كَأَنَّما طَرَقَت لَيلى مُعَهَّدةً
مِنَ الرِياضِ وَلاها عارِضٌ تَرِعُ
It was as though Layla had visited by night a rain-refreshed plot
among the meadows, tended by a brimming raincloud.
طافَت بِها ذاتُ أَلوانٍ مُشَبَّهة
ذَريعَة الجِنِّ لا تُعطي وَلا تَدَعُ
Around it roamed a many-colored being in assumed guises,
a swift one of the jinn, neither giving nor leaving alone.
وَالخائِعُ الجَونُ آتٍ عَن شَمائِلِهِم
وَنائِعُ النَعفِ عَن أَيمانِهِم يَفَعُ
And dark al-Khāʾiʿ approaches from their left,
while Nāʾiʿ of the hillside stands lofty on their right.
فَما أَرَدنا بِها من خُلَّةٍ بَدَلاً
وَلا بِها رَقَصَ الواشينَ نَستَمِعُ
So we sought no other beloved in her place,
nor do we heed the slanderers’ capering about her.
سَلَّ الهَوى وَلباناتُ الفُؤادِ بِها
وَالقَلبُ شاكي الهَوى مِن حُبِّها شَكِعُ
Love has wasted me; the heart’s yearnings are for her,
and the heart, complaining of passion, is distraught with love of her.
كَأَنَّهُم يَومَ ذي الغرّاءِ حينَ غَدَت
نُكباً جِمالُهُمُ لِلبَينِ فَاِندَفَعوا
As if, that day at Dhī al-Gharrāʾ, when at dawn
their camels veered away for parting and they hurried off,
لَم يُصبِحِ القَومُ جيراناً فَكُلُّ نَوى
بِالناسِ لا صَدعَ فيها سَوفَ تَنصدِعُ
the people had never been neighbors; every resolve
among people, though unbroken, will someday split apart.
Sol 6.1