1. هذي أُميمُ تجلّى شَخصُها وبدا

    وَقسّمت بِالهوى منك الحِجا بددا

    Here is Umaym, her figure revealed and plain to see;

    And through love she has scattered your reason into pieces.

  2. زوّد جفونكَ منها قبلَ رحلَتها

    وَقبلَ أَن يقطعَ الحادي بها جددا

    Fill your eyelids with the sight of her before her departure,

    And before the camel-driver takes her along the paths.

  3. فَما حياتكَ من بعدِ الفراقِ لها

    فينا إذا ما بها حادي الركابِ حَدا

    For what is your life after parting from her,

    Among us, once the driver of the riding camels chants her onward?

  4. ما بالُ دمعي ما أخفيت قطّ هوى

    أميم إلّا بهِ في جريهِ شهِدا

    What ails my tears? Never have I concealed love

    For Umaym without their flow bearing witness to it.

  5. حورية لَو رآها وهيَ سافرةٌ

    حبرٌ لَكانَ لها في وقتهِ سَجَدا

    A heavenly maiden—if she were seen with her face unveiled

    By a religious scholar, he would prostrate himself before her at once.

  6. وَلو عَقدت بناناً من أناملها

    مِن لينهِ لاِنعطا في ذاك واِنعقدا

    And if she knotted one of her fingers,

    Its softness would let it bend and knot in that way.

  7. تلكَ الّتي لَو جَفَت في الحبّ أو هجرت

    لَم أَستمِع عذلاً فيها ولا فندا

    She is the one—even if she grew distant in love or forsook me,

    I would heed no blame concerning her, nor any reproach.

  8. لَولا محبَّتها ما كنت بحتُ بِما

    تُخفيهِ نَفسي ولا اِستَصلحتُ ما فَسدا

    But for loving her, I would not have revealed what

    My soul conceals, nor repaired what had gone wrong.

  9. وَقد أَرى الغيَّ رشداً في محبّتها

    فيما أَرى مِن هَواها والضلال هُدى

    And indeed, in loving her I see waywardness as sound judgment,

    In what I perceive of passion for her—and misguidance as guidance.

  10. كَم ذاب قلبي لفرقاها وهجرتها

    وَكَم غَدا مِن تثنّي قدّها قددا

    How often my heart has melted from parting with her and her desertion,

    And how often it has been torn to shreds by her swaying figure!

  11. وَليلة زُرتها بعدَ الهجوع ومن

    يخشى التنكّر منه لحظة هَجدا

    And one night I visited her after sleep had come, while one

    Whose hostility was feared dozed for a moment.

  12. فبتُّ أَحسو رضاباً من مقبّلها

    أحيي بهِ من حياة الروحِ ما نَفدا

    So I spent the night sipping sweet saliva from her lips,

    Reviving with it what had been spent of the soul's life.

  13. ريقٌ حَكى الشهد طعماً في مذاقتهِ

    وَالمسك إن ولجَ الخيشومَ أو صعدا

    Saliva that resembled honey in its taste,

    And musk when it entered the nostril or rose within it.

  14. قبّلتُ مبسمها كَى يَنطفي حرقي

    فما اِنطَفى لاعجٌ منها ولا بَردا

    I kissed her smiling mouth to quench my burning,

    But no fire she kindled was quenched or cooled.

  15. فكلَّما رمتُ أَن أطفي بريقتها

    جمرَ الجوى شبّ في أحشايَ واِتّقدا

    So whenever I tried to quench with her saliva

    The embers of love's anguish, they flared and blazed in my entrails.

  16. لَم أدرِ مِن حيث ما قبّلت مَبسمها

    أكنتُ قبّلت درّاً منه أَو بردا

    I could not tell, when I kissed her smiling mouth,

    Whether I had kissed pearls there or hailstones.

  17. اِعمل لِدُنياك ما داومتَ صُحبتها

    حتّى كأنّك فيها لَم تَمُت أبدا

    Work for your worldly life as long as you keep its company,

    As though you would never die in it.

  18. وَاِعمل لأخراكَ مهما عشتَ مجتهداً

    حتّى كأنّك موعودُ الحمامِ غدا

    And work diligently for your hereafter for as long as you live,

    As though you were appointed to meet death tomorrow.

  19. إنّي اِمرؤٌ ما اِشتهى شيئاً يلذّ به

    ممّا يدنّسه إلّا وقَد زهدا

    Indeed, I am a man who has never desired any pleasure

    That defiles him without already renouncing it.

  20. دعوتُ دهري رجاء منه يسعدني

    فيما أُريد منَ الدُنيا فما سعدا

    I appealed to my fortune, hoping it would favor me,

    In what I sought from the world, but it gave no aid.

  21. وَصرتُ والعيشُ قد ولّت شبيبته

    في غصّةِ الدهرِ أشكو البؤس والنكدا

    And I was left, with life's youth already fled,

    In fortune's choking grief, lamenting misery and hardship.

  22. حتّى اِستندت لعمري بالفتى سند

    فكانَ حالي لما أمّلته سَندا

    Until, by my life, I leaned on the young man Sanad,

    And my circumstances bore out what I had hoped for.

  23. متوّج في مقامات الفخارِ بنى

    بيتاً يكونُ له كسبُ الثنا عُمدا

    Crowned in the stations of glory, he has built

    A house whose pillars are the praise he earns.

  24. تَغدو مواهبهُ منه مبدّدةً

    لِسائلٍ مرتج أو وافدٍ وَفدا

    His gifts go forth from him, freely distributed,

    To a hopeful petitioner or a visitor who has come.

  25. وَقَد يحبُّ ويَهوى المكرمات على اِس

    تصعابها مثل الوالد الولدا

    And indeed he loves and cherishes noble deeds, despite

    Their difficulty, as a father loves his child.

  26. وَيَشتري الحمدَ حيثُ الحمدُ كان وفي

    ملقاهُ يبذل منه النفس وَالسندا

    And he purchases praise wherever praise is found, and upon

    Meeting it, gives of himself both life and support.

  27. وَكَم شفى في مساعيهِ بهمّتهِ

    عينُ العلا إِذ رآها تشتكي الرَمَدا

    And how often, in his endeavors, he has healed through his resolve

    The eye of glory, when he saw it suffering from inflammation.

  28. يا أيّها الملكُ القرمُ الّذي سهلت

    لَهُ المطالبُ لمّا جدّ واِجتَهدا

    O king, noble chief, for whom were made easy

    The goals he sought, once he was earnest and strove!

  29. إنّي زرعتُ وما من زارعٍ زرع ال

    مَعروف في كنههِ إلّا وَقَد حصدا

    Indeed, I have sown; no sower has ever planted

    Kindness in its true essence without reaping a harvest.