1. ما هاجتِ الذكرى شجونَ شبابي

    إلا أمام شبابكَ المتصابي

    Memory never stirred the sorrows of my youth

    except before your youth, given to dalliance.

  2. يا حاملاً همَّ الهوى وعذابه

    لا ذُقتَ همي في الهوى وعذابي

    O bearer of love's sorrow and torment,

    may you never taste my sorrow in love and my torment.

  3. لكَ عبرةٌ بي لو فقهت صبابتي

    ودرستَ في عهدِ الغرام كتابي

    There is a lesson for you in me, if you understood my longing

    and studied my book in the days of love.

  4. هو شرُّ ما كتبَ الشبابُ وخيرُ ما

    يلقيه أستاذٌ على طلاب

    It is the worst that youth has written, and the best that

    a teacher presents to students.

  5. هو روعةُ الأهواءِ في سكراتها

    وقرارةُ الاهوالِ في الألباب

    It is the terror of passions in their drunken throes,

    and the depths of horrors in minds.

  6. هو معرِضُ الشيطانِ شيطان الهوى

    لغضاضةٍ ومضاضةٍ وتباب

    It is the devil's exhibition—the devil of love—

    of humiliation, bitterness, and ruin.

  7. ألقيت فيه شواردي غصصاً على

    غصصٍ واوصاباً على أوصابِ

    Into it I cast my wandering verses, choking grief upon

    choking grief, and sickness upon sickness.

  8. زفراتُ صدرٍ لو بثثت بها إلى

    فلك الدجى أطفأتُ كل شهاب

    Sighs from a breast: had I breathed them up to

    the vault of night, I would have quenched every shooting star.

  9. ولو ان ليلى انشدت مجنونها

    شعري لثاب إلى هدىً وصوابِ

    And had Layla recited to her Majnun

    my poetry, he would have returned to guidance and good sense.

  10. ولكان يُعرضُ عن هواها خائفاً

    أن يبتلى منه بمثل مصابي

    And he would have turned away from loving her, afraid

    of being afflicted through it with a calamity like mine.

  11. قد ذاقَ قيسٌ من هواه صبابةً

    وشربتُ اكواباً على أكوابِ

    Qays tasted longing from his love,

    and I drank cup upon cup.

  12. من قاس ما لاقيتُ من وجدٍ بما

    لاقاه قاس جهنماً بثقابِ

    Whoever compares the anguish I endured with what

    he endured compares Hell to a match.

  13. لا العقلُ يُعدَلُ بالجنونِ ولا ابنةُ

    السلطانِ تُعدَلُ بابنةِ الحطّاب

    Reason cannot be equated with madness, nor can a

    sultan's daughter be equated with a woodcutter's daughter.

  14. والهولُ أرهبه إذا لاقيته

    وسراجُ ذهنكَ مشعلٌ لا خابِ

    And terror is most dreadful when you face it,

    with your mind's lamp burning, not dim.

  15. وذِمارُ ليلى لم يكن كذِمارِ فا

    تنتي تحفُّ به أسودُ الغاب

    And Layla's guarded honor was not like my

    enchantress's, ringed by lions of the forest.

  16. كانت ثريا بنتَ أكرم عِترةٍ

    موصولةَ الأنساب بالاحساب

    Thurayya was the daughter of a most noble family,

    her pedigree joined to ancestral honor.

  17. مقصورةً في خِدرها ولها أبٌ

    عالي المُقام معظَّمُ الألقابِ

    Secluded in her chamber, she had a father

    of lofty standing and much-revered titles.

  18. حسناءُ في شرخ الصبا وانا فتىً

    يتلَّقطُ الغفلاتِ بالأهداب

    A beauty in the bloom of youth, while I was a young man

    who caught unguarded moments with his eyelashes.

  19. فُتنت بشعري وافتتنتُ بحسنها

    فأتى الهوى عفواً بغير حساب

    She was captivated by my poetry, and I by her beauty,

    so love came unbidden, without calculation.

  20. ما كنتُ أحلمُ أن أرى وجهَ الثريا

    هابطاً متعفراً بترابي

    I never dreamed I would see Thurayya's face—the Pleiades—

    descending, begrimed with my dust.

  21. ما كنتُ احلم في الكرى ان نلتقي

    متساقيين رُضابها ورضابي

    I never dreamed in sleep that we would meet,

    sharing draughts of her sweet saliva and mine,

  22. حتى أتاني في الظلام رسولها

    فذهبتُ غيرَ مؤمّلٍ باياب

    until her messenger came to me in the dark;

    so I went with no hope of return.

  23. ولقد تلاقينا ولم يكُ سامعٌ

    غيرَ الظلام خطابها وجوابي

    We did meet, and none was there to hear

    her words and my reply except the darkness.

  24. قالت وربك ان شعرك قد سبى

    قلبي وجاءَ به اليكَ السابي

    She said, "By your Lord, your poetry has taken captive

    my heart, and the captor has brought it to you.

