1. فَدا لِلعَين مِني كُل عَين

    وَما في الكَون من ذَهَب وَعين

    For my eye, let every treasure I own be a ransom,

    and all the gold and coin in the universe.

  2. أَرى الظُلماء قَد حجبَت عياني

    وَأَجرت مِن دُموعي كل عَين

    I see that darkness has veiled my sight,

    and made every spring flow with my tears.

  3. وَأَلقتني بسجن يوسفىّ

    وَحالَت بَينَ أَفراحي وَبَيني

    And cast me into a prison like Joseph's,

    and come between my joys and me.

  4. وَأقسم اِن تحقق لي شَفاها

    لجدت بِما أَرى في الراحتَين

    I swear: if its healing comes to me,

    I would freely give whatever I see in my two palms.

  5. فَقَد أَصبَحت في حُزن وَأَن

    وَقَلبي بَين اِتعاب وَأَين

    For I have come to live in grief and groaning,

    and my heart is caught between strain and exhaustion.

  6. وَما أَهدت صبا الاِسحار نَوما

    اِلى عَين غَدَت في أَسر غين

    Nor has the dawn's east breeze brought sleep

    to an eye now imprisoned by a clouding veil.

  7. يقلب في دثار السَقم جِسمي

    كَأَني فَوق جمر الحرتين

    My body is tossed in sickness's coverlet,

    as though I lay on the embers of the two lava fields.

  8. تخالفت الأساة بطول وَعد

    بعللني وَيأس فيه حيني

    The physicians disagreed: a lingering promise

    that [apparently] keeps me hopeful, and despair in which my death lies;

  9. وَمن فظ يهددني جهارا

    بمبضعه المصوب في اليَدين

    and a harsh one threatens me openly

    with his scalpel poised in his two hands.

  10. وَعهدي بِالمياه حياة نَفسي

    فَمالي قَد ظَمئت بماء عَيني

    I have known water to be my soul's life;

    so why have I grown thirsty with water in my eye?

  11. فَيا لِلَهِ أَي سَنا وَضوء

    أُصيب بكل عادية وَشين

    O God! What radiance and light

    has been struck by every assault and blemish!

  12. فَهل هي في سَبيلِ اللَهِ غازَت

    فَذاقَت بِاللُقا ظُلم الحسين

    Did it go to war in God's cause,

    and in battle taste the wrong done to Husayn?

  13. فَكَم أَمسى بِما أَلقى حَزينا

    وَبَينَ النوم معترك وَبَيني

    How often I pass the evening grieving at what I endure,

    with a battlefield between sleep and me!

  14. أَبيت وَمؤنسى الخفاش لَيلا

    وَحالي مَعه شر الحالتَين

    I spend the night with the bat as my companion,

    and my plight beside it is the worse of the two:

  15. فَذاك بنور عَينيه مهنا

    وَلي أَسف بحجب المقلَتين

    it is content in the light of its two eyes,

    while I grieve at the veiling of my two eyes.

  16. وَأَبسط لِلظَّلامِ أَكف بثى

    وَأَشقى لوعَة بالظلمَتَين

    I spread the palms of my sorrow toward the darkness,

    and suffer anguish from the two darknesses.

  17. تَراني معرضا عن كل ضوء

    فَهَل خاصَمت نور النيرَين

    You see me turning away from every light—

    have I quarreled with the light of the two luminaries?

  18. يُنافرني السَنا فَأَفر مِنه

    كَأَن الضوء يطلبني بدين

    Radiance shuns me, and I flee from it,

    as though the light were pursuing me for a debt.

  19. وَأَجنح لِلظَّلامِ جنوح صب

    دَنا لِحَبيبِه بِالرقمَتَين

    I incline toward darkness like a lovesick one

    who drew near his beloved at al-Raqmatayn.

  20. جَزى اللَهُ السِقام جزاء خير

    فَقَد هذبنني ونَأَزلن ريني

    May God reward these illnesses with good,

    for they have refined me and [apparently] removed my tarnish.

  21. وَصرت بِما لقيت من اللَيالي

    أَفرق بَين ذي صدق وَمين

    Through what I have met from the nights, I have come

    to tell the truthful from the false.

  22. حرمت مقاصدي َمنعت عما

    تَميل لحسنه نفسي وَعَيني

    I have been denied my aims, barred from what

    my soul and eye are drawn to for its beauty.

  23. اِذا رمت اِنتِشاق الطَيب يَوماً

    وَضعت يدي فوق الحاجبين

    Whenever I wish one day to inhale perfume,

    I put my hand above my eyebrows.

  24. وَناهيكَ الطاء سجل كتي

    وَتركي لِلحَديث بحسرَتين

    And enough for you is [possibly] the folding up of my books' scroll,

    and my forsaking conversation, with two regrets.

  25. وَقَد عفت الأَساة وَعدت أَرجو

    طَبيب الكون رب المَشرِقَين

    I have shunned the physicians, and again hope in

    the Physician of the universe, Lord of the two Easts.

  26. الهي سيدي غوثى رَجائي

    عياذي عدتي ومزيل بيني

    My God, my Master, my succor, my hope,

    my refuge, my support, and remover of my separation:

  27. نعاني أَبيض القرطاس لما

    جَفاني اليَوم نور الاسوَدين

    The white of the paper announced my death when

    the light of my two black pupils deserted me today.

  28. وَقَد جفت دواتي وهي تَبكي

    لما قد راعها من طول أَيني

    My inkwell has dried up while it weeps

    at what has alarmed it—the length of my weariness.

  29. وَأَقلامي كم انشقت لأني

    حرمت مساسَها بِالاصبَعَين

    How often my pens have split, because I

    have been denied touching them with my two fingers.

  30. غَدَوت اليَومَ أَميا وَعَلى

    أَقضى من فُنون الكُتُب ديني

    Today I have become illiterate, and [perhaps] I may

    repay my debt through the disciplines of books.

  31. فجهلي عبرة وَالسَقم أَخرى

    وَعَيني قَد أَرَتني العِبرَتَين

    My ignorance is one lesson, and sickness another,

    and my eye has shown me both lessons.

  32. فَلَم لا أَنعى بِالحَسراتِ حالي

    وَتَعلو زفرتي لِلفرقَدين

    Why, then, should I not lament my state in sorrow,

    and let my sigh rise to the two Farqad stars?