طافَ الخَيالُ وَلاتَ حينَ تَطَرُّبِ

طافَ الخَيالُ وَلاتَ حينَ تَطَرُّبِ

أَن زارَ طَيفٌ موهِناً مِن زَينَبِ

أَن زارَ طَيفٌ موهِناً مِن زَينَبِ

The vision came by, though it was no time for rapture,

Imagination wandered when she was merry

For a phantom of Zaynab visited late at night.

As if a gentle vision of Zainab visited

طَرَقَت فَنَفَّرَتِ الكَرى عَن نائِمٍ

طَرَقَت فَنَفَّرَتِ الكَرى عَن نائِمٍ

كانَت وِسادَتُهُ ذِراعَ الأَرحَبي

كانَت وِسادَتُهُ ذِراعَ الأَرحَبي

She came by night and drove sleep from a sleeper

It startled the birds from a sleeping one

Whose pillow was the foreleg of an Arhabi camel.

Whose pillow was the wide arm

فَبَكى الشبابَ وَعَهدَهُ وَزَمانَهُ

فَبَكى الشبابَ وَعَهدَهُ وَزَمانَهُ

بَعدَ المَشيبِ وَما بُكاءُ الأَشيَبِ

بَعدَ المَشيبِ وَما بُكاءُ الأَشيَبِ

So he wept for youth, its days and its time,

So he wept for his youth, his time

After turning gray—but what avails a gray-haired man's weeping?

After aging, though the old do not weep