1. أَنشب الداءُ مخلبَيهِ بقلبي

    وأَمضُّ الأَدواءِ داءُ الفؤَادِ

    Illness sank its two claws into my heart,

    And the most painful ailment is the heart's ailment.

  2. ويحَ طرفي فأَي ذنبٍ جناهُ

    فيقاسي السُّهادَ تلوَ السُّهاد

    Woe to my eye! What sin has it committed

    That it suffers sleeplessness after sleeplessness?

  3. ناوأَتني الأيامُ حتى دهتني

    بخطوبٍ تفتُّ قلبَ الجماد

    The days opposed me until they overwhelmed me

    With calamities that shatter the heart of stone.

  4. من مجيري من وحشتي ومُعيذي

    من سقامٍ به أضعتُ رشادي

    Who will rescue me from my loneliness and shield me

    From an illness through which I lost my sound judgment?

  5. فكأَن النهارَ ليلٌ بهيمٌ

    أَو كأني في ظلمة الألحاد

    It is as though day were pitch-dark night,

    Or as though I were in the darkness of graves.

  6. كلُّ نورٍ في مقلتيَّ ظلامٌ

    كلُّ أُنسٍ عليَّ صعبُ المقاد

    Every light in my eyes is darkness;

    All solace is hard for me to attain.

  7. عيلَ صيري وأَيُّ صبرٍ لمضنى

    زادهُ الهمُّ وهو اخبثُ زاد

    My patience is spent—what patience is there for a sufferer

    Whose sustenance is worry, the vilest sustenance?

  8. فإذا الجوُّ بالغمام تغشى

    صحتُ يا جوّث لا تعذب فؤَادي

    Whenever the sky was veiled with clouds,

    I cried, 'O sky, do not torment my heart!'

  9. لعبت بي الغمومُ حتى كأني

    كرةٌ في يد الدواهي الشداد

    Sorrows toyed with me until I seemed

    A ball in the hand of fierce calamities.

  10. وكأني بمقلتي وهي حَيرى

    في لجاج الدجى الشديد السواد

    And I seem, with my eye bewildered, to be

    Amid the billows of pitch-black night.

  11. كلما ساور الكرى محجريها

    شردتهُ بلابلُ السُّهاد

    Whenever slumber assailed its sockets,

    The anxieties of sleeplessness drove it away.

  12. كم ليالٍ طويتُها وفؤادي

    فوق جمر الغضا وشوك القتاد

    How many nights I passed while my heart lay

    On ghada embers and qatad thorns!

  13. أرقبُ النجمَ وهو مثلي مغشى

    بغمامٍ ارسى من الأطواد

    I watch the star, veiled like me

    In clouds more firmly anchored than mountains.

  14. لا انيسٌ به أداوي كلومي

    لا سميرٌ يروي فؤادي الصادي

    No companion through whom to heal my wounds,

    No nighttime companion to quench my thirsty heart.

  15. كنتُ في غزلتي كأني بسجنٍ

    او كأني أهيم في كل واد

    In my seclusion I was as though in prison,

    Or as though I wandered through every valley.

  16. ما صفا لي في علتي قطُّ عيشٌ

    وحرمتُ الجفونَ طعم الرُّقاد

    Life was never sweet to me in my illness,

    And I denied my eyelids the taste of sleep.

  17. كيف تقوى على الهجود عيوني

    والمنايا تطوف حول مهادي

    How can my eyes find strength for sleep

    While death circles round my bed?

  18. لم يرعني طيفُ الردى نصب عيني

    كفراقي للحافظين ودادي

    The specter of death before my eyes frightened me less

    Than parting from those who cherished my affection.

  19. ضربَ الدهر يننا فافترقنا

    مدةً خلتُها من الآباد

    Time drove us apart, and we parted

    For a span I thought an eternity.

  20. حالَ بعدُ الديار دون التلاقي

    واطرادُ الأَنواء اي اطراد

    The distance between our homes prevented our meeting,

    As did the succession of storms—what a succession!

  21. تابعَ الجوُّ غيثهُ نحو شهرٍ

    فتشكت حتى النفوسُ الصوادي

    The sky kept up its rain for about a month,

    Till even thirsty souls complained.

  22. وذعرنا من الرعود غضاباً

    ومللنا المقام في كل ناد

    We were terrified by the raging thunder,

    And wearied of lingering in every gathering place.

  23. يا رعي الله من رعى عهد حبي

    من كرامِ الزوار والعُواد

    Ah, may God guard those who kept my bond of love,

    Among the noble visitors and callers at my sickbed.

  24. قد أعانوا على الشفاءِ فؤَادي

    وهمُ منهُ في مقام السواد

    They have helped my heart toward healing,

    And dwell within its very core.

  25. لو جَفوني كما جفاني سواهم

    لرأَيت الجحيم تحت وسادي

    Had they shunned me as others shunned me,

    I would have seen hell beneath my pillow.

  26. إِنَّ بُعدَ الأحباب افجعُ خطبٍ

    والعليل المهجور اشقى العباد

    Indeed, separation from loved ones is the direst calamity,

    And the abandoned invalid is the most wretched of mortals.

  27. فإِذا ما نضرتُ بعد ذبولي

    فنضوري من جود تلك الغوادي

    So if I flourish after withering,

    My flourishing comes from the bounty of those morning rains.

  28. وإذا ما حييتُ كانت حياتي

    من طبيبي المدور المجواد

    And if I survive, my life will come

    From my physician, the bountiful al-Mudawwar.

  29. كان لي في السقام أمرَ آسٍ

    وبعيَدَ السقام اقوى عماد

    In illness he was my most skillful healer,

    And just afterward, my strongest support.

  30. فجزاهُ الإِلهُ خير جزاءِ

    وأنال الخُلان كلَّ مُراد

    So may God reward him with the finest recompense,

    And grant my friends their every wish.