1. ألا هلْ أتاها كيف حُزنِيَ بعدها

    وأنّ دموعي لست أملك رَدّها

    Ah, has word reached her of my grief since she is gone,

    and that I cannot hold back my tears?

  2. تفيض على عينٍ مَرى الوجدُ ماءَها

    ولم تستطعْ أنْ يغلِبَ الصَّبرُ وجدَها

    They spill from an eye whose waters grief has drawn forth,

    and which could not let patience overcome its grief.

  3. غزيرةُ أنواءِ الجفونِ كأنّها

    تناهتْ إلى بعض البِحار فمدّها

    Rich in the eyelids' rainstorms, as though it

    had reached one of the seas, which then replenished it.

  4. وقد كنتُ من قبل الفراق أهابهُ

    كما هابَ ظِلمانُ الصّريمةِ أُسْدَها

    Even before our parting, I had feared it,

    as the thicket's male ostriches feared its lions.

  5. وأُشفِقُ ممّا لا محالةَ واقعٌ

    وهلْ للمنايا قادرٌ أن يردّها

    And I dreaded what would inevitably happen;

    and can anyone repel the decrees of death?

  6. كأنّيَ لمّا أنْ سمعتُ نعيَّها

    أناخ على الأحشاءِ فارٍ فقدّها

    When I heard her death announced, it was as though

    a cutter had settled upon my entrails and slit them open.

  7. وَلَم أَستطعْ في رُزْئِها عَطَّ مُهجتِي

    وأجللتُه عن أنْ أُمزِّق بُردَها

    In the calamity of her loss, I could not rend my heart,

    and deemed that loss too great merely to tear my heart's mantle.

  8. وَممّا شَجاني أنّنِي لَم أَجد لَها

    عَلى خِبرَتي شَيئاً يهوّن فقْدَها

    And what grieved me was that I could not find for her,

    despite my experience, anything to ease her loss.

  9. وَأنِّيَ لمّا أَن قَضى اللَّهُ هُلْكَها

    على قلبيَ المَحزون بُقّيتُ بَعْدَها

    And that, when God decreed her death,

    I was left alive after her, to my grieving heart's distress.

  10. حَنى يَومُها الغادي كهولَ عَشيرتي

    عَلى جَلَدٍ فيهمْ وشيّبَ مُرْدَها

    The dawning day of her death bent my clan's mature men,

    despite their fortitude, and grayed its beardless youths.

  11. وحطَّ الرّجالَ الشُمَّ مِن كلِّ شامخٍ

    يُلاقون بِالأيدي منَ الأرضِ جِلْدَها

    And it brought the proud men down from every lofty height,

    with their hands touching the skin of the earth.

  12. وَقَلّص عَنها العزّ ما فُدِحتْ به

    فتحسبُ مولاها من الذلِّ عبدَها

    And the burden laid upon it stripped it of honor,

    so you would take its master, in his abasement, for its slave.

  13. فكم كَبدٍ حرّى تقطّع حسرةً

    وكم عبرة قد أقرح الدّمعُ خدَّها

    How many a burning liver is rent with grief,

    and how many a weeping woman's cheek has been ulcerated by tears!

  14. حرامٌ وقد غُيّبتِ عنِّيَ أنْ أرى

    مِنَ الخلقِ إلّا نَظرةً لن أودَّها

    Now that you are hidden from me, it is forbidden for me to look

    upon any of creation, save with a glance I shall not cherish.

  15. وَسِيّانِ عندي أنْ حَبَتني خريدةٌ

    بوصلٍ يُرجّى أو حَبَتْنِيَ صدَّها

    It is all the same to me whether a secluded maiden favors me

    with a hoped-for union, or bestows her rejection on me.

  16. وهيهات أن أُلفى أُرقّحُ صَرْمةً

    وأطلبُ من دار المعيشةِ رَغْدَها

    Far be it that I should be found tending a small camel herd,

    and seeking ease from the abode of life.

