1. رَسْمُ صَبْرِي في رَبْعِ شَوْقي مُحِيلُ

    وَلرُوحي في سَيْلِ دَمْعي مَسِيلُ

    The vestige of my patience lies desolate in the abode of my longing.

    And my soul has a channel in the torrent of my tears.

  2. قَدْ بَكى لِي مِمَّا بَكَيْتُ العَذُولُ

    وَرَثى لِي مِمَّا نَحَلْتُ النُّحولُ

    The reproacher has wept for me because of my weeping;

    and emaciation itself has pitied me for how thin I have grown.

  3. كُلَّما قُلْتُ قَدْ تَسَلَّيْتُ عَنْهُ

    قَالَ صَبْري وَهِمْتَ فِيما تَقُولُ

    Whenever I say, “I have ceased to pine for him,”

    my patience says, “You are mistaken in what you say.”

  4. أَنا أَفْدِي مَنْ أَسْتَقِلُّ لَهُ رُو

    حِي فِداءً وَذاكَ فيهِ قَلِيلُ

    I would ransom him for whom I deem my soul

    a paltry ransom—and that is little for him.

  5. لِيَ وَصْلٌ بِوَصْلِهِ أَبَداً مُغْ

    رىً وَهَجْرٌ عَنْ هَجْرِهِ مَشْغُولُ

    My union is forever enamored of union with him,

    and my estrangement is too preoccupied to forsake him.

  6. إِنْ تَذَكَّرْتُهُ فَشَوْقي صَحِيحٌ

    أَوْ تَناسَيْتُهُ فَصَبْري عَلِيلُ

    If I remember him, my longing is healthy;

    or if I pretend to forget him, my patience is ailing.

  7. لِيَ لَيْلانِ مِنْ دُجى عارِضَيْهِ

    عَرَّضَاني لِلَوْعَةٍ مَا تَزُولُ

    Mine are two nights from the darkness of his cheeks;

    both have exposed me to a burning anguish that never ceases.

  8. وَسَقامَانِ مِنْ تَمَرُّضِ جَفْنَيْهِ

    فَذا ظاهِرٌ وَهذا دَخِيلُ

    And two ailments from his eyelids’ feigned languor:

    so one is outward, and the other inward.

  9. لِيَ لَيْلٌ أَمَدُّ مِنْ نَفَسِ العا

    شِقِ طُولاً إِذْ زَارَ فِيهِ الخَلِيلُ

    Mine was a night longer than the breath of a

    lover, when the beloved visited during it.

  10. مَا اعْتَنَقْنا حَتَّى افْتَرَقْنا وَخفتا

    نُ الدُّجى عَنْ قَمِيصِهِ مَحْلولُ

    No sooner had we embraced than we parted, and the kaftan

    of darkness was unfastened from its shirt.

  11. وَكَأَنَّ الهِلالَ تَحْتَ الثُّرَيَّا

    مَلِكٌ فَوْقَ رَأْسِهِ إِكْلِيلُ

    And it is as though the crescent beneath the Pleiades

    were a king with a crown above his head.