1. تضلعتُ من شرب رويّ بلا شُربِ

    كما أنني أشتهي إلى القلبِ من قلبي

    I have drunk my fill of a thirst-quenching draught without drinking.

    Just as I yearn, from my heart, toward the heart.

  2. فإنَّ لمقلوبي جمالاً يخصُّه

    أهيم به وجداً على البعد والقربِ

    For my reversed heart has a beauty all its own.

    I am mad with longing for it, in distance and nearness.

  3. أبيتُ أناجيه بنومي ممثلاً

    وإني إذا استيقظتُ عدت إلى صحبي

    I spend the night communing with it in my sleep, in imagined form.

    And when I awaken, I return to my companions.

  4. فإنْ كان عن بَينٍ فشوقٌ مجدَّدٌ

    وإنْ كان عن وصلٍ فحسبي إذا حسبي

    If it comes from separation, then longing is renewed.

    And if it comes from union, then enough for me—then, enough for me.

  5. فإنْ جادَ بالتمثيلِ في حالِ يقظتي

    فذلك أحلى لي من المورِد العذبِ

    If it bestows an image while I am awake,

    then that is sweeter to me than the sweet-water source.

  6. إذا ما رأيتُ الدارَ أهوى دخولها

    ولكن على الأبوابِ أردية أعجب

    Whenever I see the house, I long to enter it.

    But upon the doors are cloaks—I marvel.

  7. ومن خلفها البوّابُ يسمع وطأتي

    فيغفل عني للذي بي من عُجْب

    And from behind them the doorkeeper hears my footfall.

    So he ignores me because of the self-conceit within me.

  8. كعتبة يزهو بالعبودة عندما

    تحقق فيها من مساكنةِ القُرب

    Like ʿUtba, who glories in servanthood when

    he attains within it a share in dwelling together in nearness.

  9. هي الأمّ سماها ذَلولاً لخلقه

    وقد أعرضت عني كإعراض ذي ذنب

    She is the mother; He called her docile for His creation.

    And she has turned away from me like one guilty of sin,

  10. حياءً وأعطتنا مناكبَ نظمها

    فنمشي بها عن أمر خالقها الربِّ

    out of modesty, and she gave us the shoulders of her ordered form.

    So we walk upon them at the command of her Creator, the Lord.

  11. إذا كان حالُ الأمِّ هذا فإنني

    لأولى به منها إلى انقضا نحبي

    If this is the mother's state, then I

    surely have more claim to it than she, until my allotted life ends.

  12. تمنيتُ منه أنْ أكونَ بحالها

    مع الله في عيشٍ هنيء بلا كَرب

    I wished of Him that I might be in her state,

    with God, in a pleasant life without distress.

  13. فياتي وجودي للدعاوى بصورةٍ

    تنزله مني كمنزلةِ الربِّ

    Then my being comes forth, to make claims, in a form

    that gives it, in relation to me, a station like the Lord's.

  14. وهيهاتِ أينَ الحقُّ من حالِ خلقه

    بذا جاءتِ الأرسال منه مع الكتبِ

    Far from it! How far the Real is from the state of His creation!

    With this came the messengers from Him, together with the scriptures.

  15. لقد أوردتْ نفسي حديثاً مُعنعناً

    عن الرُّوحِ عن سري عنِ الله عنِ قلبي

    My soul has indeed related a report linked by 'on the authority of':

    From the Spirit, from my innermost secret, from God, from my heart:

  16. بأنَّ وجودي عينه وهويتي

    هويته فاركبْ على مركبٍ صَعب

    That my being is His very essence, and my identity

    is His identity—so ride upon a difficult mount.

  17. فلم يبق فينا مفصَلٌ فيه قوّةٌ

    أشاهدها وإلا وعينها ربي

    So no joint remains in us endowed with a power

    that I witness without its very essence being my Lord.

  18. فكيفَ لنا وقد صحَّ مُخلصٌ

    ويعتبني وقتاً فأعجبُ من عتبي

    How, then, can it be ours, when a sincere one has proved true?

    And he reproaches me at times, so I marvel at my being reproached.

  19. وإنَّ له حدَّث المبرءُ نفسَه

    دليلاً له فيما ذكرتُ من العُتْبِ

    And indeed he has—the absolver told himself—

    a proof on his behalf in the reproach I mentioned.

  20. ألا إنني عبدٌ لمن أنا ربُّه

    فضى بالذيقد قلته في الهوى حبي

    Behold, I am a servant to the one whose lord I am.

    My love [gave judgment?] in accord with what I have already said of passion.