1. أتعشق مثلي الربا والشجر

    فتهدي الضياء لها يا قمر؟

    Do you love the hills and trees as I do,

    and so give them radiance, O moon?

  2. أتعشقها؟أم رثيت لحالي

    فجئت تشاركني في السهر؟

    Do you love them, or did you pity my plight,

    and so come to share my sleepless vigil?

  3. أغرك أني مقيم الرحال

    فسيح الخيال بعيد النظر؟

    Were you misled by my having set down my saddles,

    my imagination vast, my vision far-reaching?

  4. نقيم ونحسب أنا نقيم

    وأيامنا كلها في سفر

    We stay, and think that we stay,

    while all our days are spent in travel.

  5. وتخدعنا بهرجات الحياة

    فنصحو على يومنا المنتظر

    And life's gaudy displays deceive us,

    so we wake to our awaited day.

  6. أيا بدر يا زورقاً من ضياء

    يسيره في الظلام القدر

    O full moon, O skiff of light,

    which fate steers through the darkness,

  7. ويا مؤنس الساهرين الحيارى

    يبيتون من همهم في كدر

    and O companion of the bewildered who lie awake,

    passing their nights in distress from their cares,

  8. أتيت إلينا تزف المنى

    وتطرد بالنور ليل الضجر

    you came to us, ushering in hopes,

    and driving out the night of tedium with light.

  9. فكم أمل كاد يذوي فم

    سكبت ضياءك حتى ازدهر

    How many a hope had nearly withered; no sooner

    had you poured your radiance than it blossomed.

  10. وكم شبح كاد يغتالني

    فما كدت تظهر حتى اندحر

    And how many a specter nearly slew me,

    and scarcely had you appeared when it was routed.

  11. أيا بدر عندي أحاديث شتى

    فماذا أقول؟وماذا أذر؟

    O full moon, I have tales of many kinds,

    so what shall I say, and what leave untold?

  12. كأنك تعلم منها الكثير

    وأنت تحيط ببحر وبر

    You seem to know much of them,

    and you encompass sea and land.

  13. لقد عشت يا بدر دهراً طويل

    وعاشرت من أهلنا من غبر

    You have indeed lived, O full moon, a long age,

    and kept company with those of our people who have passed away.

  14. فقل لي بربك أخبارهم

    وحدث بها خبراً عن خبر

    So tell me, by your Lord, their stories,

    and recount them, one tale after another.

  15. فأبدى اشتياقاً لهذا الحديث

    وزاد ائتلاقاً يسر النظر

    Then he showed eagerness for this talk,

    and shone more brightly, delighting the eye.

  16. وقال: أتعني الرسول الكريم؟

    أتعني العتيق أتعني عمر؟

    And he said, “Do you mean the noble Messenger?

    Do you mean al-Atiq? Do you mean Umar?

  17. أتعني الرجال أماتوا الضلال

    وأحيوا بهدي الكتاب البشر؟

    Do you mean the men who put misguidance to death

    and brought humankind to life through the Book's guidance?

  18. أقول وقد شاهدت مقلتاي

    جليل المعالي وأسمى العبر

    I speak, for my two eyes have witnessed

    sublime deeds and the loftiest lessons.

  19. أولئك من سطروا للعل

    أجل الصفات وأعلى السير

    Those are the ones who inscribed for glory

    the noblest qualities and loftiest ways of life:

  20. رسول أبي كريم الطباع

    وأصحابه حوله كالدرر

    a high-minded Messenger, noble in character,

    and his companions around him like pearls.

  21. تنام المعالي على طرفه

    وتصحو على صوته في السحر

    Noble virtues sleep upon his eyelid,

    and awaken at his voice in the hour before dawn.

  22. زمان مضى كنت أمتاحه

    أمتع نفسي بشتى الصور

    An age gone by—I used to draw from it,

    delighting myself with all manner of images.

  23. رأيت المعالي وأصحابه

    وشاهدت أهل الخنا والأشر

    I saw noble deeds and their bearers,

    and witnessed people of lewdness and insolence.

  24. وها أنذا يحتويني الظلام

    فأين الملاذ وأين المفر

    And here I am, with darkness enfolding me;

    where is refuge, and where is escape?”

