1. أنشُدُ من عهد ليلَى غيرَ موجودِ

    وأقتضيها مُعاراً غيرَ مردودِ

    I seek Layla's pledge, nowhere to be found,

    and demand from her a loan never returned,

  2. رِضاً بليلَى على ما كان من خُلُقٍ

    جَعْدٍ ونَيلٍ كثيرِ المنّ معدودِ

    content with Layla, despite a disposition

    ungenerous, and scant gifts laden with reminders of favor.

  3. من العزيزات أنساباً وأخبيةً

    في صفوةِ البيتِ حلَّت صفوةَ البيدِ

    She is among those noble in lineage and tents;

    of the choicest house, she dwells in the choicest desert lands.

  4. محبُّها قد قضى في كلِّ معركةٍ

    قصيّةٍ عن بلاغِ الأينُقِ القُودِ

    Her lover has perished on every battlefield

    remote beyond the reach of long-necked she-camels.

  5. تُقَلُّ من غيرِ ذُلٍّ عند أُسرتها

    بين القبابِ المنيعاتِ الأباديدِ

    She is borne without abasement among her clan,

    amid scattered, impregnable domed tents.

  6. كم ليلةٍ قد أرتني حشوَها قمراً

    وجوهُها البيضُ في أبياتِها السُّودِ

    How many a night has shown me a moon within it—

    their white faces inside their black tents.

  7. من كلِّ هيفاءَ إلا الرِّدفَ تحسبهُ

    غصناً من البان معقوداً بجلُمودِ

    Each slender-waisted beauty—save her hips, you would think her

    a bān-tree branch bound to a boulder.

  8. ما مستقيماتها للريح مائلةٌ

    لكن براهينُ عِزٍّ لي المواعيدُ

    Their upright forms do not bend to the wind;

    yet their promised meetings prove their proud reserve to me.

  9. لُثْنَ العناقيدَ فوقَ الخُمرِ واختلفت

    شِفاهُهنَّ على ماءِ العناقيدِ

    They twined grape-clusters above their veils, while

    their lips took turns at the juice of grape-clusters.

  10. ورُحن يَرمِين بالألحاظ مقتَنَصاً

    فما تصيَّدنَ إلا أنفُسَ الصِّيدِ

    They went forth shooting glances in pursuit of prey,

    and caught only the souls of proud lords.

  11. يا ليلَ لو كان داءً تقتُلين به

    داويتِه كان داءً غيرَ مقصود

    O Layla, should a sickness by which you kill

    be cured by you, it would be a sickness never intended.

  12. اليأسُ أروحُ لي والصبرُ أرفقُ بي

    من نومِ ليلكِ عن همّي وتسهيدي

    Despair brings me more rest, and patience treats me more gently

    than your night's sleep, heedless of my grief and sleeplessness.

  13. ما ماء دِجلةَ ممزوجاً بغدركُمُ

    وإن شفَى بارداً عندي بمورودِ

    The Tigris's water, mingled with your treachery,

    though cool and healing, is no water I would approach.

  14. ولا صَبَا أرضِكم هبَّت تروّحني

    وفاءَ وعدٍ لكم بالمطلِ مكدودِ

    Nor has your land's east wind blown to revive me,

    fulfilling a promise of yours worn down by delay.

  15. حسبي سَمحتُ بأخلاقي فما ظفِرت

    في الناس إلا بأخلاقٍ مَناكيدِ

    Enough! I have been generous in my conduct, yet found

    among people only ill-natured ways.

  16. وصاحبٍ لينُ أيَّامي وشدّتُها

    فَرقٌ له بين تقريبي وتبعيدي

    And many a friend lets my days of ease or hardship

    decide whether to draw me close or keep me far away.

  17. يمشي ابنَ دأيةَ في ظلِّ الرجاءِ معي

    وفي النوائبِ يعدو عدوةَ السِّيدِ

    He walks with me like Ibn Daʾya, the raven, in hope's shade,

    and in calamities races like a wolf.

  18. وواسعِ الدار عالي النارِ يُوهمني

    خِصبَ القِرَى بين مبثوثٍ ومنضود

    And many a man of spacious house and lofty fire makes me expect

    abundant guest-fare, spread out and piled high.

  19. يهوَى الأناشيدَ أن يَكذبِن سُمعَتَه

    ولا يَهشُّ لأعواضِ الأناشيدِ

    He loves songs that falsely praise his name,

    yet has no eagerness to reward those songs.

  20. أغشاه غِشيانَ مجلوبٍ يُغَرُّ بما

    رأَى وأُصرَف عنه صَرفَ مطرودِ

    I visit him like one lured in, beguiled by what

    he has seen, and am driven away from him like an outcast.

