1. سار ٍ, ويحملُ في أجفانِهِ أرَقَهْ

    وعينُكِ الليلة الممتدّةُ القـَلِقَة ْ

    A night traveler, carrying his sleeplessness in his eyelids.

    And your eye is the long, restless night;

  2. سافرتُها والتفاتُ اليأسِ يُفزِعني

    فكلما ذُبتُ شوقاً مَدّ لي عُنُقَه

    I journeyed through it, and despair's turning gaze frightens me.

    So whenever I melted with longing, it stretched its neck toward me.

  3. وعُدتُ كالبدْوِ لا غيمٌ يضاحِكُهُم

    كُبودُهمْ من ظما الأسفارِ محترِقة ْ

    And I returned like the Bedouins, with no cloud to laugh with them,

    their livers burning from the thirst of journeys.

  4. أُعيذ قلبَكِ من ذكرىً تؤرِّقهُ

    أُعيذه من حنيني بالذي خلَقَهْ

    I seek protection for your heart from a memory that keeps it sleepless;

    I seek protection for it from my longing, through the One who created it.

  5. أٌعيذ عينَكِ من وصلٍ يكدِّرُها

    إن مدّد البرْدُ في أرواحِنا قَلَقـَهْ

    I seek protection for your eye from a union that clouds it,

    if the cold spreads its anxiety through our souls.

  6. نَحَتـْكِ عني المقاديرُ التي كُتِبَت

    فحلّة الصبرِ – مهما جُدتُ – منخرِقة ْ

    The decrees of fate that were written drove you away from me;

    so patience's robe—however generous I was—is torn.

  7. في ذمةِ اللهِ يا طيفاً تـَضاحكَ لي

    فضاعِ عمريَ في ضِحكاتِهِ سَرِقـَة ْ

    In God's keeping, O apparition that smiled for me,

    so my life was lost in its laughter, stolen away.

  8. ريحانة كلـَّفتـْني أن أطيرَ لهــا

    روحاً لأسكُنَ من أفْقِ الهوى أفـُقهْ

    A sprig of sweet basil charged me to fly to her,

    as a soul, from love's horizon to dwell in its horizon.

  9. تجيءُ تسرَحُ أسرابُ البلابلِ في

    صدريْ, وتسْكَرُ في أحلامِها النزِقة ْ

    She comes; flocks of nightingales roam in

    my breast, and grow drunk in their unruly dreams.

  10. تغيبُ تَسْكُنُ في الموّالِ بَسْمَتُها

    إنْ جرّهُ عاشِقٌ أضناهُ مَن عَشِقهْ

    She vanishes; her smile dwells in the mawwal,

    if a lover, worn down by the one he loved, draws it out.

  11. أبكِيْ الصِّبا الحُلوَ في غصْنِ تَميسُ بهِ

    لم يَبْقَ منهُ لِعَيْنِ الصبِّ من وَرَقـة ْ

    I mourn sweet youth in a bough with which she sways;

    to the lovesick lover's eye, not one leaf of it remained.

  12. كل الذي كانَ..أن الموتَ باغَتـَنا

    وأطفأَ الحظُّ فيما بينَنا طُرُقـَهْ

    All that happened was that death took us by surprise,

    and fortune extinguished its paths between us.

  13. كل الذي كان..أن الغربةَ انتبهَتْ

    والليلُ ذَرَ على أجفانِنا غسَقـَهْ

    All that happened was that estrangement awoke,

    and night scattered its dusk upon our eyelids.

  14. والشيبُ أدركَ أشعاريْ فأعجزَني

    نَصٌّ يُحَدِّثُني عن صورةٍ ألِقــَة ْ

    And gray hair overtook my poems; then I was left helpless by

    a text that speaks to me of a radiant image.

  15. في ذمةِ الله يا من جئتُ أبحثُ عن

    نفسيْ فصادفـْـتـُها في غيمَةٍ ودِقَة ْ

    In God's keeping, O you—I came searching for

    myself, and chanced upon her in a rain-laden cloud.

  16. مضَت – لها الله – نحوَ اللهِ وابتدأتْ

    قصائدٌ من حنينٍ تبعثُ الشفـَقـَة ْ

    She departed—God keep her—toward God, and there began

    poems of longing that arouse compassion.

  17. يا للشتا..كلما النسيانُ أدفأنيْ

    أرخى ذراعيْهِ للنسيانِ واعتـنَـقهْ

    Ah, winter! Whenever forgetfulness warmed me,

    it lowered its arms toward forgetfulness and embraced it.

  18. في ذمة الله يا روحاً سَموتُ بها

    وأولُ اسمٍ فؤاديْ في الهوى نطـَقـَهْ

    In God's keeping, O soul through whom I soared,

    and the first name my heart uttered in love.

  19. في ذمة الله يا كوناً يعيشُ معي

    والناسُ تحسبُهُ سطراً على ورَقة ْ

    In God's keeping, O universe that lives with me,

    while people take it for a line on a sheet of paper.