1. لما استكن الكرى في كل ناظرة

    وبات جفن من الواشي به شرِقا

    When slumber nestled in every eye,

    And the talebearer’s eyelid lay all night choked with it,

  2. سرى إليَّ على خوفٍ يحاذره

    زور أتى تحت جنح الليل منسرقا

    He came to me by night, wary of a danger he feared—

    A visitor stealing in beneath the wing of night.

  3. أخفى من الطيف إلا أن بهجته

    حسناً جلت بسنا أنواره الأفقا

    More elusive than a dream-phantom, yet his splendor

    In its beauty lit the horizon with his radiant light.

  4. مضمَّخٌ بغوال علَّ مفرقه

    أيدي حواضنه مسكابها عبقا

    Anointed with rich perfumes, his hair-parting was drenched

    By his nurses’ hands in musk that clung fragrantly to them.

  5. تشكو إلى قلق حيران مكتئب

    صبٍّ إلى قربه الأحزان والقلقا

    Lamenting to one restless, bewildered, downcast,

    A lover yearning for his nearness, of sorrows and unease—

  6. صوتاً تراني مجنوناً أخا كلفٍ

    إذا سليمان يوماً قد به نطقا

    A song—you see me mad, a man possessed by love,

    If ever Sulayman gives it voice.

  7. قد سحَّب الناس أذيال الظنون بنا

    وفرّق القوم فينا ظنهم فرقا

    People have trailed the skirts of suspicion around us,

    And the folk have split their guesses about us into factions.