  21. يجودُ مِلءَ يدي بالوعد يمطلُهُ

    والمطلُ من غير عُسرٍ آفةُ الجودِ

    He fills my hands with promises, then delays their fulfillment;

    and delay without hardship is generosity's blight.

  22. فَدَى الرجالُ وإن ضنّوا وإن سمحوا

    فتىً يهونُ عليه كلُّ موجودِ

    May men, whether they hoard or give freely, be ransom

    for a youth who thinks little of everything he owns.

  23. لا يحسب المالَ إلا ما أفاد به

    ثناءَ محتسبٍ أو ذِكرَ محمودِ

    He counts as wealth only what has earned him

    praise as a selfless giver, or an honored name.

  24. كم جَرَّبَ المدحُ أملاكاً وجرَّبه

    فصبَّ ماءً وحَتُّوا من جلاميدِ

    How many kings has praise tested—and it has tested him:

    he poured forth water, while they scraped from boulders.

  25. أملسُ لا عِرضُه الوافي بمنتقَصٍ

    يوماً ولا مالهُ الواقي بمعبودِ

    Smooth in manner, his unstinted honor is never diminished

    for a day, nor is his shielding wealth worshipped.

  26. مَن سائلٌ بالكرام السابقين مَضَوا

    وخلَّفوا الذِّكرَ من إرثٍ وتخليدِ

    Who asks about the noble predecessors, now gone,

    who left remembrance as their legacy and immortality?

  27. هذا الحسينُ فخذ عيناً ودعْ خَبراً

    من الروايات عنهم والأسانيدِ

    Here is Husayn: take eyewitness truth and leave hearsay,

    the tales about them and their chains of transmission.

  28. من ساكني الأرضِ قبلَ الماءِ من قدمٍ

    وعامريها وما ذَلَّت لتشييدِ

    He is of those who dwelt on earth before water, in their antiquity,

    and peopled it before it yielded to building.

  29. كم حاملٍ منهُمُ فضلاً حمائلُهُ

    تُحَلُّ عن عاتق بالتاج معقودِ

    How many a bearer of greatness among them, whose sword-straps

    are unfastened from a shoulder bound to a crown!

  30. لم يبرحوا أجبُلَ الدنيا وأبحرَها

    أصليْن من شاهقٍ منها وممدودِ

    They have never ceased to be the world's mountains and seas,

    two foundations, one towering, the other stretching wide.

  31. وحسَّنوا في الندى أخلاقَ حلمهمُ

    إِنَّ الندى في النُّهى كالماء في العودِ

    They have beautified their forbearing nature with generosity;

    for generosity in the mind is like water in a bough.

  32. يا آل عبدِ الرحيم اختار صُحبتَكم

    تأنُّقي في اختياراتي وتجويدي

    O house of Abd al-Rahim, your company was chosen

    by my refinement in choosing and my pursuit of excellence.

  33. أُحِبُّكم وتُحبُّوني وما لَكُمُ

    فضلٌ ورُبَّ ودودٍ غيرُ مورودِ

    I love you, and you love me; you have

    no superiority over me—yet many a loving friend goes unvisited.

  34. قرابةٌ بيننا في فارسٍ وَصفتْ

    عنّي وعنكم طهاراتِ المواليدِ

    A kinship between us in Persia has declared

    on my behalf and yours the purity of our births.

  35. لا زال مدحِيَ ميراثاً يقابلكم

    عنّي إذا الشعرُ في آذانكم نُودِي

    May my praise remain a legacy to greet you

    on my behalf whenever poetry is proclaimed in your ears,

  36. بكلِّ حسناء لو أحفَشتُها برزتْ

    للخاطبين بروزَ الغادةِ الرُّودِ

    with every fair ode that, though I shut her away, would emerge

    before her suitors like a tender, graceful maiden—

  37. من نسج فكري تردّ العارَ دونكُمُ

    ردّ السهام نبتْ عن نسج داودِ

    woven from my thought, warding disgrace away from you,

    as arrows are repelled, recoiling from David's woven armor—

  38. ما أنبتتْ لِيَ شَجْراءُ الرجاء بكم

    خِصباً وما كرَّ دهرٌ عودةَ العيدِ

    so long as hope's thicket, through you, brings forth for me

    abundance, and time returns with the festival's return,

  39. وما تباحُ المُدَى مشحوذةً أبداً

    صبيحةَ النحرِ من نحرٍ ومن جيدِ

    and so long as sharpened knives are given free course

    on the morning of sacrifice over breast and neck.