1. أسقتك يا ربع الحبيب قطارَها

    ديمٌ إليك حدى النسيمُ عِشارها

    May they water you, O beloved's abode, with their showers—

    Steady rain clouds whose pregnant she-camels the breeze drove toward you.

  2. من كلّ هاضبةٍ تألّف برقُها

    فأتتك تتبع عينها أبكارها

    From every rain-laden cloud whose lightning gathered,

    It came to you, its first showers following its steady downpour.

  3. نفَّاحة وسمت رُباك فروّضت

    من بعد ما محت الصَبا آثارها

    Pouring abundantly, it marked your hills and made them meadows,

    After the east wind had erased their traces.

  4. وبأيمن العلمين أمثال لها

    لا يستطيع أخو الغرام مزارها

    And to the right of al-ʿAlamayn are others like her,

    Whom a man in love cannot visit.

  5. علّمن أغصان النقا فتمايلت

    طرباً وعلّمت الشجى أطيارها

    They taught the dune's boughs, and the boughs swayed

    In delight; and she taught her birds grief.

  6. إن تمنع الأعرابُ روضةَ ريمها

    عنِّي وتأبى أن أشم عرارها

    If the Bedouins withhold her gazelle's meadow

    From me, and refuse to let me smell its ʿarār flowers,

  7. فلأعدلنَّ بصبوتي عنها إلى

    فئةٍ على الروحين أعهدُ دارها

    Then I shall surely turn my yearning away from her toward

    A company whose dwelling I remember at al-Rūḥayn.

  8. حيّ من الأتراك بين خدورهم

    هيفاءُ تمنح وصلها من زارها

    A clan of Turks, amid whose curtained chambers

    A slender-waisted woman grants her intimacy to whoever visits her.

  9. وافت تبرقع وجهَها قمرَ الدجى

    وَتزرّ في شهب السما زِنَّارها

    She came, veiling her face, the moon of the dark night,

    And fastening her girdle amid heaven's bright stars.

  10. فصم السوار لفعمة من زندها

    فكأَنَّما كان الهلال سوارها

    The bracelet snapped from the fullness of her wrist,

    As though the crescent moon had been her bracelet.

  11. فدنوتُ منها لا أهِمُّ بريبةٍ

    فيها ولم تطرح لديَّ أزارها

    So I drew near her, intending no wrongdoing

    With her; nor did she cast off her waist-wrap before me.

  12. لكن ليقضي ناظري من حسنها

    الأوطار لا أقضى لها أوطارها

    But so that my eye might satisfy, through her beauty,

    Its desires—not that I should fulfill hers.

  13. ماتوا بغيظهم وليت نفوسهم

    فيها المنيَّة أنشبت أظفارها

    May they die of their rage! Would that their souls

    Had been pierced by the claws of Death!

  14. ما مدَّ في أعمارهم لكرامةٍ

    لكنَّما كرهَ الإِله جوارها

    Their lives were not prolonged to honor them,

    But because God loathed their company.