1. ومساعدٍ لي في البكاء مُساهرٍ

    بالليل يؤنِسُني بطيبِ لقائِهِ

    And a companion in weeping keeps vigil with me,

    At night he comforts me with the sweetness of his company.

  2. هامِي المدامع أو يُصابَ بعينهِ

    حامي الأضالعِ أو يموتَ بدائهِ

    His eyes stream with tears until his eye is stricken;

    His ribs are hot until he dies of his malady.

  3. غرثانُ يأخذ روحَه من جسمهِ

    فحياتُه مرهونةٌ بفَنائِهِ

    Famished, he draws his life from his body,

    So his life is bound to his own extinction.

  4. يُشفِي على تَلَفٍ فيُضربُ عُنْقُهُ

    فيكونُ أقوى موجبٍ لِشفائهِ

    He verges on ruin, and then his neck is struck,

    And that becomes the most effective means of his healing.

  5. ساويتُه في لونه ونُحولهِ

    وفضَلتُه في بُؤسهِ وشقَائهِ

    I have matched him in his color and his thinness,

    And surpassed him in his misery and suffering.

  6. هَبْ أَنَّهُ مِثلي بحُرقةِ قلبه

    وسُهاده طولَ الدُّجَى وبكائهِ

    Grant that he is like me in his heart's burning,

    And in his sleeplessness through the darkness and his weeping—

  7. أفوادِعٌ طولَ النهار مرفَّهٌ

    كمعذّبٍ بصباحه ومسائهِ

    Is one, then, at ease all day and pampered,

    Like one tormented morning and evening?