عرج بمنعرج الكثيب الأخضد

بين العقيق وبين حي الخرد

Turn aside at the bend of the soft dune,

between al-ʿAqīq and the maidens' encampment.

واسلك حرى ومناهل الوراد في

عذبات رند للهضاب الورد

And follow Ḥarā and the water-seekers' watering places, amid

laurel sprays upon the rosy hills.

فإذا علقت بربع قلبي حيه

إن الفؤاد رهين ربع الفؤاد

So if you grow attached to my heart's dwelling, greet it;

truly, the heart is captive to the heart's dwelling.

وانثر على قصر العقيق عقيق دم

عِ صبابة الوجد الكئيب الأكمد

And scatter upon al-ʿAqīq's palace the agate of tear-

drops of ardent, melancholy, grief-darkened longing.

وسلكت ما بين البشام ورنده

وسكرت من دن الرحيق بعسجد

And you traveled between the balsam and its laurel,

and grew drunk from the cask of pure wine, in gold;

وقطعت ما بين الشظا وتصاعدت

زفرات وجد من ضلوع القمهد

and crossed the reaches of ash-Shaẓā, while there rose

sighs of longing from the hulking one's ribs;

وأتت من ودانه في إدخر

وطربت ما بين الخيام وصرغد

and they came from his Waddān, in Idkhir,

and you were stirred between the tents and Ṣarghad.

فاقر السلام أهيله عني وقل

صب الجمال متيم بالإسأد

Then convey my greetings to its dear folk, and say:

Beauty's lover is enthralled by night journeying.

قد طالما قد أبرزت عيناه من

سفح الدموع ممزجا بتنكد

For so long his two eyes have brought forth

a pouring of tears mingled with misery.

ليت الزمان بوصلنا ووصالنا

غنى فأغنى عن وصال العود

Would that Time, through our meeting and our reunion,

had sung, making the lute's accompaniment needless.

يا قلب قم نحو الحبيب متيما

عل الزمان بوصلنا لم يحسد

O heart, rise toward the beloved, love-stricken;

perhaps Time has not begrudged our reunion.

ولرب شاجعة شجت قلبي ظنى

نغماتها بين الأراك الأمأد

And many a plaintive dove has rent my heart with wasting sorrow,

her melodies among the supple arāk trees.

دانت تطارحني الهوى فكأنما

تدري الهوى بظلوعها متقعد

She drew near, exchanging love with me, as though

she knew love lay settled within her ribs.

وكأنما تدري الذي بجوانح الص

صب العليل المرتدي بالأنكد

And as though she knew what lay in the ribs of the love-

stricken, ailing one, clothed in deepest misery.

فبكيت من ألم النوى وجدا به

وبكت بغير الدمع فوق الأملد

So I wept from separation's pain, longing for him,

and she wept without tears upon the supple bough.

من فاته أبدا وصال حبيبه

فليرسل الدمع الهتور العربد

Whoever forever misses union with his beloved,

then let him loose the streaming, tumultuous tears.

واها على دهر مضى واها له

فبشعبه ورد الظباء القصد

Ah, for an age gone by! Ah, for it!

For in its ravine the well-proportioned gazelles came to drink.

ما أحرزت تلعات نجد كالربى

كالشيح كالسرح العظام العلكد

Nothing held by the slopes of Najd, such as the uplands,

such as wormwood, such as the great, massive sarḥ trees,

كالقاعة والعساء والعنمي من

ويد الأثيلات الشعاب الصرغد

such as the plain, al-ʿAsāʾ, and al-ʿAnamī, from

Wīd of the little tamarisks, the ravines, Ṣarghad;

كالزاهر الدكناء والظهران والت

تنعيمِ والزوراء ثم الفيد

such as az-Zāhir, ad-Daknāʾ, aẓ-Ẓahrān, and at-

Tanʿīm, and az-Zawrāʾ, then al-Fayd;

كالنازلي أرض الهراة وهضبها

ورياضها والمنحنى والمبأبد

like those alighting in Herat's land and its uplands,

and its gardens, the bend, and al-Mabʾabad;

كالساكني ربع التنية واللوى

والحلة الفيحاء بين الفرهد

like those dwelling in at-Taniyyah's quarter and al-Liwā,

and the spacious encampment amid al-Farhad—

بألذ من تلك الدهور مضت لنا

طيبا وليس أريجها كالأبيد

is sweeter than those ages that passed for us,

in fragrance; nor is their perfume like that which endures.

فيها رمت بنبال جفن في الوغى

فكأنني وكأنها في مورد

In those days she shot her eyelid's arrows in the fray,

so it was as though I and she were at a watering-place.

هيفاء تزري بالمحاسن والطلا

تختال كالغصن الرطيب الأنأد

A slender-waisted beauty, putting loveliness and gazelle-fawns to shame,

swaying proudly like a fresh, supple bough.

قد ساقه أرج النسيم بروضه

فكأنها من حسنه في فرقد

The breeze's fragrance has carried it along in its garden,

so in its beauty she seems to be within the star Farqad.

إنسانة فتّانة قتّالة

وعدت ولكن الزمان مبعدي

A woman, enchanting and deadly,

she promised, but Time drives me away.

وتميس بين معصفر ومزعفر

وممسك ومعنبر ومهند

And she sways among safflower-dyed and saffron-dyed garments,

and musk-perfumed and ambergris-perfumed ones, and an Indian blade.

ولها سنان من نصال قد غدت

تطوي بها كل السفنج الورد

And she has a spear-point among blades; she has begun

to lay low with them every ruddy safanj [unclear term].

صهباء ليس كؤوسها إلا التني

يات العذاب على رضاب الجلد

Tawny wine, whose cups are nothing but the front-

teeth, sweet, upon the hardy one's mouth-nectar.

غنت فأفنت ثم أبلت أسكرت

ندمانها بتلفتات في دد

She sang and annihilated, then wore down and intoxicated

her drinking companions with turning glances amid play.

ظهرت وأبدت من بديع جمالها

برقا أذاب حشاشة في المعهد

She appeared and revealed, from her wondrous beauty,

a lightning-flash that melted life's last remnant in the familiar haunt.

سترت وأهدت من حواشي حسنها

وردا أبان عذار وجد مهند

She veiled herself, and gifted from the fringes of her beauty

roses revealing the cheek-down of longing sharp as an Indian blade.

فتكاتها تبلي الأسود فلم تدع

للعاشقين جواهر في كرمد

Her deadly assaults wear down lions; she has not left

for lovers any jewels among the ashes.

فتنت مواهي حسنها في حسنها

فكأنها وكأننا كالمفرد

The watery gleams of her beauty cast their spell within her beauty,

as though she and we were like one single being.