نصبت لليلى من قريض نحته

على صفحة القرطاس اجمل تمثال

For Layla I erected, from verse I sculpted,

Upon the paper's page, the loveliest statue.

حكاها كأن الله صاغها معاً

شبيهين في ثوب من الحسن هلهال

It mirrored her, as though God had fashioned her and it together,

Two alike, in a gauzy robe of beauty.

وشبه ناس طرفها وقوامها

بابيض بتار واسمر عسال

Some have likened her gaze and her stature

To a white, keen-edged sword and a brown, quivering spear.

على خطأ منهم فما السيف باترا

ولا الرمح عسالا ليلى بامثال

They are mistaken, for neither the cutting sword

Nor the quivering spear is a match for Layla.

واحسب اني لا اشط عن الهدى

اذا قلت ليلى كوكب الافق العالي

And I think I do not stray from the right path

When I say Layla is the star of the lofty horizon.

سرى حب ليلى في جميع جوارحي

واذهلني عن غيرها أي اذهال

Love for Layla coursed through all my limbs,

And utterly distracted me from anyone but her.

وليلى كقرص الشمس يجمل ضؤه

ويملأ عيني في غدوّى وآصالي

And Layla is like the sun's disk, whose light is lovely

And fills my eyes in my mornings and evenings.

وان تك ليلى اليوم شط بها النوى

فما انا عن ليلى وايامها سال

And though separation has carried Layla far away today,

I have not forgotten Layla or her days.

يعز على عيني الشقية ان ترى

لليلى بقربي منزلا غير محلال

It pains my wretched eyes to see

A dwelling of Layla's near me, deserted.

اريد رحيلا عن بلاد تهنيني

ولكن افدني اين انزل احمالي

I want to depart from a land that humiliates me,

And yet, tell me: where shall I set down my burdens?

وفي القوم من لا يبتغي نقلة له

وان نسفت ارض العراق بزلزال

And among the people is one who seeks no move for himself,

Even if the land of Iraq were shattered by an earthquake.

ولكن حرا ليس يرضيه حاله

يموت ولا يبقى مقيما على الحال

But a free man whose lot does not satisfy him

Dies rather than remain living in that state.

ارى النحس في بغداد لي متجسما

يريني انيابا كانياب اغوال

I see ill fortune in Baghdad embodied before me,

Showing me fangs like the fangs of ghouls.

يريدون بالاذلال جرح كرامتي

ويأبى جراحات المذلة امثالي

They seek, through humiliation, to wound my dignity,

And those like me reject the wounds of abasement.