن تَأتياها سُقيتما

يمانيةً رَيّا المَهَبِّ هَطولُ

Go to her, give her drink poured from the right,

Floods from the spring whose living waters flow.

وَقُولاَ لها ماذا تَرَينَ بِعاشِقٍ

لَهُ بَعدَ نَوماتِ العَشِىِّ عَويلُ

And say, "What thinkest thou of one whose tear-drops' tale

Is long when shadows after sunset fall?"