قتيل هواك ليس يروم ثاره

فصدّي تارة وصليه تاره

The one slain by your love seeks no revenge.

So shun him one time, and be with him another.

عسى تلك الخزازة من فؤادي

تزول وتنطفي تلك الحراره

Perhaps that bitterness in my heart

will vanish, and that heat die out.

ألا ان الهوى فيه هوان

وان الحلو منه ذو مراره

Lo, love holds humiliation,

and its sweetness carries bitterness.

فهل خل يعير الصب دمعا

ليجلو الانسجام بالاستعاره

Is there a friend, then, to lend the lovesick one tears,

so he may show their flow through borrowing?

بروحي جيرة مذ رققوني

تملك مهجتي منهن جاره

My soul be ransom for neighbors! Since they enslaved me,

one neighbor among them has possessed my heart—

من الخضر الحسان اذا تبدت

تشوقك في البداوة والحضاره

one of the dusky beauties; when she appears,

she stirs your longing in nomadic and settled life.

علينا الحسن امرها وها قد

لها صرنا عبيدا بالاماره

Beauty has made her ruler over us, and now

we have become her slaves under her rule.

تراءت في الخمار فخلت بدرا

تبدى مشرقا وعليه داره

She appeared in her veil, and I thought her a full moon

that appeared radiant, with a halo around it.

ويعبس لحظها فأقول شنّت

بنو عبس على العشاق غاره

Her glance frowns, so I say: 'They have launched—

the sons of Abs—a raid upon the lovers.'

لها ردف تقاعد عن وصالي

وأثقله النهوض عن الزياره

She has a rump that hangs back from union with me,

and rising burdens it too much to pay a visit.

وخصر قد تلطف في اختصار

فيا للّه ما احلى اختصاره

And a waist grown delicate in its slenderness—

O God, how sweet its slenderness!

وقد قد تفرد بالتثني

وقد جمع الرشاقة والنضاره

And a figure unrivaled in its swaying,

and uniting grace with freshness.

وخد جلنار الروض ابدى

ومن تلك النهود غدت ثماره

And a cheek displaying the garden's pomegranate blossom,

while those breasts have become its fruit.

وثغر قد روى النظام عنه

والف من بدائعه ابتكاره

And a mouth of which the versifier has told,

and from its wonders fashioned his original work.

وجفن قد حكى جسمي سقاما

وما اقوى على ضعفي اقتداره

And an eyelid that mirrors my body's sickness—

yet how strong its power over my weakness!

ومن عجب لقد اضحى كسيراً

وابغي في الهوى منه انتصاره

And strangely, it has indeed become broken,

yet in love I seek its aid.

ولا عجب هواها كيف ينمو

فان النار اولها شراره

No wonder at the way love for her grows:

for fire begins as a spark.

صغار الدر قد نظمت بفيها

وذاك الدر ما احلى صغاره

Little pearls have been strung in her mouth,

and those pearls—how sweet their little ones!

اشبب بالرباب هوى وسعدى

وعليا يا اخا هند وساره

I sing in love of Rabab and Sa'da,

and Alya, O brother of Hind and Sarah.

وهل هاتيك لو تدري وهذي

وتلك وذي سوى اسما اشاره

And are 'that one'—if you knew—and 'this one',

and 'that' and 'this' anything but demonstrative names?

اجارة من جفاك وفرط هجر

اجار اللّه مضناكي اجاره

O neighbor, from your cruelty and excessive shunning—

may God shelter your love-worn one, O neighbor!