أعلي في حب الديار ملام

أم هل تذكرها علي حرام

Am I to blame for loving the abodes?

Or is remembering them forbidden to me?

أم هل أذم إذا ذكرت منازلاً

فارقتها ولها علي ذمام

Or am I censured when I recall dwellings

I left, though they hold a claim upon me?

دار الأحبة والهوى وشبيبة

ذهبت وجيران علي كرام

The home of loved ones, love, and youth

that has passed, and of neighbors dear to me.

فارقتها فأرقت من وجدي بهم

أفهل لهم أو للكرى إلمام

I left it and lay sleepless from my yearning for them.

Will they—or sleep—ever pay a visit?

كانوا حياتي وابتليت بفقدهم

فعليهم وعلى الحياة سلام

They were my life, and I was afflicted by their loss;

so farewell to them, and farewell to life.

أشتاقها شوق الغريب مزاره

سفهاً وإلا أين مني الشام

I long for it as an exile longs for his destination,

foolishly—for how far from me is al-Sham!

وتروقني خدع المنى منها وقد

بعد المدى وتمادت الأيام

And hope's deceptions about it delight me, though

the distance has grown vast and the days have dragged on.

وتلذ لي سنة السكرى لا رغبة

في النوم بل لتعيدها الأحلام

And a drunken woman's drowsiness is sweet to me, not from desire

for sleep, but so that dreams may bring it back.

وتمثل الأوهام لي أني بها

ثاو ولذات الهوى أوهام

And fancies show me that I am there,

dwelling—yet love's delights are fancies.

فكأن ربع تشوقي وخيالها

دمن ألم بها فقال سلام

So it is as though my longing's abode—its phantom

having visited it and said, 'Peace'—were ruins.

ليس الغرام بها لأن نسيمها

وان وثغر رياضها بسام

My passion for it is not because its breeze

is languid and its gardens' mouth is smiling.

بل للديار إذ الشباب مطاوع

فيها وأيام الزمان وسام

Rather, it is for those homes when youth was obedient

there, and the days of time were beautiful.

إذ لا نخاف بها الوشاة وحولنا

فيها العيون وعندنا النمام

When we feared no slanderers there, though around us

were springs—'eyes'—and beside us the 'tale-bearer' herb.

الورد خد والبنفسج عارض

والنور ثغر والقضيب قوام

The rose was a cheek, the violet a cheek's down;

and blossoms were a mouth, the bough a figure.

والراح ريق أو حديث رائق

والنقل لثم والقيان حمام

And wine was the moisture of lips, or delightful conversation;

and sweetmeats were kisses, and singing girls were doves.

ولقد نقلت إلى الأجل وإنما

عصر الصبا أيامه الأيام

And I have indeed been carried toward my appointed end; only

the season of youth has days that are truly days.

لو عاد لي عصر الشباب رأيتها

بعيون صب ماؤهن غرام

Were youth's season to return to me, I would see it

through a lover's eyes, whose water is passion.