أَضحَكَني الحُبُّ وَأَبكاني

أَضحَكَني الحُبُّ وَأَبكاني

وَهاجَ شَوقي طولُ كِتماني

وَهاجَ شَوقي طولُ كِتماني

Love made me laugh and made me weep,

Love made me laugh and cry

Love has made me laugh and has made me weep,

And my long concealment stirred my longing,

And longing stirred within my secret heart

And the length of my concealment has stirred my yearning,

مِن حُبِّ حَوراءَ رُصافِيَّةٍ

مِن حُبِّ حَوراءَ رُصافِيَّةٍ

كَرَنَّها غُصنٌ مِنَ البانِ

كَرَنَّها غُصنٌ مِنَ البانِ

For love of a dark-eyed beauty from Rusafa,

For a radiant-faced maid, slender as a bough

For the love of a wide-eyed beauty from Rusafa,

As though she were a branch of the bān tree.

Her perfect form, a castle in miniature

Resembling a swaying branch of the ben-tree;

مَخروطَةُ الكُمَّينِ قَصرِيَّةٌ

مَخروطَةُ الكُمَّينِ قَصرِيَّةٌ

جِنِّيَّةٌ في خَلقِ إِنسانِ

جِنِّيَّةٌ في خَلقِ إِنسانِ

With tapering sleeves, a girl of the palace,

Elfin in human form, her plaited hair

With tapered sleeves, a creature of the palaces,

A jinn-maiden in human form,

Would suit a wanton or adulterer

A Jinni spirit cast in a human form;

مَطمومَةُ الشَعرِ غُلامِيَّةٌ

مَطمومَةُ الشَعرِ غُلامِيَّةٌ

تَصلُحُ لِلّوطِيِّ وَالزاني

تَصلُحُ لِلّوطِيِّ وَالزاني

Close-cropped of hair, boyish,

As if from her beauty a pearl shone forth

Her hair is cropped short, in the manner of a boy,

Suited to the sodomite and the fornicator.

Outstretched in a peasant's hand

Suited for the sodomite and the libertine alike;

كَأَنَّها مِن حُسنِها دُرَّةٌ

كَأَنَّها مِن حُسنِها دُرَّةٌ

بارِزَةٌ مِن كَفِّ دَهقانِ

بارِزَةٌ مِن كَفِّ دَهقانِ

In her beauty, she seems a pearl,

Or a musk-pod mixed with ambergris

As though, in her loveliness, she were a pearl

Displayed in a dehqān’s palm,

Cradled in a leaf of sweet basil.

Displayed upon the palm of a grand Dehqan;

أَو مِسكَةٌ خالَطَها عَنبَرٌ

أَو مِسكَةٌ خالَطَها عَنبَرٌ

وَاستَودَعَت طاقَةَ رَيحانِ

وَاستَودَعَت طاقَةَ رَيحانِ

Or a lump of musk mingled with ambergris,

Or a morsel of musk mingled with ambergris,

And entrusted with a bunch of sweet basil.

Nestled within a cluster of sweet basil.