راقت لعينيك يوم البين دمياط

وفي الفواد من الأشواق أفراطُ

Damietta delighted your eyes on the day of parting,

and the heart held yearning beyond measure.

حللتها بعد ما شط المزار بنا

وحادث الدهر بالأحرار شطاط

You settled there after our meeting-place had grown remote,

and time's onslaught on noble men is grossly unjust.

ليس الزمان بمحمودٍ خلائقه

إذا استوى فيه ذو جهل وبقراط

Time is not praiseworthy in its ways

when an ignorant man and Hippocrates stand equal within it.

أبيت أرعى نسيمات الشام عسى

يزورني من صبا لبنان قيراط

I spend the night watching for the Levant's breezes, hoping

that a mere carat of Lebanon's east wind might visit me.

واسأل النجم في الظلماء مرتقباً

عن شادنٍ ما عرا حبيه أسقاط

And I ask the star in the darkness, waiting expectantly,

about a young gazelle whose cheeks [uncertain reading] bear no blemishes.

ساجي اللواحظ ورديُّ الخدود له

خالٌ من الزنج فوق الثغر مرباط

Languid-eyed and rose-cheeked, he has

a Zanj-black mole fixed above his mouth.

لولاه ما راعني بينٌ ولا سهرت

عين ولا جددت للوجد امراط

Without him, no parting would have alarmed me, nor would there have been a sleepless

eye, nor would longing's cloaks have been renewed.

لولا الفراق لما أودى الحشا زمن

له من الغدر حالات وأنماط

But for separation, time would not have ravaged the heart,

with its moods and patterns of treachery.

أفديه من قمرٍ يعلو على غصنٍ

ما هاج رونقه الوضاح اسماط

I would ransom him—a moon rising above a bough,

whose radiant luster no necklaces have kindled.

فكيف أسلو وهذا الريم في كبدي

وفي الحشاشة رتّاع وحطاط

How, then, can I forget, with this white gazelle in my liver,

and in my last spark of life, grazing freely and making his home?

عليه مني سلام الحب ما تليت

آي ومازئح القرطاس خطاطُ

Upon him be my greeting of love, as long as they recite

verses, and as long as a calligrapher inscribes the page [verb uncertain].