أنا بَيْن الحَياةِ والمَوْتِ وَقْفُ

أنا بَيْن الحَياةِ والمَوْتِ وَقْفُ

نَفَسٌ خافِتٌ ودَمْعٌ وَوَكْفُ

نَفَسٌ خافِتٌ ودَمْعٌ وَوَكْفُ

I am suspended between life and death:

I stand between life and death, a standstill

A faint breath, tears, and their dripping.

A faint breath, a tear, and a halt

حَلَّ بي مِنْ هَواكَ ما لَيْس يُنْبي

حَلَّ بي مِنْ هَواكَ ما لَيْس يُنْبي

عَنْهُ نَعْتٌ ولا يُعبِّرُ وَصْفُ

عَنْهُ نَعْتٌ ولا يُعبِّرُ وَصْفُ

Love for you has brought upon me what cannot be conveyed

Your love has befallen me in a way that cannot be expressed

By any characterization, nor expressed by any description.

By elegy or described in words

عَجباً لانْعِطافِ صُدْغَيْكَ والمع

عَجباً لانْعِطافِ صُدْغَيْكَ والمع

طفِ والجِيْدِ ثُمَّ ما منكَ عَطْفُ

طفِ والجِيْدِ ثُمَّ ما منكَ عَطْفُ

How strange the curves of your two temple-locks and your

How strange is the turn of your cheek, and your kindness

Flank and neck—yet no tenderness comes from you!

Then what is from you but rejection

ضَاق صَدْري بِضيقِ حِجْلِكَ واسْتَوْ

ضَاق صَدْري بِضيقِ حِجْلِكَ واسْتَوْ

قَفَ طَرْفي حَيْرانَ ذاكَ الوَقْفُ

قَفَ طَرْفي حَيْرانَ ذاكَ الوَقْفُ

My breast tightened at your anklet’s tightness, and

My chest tightened with the narrowness of your embrace

That anklet held my gaze bewildered.

My eyelids stopped confused at that halt

كَيْفَ يُرْجَى فِكاكُ قلبٍ مُعنّىً

كَيْفَ يُرْجَى فِكاكُ قلبٍ مُعنّىً

في غَرامٍ قَيْداهُ قِرْطٌ وشَنْفُ

في غَرامٍ قَيْداهُ قِرْطٌ وشَنْفُ

What hope of release is there for a tormented heart,

How can the heart's shackles be undone

In passion, with an earring and an upper-ear ring for its two fetters?

When it's devoted to love, bound by earrings and bracelet