1. تركتُ حَشاكَ وسلوانَها

    فخلِّ حشايَ وأحزانَها

    I have left your heart—and its consolations;

    so leave my heart to its sorrows.

  2. أغضَّ الشبيبة عنِّي إليك

    فقضِّ بزهوك ريعانَها

    Turn youth away from me and toward yourself,

    and spend its prime amid your splendor.

  3. ودعني أُصارعُ همِّي وبِت

    صريع مُدامك نَشوانَها

    Leave me to wrestle with my grief, while you pass the night

    felled by your wine, drunk on it.

  4. قد استوطن الهمُّ قلبي فعفتُ

    لك الغانياتِ وأوطانَها

    Grief has made my heart its home, so I renounced

    for you the singing beauties and their homelands.

  5. عدوتُ ملاعبَ ذات الأراك

    فلست أُلاعب غُزلانَها

    I passed beyond the playgrounds of Dhat al-Arak;

    I no longer sport with its gazelles.

  6. وعفتُ غدائرَ بيض الخدود

    فما أنشِقُ الدهر ريحانَها

    I forsook the tresses of fair-cheeked women;

    never again will I breathe their basil-scent.

  7. أفق لستَ أوَّلَ مَن لامني

    على وصل نفسي تحنانها

    Awake—you are not the first to blame me

    for my soul’s yearning to be reunited.

  8. فكم لي قبلك لوَّامةٌ

    تشاغلتُ مطرحاً شانَها

    So let your heart address me as a reproacher;

    I pretended distraction and cast its concern aside.

  9. تريني بالعذل إشفاقَها

    وفيه تلوّنُ ألوانَها

    Through censure it shows me its solicitude,

    yet within that censure it changes all its colors.

  10. تُناشدني الصبر لكن تريدُ

    أن أعرف اللهو عرفانَها

    It implores me to be patient, but it wants

    me to know dalliance as intimately as it does.

  11. وما هي منِّي حتَّى تخاف

    عليَّ الهمومَ وأشجانَها

    She is not so much a part of me that she should fear

    for me these griefs and sorrows.

  12. وما في ضلوعي لها مهجةٌ

    عليها تحاذرُ نيرانَها

    Nor is there, within my ribs, a heart of hers

    for whose sake she should dread their fires.

  13. ولا بين جفنيَّ عينٌ لها

    من الكحل أغسل أجفانَها

    Nor between my lids is there an eye of hers

    whose eyelids I wash clean of kohl.

  14. ولو ضمنت أضلعي قلبَها

    سلوتُ النوائبَ سلوانَها

    Had my ribs enclosed her heart,

    I would have forgotten calamity in its consolation.

  15. ولو وجدت بعض ما قد وجدتُ

    لبلّت من الدمع أردانَها

    Had she suffered even some of what I have suffered,

    her sleeves would have been drenched with tears.

  16. خَلا أنَّها مُذ رأتني غدوتُ

    لهيفَ الحشاشة حرَّانها

    Only, since she saw me become

    heartsick, my innermost being aflame,

  17. فقالت أجدّك من ذي حشاً

    جوى الحزنِ لازمَ إيطانها

    she said: “In earnest—are you one whose breast

    the anguish of grief has chosen as its lasting home?

  18. لمن حُرقُ الوجد تذكي وراء

    حنايا ضلوعِك نيرانها

    Why do the burnings of longing kindle

    their fires behind the folds of your ribs?

  19. وتشجيك كلُّ هتوف العشيّ

    تردّد في الدوح ألحانَها

    Every evening caller among the trees makes you grieve,

    repeating its melodies through the boughs.

  20. تسلَّ وبالله لما اغتنمت

    من جدّة اللهو إبانَها

    Take comfort, by God, before you let slip

    the season when pleasure is fresh.”

  21. فقلت سلوتُ إذاً مُهجتي

    إذا أنا حاولتُ سلوانَها

    I said: “I would forget my very soul

    if ever I sought to forget this grief.

