Sol 6.1

  1. هذي الحُدوجُ فأيْنَ عُفْرُ ظِبائِها

    هذي البُروجُ فأيْنَ زُهْرُ سَمائِها

    These are the howdahs—where are their tawny gazelles?

    These are the towers—where are the bright stars of their sky?

  2. غَربَتْ أُولى وتَغرَّبتْ هاتي فلا

    أثَرٌ لِمَرْآها وَلا لِرُوائِها

    Those have set, and these have gone far away; so no

    trace remains of their appearance, nor of their splendor.

  3. ولَقَدْ وَقَفْتُ على الدِّيارِ مُسائِلاً

    أطْلالَها بالعَهْدِ عَنْ أطلائِها

    And indeed I stood at the dwellings, questioning

    their ruins, by the old bond, about their fawns,

  4. مُتردِّداً في مِثْلِ جِسْمي في البِلى

    لَوْلا تبايُنُ وَجْدِهِ وشِفائِها

    wandering amid what matched my body in decay,

    but for the contrast between its anguish and their ease.

  5. دِمَنٌ مَحَتْ أيْدي الدُّروسِ طُروسَها

    لم يَبْقَ مِنْها غَيْرُ وَهْمِ بَقائِها

    Camp ruins whose pages the hands of decay have erased:

    nothing remains of them but the illusion of their survival.

  6. نُؤْيٌ تَراءى مِثْلَ عَطْفَةِ نُونِهِ

    وأثافٍ التاحَتْ كعُجمَةٍ ثائِها

    A tent-trench appears like the curve of its letter nūn,

    and hearthstones appear like the dots of their letter thāʾ.

  7. يا هَلْ تُبلِّغُني الجِيادُ مَنازِلاً

    قَلْبي نَزِيلٌ في حِمَى نُزَلائِها

    Ah, will the swift steeds bring me to dwellings

    where my heart is a guest in their dwellers' sanctuary?

  8. مِنْ كلِّ أشْوَسَ للعواصِفِ يَنْتَمِي

    فِي مَرِّها وكرورِها وعِدائِها

    Each a fierce-eyed steed, kin to the storm winds

    in their passing, their returning, and their racing—

  9. مِنْ أشْقَرٍ كالبَرْقِ في وَمَضاتِهِ

    أو أشْهَبٍ كالشُّهبِ في أضْوائِها

    a chestnut, like lightning in its flashes,

    or a gray, like shooting stars in their radiance.

  10. ولَرُبَّ لَيْلَةٍ انْطَوتْ مِنِّي عَلى

    مِثْلِ الصّباحِ أجُولُ في أرجائِها

    And many a night has folded itself around me,

    one like the dawn, as I roamed its reaches,

  11. مُتَبَطِّناً نَهداً أحَمَّ رَفَعْتُ مِنْ

    داجِيْهِ ما مَزَّقتُ مِن ظَلْمائِها

    astride a sturdy, jet-black steed; I raised from

    its darkness what I tore from the night's gloom,

  12. مُتَنَكِّباً زَوراءَ مِثلَ هِلالها

    مُتأبِّطاً زُرْقاً كَشُهبِ سَمائِها

    shouldering a curved bow like its crescent,

    carrying blue-tipped arrows like the shooting stars of its sky,

  13. مُتَقَلِّداً عَضْباً كَوِتْرِ صَباحِها

    ضاهَتْ حَمائِلَهُ ثُنى جَوْزائِها

    girt with a keen sword like the bowstring of its dawn;

    the folds of its Orion matched the sword's baldrics.

  14. أعْدُوا وأخْترِقُ المفاوِزَ مُدْلِجاً

    أرْمِي بأنْجُدِها إلى أحْسائِها

    I gallop and cut through the wastes by night,

    hurling myself across their uplands toward their waterholes.

  15. فِيْحٌ تَعاوَرُها الجَنائِبُ والصَّبا

    فَنُجُومُها لا يُهْتَدى بضِيائها

    Vast wastes, swept in turn by south winds and the east wind:

    so no one finds guidance by their stars' light.

  16. قد ظلَّ فيها النَّجمُ رَهْنَ مَضِلَّةٍ

    وغدا يتيه الذيبُ في تيهائِها

    The star has remained there captive to a bewildering waste,

    and the wolf wanders lost in their wilderness.

  17. هيهات ما في الأرض موضع راحةٍ

    ذو راحة للنفس من أعبائها

    Far from it! Not a palm-sized spot on earth

    offers the soul relief from its burdens.

  18. أنّى لأيَّامي قَضاءُ مآربي

    شّتَّانَ ما بَيْني وبَيْنَ قَضائِها

    How could my days fulfill my desires?

    How far I am from their fulfillment!

  19. عَجَباً لأزْمانٍ تَسُرُّ عَبيدَها

    وتُسِيء للأحرارِ مِنْ أبْنائِها

    How strange are times that delight their slaves

    and mistreat the freeborn among their sons!