أَجِدكَ ما تَزالُ بِكَ الرَواحِل

تَنَقَّلُ في الهَواجِرِ وَالهَواجِل

Is it truly so? The riding-beasts still journey on with you,

roaming through blazing noons and open wastes.

إِذا أَمسَيتَ في بَلَدٍ غَريباً

تَرومُ إِقامَةً أَصبَحتَ راحِل

Whenever evening finds you a stranger in some land,

seeking to stay, by morning you have become a traveler.

كَأَنَّكَ في الزَمانِ اِسمٌ صَحيحٌ

جَرى فَتَحَكَّمَت فيهِ العَوامِل

As though, within Time, you were a sound noun,

set in declension, its case controlled by governing agents:

مَزيدٌ في بَنيهِ كَواوِ عَمروٍ

وَمُلغى الحُكمِ فيهِ كَراءِ واصِل

an addition among Time’s sons, like the wāw in ʿAmr,

and void of force within it, like Wāṣil’s rāʾ.

وَحَقُّكَ أَن يُلازِمَكَ اِرتِفاعٌ

لِأَنَّكَ لِلنَّدى وَالجودِ فاعِل

It is your right that elevation should cling to you,

for you are the agent of bounty and generosity.