أشكو إلى اللَّه ما قاسيتُ من رَمَدٍ

مواصلٍ كَرْبَ آصالي بأسْحَاري

I complain to God of what I have suffered from chronic

conjunctivitis, prolonging the pain of my wakefulness at dawn,

كأنّ حَشْوَ جفوني عند سَوْرَتِهِ

جيشٌ منَ النَّملِ في جُنحِ الدُّجى ساري

As if the lining of my eyelids at their edges

Were an army of ants marching in the wings of night,

كأنّه للقَذَى والدمعِ في وَحِلٍ

فَخَلْعُهُ أَرجُلاً مِنهُ بِإِضرارِ

As if the grit and tears in the muddy hollows

Were legs plucked from them, injuring me,

كَأَنَّ أَوجاعَ قَلبي من مُطاعَنَةٍ

بِالشَّوكِ ما بَينَ أَشفاري وأَشفاري

As if the pains of my heart from being stabbed

With thorns between my lashes and my lashes

كَأَنَّما لُجَّةٌ في العَينِ زاخِرةٌ

تَرمي سَواحِلَ جَفنَيها بِعُوّارِ

Were a swelling in the eye overflowing

With its shores casting sparks upon my lids,

تُفَجِّرُ الماءَ مِنها كُلَّما وَضَعَتْ

لِهَجعَةٍ مِنهُما ناراً على نارِ

Gushing water from them each time a slumber

Laid upon them a fire upon fire,

كم ليلةٍ بتُّ صفراً من كرايَ بها

ومن مَخيلةِ صُبْحٍ ذاتِ إسفارِ

How many a night have I spent yellow from the misery of it

And from imagining a dawn of journeys,

إذ باتَ جفني رضيعَ ابني يقاسمُهُ

لُبانَ أسحَمَ يَغذوهُ بِمِقدارِ

While my eyelids kept the sleep of my little son Qasim

Who wet-nurses nourished with just enough milk

في حَلْقَةٍ مِن ظَلامٍ لا تَرى طَرَفاً

يَبدو بها من سَنا صُبْحٍ لأَبصارِ

In a circle of darkness where no edge can be seen

In which gleams from the teeth of dawn appear,

كَأَنَّما الشَّرقُ دِهْقَانٌ يَرى غَبناً

في دَفعِهِ مِنهُما الكافورَ بِالقارِ

As if the east were an unjust man who saw wrong

In paying them camphor dissolved in saliva,

كَأَنَّما الشَّمسُ قد رُدَّتْ إلى فَلَكٍ

على الخلائقِ ثَبْتٍ غيرِ دَوّارِ

As if the sun had been returned to a circuit

Above people steady, not revolving,

كَأَنَّما اللَّيلُ ذو جَهلٍ فَلَيسَ يَرَى

في دِرهَمِ البَدْرِ مِنها أَخْذَ دينارِ

As if the night were ignorant and so did not see

In the coin of the moon any taking of its dinar.

يشكو لجفنيَ جفني مثلَ عِلّتِهِ

كَالضَّيمِ يُقْسَمُ بينَ الجارِ والجارِ

My eyelid complains to my eyelid like its own

Affliction, as harm is shared between neighbor and neighbor.

فالحَمدُ للَّه مَجرى النورِ من غَسَقٍ

وجاعلِ اللَّيلِ في تَلطيفِ أَحجارِ

So praise be to God, the course of light from darkness,

And maker of the night with soothing stones.

كَم أبعدَ النَّاسُ في أَمرٍ ظنونَهُمُ

فكان دائي قريبَ البُرْءِ بالباري

How far people were in a matter their conjectures

Brought near, while my malady was near cure by the Creator!