  17. وَمِن أَينَ لي في غيرها عِوَضٌ بها

    وقد أحرزتْ سُبْلَ الفضائلِ وحدَها

    And where could I find, in anyone else, a substitute for her,

    when she alone had mastered the paths of virtue?

  18. أُسامُ التسلِّي وهو عنِّي بمعزِلٍ

    وكيف تُسامُ النّفسُ ما ليس عندها

    I am urged to find consolation, yet it lies far from me;

    and how can the soul be asked for what it does not possess?

  19. وَبَينَ ضُلوعي يا عَذول نوافدٌ

    أَبى العَذْلُ وَالتأنيبُ لِي أنْ يسدّها

    And between my ribs, O reproacher, are gaping wounds

    that reproach and rebuke refuse to close for me.

  20. وَودّي بأَنّ اللَّه يَومَ اِختِرامها

    تخرّم من جنبيَّ ما حاز وُدّها

    And I wish that God, on the day He snatched her away,

    had snatched from between my sides what held love for her.

  21. وَإنِّيَ لَمّا غالَها الموتُ غالني

    فَبُعداً لِنَفسي إِذْ قَضى اللَّه بُعدَها

    And indeed, when death struck her down, it struck me down;

    so away with my soul, since God decreed her departure!

  22. أَفي كلِّ يومٍ أيّها الدّهرُ نكبةٌ

    تكدُّ حيازيمي فأحمل كدَّها

    Is there, every day, O Time, a calamity

    that strains my ribs, so I must bear its strain?

  23. بلغتُ أشُدِّي لا بلغتُ وجزتُهُ

    وَأعجلتها من أنْ تجوزَ أشُدَّها

    I reached my prime—would that I had not!—and passed beyond it,

    while you hurried her away before she could pass her prime.

  24. ففزتُ بأَسنى ما حَوَتْهُ رواجبِي

    وجاوزت في أمِّ المصيباتِ حدَّها

    So I gained the finest thing my finger-joints had held,

    and, in the mother of all calamities, exceeded its bounds.

  25. فَيا قَلب لِمْ أنت الجليدُ كأنّما

    تحادثك الأطماعُ أنْ تستردّها

    So, O heart, why are you steadfast, as though

    hopes were telling you that you might regain her?

  26. وما كنتُ أهوى أنّك اليومَ صابرٌ

    ويدعوك فتيانُ العشيرةِ جَلْدَها

    I never wished you to be patient today,

    and for the clan's young men to call you its steadfast one.

  27. أَليسَ فِراقاً لا تلاقِيَ بعدَه

    وغيبةَ سَفْرٍ لا يرجّون وفْدَها

    Is it not a parting after which there is no meeting,

    and the absence of travelers whose return is not expected?

  28. أَلا فَاِلبَس الأحزانَ لبسةَ قانعٍ

    بأثوابه لا يبتغِي أن يُجدَّها

    Ah, then clothe yourself in sorrows, like one content

    with his garments, who seeks not to renew them.

  29. وَصمَّ عنِ المغرينَ بالصّبرِ إنّهمْ

    يطفّون ناراً ألْهبَ اللّه وقْدَها

    And turn a deaf ear to those urging patience; they

    are quenching a fire whose blaze God has kindled.

  30. وقبلكَ ما نال الزّمانُ مُعلَّقاً

    بِأَجبالِ رَضْوى يرتعِي ثَمّ مَرْدَها

    And before you, Time overtook one clinging

    to Radwa's mountains, grazing there on their tender arak fruit.

  31. تواعَدَ في شمّاءَ يرقُبُ مُزْنَةً

    تصوبُ عليه أعذبَ اللّهُ وِردَها

    It kept a tryst on a lofty peak, watching for a raincloud

    that pours down upon it, its draught made sweet by God.

  32. وَتَلقاهُ خِلْواً لا يطالع رِيبةً

    ولا يتّقِي خِطْءَ اللَّيالِي وعَمْدَها

    And you find it carefree, keeping no watch for danger,

    nor guarding against the nights' accidental blows or deliberate ones.

