1. أبَيْنا أن نطيعَكُمُ أبَيْنا

    فلا تُهدوا نصيحتَكُم إلينا

    We refused to obey you—we refused.

    So do not send your counsel to us.

  2. ركِبنا في الهوى خطَرا فإما

    لنا ما قد كسَبنا أو علينا

    We ventured into peril in love: either

    what we have earned is for us, or against us.

  3. فما تسآلُكم عن كلِّ صبٍّ

    كأنَّ لكم على العشاق دَينا

    Why this questioning of yours about every lovesick lover,

    as though the lovers owed you a debt?

  4. ولو لم يَرضَ ربُّك ما رضينا

    لَما أنشَا لنا قلبا وعينا

    Had your Lord not approved what we approved,

    He would not have created for us a heart and an eye.

  5. بنفسي رامياتٍ ليس تفنَى

    نُصولُ سِهامنّ إذا رمينا

    My life for those women archers! Never exhausted

    are their arrows' points when we are shot at.

  6. كأنّهمُ أعدوّا للرزايا

    بكلِّ كحيلةٍ زِيرا وقَينا

    As though they had prepared, for calamities,

    for each kohl-eyed woman, a string and a smith.

  7. تعوَّضنَ الخيامَ من المطايا

    وحسبُك بالخيام قِلىً وبَيننا

    They took tents in place of mounts,

    and tents suffice you for aversion and our parting.

  8. ولوّينَ البنانَ فقلتُ زجرا

    بمعيادي وآمالي لوَينا

    They twisted their fingers, and I said in rebuke:

    'They have twisted my tryst and my hopes!'

  9. عجائبُ في اصلبابة لو عقلَنا

    نحبُّ محاسنا فتصير حَيْنَا

    Wonders lie in love's longing, if only we understood:

    we love beauties, and they become our doom.

  10. نسائلُ عن ثُمامات بُحزَوى

    وبانُ الرمل يعلم مَن عَنَينا

    We ask about thumam grasses at Hazwa,

    and the ban-trees of the sands know whom we meant.

  11. وقد كُشِفَ الغِظاءُ فما نبالي

    أصرَّحْنا بذكرِك أم كَنَينا

    The veil has been lifted, and we do not care

    whether we name you openly or speak in allusions.

  12. ولو أنى أنادي يا سُليَمى

    لقالوا ما أردتَ سوى لبُيَنَى

    Even if I called out, 'O Sulayma,'

    they would say, 'You meant none but Lubayna.'

  13. ألآ لله طيفٌ منكِ يسقى

    بكاسات الردى زُورا ومَينا

    Ah, by God, a phantom of you gives drink

    from cups of death, falsely and deceitfully.

  14. مطيَّته طَوالَ الدهرِ جفنى

    فكيف شكا إليكِ وَجىً وأينا

    Its mount throughout all time is my eyelid;

    so how could it complain to you of sore feet and fatigue?

  15. فأمسينا كأنا ما افترقنا

    وأصبحنا كأنا ما التقينا

    So evening found us as though we had never parted,

    and morning found us as though we had never met.

  16. ولولا نُورُ أزهرَ شمَّرِىٍّ

    تبلَّج في الظلام لما اهتدينا

    Were it not for the light of a radiant, resolute man,

    shining in the darkness, we would not have found our way:

  17. عميد الدولة المعِطى القوافي

    رُهونَ سِباقهنَّ إذا جرَينا

    Amid al-Dawla, who awards the rhymes

    the stakes of their races whenever we race.

  18. فتىً يبنى على الغُلَواء بيتا

    إذا نزل المقصِّر بينَ بينا

    A youth who builds a house at the utmost reach,

    when the laggard settles betwixt and between.

  19. يقول لإبله مُوتى هُزالاً

    ولا ترعَىْ بأكناف الهوَينَى

    He says to his camels, 'Die of emaciation,

    and do not graze in the haunts of ease.'

  20. إذا ما السُّحبُ بالأمواهِ سَحَّتْ

    تهلَّل عسجدا وهَمى لُجينا

    When the clouds pour down their waters,

    he beams with gold and showers down silver.

  21. بكلِّ قرارةٍ وبكلِّ ربع

    رياضٌ من نداه قد انتشينا

    In every hollow and in every encampment

    are gardens of his bounty; we have grown drunk.

  22. غصونُ مكارم قيَظا وقُراًّ

    نُصيب بها ثِمارا يُجتَنَينا

    Branches of noble deeds, in summer heat and bitter cold:

    we gain through them fruits that are gathered.

  23. وما سلبَ الشتاءُ الأرضَ إلا

    تسربلنَ المحامدَ فاكتسَينا

    And winter never strips the earth without

    their donning robes of praise—and we are clothed.

  24. جَرى والسابُقون إلى المعالي

    فجاء فُوَيقها وأَتَوا دُوَينا

    He raced with the frontrunners toward lofty heights;

    so he arrived just above those heights, and they a little below.