وأهيف دري الأديم سألته

وأهيف دري الأديم سألته

لمن ينتمي في الأصل قال لي العذر

لمن ينتمي في الأصل قال لي العذر

And I asked a slender youth with pearl-bright skin

And I asked the eternal sky

To whom he traced his ancestry. He said to me, 'Pardon me,

To whom did it originally belong, it excused itself to me

وإني أخاف العار فيما سألتني

وإني أخاف العار فيما سألتني

فوالدتي زنجية وأبي حر

فوالدتي زنجية وأبي حر

For I fear disgrace in what you have asked me:

And that it fears disgrace in what I asked it

My mother is a Zanj woman, and my father is freeborn.'

For its mother is black and its father is free

فقلت له لا عار في ذاك إنما

فقلت له لا عار في ذاك إنما

من الصبح والظلماء يستخرج الدر

من الصبح والظلماء يستخرج الدر

So I said to him, 'There is no shame in that; it is only

So I said to it, there is no shame in that

From dawn and darkness that the pearl is drawn forth.'

Rather pearls are extracted from the morn and the dark