1. يا من طواها الليل في بَيدائه

    روحاً مفزعة على ظلمائه

    O you whom night has enfolded in its wilderness,

    a frightened spirit against its darkness,

  2. تتلفتين إليَّ في أنحائه

    لهف الفؤاد على الشريد التائه

    turning toward me in its far reaches—

    how the heart aches for the lost outcast!

  3. إن تظمئي لي كم ظمئت إليك

    جمع الوفاء شقيةً وشقيا

    If you thirst for me, how often I have thirsted for you!

    Faithfulness has joined a wretched woman and a wretched man.

  4. يا منيتي قست الحياة عليك

    وجرت مقادرها الجسام عليا

    O my heart's desire, life has been cruel to you,

    and its mighty decrees have fallen upon me.

  5. أسفا عليك وأنت روح حائر

    والكون أسرارٌ يضيق بها الحجى

    Alas for you, a bewildered spirit,

    and the universe is mysteries beyond reason's grasp.

  6. تجتاز عابرة ويسرع عابر

    وتمر أشباح يواريها الدجى

    A passing woman crosses, and a passing man hastens,

    and phantoms pass, concealed by the darkness.

  7. في وَجنتيك توهج وضرام

    وبمقلتيك مدامع وذهول

    In your cheeks are a glow and a blaze,

    and in your eyes, tears and bewilderment.

  8. وكذا تمر بمثلك الأيام

    مجهولةً وعذابها مجهول

    And thus the days pass for one like you,

    unknown, and their torment unknown.

  9. ولّيتِ قبل لقائنا يا جنتي

    لم تظفري مني بقول مسعد

    You turned away before we met, O my paradise;

    you gained no heartening word from me.

  10. وكعادة الحظ الشقي وعادتي

    أقبلت بعد ذهاب نجمي الأوحد

    And as is hapless fortune's custom, and my own,

    I arrived after my only star had gone.

  11. تتعاقب الأقدار وهي مسيئةٌ

    كم عقنا ليل وخان نهار

    The fates follow one another, and they do harm;

    how often night has failed us, and day betrayed us!

  12. وكأنما هذا الفضاء خطيئة

    وكأن همس نسيمه استغفار

    And as though this expanse were a sin,

    and the whisper of its breeze a plea for forgiveness,

  13. وكأنه أحزان قوم ساروا

    هذي مآتمهم وثم ظلالها

    and as though it were the sorrows of people who have gone:

    these are their mourning gatherings, and yonder their shadows.

  14. عفتِ القصور وظلت الأسوار

    كمناحة جمدت وذا تمثالها

    The palaces have vanished, and the walls remain,

    like a lament frozen still, and this is its statue.

  15. ران السواد على وجود الدور

    وسرى إليّ نحيبها والأدمع

    Blackness has shrouded the houses' very being,

    and their sobbing and tears have drifted to me.

  16. وكأنني في شاطئ مهجور

    قد فارقته سفينة لا ترجع

    And it is as though I were on a deserted shore

    from which a ship has departed, never to return.

  17. حملت لنا أملا فلما ودعت

    لم يبق بعد رحيلها للناظر

    It bore us hope; then, when it bade farewell,

    nothing remained after its departure for the onlooker

  18. إلا خيال سعادة قد أقلعت

    ووداع أحبابٍ ودمع مسافر

    but the phantom of happiness that had sailed away,

    and farewell to loved ones, and a traveler's tears.