وصلت بحبل من اميمة اطول

وقطعت اسباب الحجى والتجمُّل

I bound myself with a longer cord from Umayma,

and severed the cords of reason and composure.

اذا ابتسمت عنبارق الثغر واضحاً

طربت الى برق ببرقة حومل

When she smiles, revealing the clear gleam of her teeth,

I thrill to a flash of lightning at Barqat Hawmal.

وان خطرت يهتزُّ خلف ازارها

كثيب تكاد الريح تسفيه من عل

And when she walks with a sway, behind her wrap there trembles

a dune the wind almost scatters from on high.

تنوء به ملء الرداء مرجرجاً

ترجرج دعص الرملة المتهيل

She strains beneath its weight; it fills her robe and quivers,

as a loose-heaped mound of sand trembles.

اذا اقبلت أو ادبرت خلت بانةً

بقمصانها تهتزُّ او فرع اجدل

When she comes or goes, I fancy her a moringa tree,

swaying in her tunics, or a falcon's plume.

تميس بمجدولٍ وتزهو بزاهر

وتعطو بمحلولٍ وترنو باكحل

She sways with a slender, cord-like waist and glories in a radiant face,

and reaches with a supple hand, and gazes with a kohl-dark eye.

اغازل منها عين ادماء تدري

لها بجنوب القاع خشفين مغزل

I woo in her the eye of a white doe that knows

she has two fawns south of the plain—a doe with young.

الا نظرات مذعورةٌ وسط ربرب

تصادى بعيني مُلحم الصَّيد اجدل

Ah, frightened glances amid a herd,

answering the eyes of a falcon that slays its prey.

تردُّ نهار اليوم ينشد شمسَه

بليلٍ من الفرع الدجوجي اليل

She repels the light of day as it seeks its sun,

with a night of hair, pitch-black and deeply dark.

احمٍّ غدا في اثيثٍ مجعدٍ

على متنها جثل النبات معثكل

Jet-black, it has grown into thick, curling abundance,

upon her back, dense in growth and clustered in locks.

اذا شطرته الريح راح مخصَّلا

تخصُّل منفض السحاب المجلجل

When the wind parts it, it becomes divided into locks,

like the scattered tufts of a thundering cloud.

خليلي ما قولي لقلبي سوى احتدم

ولا لدموعي غير قولي لها اهملي

My two friends, I tell my heart only, 'Burn fiercely!'

and tell my tears nothing but, 'Flow freely!'

وما انهلَّ صوب الدمع الا مُعرضاً

ليمسك صوب العارض المتهلل

And the downpour of tears streamed forth only in defiance,

to hold back the rain of the gleaming cloud.

وكم قائلٍ والليل مدّ هواديا

واردف اعجازا وناخ بكلكل

And how many have asked, while night stretched out its foreparts,

brought its hindquarters after them, and knelt upon its breast:

ايرتجع الليل القصير لقائلٍ

الا ايها الليل الطويل الا انجلي

Can the short night return for one who says,

“O long night—ah, depart!”?