وليلٍ رَسَبْنا في عُبابِ ظَلامِهِ

إِلى أَن طفا للصُّبح في أُفْقهِ نجمُ

Through the dark night we drifted,

Until dawn's star rose on the horizon.

كأنّ الثريّا فيه سَبْعُ جواهرٍ

فواصلُها جَزْعٌ به فُصّلَ النظمُ

As if the Pleiades were there, seven gems,

With a necklace strung between, composing a poem.

وتحسبها من عسكر الشهب سُرْبةً

عمائمهمْ بيضٌ وخيلهمُ دُهمُ

You'd think them a troop of shooting stars

In white turbans, on gray steeds.

كأنّ السُّها مضنىً أتاه بنعشهِ

بَنوه وظنُّوا أن موْتَتَهُ حَتْمُ

As if a bier were brought to a man in grief

By his sons, who thought his death was certain.

كأنّ انصداعَ الفجر نارٌ يُرَى لها

وراء حجابٍ حالكٍ نَفَسٌ يسمو

As if the dawn's cleft were fire, behind

A thick veil, with a soul rising through it.

وتحسبهُ طفلاً من الرّومِ طَرّقَتْ

به من بناتِ الزنج قائمةً أُمّ

You'd think it a Roman child, born

To a black maid, standing erect.

أأُعْلِمَ في أحشائِها أنّ عُمْرَهُ

لدى وضعْهِ يومٌ فشيّبه الوهمُ

Did she sense, when bearing him,

That he was born for a single day, so old age whitened him?

وذَرّتْ لنا شمسُ النّهارِ مذيبّةً

على الأرض روحاً في السماءِ له جسم

The day's sun melted for us

A spirit in the sky, with a body on earth.