لذة العَيش بِسَفح الكَرملِ

لَيلَة الكرمل عودي كَرَما

The sweetness of life upon Carmel’s slope.

O night of Carmel, return as an act of grace;

لَيلة الكرمل عودي وَاِسأَلي

عَن مُحب كادَ يودي سَقما

O night of Carmel, return and inquire

about a lover whom sickness nearly destroyed.

لَيلة الكرمل عودي وَانظُري

أَيّ قَلب قَطَعته الزَفرات

O night of Carmel, return and behold

what heart the sighs have torn apart,

أَيّ نَفس زَهقت بَعدُ جَوىً

أَي روحٍ قَد تَلاشَت حَسَرات

what soul has since expired, consumed by passion,

what spirit has dissolved in regrets.

لَيسَ لي غَير البُكا وَالسَهر

وَهُما للدَهر عِندي حَسَنات

I have nothing but weeping and sleeplessness,

and these are Time’s two blessings in my eyes.

فيهما ذِكرى اللقاء الأوّل

أَرشف الأَدمُع مِنها وَاللَمى

Within them lives the memory of our first meeting;

from that memory I sip both tears and dusky lips.

فَصلي اللَيل بِليل أَطول

يا جُفوني وَاذرفي الدَمع دَما

So join this night to one still longer,

O my eyelids, and shed tears of blood.

كُنتُ أَجني ثَمَراً حُلو الجَني

رب طَير فَوقَهُ لَم يَقَع

I once gathered fruit, sweet to harvest—

many a bird above it never alighted.

حوَّم الدَهر عَلَيهِ وَاِنثَنى

يَدعي مِن خَيبة ما يَدَعي

Time hovered over it, then turned away,

claiming, in disappointment, whatever it would claim.

هَل دَرى يا وَيحه أَن المُنى

في الهَوى لا تَجتَني بِالخدع

Did it know—alas for it—that desires

in love cannot be harvested through deceit?

إِنَّما يُدرك أَقصي الأَمل

ثابت القَلب عَلى ما عَزَما

Only he attains the furthest reach of hope

whose heart stands firm upon what he resolved.

مَن يَروم أَمراً بِقَلب حوّلِ

يَنقضِ الدَهر لَهُ ما أَبرَما

Whoever pursues a purpose with a fickle heart—

Time undoes for him whatever he has bound.