1. حيّ الديار برامتين ونادها

    جادت عهادُ المزنِ عهدَ سعادها

    Greet the dwellings at Rāmatayn, and call to them.

    May the rainclouds’ returning showers drench their Suʿād’s old home.

  2. فلربما بلغ المرادَ مخاطباً

    عن حال ناطقها لسانُ جمادها

    For often, speaking, it has attained its aim—

    the tongue of their lifeless remains, telling of their speaking inhabitants.

  3. أنظرْ معالمها سلمتَ فمقلتي

    مشغولةٌ ببكائها وسهادها

    Look at their landmarks—may you be safe—for my eye

    is occupied with its weeping and sleeplessness.

  4. فلو أنَّ مشتاقاً أثار ترابها

    لأصاب قلبي في خلال رمادها

    For if a yearning lover stirred their dust,

    he would find my heart amid their ashes.

  5. كانت رسوماً كالسُّطور مواثلاً

    فمحوتها بالدمع محوَ مدادها

    They were traces standing clear like lines of writing;

    then I erased them with tears, as one erases their ink.

  6. سوق تباع بها القلوبُ رخيصةً

    وتنفَّق العبرات بعد كسادها

    A market where hearts are sold cheaply,

    and tears sell briskly after lying unsold.

  7. دمٌ وقفتُ بها وبان أنيسها

    فبكيتُ وحشةَ نجدها ووهادها

    Blood [unclear reading]—I stood among them, their companion gone;

    so I wept for the desolation of their uplands and hollows.

  8. شقيتْ مغانيها المحولَ وفوَّفت

    أيدي السحاب الغرّ من أبرادها

    Their haunts suffered drought; and stripes were woven

    by the clouds’ radiant hands into some of their cloaks.

  9. ودجَّةٍ سوداءَ قصَّر طولها

    بيضاءُ صبغىُ فودها كفؤادها

    And a black night whose length was shortened

    by a fair woman, her sidelock’s two hues like her heart.

  10. معشوقة الحركات عامُ دنوّها

    والوصلِ أطولُ منه يومُ بعادها

    Adored in her movements—a year of her nearness

    and union—a day of her absence lasts longer than that.

  11. أسفي على ألف القوام ومقلةٍ

    صادت قلوب العاشقين بصادها

    My sorrow for that alif-like figure, and an eye

    that hunted lovers’ hearts with its ṣād.

  12. وسقيمة الألحاظ من لقتييلها

    بعد النوى لو كان من عوَّادها

    And she of ailing glances—who would care for her slain lover

    after parting, if he were among her sickbed visitors?

  13. خطرت بمنزلها الرياحُ مريضةً

    وسقت بنانُ المزن محلَ بلادها

    Ailing, the winds swayed through her dwelling,

    and the rainclouds’ fingertips watered her lands’ parched ground.

  14. من كل ضاحكة البروق إذا انبرت

    ردعتْ حواشي دجنها بجسادها

    From every cloud laughing with lightning, when it appeared,

    it stained the fringes of its gloom with its saffron dye.

  15. وكأنَّ مبتسم الرّضا من ومضها

    ومخوفَ ذاك السُّخط من إرعادها

    And as though the smile of contentment came from its flashes,

    and the terror of that anger from its thunder.