حي الربيع فقد أتاك حميدا

بدلت من خلق الزمان جديدا

Hail spring, for it has come to you most welcome.

In place of time’s threadbare garb, you have been given a new one.

خلق السحاب على الثرى وشياً ترى

منه الثرى ذا ثروة محسودا

The clouds have wrought embroidery upon the earth; you see

The earth, through it, wealthy and envied.

روض أفادته السحاب صنائعا

أضحى بها كل البلاد سعيدا

A meadow to which the clouds have granted favors,

Through which all the land has grown happy.

نشأت سحابته عليه فأنشأت

نوراً تراه ناشئا ووليدا

Its cloud rose above it and brought forth

Blossoms you see newly grown and newborn.

فكأنها عدن لدى أكنافه

قد نشرت فيه التجار برودا

As though it were Aden along its borders,

Where merchants have spread out striped cloaks,

عن اقحوان ضاحك متبسم

يفتر عن برد يخال عقودا

Revealing laughing, smiling daisies,

Whose lips part to reveal hailstones that seem necklaces.

فثغوره من لؤلؤ ولثاته

ذهب بريق سحابة قد جيدا

Their mouths are of pearl, and their gums

Are gold, watered with a cloud’s saliva.

ومعصفرات من شقائق ألبست

مقلا ترى فيها محاجر سودا

And safflower-dyed anemones have been clothed

In eyes within which you see black sockets.

فانهض بطرفك حيث شئت تجدله

من عطفه وردا يخال خدودا

So lift your gaze wherever you wish: you will find for it

Along the meadow’s side, roses that seem like cheeks.

تحكي لك الوجنات قد أشعرتها

خجلا فتشرب لونها توريدا

They mirror for you cheeks that you have made to feel

Shyness, so their color has drunk in a rosy blush.

قد وشحت أكنافه ببنفسج

خنث يغازل غانيات غيدا

Its borders have been girdled with violets,

Effeminate, flirting with lithe beauties.

وترى العذارى من بهار باهر

للشمس تحسب نظمهن فريدا

And you see maidens of yellow daisies, outshining

The sun; you take their array for choice pearls.

زهر يظل الطرف في أكنافه

حسرا لرونقه النظير بليدا

Flowers amid whose borders the eye remains

Wearied by their splendor, while their rival seems dull.

فإذا الرياح مشين فيه ظللن من

كسل النعيم رواكعا وسجودا

Then, when the winds walk through it, the flowers remain, from

The languor of bliss, bowing and prostrate.

يصددن صد متيم متهزم

أنحى له عذاله تفنيدا

They turn away like a love-stricken man in flight,

Whose reproachers have assailed him with censure.