ليس يدري الغير ما طعم الهوى

إنما يدريه من ذاق الهوى

The outsider does not know the taste of passion;

Only one who has tasted passion knows it.

والهوى لولا الهوى ما هويت

نفسُ من ذاق الهوى غير الهوى

By passion! But for passion, it would never have loved—

The soul of one who tasted passion—anything but passion.

ما هوى نجمٌ إذا النجم هوى

في هوى إلا من آثارِ الهوى

No star, when the star falls, has fallen

Into passion except through the effects of passion.

أوَّل الحبِّ هوى نعلمه

عندنا فالعشقُ من حكمِ الهوى

Love begins with passion—we know it;

In our view, ardent love is thus under passion’s rule.

لا تذمنّ الهوى يا عاذلي

إنما للمرء فيه ما نوى

Do not condemn passion, O my reproacher;

In it, a person has only what he intended.

فيه كوَّن كوني فبدا

وبه قد فلق الحبُّ النوى

In it He fashioned my being, and it appeared;

And through it love has split the fruit stones.

فيرى صاحبه في مّوصل

ويرى عائده في نينوى

So its companion is seen in Mosul,

And its visitor is seen in Nineveh.

فيرى الصاحب في وصلته

ويرى العائد يشكو بالنوى

Thus the companion is seen in his union,

And the visitor is seen complaining of separation.

وقف الحبُّ على القلبِ إذا

ذاقه عند مقاماتِ السوى

Love halted at the heart when

The heart tasted it at the stations of otherness.

وإذا خاطبه من ذاته

ما يرى خاطبه منه سوى

And when He addresses it from His own essence,

It sees its speaker as none other than itself.

ليس للقلبِ اهتمامٌ بالذي

ناله عند المناجاةِ سوى

The heart has no concern for what

It attained in intimate communion, save

قولِ من قالَ له في حكمه

أنا في الحكمِ وإيّاك سوا

The words of Him who said to it in His judgment:

“In judgment, you and I are equal.”

ما له من خبر في علمه

غير ما قد قاله ثم لوى

It has no tidings within its knowledge

Except what He has said; then He turned

عنه وجها لم يزل وجهته

يطلب الوجه بها وأودى اللوى

From it a face that had always been its goal;

It seeks the face through it—and al-Liwā has perished.