  22. كفانيَ ضناً أن تُرى في الحسين

    شفت آلُ مروان أضغانها

    Torment enough for me: over Husayn,

    the house of Marwan slaked its rancors.

  23. فأغضبت اللهَ في قتله

    وأرضت بذلك شيطانَها

    In killing him it angered God

    and thereby pleased its Satan,

  24. عشيَّةَ أنهضها بَغيُها

    فجاءته تركبُ طغيانَها

    on the evening when its transgression roused it,

    and it came against him riding its tyranny,

  25. بجمع من الأرض سدَّ الفروجَ

    وغطَّى النجودَ وغيطانَها

    with a host that filled every gap in the earth

    and covered the uplands and the lowlands.

  26. وطا الوحشَ إذ لم يجد مهرباً

    ولازمت الطيرُ أوكانَها

    It trampled the wild beasts when they found no refuge,

    and the birds clung fast to their nests.

  27. وحفَّت بمن حيثُ يلقى الجموع

    يثنّي بماضيه وحدانَها

    They hemmed in one who, whenever he met great armies,

    with his keen blade reduced their multitudes to single men.

  28. وسامته يركبُ إحدى اثنتين

    وقد صرّت الحربُ أسنانَها

    They offered him one of two courses,

    while war had bared its teeth:

  29. فأمَّا يُرى مذعناً أو تموت

    نفسٌ أبى العزُّ إذعانَها

    either he must be seen submissive, or a soul must die

    whose pride refused submission.

  30. فقال لها اعتصمي بالإِباءِ

    فنفسُ الأبيّ وما زانَها

    He told that soul: ‘Hold fast to refusal—

    nothing adorns the freeborn soul more.

  31. إذا لم تجد غيرَ لبسِ الهوانِ

    فبالموت تنزعُ جُثمانَها

    If it can find no garment but humiliation,

    then through death it strips off its body.’

  32. رأى القتلَ صبراً شعار الكرام

    وفخراً يُزين لها شانَها

    He deemed steadfast death the emblem of the noble,

    and a glory that adorns their estate.

  33. فشمَّر للحرب في مَعركٍ

    به عرك الموتُ فرسانَها

    He girded himself for war in a field

    where death ground its horsemen down.

  34. وأضرمها لِعنان السماءِ

    حمراءَ تلفحُ أعنانَها

    He kindled it till it reached the sky,

    red, its blaze scorching the heavens’ heights.

  35. ركينٌ وللأرض تحت الكماة

    رجيفٌ يزلزل ثهلانَها

    Steadfast—while the earth beneath the warriors

    shuddered with a trembling that shook Mount Thahlan.

  36. أقرُّ على الأرض من ظهرها

    إذا مَلمل الرعبُ أقرانَها

    He stood firmer on the earth than the earth itself

    when terror made his peers reel.

  37. تزيد الطلاقةُ في وجهه

    إذا غيَّر الخوفُ ألوانَها

    The openness of his face only brightened

    when fear transformed the faces around him.

  38. ولمَّا قضى للعُلى حقَّها

    وشيَّد بالسيف بُنيانَها

    When he had rendered loftiness all its due

    and raised its edifice with the sword,

  39. ترجَّل للموت عن سابقٍ

    له أخلت الخيلُ ميدانَها

    he dismounted to meet death from a steed

    for which the horses had cleared the field.

  40. ثوى زائدَ البِشر في صرعةٍ

    له حبّب العزُّ لُقيانَها

    He fell with gladness still increasing,

    for honor had made the meeting beloved to him.

  41. كأَنَّ المنيَّة كانت لديه

    فتاةٌ تواصل خلصانَها

    It seemed as though death, to him,

    were a maiden joining her chosen beloved.

  42. جلتها له البيضُ في موقفٍ

    به أثكلَ السمرَ خِرصانَها

    The white blades unveiled her to him in a stand

    where he bereaved the brown spears of their points.

  43. فبات بها تحت ليلِ الكفاح

    طروب النقيبةِ جذلانَها

    He spent the night with her beneath the night of combat,

    high-hearted and exultant.

