1. لا تنبه بلوعتي اللواما

    ففؤادي ما قر الا وهاما

    Do not alert the reproachers to my anguish.

    For my heart never rested without wandering in love.

  2. ملأتني الاشواق حنا وانا

    وولوها ولهفة وغراما

    Longings filled me with yearning and moaning,

    And love-madness, ardent longing, and consuming love.

  3. كم بعثت الدموع مني سحابا

    وملأت الفضاء مني ضراما

    How often I have sent forth my tears as clouds,

    And filled the expanse with my blazing fire.

  4. اتوخى اسعاف قوم لئام

    انما يسعف الكرام الكراما

    I seek the aid of ignoble folk;

    Only the noble give aid to the noble.

  5. وهيام افنى شخوص وجودي

    يا حبيباه لا عرفت الهياما

    And love’s frenzy has annihilated the forms of my being.

    O beloved, may you never know love’s frenzy!

  6. خطرات تأتي على القلب لكن

    كم بذاك الخطور سلت حساما

    Passing thoughts come upon the heart, yet

    How often, in that passing, they have drawn a sword!

  7. واعنائي من معرض ذي دلال

    متأب عن ان يرد السلاما

    Alas for my suffering from a coy one who turns away,

    Too proud to return the greeting.

  8. منع النوم مقلتي لجفاء

    واخو الوجد لا يذوق المناما

    He denied my eye sleep through his coldness;

    And longing’s brother tastes no slumber.

  9. ونياق العشاق من كل فج

    كدموعي ببابه تترامى

    And the lovers’ she-camels, from every mountain pass,

    Like my tears, fling themselves at his door.

  10. يا بروحي في رحبه شطحات

    عابقات قرنفلا وخزاما

    Oh, my soul for the ecstatic outpourings in his spacious court,

    Fragrant with cloves and lavender.

  11. كم سقتها من ماء عيني غواد

    علمت عارض الغمام انسجاما

    How often morning showers of my tears have watered them,

    Teaching the cloudbank how to pour.

  12. اهيف يخطف العقول اذا ما

    ماس بل ينهب القلوب اذا ما

    A slender youth who steals minds whenever

    He sways—nay, he plunders hearts whenever he does.

  13. كم سمعنا كلامه فسكرنا

    ورأينا الخمر العتيق كلاما

    How often we heard his words and grew drunk,

    And saw aged wine as speech.

  14. وشهدنا جماله فبدت من

    ه معان تحير الاوهاما

    And we beheld his beauty, and there emerged from

    him meanings that bewilder the imagination.

  15. كوكب ضاء في غلائل ديبا

    ج رقاق وقد ازال الظلاما

    A star shone in robes of brocade,

    Fine and sheer, and it dispelled the darkness.

  16. اشرقت منه للنواظر انوا

    ر لجاه الخيال لاحت غلاما

    From him lights shone for gazing eyes;

    To imagination’s majesty they appeared as a youth.

  17. صورته ريما مهذب جيد

    عز سلطان حسنه ان يراما

    They pictured him as a gazelle with a graceful neck;

    His beauty’s sovereignty is too exalted to be attained.

  18. كتب الحسن منه في برد الثغ

    ر فبرداً كن بعد ذا وسلاما

    Beauty wrote upon the hailstones of his mouth:

    “So be, after this, coolness and peace.”

  19. آه لو انصفت امي الليالي

    لشكونا لعدلها الاياما

    Ah, if only the nights were just, O Mayy,

    We would complain of the days to their justice.

  20. قد رمتنا بالبعد عن ريم سلع

    وطوت في منشورها الاعواما

    They have cast us far from the gazelle of Salʿ,

    And folded the years within their unfurled scroll.

  21. كرهتها قلوبنا ولهذا

    اخذت من قلوبنا الانتقاما

    Our hearts hated them, and for this reason

    They took vengeance on our hearts.

  22. نحن يا ميّ درعنا الصبر دهرا

    فلتوف الايام فينا الخصاما

    We, O Mayy, have patience as our armor for an age;

    So let the days carry their quarrel with us to the end.

  23. ربما الازمة الملمة زالت

    بعد ان تبلغ الشؤُن التماما

    Perhaps the besetting crisis will pass

    After affairs reach completion.