1. هذه حلبة الهوى والفراقِ

    فاجر فيها سوابقَ الآماقِ

    This is the racecourse of love and separation.

    So race within it the swift coursers of the eyes.

  2. فلقاءُ الأحباب مثل لقاء الحر

    ب بين القلوب والأحداقِ

    For meeting loved ones is like the clash of battle

    Between hearts and eyes.

  3. وتأمَّل بين الهوادج والأطـ

    ـلال منها مصارع العشَّاقِ

    And contemplate, between the howdahs and the ruins,

    The places among them where lovers fall slain.

  4. فقسيٌّ تهدي ولسن بأو

    تارٍ سهاماً تصمي بلا أفواقِ

    For bows send forth, though they have no bowstrings,

    Arrows that kill outright, without nocks.

  5. بي بيضاءَ فعلها فعل سمراءَ انـ

    ـثنت من العوالي الدّقاقِ

    I am smitten with a fair woman who acts like a dusky lance,

    One that bends among the tall, slender spears.

  6. زيَّن الفرعُ قدَّها مثل ما

    زينت لدان الغصون بالأوراقِ

    Her hair adorned her figure, just as

    Supple boughs are adorned with leaves.

  7. لو تطيقُ الحمامُ ألقت عليه

    ما بأجيادها من الأطواقِ

    If the doves could, they would lay upon it

    The collars they wear about their necks.

  8. أخدمت حسنها سويداءَ قلبي

    فهي لا تهتدي لسبل الإباقِ

    I made my heart's inmost core serve her beauty,

    So it cannot find the paths of escape.

  9. أيُّ شمسٍ مغيبها لي سمومٌ

    وسموم الشموس بالإشراقِ

    What sun is this, whose setting brings me a scorching wind,

    Though suns' scorching winds come with their rising?

  10. كلَّما خوطبت على حبس قلبي

    وقّعت للدموع بالإطلاقِ

    Whenever she is addressed about my heart's imprisonment,

    She signs an order for my tears' release.

  11. فسواء ما بدَّدت فوق خدّيَّ

    وما نظَّمته فوق التراقيِ

    Thus alike are what she scatters over my cheeks

    And what she strings above her collarbones.

  12. ضحكتْ عند وصف شوقي ولم

    تدرِ بأنَّ البكاء للأشواقِ

    She laughed at the description of my longing, and did not

    Know that weeping belongs to longing.

  13. لم يكن قبل وجهها ليّ علمٌ

    أنَّ ماء الجمال للإحراقِ

    Before I saw her face, I did not know

    That beauty's water could burn.

  14. هل مجيرٌ من الدجى فهو طفل

    لم يشب من قطيعة وفراقِ

    Is there a protector from the darkness? For it is a child

    That has not grown gray from estrangement and separation.

  15. طال حتى حسبتُ أنَّ النجوم الأفـ

    ـق من بطءِ سيرها في وثاقِ

    It dragged on until I thought the far-ranging stars

    Were in fetters, so slow was their course.

  16. وخفيّ الوميض ينمى كما يسـ

    ـرع سقط االزنادِ في الحرَّاقٍ

    And a faint glimmer grows, just as

    A fire-striker's spark races through tinder.

  17. فلو أنَّ الصباح يجدى لأعـ

    ـطته يدا يوسف مع الإملاقِ

    So if dawn could receive bounty, it would be bestowed

    By Yusuf's two hands, even in poverty.