من منصفي من أحوم حومه — Mohammed Al Hamdani

مَنْ مُنْصفي من أحومٍ حَوَمُه

للظبي لا بل حشاه بل هِضَمُه

Who will do me justice against a dark-eyed one whose dark eyes

are a gazelle's—no, rather his waist, rather his slenderness?

صحيحُ جسمٍ فُديتُ صحتَه

سَقيمُ جَفْنِ ومحنتي سَقمُه

Sound of body—may I be sacrificed for his health—

languid of eyelid, and his languor is my torment.

أُقبِّلُ الأقحوان مِنْ وَلهي

كأنما الأقحوانُ فيه فمُه

I kiss the chrysanthemum in my lovesick longing,

as though his mouth were there in the chrysanthemum.

والبان ألوى على القضيب يدي

أحسبُه قدّه فالتزمُه

And I wind my hand around the bān tree's branch,

taking it for his figure, and so embrace it.

قد جرحت عين ذاك في كبدي

جُرْحاً على وجنتيه سال دمُه

That one's eye has wounded my liver,

with a wound whose blood flowed over his cheeks.

أظلُم شعْرُه فصار يظلمني

لم يُخَطني ظلْمُهُ ولا ظُلَمُهُ

His hair grew dark, then took to wronging me;

neither its injustice nor its shadows passed me by.

وإنَّ أمْرِي وأمره عجبٌ

يُهينُنُي دائماً واحتشمه

And indeed, my state and his are a marvel:

he always humiliates me, yet I revere him.

قالو لي اتركه عنك قلت لهم

صبي على صَاحبي ولا عدمُه

They told me, 'Give him up'; I said to them:

'Better my longing for my companion than his loss.'

لولا العيونُ المراضُ تعشق لم

يُخْدَمْ شُعَيْبٌ ولا رَعَتْ غنمه

Had languid eyes not been loved, never

would Shuayb have been served, nor would his sheep have grazed.

ولم يُفتَنْ بنعجةٍ حَسُنَت

دَاوْودُ حتى مضت سُدى حكمُه

Nor would a lovely ewe have tempted

Dawud, until his wisdom came to naught.

الله بيني وبينَ مَنْ فمُهُ

كالركنِ كُلُّ يَودُّ يستِلِمُه

May God judge between me and the one whose mouth

is like the Corner: everyone longs to touch it.