مذ تجافت للبعد عنك جفونه

واصلته آلامه وشجونه

Since separation from you has kept his eyelids apart,

His pains and sorrows have kept him company.

مستهام سرّت لبلواه أعدا

ء محب مضنى الفؤاد حزينه

He is lovesick; his affliction has delighted the enemies

Of a lover whose heart is worn and sorrowful.

كم له في هواك موقف ذل

بين أيديك عزفيه معينه

How often, for love of you, he has stood abased

Before you, with his helper hard to find.

ظن أني أسلوك في حالة البع

د عذولي والآن خابت ظنونه

He thought I would forget you in separation—

My reproacher; now his suppositions have proved false.

يا عذولي كرر ملامك حتى

يتسلى بذكره مفتونه

O my reproacher, repeat your reproaches until

His spellbound lover finds solace in mention of him.

وأدر لي دون العتيق حديثاً

فيه أوصاف من أحب تزينه

And pass me, instead of aged wine, a tale

Adorned with descriptions of the one I love.

لا تظن النفور ينقص من حسن

حبيبي أو الجفاء يشينه

Do not think aloofness detracts from the beauty

Of my beloved, or that coldness mars him.

ان رب العباد أودعه الحس

ن لعلم بأنه سيصونه

Indeed, the Lord of humankind entrusted him with beauty,

Knowing that he would preserve it.

بدر تم لو كان للبدر لحظا

ه وتوريد خده وجبينه

A full moon—if the moon had his glances,

And his cheek's rosy bloom, and his brow.

أين للبدر مبسم فيه عقد

من جمان يسبى النهى مكنونه

Where has the moon a smiling mouth that holds a necklace

Of pearls, whose hidden treasure captivates minds?

وبه للمحب ماء حياة

دون إدراكه تحول منونه

And in it the lover has the water of life;

His death stands between him and reaching it.

غصن بان لو أن للغصن خدا

عانق الورد ضمنه يا سمينه

A bān branch—if a branch had a cheek

Within which its jasmine embraced the rose.

وغزال أستغفر اللَه من أي

ن لظبي هذا القوام ولينه

And a gazelle—God forgive me! How could

A gazelle have this figure and its suppleness?

بل هو الحسن صاغه اللَه انسا

نا سويا تسبي النفوس جفونه

Rather, he is Beauty, fashioned by God into a human,

Perfectly formed, whose eyelids take souls captive.

ما أحيلى يوم اجتمعنا بروض

أوردتنا ظلا ظليلا غصونه

How sweet was the day we met in a garden,

Whose branches led us into deep shade!

كان فيه الرقيب غير قريب

والزمان الخؤن نامت عيونه

The watcher there was not nearby,

And treacherous Time's eyes had fallen asleep.

فهجرنا مرّ المدامة فيه

بحديث مستعذب مضمونه

So there we forsook the bitterness of wine

For talk whose substance was sweet.

ان في سكرنا من اللفظ واللح

ظ غناء عما تدير يمينه

Indeed, our intoxication from words and glances

Spares us the need for what his right hand passes round.