  44. وأصبح مُشتجراً للرماح

    تحلّي الدِما منه مُرّانها

    At dawn he was interwoven with lances,

    his blood adorning their supple shafts.

  45. عفيراً متى عاينته الكماةُ

    يختطف الرعب ألوانَها

    Dust-covered—whenever the warriors beheld him,

    terror snatched the color from their faces.

  46. فما أجلت الحربُ عن مِثله

    صريعاً يجبّن شُجعانَها

    Never did battle clear away from one like him:

    a fallen man who made brave men cowards,

  47. تريبَ المحيا تظنّ السماءُ

    بأَنَّ على الأرض كيوانَها

    his face so dust-darkened that heaven imagined

    its Saturn had descended to earth.

  48. غريباً أرى يا غريب الطفوف

    توسُّدَ خدَّيك كثبانَها

    A stranger—O stranger of al-Taff, I see

    your cheeks pillowed upon its dunes,

  49. وقتلك صبراً بأيدِ أبوك

    ثناها وكسَّر أوثانها

    and you killed helplessly by hands whose idols

    your father’s hands had bent and shattered.

  50. أتقضي فداكَ حشا العالمين

    خميصَ الحشاشةِ ضمآنَها

    Must you die—hearts of all the worlds be your ransom—

    hollow-bellied, your burning breast athirst?

  51. ألستَ زعيمَ بني غالبٍ

    ومِطعامَ فهرٍ ومطعانَها

    Are you not the chief of the sons of Ghalib,

    the great feeder of Fihr and their great spearman?

  52. فلِم أغفلت بك أوتارَها

    وليست تعاجل إمكانَها

    Why, then, did they neglect their blood-debts in you,

    when they are not slow to strike whenever they can?

  53. وهذي الأسنَّةُ والبارقات

    أطالت يدُ المطلِ هُجرانَها

    Here are the spearheads and flashing blades,

    long estranged by the delaying hand;

  54. وتلك المطهّمة المقرباتُ

    تجرُّ على الأرض أرسانَها

    and there are the noble, close-bred steeds,

    their reins trailing upon the ground.

  55. أجبنا عن الحرب يا من غدوا

    على أوَّل الدهر أخدانَها

    Answer us concerning war, you who have been

    its companions since the beginning of time.

  56. أترضى أراقمكم أن تُعدَّ

    بنو الوزغ اليوم أقرانَها

    Are you content that your serpents should reckon

    the sons of geckos today their peers,

  57. وتنصِب أعناقها مثلها

    بحيثُ تطاولُ ثعبانَها

    and that those raise their necks as yours do,

    until their serpent towers as high?

  58. يميناً لئن سوّفت قطعَها

    فلا وَصل السيفُ أَيمانَها

    By my oath, if you delay severing it,

    may the sword never reach your right hands.

  59. وإن هي نامت على وِترها

    فلا خالطَ النومُ أجفانَها

    And if it sleeps while its blood-debt stands,

    may sleep never touch its eyelids.

  60. تنامُ وبالطفّ علياؤها

    أُميَّة تنقضُ أركانَها

    It sleeps while at al-Taff its lofty glory—

    Umayya—is tearing down its pillars;

  61. وتلك على الأرض من أُخدمت

    وربِّ السماوات سكّانها

    while there upon the earth lies she whom—

    by the Lord of the heavens—its inhabitants served.

  62. ثلاثاً قد انتُبذت بالعراء

    لها تنسج الريحُ أكفانَها

    For three days he has been cast into the open,

    the wind weaving his shrouds.

  63. مصابٌ أطاشَ عقولَ الأنام

    جميعاً وحيّر أذهانَها

    A calamity that unseated the minds of all humankind

    and left their thoughts bewildered.

  64. عليكم بني الوحي صلَّى الإِلهُ

    ما هزّت الريحُ أفنانَها

    Upon you, sons of revelation, may God bestow blessing

    whenever the wind stirs the branches.