  25. إِن كنتَ براً بالسبيّ جعلتَني

    وحدي عروس قريضك الصياب

    If you are kind to the captive, you will make me

    alone the bride of your unerring verse."

  26. فأجبتها وهواكِ وهو أليتي

    وقفٌ عليكِ قريحتي وشبابي

    I answered her, "By my love for you—my sworn oath—

    my poetic gift and youth are dedicated to you."

  27. وتصرمت حججٌ ثلاثٌ والهوى

    ما بيننا متعاقدُ الأسبابِ

    Three years passed, and love

    kept its bonds firmly knotted between us.

  28. لاقيت من اهواله ما يردِع الطا

    غي ويكسرُ شرَّةَ الوثابِ

    I faced such terrors in it as would restrain the

    tyrant and break the reckless assailant's fierceness.

  29. لو شاهد العبسيُّ بعض مواقفي

    لروى لعبلاهُ حديثَ عجاب

    Had the Absi witnessed some of my ordeals,

    he would have told his Ablah a tale of wonders.

  30. ولهاب عنترةٌ مخاطر كنت اغش

    اها بقلبٍ ليس بالهباب

    And Antarah would have feared dangers I used to

    venture into with a heart that was no mere soot.

  31. إني بليت بفتيةٍ من قومها

    لا يلتقون الناس غيرَ غضاب

    I was afflicted with young men from her people

    who met others only in anger.

  32. كم صادفوني في السبيل وانذر

    وني بالمنون واغرقوا بسبايي

    How often they met me on the road and threatened

    me with death and drowned me in abuse.

  33. كم ليلة تحت الغمامِ سهرتها

    وعيونهم حولي عيونُ ذئاب

    How many a night beneath the clouds I spent awake,

    their eyes around me the eyes of wolves.

  34. وكم اقفتوا أثري إلى أبوابها

    فرجعتُ مرجوماً عن الأبواب

    And how often they followed my trail to her doors,

    so I returned from the doors pelted with stones.

  35. ما كنت أظفر مرةً بوصالها

    إلا ودسُّ الموتِ تحت ثيابي

    Never once did I gain union with her

    without death lurking beneath my clothes.

  36. وتبيت واجدةً واعلم ما بها

    وابيتُ ملتاعاً وتعلم ما بي

    She would spend the night yearning, and I knew what ailed her,

    and I would spend it anguished, and she knew what ailed me.

  37. حججٌ ثلاثٌ ما قضيت دقيقةً

    منها خليَّ البالِ في محرابي

    Three years: not a minute did I spend

    of them with an untroubled mind in my sanctuary.

  38. قطعتها متهتكاً بقصائدي

    حتى خلعتُ على الهوى آدابي

    I passed them, casting off restraint in my poems,

    until I stripped off my decorum for love,

  39. ووضعت قدري واستبحت محرَّ

    ماتِ الدين من سُكرٍ ومن ألعاب

    and lowered my standing, allowing myself the

    things religion forbids—drunkenness and games.

  40. ذا ما جناه عليَّ شعري ليتني

    لثَّمتُ وجهَ قريحتي بنقاب

    This is what my poetry inflicted on me; would that I

    had covered the face of my poetic gift with a veil.

  41. أما ثريا فاستقلَّ بامرها

    كهلٌ كثير المالِ والاعتابِ

    As for Thurayya, her affairs were taken over by

    a middle-aged man with much wealth and many thresholds.

  42. لم ترضه بعلاً لها إلا واهلوها

    كماةُ خناجرٍ وحراب

    She accepted him as husband only while her family

    stood as warriors with daggers and spears.

  43. هي مهجتي عابت وطال غيابها

    عني فطالَ عن الحياة غيابي

    She is my life's blood; she vanished, and her absence grew long

    from me, so my absence from life grew long.

  44. أنا ذلك الميتُ الذي يعظ الش

    بابَ بشعره حياً على الأحقابِ

    I am that dead man who admonishes the

    young with his poetry, living on through the ages.

  45. وانا الذي ديوانه كأس اللظى

    قد تُوجت من جمره بحبابِ

    And I am he whose verse-book is a cup of flame,

    crowned with bubbles from its embers.

  46. يا حاملين على الصبا آمالكم

    هي عبءُ اوهامٍ على كذابِ

    O you who place your hopes upon youth,

    they are a burden of illusions upon a liar.

  47. لا شارعٌ منكم على ماءِ ولا

    كان الصبا في العمرِ غير سراب

    Not one of you reaches water; nor

    has youth in life ever been anything but a mirage.

  48. لذاته تلد المصائب للفتى

    ومتى ولدن مررنَ مرَّ سحاب

    Its pleasures give birth to a young man's misfortunes,

    and once they give birth, they pass like clouds.

  49. كأسٌ تذوق الشهدَ منها طافياً

    أما قرارتُها فمرُّ الصاب

    A cup: you taste honey from it, floating on top,

    but at its bottom lies bitter plant sap.

  50. من يقضِ في تعب الغرام شبابه

    شدَّ المشيبُ عليه بالاتعاب

    Whoever spends his youth in the toil of love,

    old age bears down on him with hardships.