إليك بعثناها شوارد ضمنت

إليك بعثناها شوارد ضمنت

معاين لولاها لما شرف الشعرُ

معاين لولاها لما شرف الشعرُ

To you we sent her—wandering verses containing

We sent her to you as scattering thoughts

Meanings without which poetry would have no nobility.

With meanings that without her poetry's honor would not be

عروساً ولكن زوجت بنت ليلة

عروساً ولكن زوجت بنت ليلة

مخدرة لكن فكري لها خدر

مخدرة لكن فكري لها خدر

A bride, yet married off when only one night old,

A bride, yet wed to a daughter of the intoxicating night

Secluded, yet my thought is her curtained chamber.

My mind is seduced by her intoxication

إذا قال جسمي تستحل بحلة

إذا قال جسمي تستحل بحلة

تقول له رجلاى بل مهرها مهر

تقول له رجلاى بل مهرها مهر

If my body says, “She may be wed for a robe,”

When my body says she is adorned in beauty

My feet tell it, “Rather, her dowry is a colt.”

I tell it, no, her dowry is her dowry

فمن لي به لا الدهم فازت بلونه

فمن لي به لا الدهم فازت بلونه

ولا البرش حازت بردتيه ولا الصفر

ولا البرش حازت بردتيه ولا الصفر

Who, then, will get him for me? Black steeds have not won his hue,

So who could have her? Not melancholy, her color conquered it

Nor speckled steeds his two mantles, nor dun steeds.

Nor pallor, her blush and paleness she overtook

كميت تذال الشهب والبلق إن بدا

كميت تذال الشهب والبلق إن بدا

وتسمو بما نالته من شبهه الشقر

وتسمو بما نالته من شبهه الشقر

A bay: gray and piebald steeds are humbled when he appears,

Stars wane and the full moon, if they appear

And chestnuts rise through the likeness to him they have gained.

She rises above with what she attained of her blondness

يخوض إذا لاقى دماً مثل لونه

يخوض إذا لاقى دماً مثل لونه

ولا ماء إلا ماء رونقه الغمر

ولا ماء إلا ماء رونقه الغمر

He wades, when he encounters it, through blood matching his hue;

It plunges when it meets blood like its hue

And no water, save the deep water of his sheen.

And no water but the water made verdant by immersion

فغرته مبيضة وحجوله

فغرته مبيضة وحجوله

ولكن اريقت فوق سائره الخمر

ولكن اريقت فوق سائره الخمر

For his forehead blaze is white, as are his stockings,

So its whiteness and cheeks delighted her

But wine has been poured over all the rest of him.

But above the rest she spilled the wine

وأسبق من عاف إليك وشاعر

وأسبق من عاف إليك وشاعر

قوافيه أفراد محجلة غر

قوافيه أفراد محجلة غر

And swifter toward you than a supplicant or a poet

And I outpace those who returned to you and the poet

Whose rhymes are peerless, white-stockinged and white-blazed.

Whose rhymes are unmatched, unparalleled pearls

فلو شامه في ارض فارس فارس

فلو شامه في ارض فارس فارس

لما امسيا الا ومصر له مصر

لما امسيا الا ومصر له مصر

So, had a horseman glimpsed him in the land of Persia,

So if he smelled the land of Persia, a Persian

The two would not reach evening before Egypt was his city.

By nightfall they would be Egypt to him, Egypt

نتاج فتى في الحرب تنتج خيله

نتاج فتى في الحرب تنتج خيله

وبالدم تسقى والنزال لها ضمر

وبالدم تسقى والنزال لها ضمر

Bred by a young man whose horses are foaled in war,

The offspring of a warrior whose horses he sires

And watered with blood; combat is their conditioning.

Watered by blood, war smolders in them