1. وعد الطيف ليلة باللقاء

    ليته لو يجود لي بوفاء

    The apparition promised a meeting one night.

    If only it would favor me by keeping its promise.

  2. يا لها في النعيم غصن لجين

    صاغها الله فتنة لشقائي

    Ah, what a silver bough she is amid bliss!

    God fashioned her as a temptation for my torment.

  3. ما عيون الظبا اذا هي سلت

    سود تلك اللحاظ بيض الظباء

    What are gazelles’ eyes, when she unsheathes

    Those dark glances as gleaming sword-blades?

  4. كم مصاب بنظرة راح لما

    قمته بعينها الكحلاء

    How many a glance-stricken man fell when

    She [struck?] him with her kohl-dark eye.

  5. كيف منها لا ابتغي لي نصيباً

    وهي لم يخط سهمها احشائي

    How could I not seek a share of her for myself,

    When her arrow has not missed my vitals?

  6. كم محب بحسنها غادرته

    ناحل الجسم ميت الاحياء

    How many a lover has she, through her beauty, left

    Wasted in body, dead among the living.

  7. تركتني مضرجا بدموعي

    بل قتيلا لا مخضبا بدمائي

    She left me drenched in my tears—

    Nay, slain, not stained with my blood.

  8. حذرتني من هجرها ولعمري

    ان تحذيرها من الاغراء

    She warned me of separation from her—and, by my life,

    Indeed, her warning is a kind of enticement.

  9. قيل صفها قلت الغزالة حسنا

    في التفات وفي سنا وسناء

    I was told, ‘Describe her.’ I said, ‘A gazelle in beauty,

    In her turning glance, in radiance and splendor.’

  10. بسعاد عنها أوري وهند

    لا ولا زينب سوى اسماء

    I allude to her as Su'ad and Hind;

    No—nor Zaynab: these are only names.

  11. لست انسى ليلا به لي زارت

    خفية خيفة من الاعداء

    I do not forget a night when she visited me,

    Secretly, for fear of enemies.

  12. واتت والظلام اسود ساج

    تتجلى في حلة زرقاء

    And she came while the darkness was black and still,

    Shining forth in a blue robe.

  13. فبدا الصحب مشرقاً وعجيب

    كيف تخفى شمس بدت في سماء

    Then the companions appeared radiant—and how strange:

    How could a sun that appeared in the sky be hidden?