هذا الفراق وأنت شاهده

فإلام تكتم ما تكابده

This is parting, and you are its witness.

So how long will you conceal what you endure?

خَلِّ السلوَّ لمن يليق به

وليبدين هواك جاحده

Leave forgetting to those it befits;

and your passion will surely expose the one who denies it.

فالبين ما ظهرت علائمه

والحب ما نطقت شواهده

For parting is revealed by its signs,

and love by the testimony of its witnesses.

ولقد رقبت الطيف أسأله

عنكم فما صدقت مواعده

And indeed, I awaited the dream-phantom to ask it

about you, but its promises proved untrue.

والمستمر على قطيعته

في الحب فاسدةٌ عقائده

And one who persists in his estrangement

holds unsound beliefs in love.

ومن العجائب أن يزيد به

داء السقام وأنت عائده

And it is a wonder that there should worsen in him

the affliction of sickness, though you visit him.

متيقظٌ ورث الكمال فما

يخشى اعتراض النقص زائده

Vigilant, he has inherited perfection; thus

his abundance fears no encroachment of deficiency.

فالرزق والأجل المتاح معاً

في ضمن ما رقشت أساوده

For sustenance and the allotted lifespan together

are contained in what his black serpents have inscribed.

وتكفل الفلك المدار له

بأسدٍ ما يقضي عطارده

And the revolving heavens have guaranteed him,

through a lion, whatever his Mercury decrees.

لو قاست الكرماء حاتمها

بك أيها المقصود قاصده

If the generous compared their Hatim

with you, O you whose seeker is himself sought,

لتسترت خجلاً مكارمه

وتحولت بخلاً عوائده

his generous deeds would hide themselves in shame,

and his customary favors would turn to miserliness.

لم يرق مجداً أنت فارعه

من نام ليلاً أنت ساهده

The glory whose heights you scale was never reached

by one who slept through a night you spent awake.