سقاك العارض الوسمي سجما

أربعا قد عفا بالشعب رسما

May the autumn raincloud water you in torrents,

O dwelling whose trace has faded in the mountain pass.

وجاد على جوانبك الغوادي

فاشبعت الربى نثرا ونظما

And may morning showers pour generously upon your sides,

And sate the hills with scattered drops and strings.

فلي بك قبل عهد البعد شأن

مضى وكأنه قد صار حلما

For I had an experience with you before the days of separation,

Which passed, as though it had become a dream.

افكره فيغدو اليوم عاما

لوقت كان فيه العام يوما

I think of it, and the day becomes a year,

For a time when a year was but a day.

ويقلقني الفراق وللتنائي

ارى الصبح العميم الضوء عتما

And parting troubles me, and because we are far apart,

I see the morning, for all its spreading light, as darkness.

وريم لين الاعطاف يبدي

ببرج جبينه الوضاح نجما

And a gazelle, supple-flanked, reveals

A star in the celestial mansion of his radiant brow.

وماس فقيل صار الرمح قدا

ولاح فقيل صار البدر جسما

He swayed; they said, 'The lance has taken human form.'

He shone; they said, 'The full moon has taken bodily form.'

ولم يبصر كليم الوجد الا

رمى من رمشة الاحداق سهما

And never did he see one wounded by passion without

Shooting an arrow from a flicker of his eyes.

اغاث بقربه ولهي واحيا

فؤادي يا لذاك الشأن ثما

He eased my lovesick yearning with his nearness and revived

My heart—oh, for that state there!

فيا شعب الحبيب عفوت لكن

نقشت بقلبي الممحوّ رقما

So, O mountain pass of the beloved, you have faded, yet

You engraved a mark in my effaced heart.

يحاضرك الخيال بكل وقت

ويهمل مولها سعدى وسلما

Imagination keeps you company at every moment,

And, love-bewildered, neglects Su'da and Salma.

ويذكر في ضواحيك الروابي

زهت والورد منها طاب شما

And recalls the hills on your outskirts:

They flourished, and their roses were sweet to smell.

فيأخذ من تذكرها فنونا

تزكيه بعلم الحب فهما

So from remembering them it draws varied arts

That refine its understanding in the science of love.

تثبت يا فؤاد فكل نشر

له طي ويفنى الكل مهما

Be steadfast, O heart, for every unfolding

Has its folding, and all things perish, whatever they may be.

وسر يا قلب في ركبان قوم

رأوا غير القديم الحق وهما

And travel, O heart, in the caravan of a people

Who saw all but the Eternal Real as illusion.