لقد ذَهبتْ نَفْسي وقد صَفِرت يَدي

بنَاقِضَةِ الميثاقِ ناكثةِ العَهْدِ

My soul is gone and my hand is withered,

By she who violates pacts and breaks vows,

تروحُ إِلى حُبٍّ وتغدو إِلى قِلًى

وتضْحَى على وصلٍ وتُمْسِي على صَدِّ

Going to love in the morning, becoming aloof by night,

Spending the night in union, waking in separation.

وتأْتي إِلى الضِّرغامِ بعد تمنُّعٍ

وتسعى بِرِجْلَيْها إِلى منزلِ القِرْدِ

She comes to the tangled thicket after coyness,

And strides with her feet to the monkey's abode.

وتجمعُ محبوبين في غِمْدِ قلْبِها

وما يجمعُ القينُ الحسامَينْ في غِمْدِ

She gathers two lovers in the sheath of her heart,

As the scabbard never holds two swords.

وتُخْلفني وعْدَ الوصال ورُبَّما

أَتَتْني ولم أَشْتَقْ إِليها بِلاَ وَعْدِ

She lets me down on a promise of union, and sometimes

She comes to me when I no longer yearn without a promise.

فَنَفْسِيَ منها في شِقاقٍ وشِقْوة

وقلبيَ منها في جهادٍ وفي جَهْدِ

So my soul is in discord and misery because of her,

And my heart in struggle and exertion.

أَرتْني بها الأَيَّامُ كلَّ عجيبةٍ

إِلى أَن جنيتُ النارَ من جَنَّة الخُلْدِ

The days have shown me every wonder from her,

Until I reaped fire from the garden of eternity.

فجمرةُ وَجْدِي ليس تخلو من اللَّظَى

وشُعْلَةُ قَلْبي ليس تُطْفَا من الوَقْدِ

The ember of my passion is not without flames,

And the blaze of my heart is not quenched from the fuel.

غرميَ فيها ليس يَجْري لغايةٍ

وحُبِّي فيها ليس يُفْض إِلى حَدِّ

My love for her does not flow to an end,

And my passion for her does not diminish to a limit.

لها وعَلَيْها ما رأًيتُ ولا أَرَى

ومنها وفيها ما أُسِرُّ وما أُبْدِي

About her and against her is what I have and have not seen,

What I conceal and what I reveal.

وحسْبكَ منها أَنَّ من كَلَفي بها

أَرَى وهْي عِنْدِي أَنَّها ما غَدَتْ عِنْدِي

It is enough that she who tried me with herself,

I see while with me she did not become with me.

تمنَّيتُ من حبِّي لطولِ اجتماعِنا

بأَنِّي وإِيَّاها أَسيران في قدِّي

I wished from my love due to our long company,

That she and I were captives bound together.

طردتُ هواها جاهِداً فوجدتُهُ

لئيماً مَهِيناً ليس يَذْهَبُ بالطَّردِ

I expelled her love vigorously but found it

Vile, disgraced - it does not leave with expulsion.

وقد لامَ فيها كلُّ غثٍّ ملامةً

وما قلبُه قلبي ولا وَجْدهُ وَجْدِي

And every worthless critic blamed her,

But his heart is not my heart, nor his passion my passion.

يراها بعينٍ ما أَراها بِمِثْلِها

فإِني وإِيَّاه ضلَلْنَا عن القَصْدِ

He sees her with an eye unlike what I see her with,

For he and I both strayed from the goal.

وعيَّبها أَن قال غيرُّ مليحةٍ

وما الحسنُ شَرْط في المحبةِ والوُدِّ

And he blamed her, saying she is without beauty,

Yet beauty is no condition for love and affection.

مَقَابِحُها عندي أَلذُّ من الكَرَى

لِعَيْني وأَحْلَى في فؤادي من الشَّهْدِ

Her flaws, to my eyes, are sweeter than visions,

And in my heart more delicious than honey.

وتلك المساوِي فهي عندي محاسنٌ

لِشقْوةِ جَدِّي يا حبَائِي من جَدِّي

As for her blemishes, they are beauties to me,

For the misery of my fervor, O my love from my fervor!

على أَنها والله مسكيَّةُ اللَّمَى

غزاليةُ العينين خُوطيَّةُ القَدِّ

She is musky-scented, doe-eyed, slender-waisted,

In her face is the garden, her cheek a rose not from a bush, the rest of her body the season of blossoms.

ففي وَجْهِهَا البستانُ والخُدُّ وردهُ ال

جَنِيُّ وباقي جسمها زمنُ الوِرْدِ

By God, my mind has betrayed me in loving her,

So let no mind trust itself after me.

وقد خانَني واللهِ عَقْلي بحُبِّهَا

فلا يغْتَرِرْ بعَقْلِهِ أَحدٌ بَعْدِي