إن لم أبُحْ بهوَاك قُلنَ لَوائِمي
ذَا مُبْطلٌ ما الكَتْمُ شِيمةُ هَائِمِ
If I do not confess my passion for you, my reproachers say:
“This man is a fraud—concealment is no trait of a maddened lover.”
وإنِ ادَّعى خوفَ الوُشاةِ فَما الهَوَى
للخَوفِ مُذْ خُلِقَ الهَوى بمُلاَئمِ
And if he pleads fear of tale-bearers, then passion
has never, since love was created, been compatible with fear.
لا تَكْذِبنّ فَما لأبناءِ الهَوى
رأيٌ يحذِّرُهُم عواقبَ نَادِمِ
Do not lie: the children of passion possess no
judgment to warn them of the fate of one who comes to regret.
شُغلَت قُلُوبُهُمُ بروْعات النّوَى
والهَجرِ عن خَوفِ الزّمانِ العَارِمِ
Their hearts are consumed by the terrors of separation
and estrangement, diverted from fear of raging Time.
فتراهُمُ صوَراً كظلٍّ ماثِلٍ
لا يَرعَوُون لزاجِرٍ أو لاَئِمِ
Thus you see them, necks inclined, standing like a shadow,
heeding neither one who restrains nor one who blames.
واهاً لأيّامِ الحِمَى لو أنّها
دامَتْ وهل عَيشٌ يَسرُّ بِدَائِمِ
Ah, for the days of the Ḥimā—if only they
had lasted! Yet is any life that brings joy everlasting?
إذ أجْتَلِي القَمَرَ المُرَدّى بالدُّجَى
يجلُو الشُموسَ على القَضِيبِ النّاعِمِ
When I beheld the moon, shrouded in darkness,
unveiling suns upon the tender, supple bough.
سُكْري بنَاظرِه ورَاحِ رُضَابِه
وكؤوسِه طولَ الزّمان مُلازِمي
My intoxication was from his gaze, his mouth’s nectar my wine,
and its cups kept me company throughout all time.
ماغَال عَقْلِيَ قطُّ سِحرُ جُفونِه
إلاّ جَعلتُ ذُؤابَتيْه تَمائِمي
Never did the spell of his eyelids steal my reason
without my making his two sidelocks my amulets.
ثم افْتَرقْنا بغتةً فَإذا الّذي
كُنّا نُسرُّ به فُكاهَةُ حَالِمِ
Then suddenly we parted, and behold, all that
had delighted us was a dreamer’s fancy.
Sol 5.6