تذكرتَ من ليلاكَ ما لستَ ناسياً

يدَ الدهر إلاّ ريثَ ما أنت ذاكرهُ

You remembered from your nights what you have not forgotten

The hand of fate remembers only as long as you remember

وَلوعٌ أتيحتْ للفؤادِ ولم تكنْ

تُنالُ على عفوٍ كذاكَ سرائرهُ

A longing was afforded to my heart, but it could not

Be fulfilled with pardon, those are its secrets

ألمتْ بأصحابِ الرّحال فبينتْ

بنفحةِ مِسكٍ أرّقَ الركبَ تاجرهُ

It touched the companions of travel, so it showed

With a waft of musk, the most elegant of its merchant

أرى النّأي من ليلاكَ سُقماًوقرَبها

حياً كحيا الغيثِ الذي أنت ناصرهُ

I see distance from your nights as sickness, and its nearness

As life, like the life of rain which you are its helper

ولو سألتْ للنّاسِ يوماً بوجهها

سحابَ الثريا لا ستهلّتْ مواطُره

And if one day it asked the people with its face

The clouds of Pleiades, they would surely pour down their rain

بأبلجَ كالدّينارِ لم تطلّعْ لهُ

من العيشِ إلاّ نعمُهُ وسرائرهُ

With a shining whiteness like a dinar from which

No goodness of life appeared except its bliss and secrets

ومَن يُبقِ مالاً عُدّةًوضنانةً

فلا الشُحُ مُبقيهِ ولا الدهرُ وافرهُ

And whoever keeps property, provisions and hoarding

Neither stinginess keeps it nor fate enriches it

ومَنْ يكُ ذا عُودٍ صَليبٍ رَجَابهِ

ليكسِرَ عُودَ الدَهرُفالدهرُ كاسرهُ

And whoever has a branch of salvation, his aspirations

Fate will break the branch, and fate will break him