كَأنَّ الثُرَيَّا إذْ تَلاَهَا عُطَارِدٌ

كَأنَّ الثُرَيَّا إذْ تَلاَهَا عُطَارِدٌ

ثُرَيَّا مَصَابِيحٍ زَهَتْ فَوْقَ شَمْعَةِ

ثُرَيَّا مَصَابِيحٍ زَهَتْ فَوْقَ شَمْعَةِ

As though the Pleiades, when Mercury followed them,

The Pleiades, when the hunter of stars pursue them,

were a chandelier of lamps gleaming above a candle.

Are lamps that shine above a candle.

إذَا مَا أضَاءاَ خِلْتَ مَدْفَعَ جَوْهَرٍ

إذَا مَا أضَاءاَ خِلْتَ مَدْفَعَ جَوْهَرٍ

رَمَى حَجَراً فِي بَحْرِ زَنْجِ الدّجِنَّةِ

رَمَى حَجَراً فِي بَحْرِ زَنْجِ الدّجِنَّةِ

When both shone, you imagined a cannon of jewels

When they illuminate the stillness, they are

had fired a stone into the Zanj-black sea of darkness.

Like pearls thrown by a diver in a bottomless sea.