سرت بنا للحب زهر النياق

وكاس خمر الحب للقوم راق

White she-camels bore us toward love,

and the cup of love's wine delighted the company.

وهزنا الشوق لريم الحمى

الله ما اطول ليل الفراق

Longing stirred us for the gazelle of the sanctuary.

God! How long is the night of separation!

حدا لنا الحادي باوصافه

فزمت العيس وهام الرفاق

The camel-driver sang to us of his charms;

the pale camels tossed their heads, and the companions were enraptured.

وقالت العيس بنطق الهوى

لبعضها هيا السباق السباق

And the pale camels spoke in love's own tongue

to one another: “Come on! Race! Race!”

ثار عجاج الدرب لما انبرت

تشق بالاجفان تلك الشقاق

The road's dust rose as they sprang forward,

cleaving those ravines with their eyelids.

يا ايها الريم الذي حسنه

اودع جمرا في الحشا لا يطاق

O gazelle, whose beauty

has lodged unbearable embers in my breast,

كونك في الحسن فتى مفردا

قد وقع الاجماع والاتفاق

that you are a youth unrivaled in beauty

is a matter of consensus and agreement.

غوثاه وارحم عاشقا فانيا

اعناه من جدك شيل النطاق

Help! Have mercy on a perishing lover,

whom your resolute lifting of the girdle has wearied.

يا فاتر الجفن امن ريشه

سل على مضناك بيض الرقاق

O you of languid eyelid, was it from its feathers

that gleaming, slender blades were drawn against your lovesick one?

مر بآلام النوى عيشه

وريقك العطري حلو المذاق

His life is bitter with the pains of separation,

yet your fragrant saliva is sweet to taste.

خف الذي سواك يا ريم في

دم ولوه بالتجني يراق

Fear Him who fashioned you, O gazelle, concerning

a distraught lover's blood, shed through cruelty.

اسير هجر لم يزل ضارعا

يسترحم المن بحل الوثاق

A captive of estrangement, he never ceases pleading,

imploring mercy's favor: release from his bonds.

لوعته قد محقت كله

بعرف ذا من خمرة الوجد ذاق

His anguish has consumed him utterly;

whoever has tasted the wine of ecstasy knows this.

ملأت الأرض له انة

تخترق السبع الشداد الطباق

A moan of his has filled the earth,

piercing the seven mighty, layered heavens.

من هجرك المزعج هذا الضنا

وهذه اللوعة والاحتراق

From your tormenting abandonment comes this wasting sickness,

and this anguish and burning.

وحق عينيك واعظم بذا

من قسم للقلب فيه انشقاق

By your eyes—and how mighty is this

oath, which rends the heart asunder—

ليس سوى شخصك في مهجتي

من فوق عرش اللب والسر راق

none but your form within my heart

rises above the throne of mind and inner mystery.

كأن من معناك في كامن القل

ب مشاد لهيامي رواق

It is as though, from your essence, in the heart's hidden depths,

a portico were raised for my passion.

يا وطن القلب ويا روحه

انت له الشام وانت العراق

O homeland of the heart, and O its soul,

you are its al-Sham, and you are its Iraq.