  25. حنانيك يا بدر هل تشتكي

    وأنت أمير المساء الأغر

    “Have mercy, O full moon! Do you complain,

    though you are prince of the radiant evening,

  26. وأنت الذي تسبيح الظلام

    وتظفر حين يعز الظفر

    and you are the one who overruns the darkness,

    and you triumph when triumph is hard to win?”

  27. فقال: رويدك في رحلتي

    شقائي فياليت لي مستقر

    He said, “Gently! In my journey

    lies my misery; if only I had a resting place!

  28. إذا ما ولدت انتظرت الممات

    ولما يمر علي الشهر

    Whenever I am born, I await death,

    though the month has not yet passed over me.

  29. لكم أيها الناس صفو الحياة

    ولكنكم تعشقون الكدر

    Yours, O people, is life's serenity,

    but you are in love with distress.”

  30. ***

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  31. هنا عدت والحزن في خافقي

    وذهني يمور بشتى الفكر

    Here I returned, with sorrow in my heart,

    and my mind seething with all manner of thoughts.

  32. وناديت من ذا أنادي؟سوى

    شباب يهون لديه الخطر

    And I called out—whom could I call upon but

    young men to whom danger is of little account?

  33. شباب الهدى قد بنت أمتي

    علينا من الأمل المنتظر

    Young men of guidance, my nation has built

    upon us, from awaited hope,

  34. صروحاً تقاوم جور العد

    وتهزأ بالفسق أنى ظهر

    towers that resist the tyranny of foes

    and mock wickedness wherever it appears.

  35. فهلا جعلنا لبنيانن

    أساساً من الحق لا يندثر

    So should we not give our building

    a foundation of truth that never wears away?

  36. ومن لاذ بالله في دربه

    حماه المهيمن من كل شر

    And whoever takes refuge in God along his path,

    the Guardian protects him from every evil.

  37. يعز على النفس ألا ترى

    شباب الهداية يأبى الخور

    It pains the soul not to see

    the youth of guidance rejecting faintheartedness.

  38. ويكره قلبي ذليل الخط

    فتى بين أترابه محتقر

    And my heart detests one with abject steps,

    a young man despised among his peers,

  39. فتى حطم الكفر أسلافه

    فحطمه الكفر لما هجر

    a young man whose forebears shattered unbelief,

    but whom unbelief shattered when he turned away.

  40. أبى أن يسير على دربه

    وكان على قمة فانحدر

    He refused to walk along his path;

    and he had stood on a summit, then descended.

  41. وشر البرية يا إخوتي

    ذليل وقد كان ملء النظر

    And the worst of creatures, O my brothers,

    is one abased who once filled the eye.

  42. ***

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  43. وكانت تسايرنا نجمة

    على خد ليل يجوز السحر

    And a star was keeping pace with us

    on the cheek of a night passing through the predawn hour.

  44. تخفت وراء سدول الظلام

    وظلت تراقبنا في حذر

    She hid behind the curtains of darkness

    and kept watching us cautiously,

  45. وتصغي إلينا وفي صمته

    عتاب المحب لخل غدر

    and listening to us; in her silence

    was a lover's reproach toward a friend who betrayed.

  46. فلما رأى البدر إقباله

    تغطى بظلمائه وانحسر

    When the full moon saw her approach,

    he cloaked himself in his darkness and withdrew.

  47. فجاءت إلي تبث الهوى

    وتشكو إلي خداع القمر

    Then she came to me, confiding her love,

    and complaining to me of the moon's deceit.

  48. فقلت لها:إنما رق لي

    وجمع من فرحتي ما اندثر

    So I told her, “He only took pity on me

    and gathered what had been lost of my joy.”

  49. فقالت وفي عينها ومضة

    لثورة حب تذيب الحجر

    Then she said, with a flash in her eye

    of love's revolt that melts stone:

  50. أتخدعنا يا صريع الأسى

    وتفضح من أمرنا ما استتر

    “Are you deceiving us, O victim of sorrow,

    and laying bare what was hidden of our affair?

  51. كفانا الخداع كفانا النفاق

    فإنا مللنا خداع البشر

    We have had enough deceit, enough hypocrisy!

    For we have tired of human deceit!”