  33. وداءُ الرّدى أفنى ظباءَ سُوَيقةٍ

    وطيّر عن أجزاعِ تَدْمُرَ رُبْدَها

    And the malady of death wiped out Suwayqa's gazelles,

    and scattered Tadmur's dusky ostriches from its valley bends.

  34. وأفضى إلى حُجْبِ الملوكِ وَلَم يَخفْ

    شَباها ولم يرقُبْ هنالك حَشْدَها

    And it penetrated the kings' screens, and did not fear

    their weapon-points, nor heed their gathered forces there.

  35. يَسيرُ إِلَيها كلَّ يومٍ وليلةٍ

    على مَهَلٍ منه فيسبقُ شَدَّها

    It travels to them every day and night,

    at a leisurely pace of its own, yet outstrips their rush.

  36. وَكم عُصبةٍ باتتْ بظلٍّ سعادةٍ

    تخطّفها أو أولج النّحْس سَعدها

    And how many a band has slept in the shade of happiness,

    only for it to snatch them away, or thrust ill fortune into their good luck!

  37. وَهَدّمها مَنْ كان شاد بناءَها

    وجرّدَها مَن كان أحكمَ غِمْدَها

    And the one who had raised their edifice demolished them,

    and the one who had secured their scabbard unsheathed them.

  38. سلامٌ على أرضِ الطّفوف ورحمةٌ

    مَرى اللَّهُ سُقياها وأضرمَ زَنْدَها

    Peace and mercy upon the land of al-Tufuf!

    May God draw forth its rain and kindle its fire-stick.

  39. ولا عَدِمتْ في كلِّ يومٍ وليلةٍ

    حفائرُها من جنّةِ اللّهِ رِفْدَها

    And may there never be lacking, each day and night,

    the bounty its graves receive from God's Paradise.

  40. فَكَمْ ثَمَّ مِن أَشلاءِ قومٍ أعدَّها

    لِيُعطِيَها ما تبتغي مَنْ أعدّها

    How many people's remains He has prepared there,

    to give them what they seek—He who prepared them!

  41. وَللّهِ مِنها حفرةٌ جئتُ طائعاً

    فأودعتُ دينِي ثُمَّ دنيايَ لَحْدَها

    And God's is a grave among them, to which I came willingly,

    so I laid my faith, then my worldly life, in its burial niche.

  42. وولّيتُ عنها أنفضُ التّربَ عن يدٍ

    نفضتُ ترابَ القبرِ عنها وزندَها

    And I turned away from it, shaking the earth from a hand;

    I shook the grave's dust from it and from its wrist.

  43. ولم يُسلِني شَيءٌ سِوى أنّ جارتِي

    قَضى اللَّه بَعدِي أن تجاور جَدّها

    And nothing consoled me save that my neighbor

    was ordained by God to dwell beside her grandfather after me.

  44. وإنِّيَ لمّا أنْ شققتُ ضريحَها

    إِزاءَ شهيد اللّه أَنجزت وعْدَها

    And indeed, when I dug her grave,

    beside God's martyr, I fulfilled the promise to her.

  45. وَكيفَ تَخافُ السّوءَ يومَ حسابها

    وَقَد جعلتْ من أجنُدِ اللَّهِ جُندَها

    And how could she fear evil on the day of her reckoning,

    when she has drawn her army from the armies of God?

  46. وَتُمسِك في يومِ القيامةِ منهمُ

    بُحجْزَةِ قومٍ لا يُبالون حدَّها

    And on the Day of Resurrection she will hold fast, among them,

    to the waistband of people who heed not its severity.

  47. يَقونَ الّذي وَالاهُمُ اليومَ حَرَّها

    ويُعطونَه عفواً كما شاءَ بَرْدها

    They shield whoever is loyal to them today from its heat,

    and freely give him its coolness, as he wishes.