1. أطاعكَ الدمع الذي كان عصى

    فابكِ دماً ما أمكن العينَ البكا

    The tears that once defied you have obeyed you.

    So weep blood as long as the eye can weep.

  2. وعاقبِ العينَ بدمعٍ هاطلٍ

    أحقّ عندي بالعقاب من جَنى

    And punish the eye with pouring tears;

    the sinner, to my mind, most deserves punishment.

  3. فطالما أمرجته في حدقٍ

    لولا الفتور قلت أحداقُ الظبى

    For long you let it roam among eyes

    that, but for their languor, I would call the pupils of sword blades.

  4. يا لكِ من أيام وصلٍ سلفت

    أعقبَها الدهرُ بأيام نوى

    Oh, what days of union have passed!

    Time followed them with days of separation.

  5. ما فرقة الأحباب بعد وصلِهم

    إلا كشيبٍ واقعٍ معَ الصبي

    Parting from loved ones after union with them

    is only like gray hair appearing amid youth.

  6. إذا الهَوى حاولتَ منه سلوةً

    ولم تطِقها فهو من أحلى الهوى

    When you seek release from love,

    and cannot achieve it, that is among the sweetest forms of love.

  7. ليس المحب من إذا فواده

    رام سُلواً عن أحباه سلا

    No lover is he who, when his heart

    seeks to forget his loved ones, can forget.

  8. وذات خلخالٍ من التبر غداً

    من وضحِ الفضة محشواً حُلى

    And a woman with a golden anklet that became

    filled with adornments of bright, white silver.

  9. كأنما قضيبُ نورٍ دائر

    بدَورِه قضيبُ نارٍ قد أضا

    As though a shaft of light were encircled

    around its girth by a shaft of fire, aglow.

  10. لها لوىً من رِدفها يحمله

    ذو دقةٍ يضعفُ عن حمل اللوا

    She has a sand dune for a rump, borne

    by a slender waist too weak to carry the dune.

  11. ومبسمٌ لاحَ لنا من ضَوئِه

    بَرقٌ ولكن ليسَ للبرقِ بقا

    And a smiling mouth, from whose light there flashed before us

    lightning—but lightning does not endure.

  12. وروضةٌ برقعَها حياؤها

    زهرة وردٍ باللحاظِ تجتَنى

    And a garden veiled by her modesty—

    a rose blossom plucked with glances.

  13. ومقلةٌ قتالةٌ بلَحظِها

    ليس تخاف قوداً ولا أذى

    And an eye deadly in its glance,

    fearing neither blood-retribution nor harm.

  14. لو نظرت مثالها في غيرها

    ألبسها منظره ثوبَ الضنى

    If it saw its likeness in another,

    that sight would clothe it in the robe of wasting sickness.

  15. وأهيفٍ تَحسبه إذا بدا

    قضيبَ بانٍ حاملاً بدرَ دُجى

    And a slender youth whom, when he appears, you deem

    a bān-tree branch bearing a full moon in the darkness.

  16. يجمعُ للناظِر في منظرِه

    إذا بدا لونَ الصباح والمَسا

    He joins for the beholder, in his appearance,

    when he appears, the colors of morning and evening.

  17. ضدان لم يجتمعا إلا لِما

    سام الورى فيه منونٌ ومُنى

    Two opposites that never met except for what

    death and desire exact from mankind through him.

  18. تَستَحسنُ الغدر بنا أجفانُه

    حتى كأن الغدر في الناسِ وفا

    His eyelids find betraying us beautiful,

    until betrayal among people seems like fidelity.

  19. دقّت على أفهامِنا أوصافُه

    كأنّه في الأرضِ من أهل السما

    His qualities are too subtle for our understanding,

    as though, on earth, he belonged to the people of heaven.

  20. بدلتُ من قلبي سواه فلقد

    أقلقني بين ظباءٍ ومَهى

    Would that I had another in place of my heart! For

    it has kept me restless among gazelles and oryx.

  21. يحمل أثقال الهوى مجتهداً

    وهو ضعيف الصبر منهدّ القوى

    It bears the burdens of love, striving hard,

    yet is weak in patience, its strength shattered.

  22. إن كنت لا أبقى بغير نكبةٍ

    تبقى فما فضل البقا على الفنا

    If I cannot survive without a calamity

    that endures, what advantage has living over perishing?

  23. في كل يومٍ أنا بين غادرٍ

    وهاجرٍ أكرع كاسات الردى

    Each day I am between a betrayer

    and a deserter, draining cups of death.

  24. أبيننا يا دهرُ ثارٌ تبتغي

    إدراكه مني أم سفكُ دِما

    Is there a blood-debt between us, O Time, that you seek

    to exact from me, or blood you would spill?

  25. ما فيكَ للعتبِ مكانٌ يرتجى

    نجاحه إلا لمدحٍ وهجا

    No room for reproaching you offers hope

    of success, except through praise and satire.

  26. أشكو إليك بعض ما لقيته

    منكَ وهل تنفع شكوى من شكا

    I complain to you of some of what I have suffered

    from you—but does complaint help the one who complains?

  27. أكلَّما غادرتَ وقتاً صافياً

    من عيشتي كدَّرت منه ما صفا

    Whenever you leave an untroubled stretch

    of my life, must you cloud what was clear in it?

  28. تأخذ من أحبّتي أصدقَهم

    وداً وأوفاهم إذا عزّ الوفا

    You take from among my loved ones the truest

    in affection, and the most faithful when fidelity is rare.

  29. أظلمَ في عينيَّ ما كان أضا

    فلا ضحى بعدَ الحسين بن ضحى

    What once shone has darkened in my eyes;

    there is no morning light after al-Husayn ibn Duha.

  30. مات الندى والمجد في ميتته

    والأدبُ البارع أودى والنهى

    Generosity and glory died in his death,

    and brilliant learning and reason perished.

  31. سعى إلى مهجتِه حِمامها

    ولو درى ما قدرُها لما سعى

    Death hastened toward his heart;

    had it known its worth, it would not have hastened.

  32. طرفت طرفي أيها الدهر بهِ

    فصرت لا أطرف إلا عن قذى

    You struck my eye through him, O Time,

    so now I blink only because of grit.

  33. بما العزاء بعده فإنما

    كان لنا عمن فقدناه عزا

    What comfort is there after him? For he

    was our consolation for those we had lost.

  34. كم من فتىً تحت الثرى وفضلُه

    على الأنام ليس يُحصى كالثرى

    How many a young man lies beneath the earth, while his bounty

    to mankind is countless as the dust!

  35. مضى وأبقَت ذكرَه أفعالُه

    أحسن ما خلَّفته حسن الثنا

    He departed, but his deeds preserved his memory;

    the finest legacy they left is fair praise.

  36. وللذي دلَّ من الجودِ عَلى

    سبيل مَن قُبيله كان سُدى

    And to him who, through generosity, guided onto

    a path one who, shortly before him, had been adrift:

  37. سر على أيمن سعدٍ صالح

    سار إليه من هدى

    go forth under the most auspicious, wholesome fortune,

    toward which whoever was guided has gone.